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Apr 7, 2004

"All generally useful information should be free. By 'free' I am not referring to price, but rather to the freedom to copy the information and to adapt it to one's own uses.
" --Richard Stallman

Free Culture

The opposite of a copyright is perhaps Lawrence Lessig. Or a "copyleft", as he is often called. He explains that we come from a tradition of "free culture" -- not "free" as in "free beer" but "free" as in "free speech," "free markets," "free trade," "free enterprise," "free will," and "free elections." A free culture supports and protects creators and innovators. The opposite of a free culture is a "permission culture" -- a culture in which creators get to create only with the permission of the powerful, or of creators from the past. Lessig believes that if we don't understand this, we might soon lose our free culture.