& a blog

i finally got the internet here in berkeley working. until then, i felt like a child trapped under a sheet of ice, unable to breath, unable to get back in the world where i survive, let alone thrive.

but here i am, on the floor in the auditorium of international house (what a beautiful building!) listening to lawrence lessig speak, after years of hearing him in youtube clips and reading his books.

it’s a little like seeing a concert with your favorite artist after years of listening to their albums and proslytizing their music.

as lessig starts, sitting on stage with fred benenson (arguably the hub of sfc), he tells the crowd that he could not be more thrilled and proud to be at a meeting with this many people. he recalls what it was like when he wrote the book, and the student organization started.

fred corrects him for sounding optimistic, when he’ well known for being a pessimist.

“that’s why i had to get out of this movement” lessig explains “because I needed to be pessimistic”

hybrid economies

despite his pessimism, lessig argues that we are living/entering an Interesting new economy, a hybrid economy. in this dualistic economy, there is a captilastic sphere, and communist sphere (if you forgive the political re-reading) wherein there is both business (amazon) and sharing/volunteering (reader reviews) working in tandem.

there are two possible forms of hybrids:

type 1: “darth vader-type”

inspired by george lucas’ sharecropping mash-up forum, where users can mash-up star wars footage, but lucas will own it.

type 2: “nine inch nails-type”

where the recombination of media allows the recombinateur owns the work. they don’t own the elements, but they own their approach/curation of media.

lessig begins talking about valenti, the MPAA head he debated several times throughout the last decade, and how valenti inspired him with his claims that we were raising an entire generation of people living against the law. he thinks that we do need to consider how we live, not against the law, but changing the law. live within rules, but rules you help set.

lessig reported in june 2007, that he was moving on from issues of intellectual property in the digital age. now, he is moving on to political reform, something he claims is both more academic interest

“9% of Americans polled thought that congress members were doing a good job. More people supported the british crown at the outbreak of the Revolution.”

change congress, the group that lessig has started to campaign for poltical reform, has faced interesting pressure, and had interesting solicitation from groups who want to convene a new constitutional convention.

the future of students for free culture

“five years from now, ten years from now, what is students for free culture?” benenson asks.

“sfc needs to pick some fights” lessig says. he remembers the successful drm campaign and hopes that can be the norm for further fights. lessig thinks that the “low hanging fruit” fight is making university publications (at institutions around the country) open access. force top flight educational institutions to open up the work of their faculty’s work for the rest of the world who can’t afford to pay for access otherwise.

“it’s fun to rally around fights, they’re lots of parties involved with fights….”

drawing the line in the sand/defining free culture

“we have to come to recognize the principles that will guide us” lessig says, “it’s about whats defining for our culture”