Lessig at Web 2.0

Free Culture came out about six months ago. A Forbes writer called him a moron, idiot, and a buffoon. This was a right to remix without permission that our culture guarantees, and the world of text knows this freedom well. Beyond text, "multi-media" (it's all one now, no more multi) democratized. Music (DJ Danger Mouse), Film (Tarnation), Animation (Hey Ya Charlie Brown, just awesome), political ads footage (My First Love, RLM, omigod! Can't find the link, someone please send it. Thanks Mike, via Jason).

Observation: Lessig could go on Def Poetry Jam in a heartbeat, his delivery is that artful and rhythmic.

Text heads (people who think of the world as text) are oblivious to the problem. Jack Valenti, on the other hand, sees this as a terrorist war, where many of the terrorists apparently are children. You do it with Shakespeare, it's creative writing. You do it with a George Lucas film, that's theft. Free culture becomes a lawyer's culture. Louis Daguerre, in 1839, produced the Daguerrotype. Later, Eastman was conceiving technology for Kodak. If the (D)aguerre (M)achine (C)ontrol (A)ct had required you to obtain permission before taking someone's picture, the world would be a drastically different place today.

Be sure to listen to this one (and Jason's right next to me on the right, some of those cackles you hear are yours truly). Standing ovation, Lessig Rocks!