Lessig's big thought is that it's time to rethink copyright law entirely. In the old days before the Internet, he says, copyright law could be thought of as regulating copies. But the world, Lessig says, has changed: "Upon reflection, it should be obvious that in the world with the Internet, copies should not be the trigger for copyright law. More precisely, they should not always be the trigger for copyright law." Attentive to persuasion, he circles back. This idea is, he says, "perhaps the central claim of the book, so let me take this very slowly so that the point is not easily missed." He restates: "My claim is that the Internet should at least force us to rethink the conditions under which the law of copyright automatically extends, because it is clear that the current reach of copyright was never contemplated, much less chosen, by the legislators who enacted copyright law." Last comes a summary amplification, via a footnote: "Thus, my argument is not that in each place that copyright law extends, we should repeal it. It is instead that we should have a good argument for it extending where it does, and should not determine its reach on the basis of arbitrary and automatic changes caused by technology." LAW.COM
Professor Lessig writes: 'Thanks to the lessons explained by others (Cory), and the courage of a great publisher (Penguin), Free Culture launches today with a free online version of the book, licensed under a Creative Commons license. You can get the book here, though at the moment, only the BitTorrent version is apparently up. Later today, there will be a direct download available from the Free Culture site, and from the Amazon site.'
