IP: The End of Innovation: An Interview With Lawrence Lessig

[David Farber <dave () farber net>]

> Date: Thu, 09 Aug 2001 12:14:55 -0700
> From: "Tim O'Reilly" <tim () oreilly com>
> Organization: O'Reilly & Associates, Inc.
> To: farber () central cis upenn edu
> Subject: The End of Innovation:  An Interview With Lawrence Lessig
>
> Dave, I thought your readers might like the interview with Lessig on
> openp2p.com (http://www.openp2p.com/pub/a/p2p/2001/08/07/lessig.html):
>
> It opens:
>
> "2001 has been a bad year not just for dot-coms but
> also for people interested in preserving the public's right to fair
> use of copyright materials. From the shutdown of Napster and the DeCSS
> case to the prosecution of Dmitry Sklyarov, federal prosecutors and
> U.S. courts have acted in support of copyright interests and against
> the public's ability to use technology to secure fair-use rights.
> OpenP2P.com editor Richard Koman talks about these turns of events
> with Lawrence Lessig."
>
> Here are a couple of the juiciest quotes from the interview:
>
> "Imagine a court saying, 'Xerox Corporation has to stop producing
> copiers until it can guarantee -- 100 percent guarantee -- that nobody
> will violate anybody's copyright law using a Xerox machine.' ...It's
> that kind of extreme attitude that I think is most harmful to the
> opportunity for innovation here."
>
> ...
>
> "Employees at Smith & Wesson don't have to fear that the FBI is going to
> swoop down and arrest them because their products led to somebody being
> killed, yet employees of software companies need to fear that some FBI
> agent
> is going to swoop down and arrest them because it's possible that
> somebody
> used their code to steal the latest John Grisham novel."
>
> Incidentally, this whole issue is the subject of Lessig's next book,
> which should be out soon.  I've read the pre-pub draft, and it's as
> thought-provoking as Code and Other Laws of Cyberspace.  (And if you
> haven't read that one, it's also highly recommended.)  Larry will also
> be keynoting at the O'Reilly P2P and Web Services Conference in
> Washington D.C. Sept 18-21.
>
> --
> Tim O'Reilly @ O'Reilly & Associates, Inc.
> 101 Morris Street, Sebastopol, CA 95472
> +1 707-829-0515, FAX +1 707-829-0104
> tim () oreilly com, http://www.oreilly.com
>
>
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