Free culture
The Nature and Future of Creativity
by Lawrence Lessig · first published 2004
53% recommend43% neutral4% critical
Why HN recommends it
Accessible history of copyright term extensions and Disney-driven lobbying, arguing for a vibrant public domain. Suits anyone debating piracy, copyright, or remix culture, and it is free under Creative Commons.
Summarised by Claude from recommending comments
Lessig details the history of copyright law as it pertains to digital media, how it has affected creativity and expression online. Title for the hardcover and PDF versions: Free Culture: How Big Media Uses Technology and the Law to Lock Down Culture and Control Creativity
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…arguing on these things -- about information being free, journals being freely accessible, etc. You're unconvinced as of yet -- so I want to make the recommendation of two of Lawrence Lessig's books to you: Free culture (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Free_Culture_(book)) and Remix (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Remix_(book)) -- both freely available for download on a CC license I should add. :) You're a great writer and…
on “The Elsevier boycott one year on” ↗I think you should read https://lessig.org/product/free-culture/, maybe you will change your mind.
on “Putting Z-Library on IPFS” ↗…anywhere, ever (as their comments indicate that they believe they are), you need to please see your way right the hell out of this discussion—maybe do some light reading, I'd recommend starting with Lessig's Free Culture— because you clearly don't understand what the fuck is going on here. Yeah, there was a lot of hyperbole in there. I'll leave it up to you, dear reader, to sort out whether or not I'm full of shit.) Now,…
on “Copyfight: EFF co-founder enters e-G8 "lion's den," rips into lions” ↗…should read his blog, made for another good book "The Long Tail" http://thelongtail.com/ Lawrence Lessig and the whole creative commons movement have good thoughts. Here is a free book of his: http://www.free-culture.cc/freecontent/ and here is an amazon link, but i think there is a way to buy it while supporting the cause... http://www.amazon.com/Free-Culture-Nature-Future-Creativity/...
on “Better than free” ↗I definitely support the author's message: have a point, use pictures, prepare. My style is derived from Lawrence Lessig's Free Culture (Flash, but legendary: https://randomfoo.net/oscon/2002/lessig/free.html) and Edward Tufte (with whom I was fortunate enough to work for one summer).
on “Stand Out as a Speaker” ↗If you've never seen it, I HIGHLY recommend Lessig's talk on "Free Culture" from OSCON 2002 (the book too). It's one of the first talks that got me into software copyrights, and covers a lot of ground into an area many of us (or at least I) probably only know at a surface-level:…
on “Copyright vs. Copyleft (2007)” ↗I recently read Free Culture (by Lawrence Lessig), switching between a paper copy and the PDF version on a monitor (which was free - hooray for Creative Commons licenses!). Reading on the monitor was great for when I wanted to read…
Particularly on laws regarding the internet you may want to look at: http://cyber.law.harvard.edu/about/readings especially Free Culture by Lessig.
on “Ask HN: How do you recommend getting a basic understanding of the law?” ↗…incl. IP) belong to someone. It doesn't matter if a copyrighted content is not being commerical exploited anymore, it's still copyright. If this sounds outragous to you, talk to your politicans, read Free Culture by Lessig, talk to a Pirate Party.
on “Command and Conquer – Programming an RTS game in HTML5 and Javascript” ↗I recommend re-reading Lawrence Lessig's Free Culture periodically as an antidote to the reasonablish arguments pouring out of the entertainment industry.
on “Should All Web Traffic Be Encrypted?” ↗Lawrence Lessig's book Free Culture: http://free-culture.cc/freecontent/ gives an excellent exposition regarding this behavior of the RIAA and potential solutions to this problem. I highly recommend giving that a read.
…science and useful arts, by securing for limited times to authors and inventors the exclusive right to their respective writings and discoveries"? An excellent, excellent read on this is Lawrence Lessig's "Free Culture". Available under CC as PDF or EPUB. http://www.free-culture.cc/ It explores the politics and history of copyright, copyright extension, freedom of use, and the importance of having freely available…
on “Three Strikes Against ACTA In European Parliament Today” ↗This is pretty much the conclusion and central tenet of Lawrence Lessig's Free Culture, and in it you can see the genesis of his next book, Republic, Lost, exploring the corrupting power of money in politics. Free Culture is itself freely available online, highly recommended reading: http://manybooks.net/titles/lessiglother04free_culture.html
on “Youtube claims I don't own my own film” ↗Lawrence Lessig's 'free culture' from OSCON 2002:- https://randomfoo.net/oscon/2002/lessig/ Anything at all by Richard Feynman:- https://www.google.co.uk/search?q=%22richard+feynman%22&tbm=...
on “Ask HN: What's your favorite tech talk?” ↗For an interesting understanding of the state of copyright today, I recommend reading Free Culture, by Lawrence Lessig. I bought the kindle version but it's also available online at http://www.free-culture.cc/freeculture.pdf
on “With change at the top of Copyright Office, a battle brews over free content” ↗