Lawrence Lessig Quotes

Quotes about:

• The war against illegal file-sharing is like the church's age-old war against masturbation. It's a war you just can't win.

  Lawrence Lessig

  War, Winning, Age

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• Before the monopoly should be permitted, there must be reason to believe it will do some good - for society, and not just for monopoly holders.

  Lawrence Lessig

  Believe, Reason, Monopoly

  "May the Source Be With You". Article adapted from "The Future of Ideas: The Fate of the Commons in a Connected World", www.wired.com. December 01, 2001.

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• If you are explaining, you're losing. It's a bumper sticker culture. People have to get it like that, and if they don't, if it takes three seconds to make them understand, you're off their radar screen. Three seconds to understand, or you lose. This is our problem.

  Lawrence Lessig

  People, Three, Culture

  Keynote address at the Open Source Convention, July 24, 2002.

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• Why should it be that just when technology is
  most encouraging of creativity, the law should be most restrictive?

  Lawrence Lessig

  Creativity, Technology, Law

  Lawrence Lessig (2009). “Remix: Making art and commerce thrive in the hybrid economy”, p.107, A&C Black

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• We are on the cusp of this time where I can say, "I speak as a citizen of the world" without others saying, "God, what a nut."

  Lawrence Lessig

  Nuts, Atheism, Citizens

  "One Planet, One Net" symposium, October 10, 1998.

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• If the Internet teaches us anything, it is that great value comes from leaving core resources in a commons, where they're free for people to build upon as they see fit.

  Lawrence Lessig

  Change, People, Leaving

  "May the Source Be With You". Wired magazine, www.wired.com. December 9, 2001.

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• Technology means you can now do amazing things easily; but you couldn't easily do them legally.

  Lawrence Lessig

  Mean, Technology, Amazing Things

  Lawrence Lessig “Free Culture”, Lulu.com

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• Law and technology produce, together, a kind of regulation of creativity we've not seen before.

  Lawrence Lessig

  Creativity, Technology, Law

  Keynote address at the Open Source Convention, July 24, 2002.

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• A culture without property, or in which creators can't get paid, is anarchy, not freedom.

  Lawrence Lessig

  Culture, Anarchy, Creator

  Lawrence Lessig “Free Culture”, Lulu.com

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• I spend as little time with lawmakers as possible. Many are great. And more than you expect want real change. But they're not going to do anything till we, the outsiders, force them to adopt it.

  Lawrence Lessig

  Real, Want, Littles

  Reddit AMA, www.reddit.com. July 2, 2013.

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• Winner take all does not exist in the Constitution. It's a restriction imposed on the electors by the states.

  Lawrence Lessig

  Doe, Constitution, Winner

  Source: www.truth-out.org

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• A world where Congressmen spend 30 to 70 percent of their time raising money from a tiny, tiny fraction of the 1% is a world where that tiny, tiny fraction has enormous power. And it's that inequality in political power that enables this corrupted system to happen.

  Lawrence Lessig

  Political, World, Tiny

  "'Your Representative Doesn't Give a Shit About You': Larry Lessig's Plan to Fix Democracy". Interview with Hamilton Nolan, gawker.com. October 13, 2015.

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• I advocate for protecting the liberty of the net, and securing privacy. I argue against people who believe both are somehow given automatically. They're not.

  Lawrence Lessig

  Believe, People, Liberty

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• A time is marked not so much by ideas that are argued about as by ideas that are taken for granted. The character of an era hangs upon what needs no defense.

  Lawrence Lessig

  Taken, Character, Ideas

  Lawrence Lessig (2002). “The Future of Ideas: The Fate of the Commons in a Connected World”, p.5, Vintage

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• Some may not like the Constitution's requirements, but that doesn't make the Constitution a pirate's charter.

  Lawrence Lessig

  Pirate, May, Requirements

  Lawrence Lessig “Free Culture”, Lulu.com

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• The more important point, however, is not about what the money does. It's about what has to be done to get the money. The effect of the money might be (democratically) benign. But what is done to secure that money is not necessarily benign. To miss this point is to betray the Robin Hood fallacy: the fact that the loot was distributed justly doesn't excuse the means taken to secure it.

  Lawrence Lessig

  Taken, Mean, Missing

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• There is a regulation of behavior on the Internet and in cyberspace, but that regulation is imposed primarily through code. The differences in the regulations effected through code distinguish different parts of the Internet and cyberspace. In some places, life is fairly free; in other places, it is more controlled. And the difference between these spaces is simply a difference in the architectures of control--that is, a difference in code.

  Lawrence Lessig

  Differences, Space, Different

  Lawrence Lessig (2008). “Code: And Other Laws of Cyberspace, Version 2.0”, p.39, Hachette UK

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• While the creative works from the 16th century can still be accessed and used by others, the data in some software programs from the 1990s is already inaccessible.

  Lawrence Lessig

  Data, Creative, Program

  "May the Source Be With You". www.wired.com. December 21, 2001.

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• Overregulation stifles creativity. It smothers innovation. It gives dinosaurs a veto over the future. It wastes the extraordinary opportunity for a democratic creativity that digital technology enables.

  Lawrence Lessig

  Creativity, Technology, Opportunity

  Lawrence Lessig (2004). “Free Culture: The Nature and Future of Creativity”, p.151, Penguin

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• "Writing" is the Latin of our times. The modern language of the people is video and sound.

  Lawrence Lessig

  Latin, Writing, People

  Wikimania conference, August 2006.

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• Every generation welcomes the pirates from the last.

  Lawrence Lessig

  Pirate, Generations, Lasts

  Lawrence Lessig “Free Culture”, Lulu.com

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• Permission from the government is an expensive commodity. New ideas rarely have this kind of support. Old ideas often have deep legislative connections to defend them against the new.

  Lawrence Lessig

  Government, Ideas, Support

  Lawrence Lessig (2002). “The Future of Ideas: The Fate of the Commons in a Connected World”, p.76, Vintage

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• Monopoly controls have been the exception in free societies; they have been the rule in closed societies.

  Lawrence Lessig

  Monopoly, Exception, Has Beens

  "May the Source Be With You". www.wired.com. December 21, 2001.

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• Money corrupts the process of reasoning.

  Lawrence Lessig

  Process, Reasoning

  "ETech: Lessig Calls for Geeks to Code Money Out of Politics" by Ryan Singel, www.wired.com. March 05, 2008.

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• Some blame the drug companies. I don't. They are corporations. Their managers are ordered by law to make money for the corporation. They push a certain patent policy not because of ideals,but because it is the policy that makes them the most money. And it only makes them the most money because of a certain corruption within our political system-a corruption the drug companies are certainly not responsible for. The corruption is our own politicians' failure of integrity.

  Lawrence Lessig

  Integrity, Law, Political

  Lawrence Lessig (2004). “Free Culture: The Nature and Future of Creativity”, p.191, Penguin

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