Tuesday, September 06, 2005

Short Article from Lessig

A short article from Lawrence Lessig, "The Public Domain: Here Today, Gone Tomorrow" is a nice summary of what is at threat when legislators use the activities of those who infringe present copyright law as a justification for the generalized dismantling of the public domain:


"So, for example, the United States has radically increased the reach of copyright regulation. And through the World Intellectual Property Organization, wealthy countries everywhere are pushing to impose even tighter restrictions on the rest of the world. These legal measures will soon be supplemented by extraordinary technologies that will secure to the owners of culture almost perfect control over how Â?their propertyÂ? is used. Any balance between public and private will thus be lost. The private domain will swallow the public domain. And the cultivation of culture and creativity will then be dictated by those who claim to own it."

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