Free Culture

Free Culture
Lawrence Lessig
This version of Free Culture is licensed under a Creative Commons license. This license permits non-commercial use of this work, so long as attribution is given.
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FREE CULTURE
? PREFACE
FREE CULTURE
? INTRODUCTION
"PIRACY"
? CHAPTER ONE: Creators
? CHAPTER TWO: "Mere Copyists"
? CHAPTER THREE: Catalogs
? CHAPTER FOUR: "Pirates"
? CHAPTER FIVE: "Piracy"
"PROPERTY"
? CHAPTER SIX: Founders
? CHAPTER SEVEN: Recorders
? CHAPTER EIGHT: Transformers
? CHAPTER NINE: Collectors
? CHAPTER TEN: "Property"
PUZZLES
? CHAPTER ELEVEN: Chimera
? CHAPTER TWELVE: Harms
BALANCES
? CHAPTER THIRTEEN: Eldred
? CHAPTER FOURTEEN: Eldred II
? CONCLUSION
? AFTERWORD
? NOTES
? ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
? INDEX
? ABOUT THE AUTHOR
This version of Free Culture is licensed under a Creative Commons license. This license permits non-commercial use of this work, so long as attribution is given.
visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/1.0/ ?

This version of Free Culture is licensed under a Creative Commons license. This license permits non-commercial use of this work, so long as attribution is given.
For more information about the license, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/1.0/.


FREE CULTURE
ALSO BY LAWRENCE LESSIG
The Future of Ideas: The Fate of the Commons in a Connected World
Code: And Other Laws of Cyberspace
THE PENGUIN PRESS
NEW YORK 2004
FREE CULTURE
HOW BIG MEDIA USES TECHNOLOGY AND THE LAW TO LOCK DOWN CULTURE AND CONTROL CREATIVITY
LAWRENCE LESSIG
THE PENGUIN PRESS
a member of
Penguin Group (USA) Inc. 375 Hudson Street
New York, New York 10014
Copyright ? Lawrence Lessig, 2004
All rights reserved
Excerpt from an editorial titled "The Coming of Copyright Perpetuity," The New York Times, January 16, 2003. Copyright ? 2003 by The New York Times Co. Reprinted with permission.
Cartoon by Paul Conrad on page 159. Copyright Tribune Media Services, Inc.
All rights reserved. Reprinted with permission.
Diagram on page 164 courtesy of the office of FCC Commissioner, Michael J. Copps.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Lessig, Lawrence.
Free culture : how big media uses technology and the law to lock down culture and control creativity / Lawrence Lessig.
p. cm.
Includes index.
ISBN 1-59420-006-8 (hardcover)
1. Intellectual property--United States. 2. Mass media--United States.
3. Technological innovations--United States. 4. Art--United States. I. Title.
KF2979.L47 2004 343.7309'9--dc22 2003063276
This book is printed on acid-free paper.
Printed in the United States of America 1 3 5 7 9 10 8 6 4 2
Designed by Marysarah Quinn
Without limiting the rights under copyright reserved above, no part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in or introduced into a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means (electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise), without the prior written permission of both the copyright owner and the above publisher of this book.
The scanning, uploading, and distribution of this book via the Internet or via any other means without the permission of the publisher is illegal and punishable by law. Please purchase only authorized electronic editions and do not participate in or encourage electronic piracy of copyrighted materials. Your support of the author's rights is appreciated.
To Eric Eldred--whose work first drew me to this cause, and for whom it continues still.
?
?
CONTENTS
PREFACE xiii
INTRODUCTION 1
"PIRACY" 15

CHAPTER ONE
: Creators 21

CHAPTER TWO
: "Mere Copyists" 31

CHAPTER THREE
: Catalogs 48


CHAPTER FOUR
: "Pirates" 53
Film 53
Recorded Music 55 Radio 58
Cable TV 59

CHAPTER FIVE
: "Piracy" 62
Piracy I 63
Piracy II 66
"PROPERTY" 81

CHAPTER SIX
: Founders 85

CHAPTER SEVEN
: Recorders 95

CHAPTER EIGHT
: Transformers 100

CHAPTER NINE
: Collectors 108

CHAPTER TEN
: "Property" 116
Why Hollywood Is Right 124
Beginnings 130
Law: Duration 133
Law: Scope 136
Law and Architecture: Reach 139
Architecture and Law: Force 147
Market: Concentration 161
Together 168
PUZZLES 175

CHAPTER ELEVEN
: Chimera 177

CHAPTER TWELVE
: Harms 183
Constraining Creators 184
Constraining Innovators 188 Corrupting Citizens 199
BALANCES 209

CHAPTER THIRTEEN
: Eldred 213

CHAPTER FOURTEEN
: Eldred II 248
CONCLUSION 257
AFTERWORD 273
Us, Now 276
Rebuilding Freedoms Previously Presumed:
Examples 277
Rebuilding Free Culture: One Idea 282
Them, Soon 287
1. More Formalities 287
Registration and Renewal 289 Marking 290
2. Shorter Terms 292
3. Free Use Vs. Fair Use 294
4. Liberate the Music--Again 296
5. Fire Lots of Lawyers 304
NOTES 307
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS 331
INDEX 333


PREFACE
At the end of his review of my first book, Code: And Other Laws of Cyberspace, David Pogue, a brilliant writer and author of countless technical and computer-related texts, wrote this:
Unlike actual law, Internet software has no capacity to punish. It doesn't affect people who aren't online (and only a tiny minority of the world population is). And if you don't like the Internet's system, you can always flip off the modem.1
Pogue was skeptical of the core argument of the book--that software, or "code," functioned as a kind of law--and his review suggested the happy thought that if life in cyberspace got bad, we could always "drizzle, drazzle, druzzle, drome"-like simply flip a switch and be back home. Turn off the modem, unplug the computer, and any troubles that exist in that space wouldn't "affect" us anymore.
Pogue might have been right in 1999--I'm skeptical, but maybe. But even if he was right then, the point is not right now: Free Culture is about the troubles the Internet causes even after the modem is turned off. It is an argument about how the battles that now rage regarding life on-line have fundamentally affected "people who aren't online." There is no switch that will insulate us from