The third and final Lawrence Lessig reading comes from his book Free Culture published in 2004. While CODE seemed to deal more with the regulation of cyberspace, Free Culture deals with the property owner’s battle versus new technologies. He concerns himself with the fact that certain powerful interests, such as Hollywood, are using copyright law to lock down the very stuff of creativity especially past creativity. We begin at chapter 10 and right away Lessig gets into what the framers of the Constitution wrote about property. How they wanted it protected and fair compensation given if it was taken, but they also said that progress is arts and sciences should be promoted. Copyright laws have ensured that authors have a property right in their work for a limited duration. Part of the reason for a limitation is that change has always drawn upon past culture to produce the new. Now that copyright is extended it has harmed the growth of new creation.
Lessig talks about the four different modes of regulation; they are law, norms, market, and architecture. Law is the act of being threatened or punished for violating a copyright rule and are usually imposed by the state. Norms are also punishments but imposed by the community. Market is a property law that defines what must be bought if it is taken legally. Lastly, architecture is a constraint on behavior usually through simultaneous conditions. All these constraints interact and help protect property.
Upon looking at the book, I couldn’t help notice the website that is featured on every page. The website leads to free downloads of the book in various formats as well as being able to hearing it read out loud. I thought this was very interesting; it’s the exact opposite way big business such as E-Book Reader acted with the Alice in Wonderland book. Lessig is obviously a very smart man and knows a ton on this subject; the problem is everyone is touched by copyright whether they know it or not. People need to get educated.
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