Lawrence Lessig: 70% of Kids Are Taking Part In Illegal File Sharing

Authored by Jay Baage on January 12, 2009 - 6:05am.

Lawrence Lessig, an American academic and political activist, is the author of a new book called “Remix: Making Art and Commerce Thrive in the Hybrid Economy.” The video embedded above from his appearance on the Colbert Report is a few days old, but both entertaining and interesting. Lessig argues that for more than a decade, we’ve been waging a war on our kids in the name of the 20th Century’s model of “copyright law.” He claims that 70% of today's kids are file sharing anyway and what we need to do now is to embrace this new way of consuming media and encourage an innovative value-added remix economy instead. This is in essence the same point as Matt Mason made in his recent book, "The Pirate's Dilemma" and represents a school of thought which I also subscribe to: Big Media needs to stop spending so much valuable time and resources defending a dying business model (and in the process alienating their audience) and, instead, focus on offensive moves in the new media space. It's complicated, since you don't want to "trade analog dollars for digital pennies," but I believe we are already in a hybrid economy, where companies will benefit from both commerce and community, and Lessig's book will certainly be on my "must-read" list this year.

Published in DMW Daily, January 12, 2009

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Comments

Mr. Lessig's Book

Submitted by anonymous (not verified) on January 12, 2009 - 1:52pm.

I wonder if Mr. Lessig will be giving his book away for free on the Internet? I would like to read it but don't feel I should have to pay for it!!!!!!

"I wonder if Mr. Lessig will

Submitted by zcat (not verified) on March 28, 2009 - 1:23pm.

"I wonder if Mr. Lessig will be giving his book away for free on the Internet?"

ROFL. You don't know Lessig very well if you though he wouldn't. A free download is on the way; http://remix.lessig.org/remix.php

In the mean time catch up on his earlier books.
http://codev2.cc/
http://www.free-culture.cc/freecontent/
http://www.the-future-of-ideas.com/download/

I do agree that most kids

Submitted by wholesale silver jewelry (not verified) on January 13, 2009 - 9:46am.

I do agree that most kids actively share resources of their stuff actively, although they know it's illegal, for them they are just sharing stuff that make them happy. Yeah, I hope Mr. Lessig will give his book for free in the internet, I too want to read it.

very helpful

Submitted by buses air jordan (not verified) on January 13, 2009 - 1:46pm.

good post. Thanks, very helpful!