Rating: 
Summary: Excellent Book
Review: I have read the introduction and the first four chapters of this book. If it were not 2 a.m. in the morning I would continue to read. Lessig uses many stories (almost parables) to present different ideas. The book is very engaging. Everyone that is in the intellectual property debate should read this book just to have the common background of stories that it presents.
Rating:
Summary: A Very Important Book
Review: If you care that your rights as creators and comsumers of art are being taken away by multinational corporations this is the book to read
Rating:
Summary: Enlightening
Review: In a world dominated by "ideas" (images, sounds, text, drugs, algorithms, etc.), it is (perhaps) surprising that the ongoing struggle over the control of "intellectual property" has essentially no presence in the public consciousness. Knowing perhaps a little more about copyright than the average newspaper reader, I found Free Culture eye-opening and occasionally shocking.Lessig provides a very readable overview of the issues and history surrounding copyright, including an inside look at his efforts to have the Supreme Court rule Congress' continual copyright extensions unconstitutional (Eldred v. Ashcroft). The strength of Free Culture is the anecdotes it presents, from 18th century publishers trying to keep Shakespeare out of the public domain to a modern corporation trying to keep Mickey Mouse out of the public domain, with minimal bias but the clear message that things are going wrong.
Lessig falters when proposing solutions to the current crisis, which are weak and/or underdeveloped. He also occasionally displays his loony-left politics with misplaced analogies; I found his references to gun control and the war on drugs especially out of place, even misleading. While Free Culture is weak in spots, it may well change the way you think about intellectual property. You can even download the book for free!
Rating:
Summary: Enlightening
Review: In a world dominated by "ideas" (images, sounds, text, drugs, algorithms, etc.), it is (perhaps) surprising that the ongoing struggle over the control of "intellectual property" has essentially no presence in the public consciousness. Knowing perhaps a little more about copyright than the average newspaper reader, I found Free Culture eye-opening and occasionally shocking. Lessig provides a very readable overview of the issues and history surrounding copyright, including an inside look at his efforts to have the Supreme Court rule Congress' continual copyright extensions unconstitutional (Eldred v. Ashcroft). The strength of Free Culture is the anecdotes it presents, from 18th century publishers trying to keep Shakespeare out of the public domain to a modern corporation trying to keep Mickey Mouse out of the public domain, with minimal bias but the clear message that things are going wrong.
Lessig falters when proposing solutions to the current crisis, which are weak and/or underdeveloped. He also occasionally displays his loony-left politics with misplaced analogies; I found his references to gun control and the war on drugs especially out of place, even misleading. While Free Culture is weak in spots, it may well change the way you think about intellectual property. You can even download the book for free!
Rating: 
Summary: Lawrence Lessig's Free Culture
Review: Lawrence Lessig discusses the history behind copyright laws and gives examples of court cases, including stories about the Wright Brothers and their frist flight and Edwin Howard Armstrong and his invention of FM radio. He also examines the internet and its effect on culture. In the first section, entitled "Piracy," Lessig offers examples of copyright issues in the film industry, the music industry, radio, and cable television. This section explores the areas of creators, pirates, and piracy, including the shocking story of Jesse Jordan who had to turn over his live savings to settle a lawsuit by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA). Lessig also discusses what used to be "free culture," and he reveals details about how Walt Disney came up with the character Mickey Mouse by using free culture.
The "Property" section examines the differences between intellectual property and physical property. Lessig reviews why there are separate laws for the two types of property and how each property can be used. He describes how four forces--law market, architecture, and norms--interrelate on creative property. Regulated, unregulated, and fair use of copyrighted materias are described and discussed in this section, as well as the commercial life and the second life of books. Some of England's copyright history is also examined.
"Puzzles" is the third section of the book. It deals with how current copyright laws restrict our history, individuals, and our culture. This section addresses issues about people who download music from the internet and how many of them are considered criminals because of it. In the final section, "Balances," Lessig discusses his own failed attempt with the Supreme Court to overturn the Copyright Term Extension Act (CTEA) in Eldred vs. Ashcroft. The case centered around the argument that the CTEA was unconstitutional because it violated the time limits of copyright laws and violated the First Amendment by extending copyrights by antherh twenty years.
The Afterword gives readers some possible solutions to actions that each person can take to help restore the balance between big corporations and individuals. Lessig examines five changes he believes necessary to put us back on the path to having a "free culture." These include shorter copyright terms, a $1 fee paid to register a copyright, mandatory licensing, and putting a system in place to know when a copyright term is over so materials can go to the "public domain."
Lessig claims that copyright laws favor big corporations over regular citizens and inventors of new technology. He states ..."the law adjusts to the technologies of the time. And as it adjusts, it changes. Ideas that were as solid as a rock in one age crumble in another" (pg. 20). If things are not corrected soon, Lessig believes we will lose the ability to enjoy some of the older works as well as deter the works of up-and-coming innovators.
Lessig's intent in this book was to educate readers about the history of copyright laws and copyright issues, including the current debate on copyright/internet issues. I can vow that Lessig achieved his purpose, as I am neither a lawyer nor a computer geek, and I was able to grasp his ideas of both the technical issues as well as the legal ones. After reading this book, I certainly understand more about copyright laws and how they work. Lessig's stories of the consequences of ignoring these laws both appalled me and made me more aware of the importance of keeping my own computer free of copyrighted materials.
Rating:
Summary: Ten million reasons why copyright should be reformed
Review: Lawrence Lessig's "Free Culture" is nothing short of brilliant. It outlines an incredibly important modern problem that is lost under the noise of more pressing concerns like the war in Iraq or corporate scandals. That problem is the loss of our culture at the hands of intellectual property law. And what that problem lacks in immediacy and prime-time-worthy sex appeal, it makes up in long-term consequences. Lessig does a formidable job of making the issue come alive for both experts and laymen with his use of anecdotes that clearly illustrate how the ever-growing term and scope of copyright have stifled creativity and shrunken the portion of our culture in the public domain. He shows how the content industry is trying to redefine IP as the equivalent of tangible property, when it is not and has never been, and how that industry has manipulated Congress and the Courts to get closer to its goal. If you followed the Eldred v. Ashcroft case (like I did; I was lucky to be at oral argument before the Supremes), you'll want to pick up this book for Lessig's inside account. Most of it is a mea culpa for not realizing that the Court didn't want a constitutional argument, but a consequentialist one. I'm not sure this would have made a difference. The Court's right, who, like Lessig, I thought would chime in for a strict reading of what is clear language of "limited times" in the Copyright Clause, must have had some special reason for turning their backs on their originalist rhetoric and I doubt that a political argument would have changed their minds. I still can't understand what that reason might be, and I refuse to believe it's just the dead hand of stare decisis that gave Scalia pause. Lessig is obviously very upset at that Justice; while he does mention having clerked for Judge Posner, Lessig doesn't mention in his bio (neither in the dust jacket nor the back pages of the book) that he clerked for Scalia in 1990-91. One curious thing about the book is that throughout it Lessig implies that he is a leftist and that the ideas he is advocating are leftist. He patronizingly writes at a couple of points that he would be surprised if a person on the right had read that far. I think he is selling himself-and conservative readers-short. In fact, there is very little in the book incompatible with a conservative or libertarian free-market viewpoint. Private interests using the power of the state to distort the market and quash their competitors, and an originalist Jeffersonian interpretation of the Constitution as the response are very conservative themes indeed. But it's not all agreement. I, like most free marketeers, will object to parts of Free Culture. Foremost among them are Lessig's concerns about media concentration. The fact is that there are more options today in television and radio than 20 years ago, and the the explosion of Internet sites and blogs, which Lessig spends most of the book lauding, belies the idea that news can be controlled. And it is interesting that Lessig seems to understand this. He says that he has seen concentration only as market efficiency in action, and that only recently has he 'begun to change his mind'. His skepticism is reflected in the fact that he only dedicated a small section (7 pages) to the issue. Another point of contention will be some of the solutions he proposes. While I applaud the idea of shorter terms that must be renewed with payment of a token fee, compulsory licensing and fees paid out by the government out of general revenues is beyond the pail. Won't such mechanisms be ripe for corporate manipulation as well? Still, small quibbles aside, this book beautifully puts the IP issue in perspective. Everyone is touched by copyright whether they know it or not. This book shows us how the future of our culture is a dark one unless we change course soon.
Rating:
Summary: An important contribution to the freedom of information
Review: Lessig puts forth a far-reaching and well researched argument against the wholesale lengthening of copyrights. He uses the ubiquitous example of Mickey Mouse as a cultural icon that would not exist in its current form had the laws been a stringent as they now are.
It is obvious that this discussion has implications for the explosion of Napster-like technology that allows peer-to-peer sharing of music and video files over the Internet, but the importance of copyright stretches into matters of life and death as well. Lessig dedicates a chapter to the drugs that could save millions of lives in Africa and even the Americas. But the author is too thoughtful to accuse large corporations of playing God.
Instead, Lessig pushes against both extremes in the application of copyright law. The author clearly understands that cavalier easing of copyrights would harm the market and, in the process, stifle creativity. However, he says, the other extreme is what US law is heading toward, and it's getting worse as time goes on. Lessig makes a strong case that inordinately long copyright terms squelch "Walt Disney"-type creativity and keep important materials out of the public domain for an unacceptable length of time.
As a lead lawyer in the case before the US Supreme Court to overturn the Copyright Term Extension Act, the author knows his stuff. At the same time, Lessig gives enough real world examples of how copyright law effects all of us to keep this from being a dry, academic tome. Highly recommended.
Rating:
Summary: Excellent Overview of Copyright Issues
Review: Recently I have been getting into copyright law and trying to understand it. Lessig's book gives a very good overview of the issues surrounding copyright today. My mother is a librarian, so I grew up vaugely aware of copyright issues. I was aware of the Sony Bono Copyright Extension Act when it was passed in 1998 and knew that it extended existing copyrights by 20 years. I was also aware of the 1976 change in copyright policy which significantly leangthened copyright terms. However I didn't realize that these acts affected so many documents.
... Mostly because I assumed that copyrighted works were registered centrally so that there was a way of verifying ownership. They aren't. There isn't. And I assumed that if someone didn't register the work then it wasn't copyrighted. I was wrong. Because of the US adopting the Berne Convention in 1988 all works are assumed copyrighted the moment they are created. Also currently any use of a whole or part of the work or any derivative use is illegal without the copyright owner's consent.
This creates serious problems for artists.
As things currently stand any work created after 1923 may be under copyright. This would not be a problem if it were easy to check to see if that work were under copyright. However with no central registering system it is very very difficult to find a copyright owner or to find if one exists. Lessig describes in Free Culture the steps one would have to go through to publish anything which samples from a work. He describes a retrospective of Clint Eastwood which was actually assembled. In order to publish this the team assembling the retrospective had to clear the rights for film clips they were using. According to current law this meant each person in the scene as well as the those involved behind the scenes in filming had to give consent. In this case the team spent one year tracking down each person including film extras and offering these people 600 dollars each to use clips that they had acted in and been paid for 20 or so years prior. To publish media which samples other works the publisher must buy lawsuit insurance so it would be neccessary to clear any exerpts used in any documentary etc. (What makes the system more ironic is that in 1923 and in fact until 1976 that maximum leangth of time that a work could be copyrighted was 56 years. Works were registered and copyrights had to be renewed after 28 years.) So it took a team with funds a year to clear the rights to about 60 film clips from well known films. For a single artist with a starving artist budget that could take a lifetime.
This is not a problem if an artist is reeditting songs and movies as long as no one finds out about it. However if that artist makes it big then the possibility of someone finding out about it and sueing goes up. For example if a person makes a short video for their website which plays a popular song in the background it is unlikely that anyone will notice and sue. That person won't be able to commercially publish the video and get money without clearing rights. But something far more sinister is that if their website becomes popular and really takes off then the chance that someone who can sue them will become aware of them go up significantly.
This leads to a disscussion of "fair use" Lessig makes clear in Free Culture that Fair Use is only a defense that can be used after someone sues. He provides many case studies in which a normal person was sued and with their normal savings account realized that a legal battle would take more money than they had. In one case a college student who had put a search engine on his website was sued because the search engine was being used to find and exchange mp3s. In this case the student was sued for 15 million, realized that to fight in court would cost about 150,000 which he would not be able to reclaim even if he won the suit, and so settled out of court for his life savings of about 15,000. Similar stories show that fair use is the tool of whoever can afford more lawyers.
Therefore current copyright law restricts most artists while allowing large corporation which can afford lawyers more freedom (but expensive freedom).
Another issue raised is that out of print books movies etc that are still under copyright are totally gone under the current system. That is if you want to get a copy, to make a copy to preserve the art which is stored on perishable paper film or tape, then you can't. Only about 2 percent of copyrighted works in 1923 are still in print. The rest aren't making anybody any money and aren't available even if you want to pay. In this case most artists would probably prefer their works not be copyright for the current 70 year minimum since that makes the complete erasure of the work from culture highly likely.
Lessig proposes two solutions to this problem: requiring registration for copyrighted works and requiring a renewal after 50 years. Both the registration and renewal would provide someone who wanted to use the work with a central location where they could find out who owned the copyright. Copyright ownership is currently unclear in a system where copyrights last for the life of the author plus 70 years, and finding an owner is not always feasible as things stand. Here a weakness arises in that Lessig doesn't highlight a central organization that is pushing for copyright reform. Finding ways to get involve will take research. At the same time I realize that this weakness keeps the book from becoming dated as current affairs change.
Overall Free Culture is an excellent discussion of copyright issues. It covers history, constitutional basis for copyright, current issues especially as they effect and often limit emerging technologies and proposes solutions with rational for those solutions.
I recommend that all aspiring artists writers and musicians read this book. The language was easy to understand and Lessig does a good job of making convoluted legal issues accessible. I read this straight through. No kidding. I also very much recommend that libraries buy this book. I cannot imagine a library which does not have patrons who would benefit from a clearer understanding of copyright law and this book provides an excellent overview.
Rating: 
Summary: Lessig Part 3
Review: There are few new ideas or concepts in this book; I would recommend getting the paperback versions (or using your library) to get his earlier books. Some of the cases in the beginning of the book are interesting and useful. However, Lessig's book is in dire need of editing. The editors must think that Lessig can say anything he wants now, and have given him free rein.
Rating:
Summary: Brilliant Book
Review: This book is very very good, laying out where our rights to media in the internet age are jepoardized by media conglomerates and corrupt government. He starts by giving legal and cultural precendences for his ideas and moves beyond them to clearly prove his points. I found this to be an eye-opening book and is definitely worth its list price. Anyone who wants to intelligently communicate on internet piracy and its cultural and economic impacts needs to read this book to get a firm grasp on the issue. This [book] is very engaging and I have not found it to be boring in any sense - On a quite opposite note, I have spent as much time reading it as I can and am comtemplating purchasing another book by the author.
|
