Free book, Free Culture

Professor and writer Lawrence Lessig has written extensively on the social dimension of creativity and the public domain of ideas. Consistent with his ideologies, he is offering his latest book Free Culture, as a free PDF download. It is worth a serious look, both as an artist and consumer.

All creative works—books, movies, records, software, and so on—are a compromise between what can be imagined and what is possible—technologically and legally. For more than two hundred years, laws in America have sought a balance between rewarding creativity and allowing the borrowing from which new creativity springs. The original term of copyright set by the Constitution in 1787 was seventeen years. Now it is closer to two hundred. Thomas Jefferson considered protecting the public against overly long monopolies on creative works an essential government role. What did he know that we’ve forgotten?