TEDxNYED
Lawrence Lessig: Re-examining the remix
Filmed:
Readability: 4.3
427,783 views
Former "young Republican" Larry Lessig talks about what Democrats can learn about copyright from their opposite party, considered more conservative. A surprising lens on remix culture.
Lawrence Lessig - Legal activist
Lawrence Lessig has already transformed intellectual-property law with his Creative Commons innovation. Now he's focused on an even bigger problem: The US' broken political system. Full bio
Lawrence Lessig has already transformed intellectual-property law with his Creative Commons innovation. Now he's focused on an even bigger problem: The US' broken political system. Full bio
Double-click the English transcript below to play the video.
00:16
I want to talk about
0
1000
2000
00:18
what we learn from conservatives.
1
3000
3000
00:21
And I'm at a stage in life where I'm yearning for my old days,
2
6000
3000
00:24
so I want to confess to you
3
9000
2000
00:26
that when I was a kid,
4
11000
3000
00:30
indeed, I was a conservative.
5
15000
3000
00:33
I was a Young Republican, a Teenage Republican,
6
18000
2000
00:35
a leader in the Teenage Republicans.
7
20000
2000
00:37
Indeed, I was the youngest member
8
22000
2000
00:39
of any delegation
9
24000
2000
00:41
in the 1980 convention that elected Ronald Reagan
10
26000
2000
00:43
to be the Republican nominee for president.
11
28000
3000
00:47
Now, I know what you're thinking.
12
32000
2000
00:49
(Laughter)
13
34000
2000
00:51
You're thinking, "That's not what the Internets say."
14
36000
3000
00:55
You're thinking, "Wikipedia doesn't say this fact."
15
40000
3000
00:58
And indeed, this is just one of the examples
16
43000
3000
01:01
of the junk that flows across the tubes
17
46000
2000
01:03
in these Internets here.
18
48000
3000
01:06
Wikipedia reports that this guy,
19
51000
2000
01:08
this former congressman from Erie, Pennsylvania
20
53000
3000
01:11
was, at the age of 20, one of the youngest people
21
56000
2000
01:13
at the Republican National Convention,
22
58000
2000
01:15
but it's just not true.
23
60000
3000
01:18
(Laughter)
24
63000
2000
01:20
Indeed, it drives me so nuts, let me just change this little fact here.
25
65000
3000
01:23
(Laughter)
26
68000
3000
01:26
(Applause)
27
71000
3000
01:30
All right. Okay, so ... perfect.
28
75000
3000
01:33
Perfect.
29
78000
2000
01:35
(Laughter)
30
80000
4000
01:39
Okay, speaker Lawrence Lessig, right.
31
84000
3000
01:42
Okay.
32
87000
2000
01:44
Finally, truth will be brought here.
33
89000
2000
01:46
Okay, see? It's done. It's almost done. Here we go.
34
91000
3000
01:49
"... Youngest Republican," okay, we're finished.
35
94000
3000
01:53
That's it. Please save this.
36
98000
3000
01:56
Great, here we go.
37
101000
2000
01:59
And ... Wikipedia is fixed, finally.
38
104000
3000
02:02
Okay, but no, this is really besides the point.
39
107000
3000
02:05
(Applause)
40
110000
4000
02:09
But the thing I want you to think about when we think about conservatives --
41
114000
3000
02:12
not so much this issue of the 1980 convention --
42
117000
2000
02:14
the thing to think about is this:
43
119000
2000
02:16
They go to church.
44
121000
2000
02:18
Now, you know, I mean, a lot of people go to church.
45
123000
2000
02:20
I'm not talking about that only conservatives go to church.
46
125000
3000
02:23
And I'm not talking about the God thing.
47
128000
2000
02:25
I don't want to get into that, you know; that's not my point.
48
130000
2000
02:27
They go to church, by which I mean,
49
132000
2000
02:29
they do lots of things for free for each other.
50
134000
3000
02:33
They hold potluck dinners.
51
138000
2000
02:35
Indeed, they sell books about potluck dinners.
52
140000
3000
02:38
They serve food to poor people.
53
143000
3000
02:41
They share, they give,
54
146000
2000
02:43
they give away for free.
55
148000
2000
02:45
And it's the very same people
56
150000
3000
02:49
leading Wall Street firms
57
154000
3000
02:52
who, on Sundays, show up
58
157000
3000
02:55
and share.
59
160000
2000
02:57
And not only food, right.
60
162000
2000
02:59
These very same people
61
164000
2000
03:01
are strong believers, in lots of contexts,
62
166000
3000
03:04
in the limits on the markets.
63
169000
3000
03:07
They are in many important places
64
172000
3000
03:10
against markets.
65
175000
2000
03:12
Indeed, they, like all of us, celebrate this kind of relationship.
66
177000
3000
03:15
But they're very keen that we don't
67
180000
2000
03:17
let money drop into that relationship,
68
182000
2000
03:19
else it turns into something like this.
69
184000
3000
03:22
They want to regulate us, those conservatives,
70
187000
3000
03:25
to stop us from allowing the market to spread in those places.
71
190000
3000
03:28
Because they understand:
72
193000
3000
03:31
There are places for the market
73
196000
2000
03:33
and places where the market should not exist,
74
198000
3000
03:36
where we should be free
75
201000
3000
03:39
to enjoy the fellowship of others.
76
204000
3000
03:42
They recognize: Both of these things have to live together.
77
207000
3000
03:46
And the second great thing about conservatives:
78
211000
3000
03:49
they get ecology.
79
214000
2000
03:51
Right, it was the first great Republican president of the 20th century
80
216000
3000
03:54
who taught us about
81
219000
2000
03:56
environmental thinking -- Teddy Roosevelt.
82
221000
2000
03:58
They first taught us about ecology
83
223000
2000
04:00
in the context of natural resources.
84
225000
3000
04:03
And then they began to teach us in the context of
85
228000
2000
04:05
innovation, economics.
86
230000
2000
04:07
They understand, in that context,
87
232000
2000
04:09
"free." They understand "free" is an important
88
234000
3000
04:12
essential part of the
89
237000
2000
04:14
cultural ecology as well.
90
239000
2000
04:16
That's the thing I want you to think about them.
91
241000
3000
04:21
Now, I know
92
246000
2000
04:23
you don't believe me, really, here.
93
248000
3000
04:28
So here's exhibit number one.
94
253000
2000
04:30
I want to share with you my latest hero, Julian Sanchez,
95
255000
3000
04:33
a libertarian who works at the, for many people,
96
258000
3000
04:36
"evil" Cato Institute.
97
261000
3000
04:39
Okay, so Julian made this video.
98
264000
2000
04:41
He's a terrible producer of videos,
99
266000
2000
04:43
but it's great content, so I'm going to give you a little bit of it.
100
268000
2000
04:45
So here he is beginning.
101
270000
2000
04:47
Julian Sanchez: I'm going to make an observation about the way
102
272000
2000
04:49
remix culture seems to be evolving ...
103
274000
2000
04:51
Larry Lessig: So what he does is he begins to tell us
104
276000
2000
04:53
about these three videos.
105
278000
2000
04:56
This is this fantastic Brat Pack remix
106
281000
3000
04:59
set to Lisztomania.
107
284000
3000
05:03
Which, of course, spread virally.
108
288000
2000
05:05
Hugely successful.
109
290000
2000
05:07
(Music)
110
292000
4000
05:11
And then some people from Brooklyn saw it.
111
296000
2000
05:13
They decided they wanted to do the same.
112
298000
3000
05:20
(Music)
113
305000
7000
05:37
And then, of course, people from San Fransisco saw it.
114
322000
2000
05:39
And San Franciscans thought they had to do the same as well.
115
324000
3000
05:42
(Music)
116
327000
11000
06:03
And so they're beautiful, but this libertarian
117
348000
3000
06:06
has some important lessons he wants us to learn from this.
118
351000
2000
06:08
Here's lesson number one.
119
353000
3000
06:11
JS: There's obviously also something really deeply great about this.
120
356000
3000
06:15
They are acting in the sense that they're
121
360000
3000
06:18
emulating the original mashup.
122
363000
2000
06:20
And the guy who shot it obviously has a strong eye
123
365000
3000
06:23
and some experience with video editing.
124
368000
2000
06:25
But this is also basically just a group of friends
125
370000
3000
06:28
having an authentic social moment
126
373000
2000
06:30
and screwing around together.
127
375000
2000
06:32
It should feel familiar and kind of resonate
128
377000
2000
06:34
for anyone who's had a sing-a-long or a dance party
129
379000
2000
06:36
with a group of good friends.
130
381000
2000
06:38
LL: Or ...
131
383000
2000
06:40
JS: So that's importantly different from the earlier videos we looked at
132
385000
3000
06:43
because here, remix isn't just about
133
388000
2000
06:45
an individual doing something alone in his basement;
134
390000
3000
06:48
it becomes an act of social creativity.
135
393000
3000
06:51
And it's not just that it yields
136
396000
2000
06:53
a different kind of product at the end,
137
398000
3000
06:56
it's that potentially it changes the way that we relate to each other.
138
401000
3000
07:00
All of our normal social interactions
139
405000
3000
07:03
become a kind of invitation
140
408000
2000
07:05
to this sort of collective expression.
141
410000
2000
07:07
It's our real social lives themselves
142
412000
2000
07:09
that are transmuted into art.
143
414000
3000
07:12
LL: And so then, what this libertarian draws from these two points ...
144
417000
3000
07:15
JS: One remix is about
145
420000
2000
07:17
individuals using our shared culture
146
422000
2000
07:19
as a kind of language to communicate something to an audience.
147
424000
3000
07:22
Stage two, social remix,
148
427000
2000
07:24
is really about using it to mediate
149
429000
2000
07:26
people's relationships to each other.
150
431000
3000
07:29
First, within each video,
151
434000
2000
07:31
the Brat Pack characters are used as a kind of template
152
436000
3000
07:34
for performing the social reality of each group.
153
439000
3000
07:37
But there's also a dialogue between the videos,
154
442000
3000
07:40
where, once the basic structure is established,
155
445000
3000
07:43
it becomes a kind of platform
156
448000
2000
07:45
for articulating the similarities and differences
157
450000
3000
07:48
between the groups' social and physical worlds.
158
453000
3000
07:51
LL: And then, here's for me,
159
456000
2000
07:53
the critical key to what
160
458000
2000
07:55
Julian has to say ...
161
460000
2000
07:57
JS: Copyright policy isn't just about
162
462000
2000
07:59
how to incentivize the production
163
464000
2000
08:01
of a certain kind of artistic commodity;
164
466000
2000
08:03
it's about what level of control
165
468000
2000
08:05
we're going to permit to be exercised
166
470000
2000
08:07
over our social realities --
167
472000
2000
08:09
social realities that are now inevitably
168
474000
3000
08:12
permeated by pop culture.
169
477000
2000
08:14
I think it's important that we
170
479000
2000
08:16
keep these two different kinds of public goods in mind.
171
481000
3000
08:19
If we're only focused on how to maximize
172
484000
3000
08:22
the supply of one,
173
487000
2000
08:24
I think we risk suppressing
174
489000
2000
08:26
this different and richer
175
491000
2000
08:28
and, in some ways, maybe even more important one.
176
493000
3000
08:31
LL: Right. Bingo. Point.
177
496000
3000
08:34
Freedom needs this opportunity
178
499000
3000
08:37
to both have the commercial success
179
502000
3000
08:40
of the great commercial works
180
505000
2000
08:42
and the opportunity
181
507000
2000
08:44
to build this different kind of culture.
182
509000
2000
08:46
And for that to happen, you need
183
511000
2000
08:48
ideas like fair use to be central and protected,
184
513000
3000
08:51
to enable this kind of innovation,
185
516000
3000
08:54
as this libertarian tells us,
186
519000
2000
08:56
between these two creative cultures,
187
521000
3000
08:59
a commercial and a sharing culture.
188
524000
3000
09:02
The point is they, he, here,
189
527000
2000
09:04
gets that culture.
190
529000
2000
09:06
Now, my concern is, we Dems,
191
531000
3000
09:09
too often, not so much.
192
534000
3000
09:12
All right, take for example this great company.
193
537000
3000
09:16
In the good old days when this Republican ran that company,
194
541000
3000
09:19
their greatest work was work that built on the past, right.
195
544000
3000
09:22
All of the great Disney works
196
547000
3000
09:25
were works that took works that
197
550000
2000
09:27
were in the public domain and remixed them,
198
552000
2000
09:29
or waited until they entered the public domain to remix them,
199
554000
3000
09:32
to celebrate this add-on remix creativity.
200
557000
3000
09:35
Indeed, Mickey Mouse himself, of course,
201
560000
3000
09:38
as "Steamboat Willie,"
202
563000
2000
09:40
is a remix of the then, very dominant,
203
565000
3000
09:43
very popular "Steamboat Bill"
204
568000
2000
09:45
by Buster Keaton.
205
570000
2000
09:47
This man was a remixer extraordinaire.
206
572000
3000
09:50
He is the celebration and ideal
207
575000
2000
09:52
of exactly this kind of creativity.
208
577000
3000
09:55
But then the company passes
209
580000
2000
09:57
through this dark stage
210
582000
3000
10:00
to this Democrat.
211
585000
2000
10:02
Wildly different.
212
587000
2000
10:04
This is the mastermind behind
213
589000
2000
10:06
the eventual passage of what we call
214
591000
2000
10:08
the Sonny Bono Copyright Term Extension Act,
215
593000
3000
10:11
extending the term of existing copyrights
216
596000
2000
10:13
by 20 years,
217
598000
2000
10:15
so that no one could do to Disney
218
600000
2000
10:17
what Disney did to the Brothers Grimm.
219
602000
3000
10:20
Now, when we tried to challenge this,
220
605000
2000
10:22
going to the Supreme Court, getting the Supreme Court, the bunch of conservatives there --
221
607000
3000
10:25
if we could get them to wake up to this -- to strike it down,
222
610000
3000
10:28
we had the assistance of Nobel Prize winners
223
613000
3000
10:31
including this right-wing
224
616000
3000
10:34
Nobel Prize winner, Milton Friedman,
225
619000
2000
10:36
who said he would join our brief
226
621000
2000
10:38
only if the word "no brainer"
227
623000
2000
10:40
was in the brief somewhere.
228
625000
2000
10:42
(Laughter)
229
627000
2000
10:44
But apparently, no brains
230
629000
2000
10:46
existed in this place
231
631000
2000
10:48
when Democrats passed and signed
232
633000
2000
10:50
this bill into law.
233
635000
2000
10:52
Now, tiny little quibble of a footnote:
234
637000
2000
10:54
Sonny Bono, you might say, was a Republican,
235
639000
3000
10:57
but I don't buy it.
236
642000
2000
10:59
This guy is no Republican.
237
644000
3000
11:02
Okay, for a second example,
238
647000
2000
11:04
think about this cultural hero,
239
649000
2000
11:06
icon on the Left,
240
651000
3000
11:09
creator of this character.
241
654000
2000
11:11
Look at the site that he built: "Star Wars" MashUps,
242
656000
2000
11:13
inviting people to come and use their creative energy
243
658000
3000
11:16
to produce a new generation of attention
244
661000
2000
11:18
towards this extraordinarily important cultural icon.
245
663000
3000
11:21
Read the license.
246
666000
2000
11:23
The license for these remixers
247
668000
2000
11:25
assigns all of the rights
248
670000
2000
11:27
to the remix back to Lucas.
249
672000
2000
11:29
The mashup is owned by Lucas.
250
674000
3000
11:32
Indeed, anything you add to the mashup,
251
677000
2000
11:34
music you might add,
252
679000
2000
11:36
Lucas has a worldwide perpetual right
253
681000
2000
11:38
to exploit that for free.
254
683000
2000
11:40
There is no creator here to be recognized.
255
685000
3000
11:43
The creator doesn't have any rights.
256
688000
2000
11:45
The creator is a sharecropper in this story.
257
690000
3000
11:48
And we should remember
258
693000
2000
11:50
who employed the sharecroppers:
259
695000
2000
11:52
the Democrats, right?
260
697000
2000
11:54
So the point is the Republicans here
261
699000
3000
11:57
recognize that there's a certain need
262
702000
2000
11:59
of ownership,
263
704000
2000
12:01
a respect for ownership,
264
706000
2000
12:03
the respect we should give the creator,
265
708000
2000
12:05
the remixer, the owner, the property owner,
266
710000
3000
12:08
the copyright owner
267
713000
2000
12:10
of this extraordinarily powerful stuff,
268
715000
3000
12:13
and not a generation of sharecroppers.
269
718000
4000
12:19
Now, I think there are lessons we should learn here,
270
724000
3000
12:22
lessons about openness.
271
727000
2000
12:24
Our lives are sharing activities,
272
729000
3000
12:27
at least in part.
273
732000
2000
12:29
Even for the head of Goldman Sachs,
274
734000
2000
12:31
at least in part.
275
736000
3000
12:34
And for that sharing activity to happen, we have to have
276
739000
2000
12:36
well-protected spaces of fair use.
277
741000
3000
12:39
That's number one. Number two:
278
744000
2000
12:41
This ecology of sharing
279
746000
2000
12:43
needs freedom
280
748000
2000
12:45
within which to create.
281
750000
3000
12:48
Freedom, which means without permission from anyone,
282
753000
3000
12:51
the ability to create.
283
756000
2000
12:53
And number three: We need to
284
758000
2000
12:55
respect the creator,
285
760000
2000
12:57
the creator of these remixes
286
762000
2000
12:59
through rights that are
287
764000
2000
13:01
directly tied to them.
288
766000
2000
13:05
Now, this explains the right-wing nonprofit
289
770000
3000
13:08
Creative Commons.
290
773000
2000
13:10
Actually, it's not a right-wing nonprofit,
291
775000
2000
13:12
but of course -- let me just tie it here --
292
777000
2000
13:14
the Creative Commons, which is
293
779000
2000
13:16
offering authors this simple way to mark their content
294
781000
3000
13:19
with the freedoms
295
784000
2000
13:21
they intended to carry.
296
786000
2000
13:23
So that we go from a "all rights reserved" world
297
788000
2000
13:25
to a "some rights reserved" world
298
790000
3000
13:28
so that people can know the freedoms they have attached to the content,
299
793000
3000
13:31
building and creating
300
796000
2000
13:33
on the basis of this
301
798000
2000
13:35
creative copyrighted work.
302
800000
2000
13:37
These tools that we built
303
802000
2000
13:39
enable this sharing in parts
304
804000
3000
13:42
through licenses that make it clear
305
807000
2000
13:44
and a freedom to create
306
809000
2000
13:46
without requiring permission first
307
811000
2000
13:48
because the permission has already been granted
308
813000
2000
13:50
and a respect for the creator because it builds upon
309
815000
3000
13:53
a copyright the creator
310
818000
2000
13:55
has licensed freely.
311
820000
2000
13:57
And it explains the vast right-wing conspiracy
312
822000
3000
14:00
that's obviously developed around these licenses,
313
825000
3000
14:03
as now more than 350 million digital objects
314
828000
3000
14:06
are out there, licensed freely
315
831000
2000
14:08
in this way.
316
833000
2000
14:10
Now that picture of an ecology of creativity,
317
835000
3000
14:13
the picture of an ecology
318
838000
2000
14:15
of balanced creativity,
319
840000
2000
14:17
is that the ecology of creativity we have right now?
320
842000
3000
14:20
Well, as you all know,
321
845000
3000
14:23
not many of us believe we do.
322
848000
2000
14:25
I tripped on the reality of this ecology of creativity
323
850000
3000
14:28
just last week.
324
853000
2000
14:30
I created a video which was based
325
855000
2000
14:32
on a Wireside Chat that I'd given,
326
857000
2000
14:34
and I uploaded it to YouTube.
327
859000
3000
14:37
I then got this email from YouTube
328
862000
2000
14:39
weirdly notifying me
329
864000
2000
14:41
that there was content in that
330
866000
2000
14:43
owned by the mysterious WMG
331
868000
3000
14:46
that matched their content ID.
332
871000
2000
14:48
So I didn't think much about it.
333
873000
2000
14:50
And then on Twitter, somebody said to me,
334
875000
2000
14:52
"Your talk on YouTube was DMCA'd. Was that your purpose?"
335
877000
3000
14:55
imagining that I had this deep conspiracy
336
880000
2000
14:57
to reveal the obvious flaws in the DMCA.
337
882000
3000
15:00
I answered, "No." I didn't even think about it.
338
885000
2000
15:02
But then I went to the site
339
887000
3000
15:05
and all of the audio in my site had been silenced.
340
890000
3000
15:09
My whole 45-minute video
341
894000
2000
15:11
had been silenced
342
896000
2000
15:13
because there were snippets in that video,
343
898000
2000
15:15
a video about fair use,
344
900000
3000
15:18
that included Warner Music Group music.
345
903000
3000
15:21
Now, interestingly,
346
906000
2000
15:23
they still sold ads for that music,
347
908000
2000
15:25
if you played the silent video.
348
910000
2000
15:27
You could still buy the music,
349
912000
2000
15:29
but you couldn't hear anything
350
914000
2000
15:31
because it had been silenced.
351
916000
2000
15:33
So I did what the current regime
352
918000
2000
15:35
says I must do
353
920000
2000
15:37
to be free to use
354
922000
2000
15:39
YouTube to talk about fair use.
355
924000
3000
15:42
I went to this site, and I had to answer these questions.
356
927000
3000
15:45
And then in an extraordinarily
357
930000
2000
15:47
Bart Simpson-like, juvenile way
358
932000
3000
15:50
you've actually got to type out these words
359
935000
3000
15:53
and get them right
360
938000
2000
15:55
to reassert your freedom to speak.
361
940000
2000
15:57
And I felt like I was in third grade again.
362
942000
3000
16:00
"I will not put tacks on the teacher's chair.
363
945000
3000
16:03
I will not put tacks on the teacher's chair."
364
948000
3000
16:07
This is absurd.
365
952000
2000
16:09
It is outrageous.
366
954000
2000
16:11
It is an extraordinary perversion of the system of freedom
367
956000
2000
16:13
we should be encouraging.
368
958000
2000
16:15
And the question I ask you is: Who's fighting it?
369
960000
2000
16:17
Well, interestingly, in the last presidential election,
370
962000
3000
16:20
who was the number one, active
371
965000
2000
16:22
opponent of this system of regulation
372
967000
3000
16:25
in online speech?
373
970000
2000
16:27
John McCain.
374
972000
2000
16:29
Letter after letter attacking YouTube's refusal
375
974000
3000
16:32
to be more respectful of fair use
376
977000
3000
16:35
with their extraordinary notice and take down system,
377
980000
2000
16:37
that led his campaign so many times
378
982000
2000
16:39
to be thrown off the Internet.
379
984000
3000
16:42
Now, that was the story of me then,
380
987000
3000
16:45
my good old days of right-wing lunacy.
381
990000
3000
16:48
Let me come back to now,
382
993000
2000
16:50
now when I'm a little leftist --
383
995000
2000
16:52
I'm certainly left-handed, so at least a lefty --
384
997000
3000
16:55
And I wonder, can we on the Left
385
1000000
3000
16:58
expect to build this
386
1003000
3000
17:01
ecology of freedom, now,
387
1006000
2000
17:03
in a world where
388
1008000
3000
17:06
we know the extraordinarily powerful
389
1011000
2000
17:08
influences against it,
390
1013000
2000
17:10
where even icons of the Left like this
391
1015000
3000
17:13
entertain and push bills
392
1018000
3000
17:16
that would effectively ban the requirement
393
1021000
3000
17:19
of open access for government-funded research?
394
1024000
3000
17:23
The president, who has supported
395
1028000
3000
17:26
a process that secretly negotiates agreements,
396
1031000
3000
17:29
which effectively lock us into the insane system
397
1034000
3000
17:32
of DMCA
398
1037000
2000
17:34
that we have adopted
399
1039000
2000
17:36
and likely lock us down a path of three strikes, you're out
400
1041000
3000
17:39
that, of course, the rest of the world are increasingly adopting.
401
1044000
3000
17:42
Not a single example of reform
402
1047000
3000
17:45
has been produced yet.
403
1050000
3000
17:49
And we're not going to see this change
404
1054000
2000
17:51
in this system
405
1056000
2000
17:53
anytime soon.
406
1058000
2000
17:55
So here's the lessons of openness
407
1060000
3000
17:58
that I think we need to learn.
408
1063000
3000
18:01
Openness is a commitment
409
1066000
2000
18:03
to a certain set of values.
410
1068000
2000
18:05
We need to speak of those values.
411
1070000
2000
18:07
The value of freedom. It's a value of community.
412
1072000
3000
18:10
It's a value of the limits in regulation.
413
1075000
2000
18:12
It's a value respecting the creator.
414
1077000
3000
18:16
Now, if we can learn those values
415
1081000
2000
18:18
from at least some influences on the Right,
416
1083000
2000
18:20
if we can take them and incorporate them,
417
1085000
2000
18:22
maybe we could do a little trade.
418
1087000
2000
18:24
We learn those values on the Left,
419
1089000
3000
18:27
and maybe they'll do health care
420
1092000
2000
18:29
or global warming legislation or something in the Right.
421
1094000
2000
18:31
Anyway, please join me
422
1096000
2000
18:33
in teaching these values.
423
1098000
2000
18:35
Thank you very much.
424
1100000
2000
18:37
(Applause)
425
1102000
2000
ABOUT THE SPEAKER
Lawrence Lessig - Legal activistLawrence Lessig has already transformed intellectual-property law with his Creative Commons innovation. Now he's focused on an even bigger problem: The US' broken political system.
Why you should listen
Lawyer and activist Lawrence Lessig spent a decade arguing for sensible intellectual property law, updated for the digital age. He was a founding board member of Creative Commons, an organization that builds better copyright practices through principles established first by the open-source software community.
In 2007, just after his last TED Talk, Lessig announced he was leaving the field of IP and Internet policy, and moving on to a more fundamental problem that blocks all types of sensible policy -- the corrupting influence of money in American politics.
In 2011, Lessig founded Rootstrikers, an organization dedicated to changing the influence of money in Congress. In his latest book, Republic, Lost, he shows just how far the U.S. has spun off course -- and how citizens can regain control. As The New York Times wrote about him, “Mr. Lessig’s vision is at once profoundly pessimistic -- the integrity of the nation is collapsing under the best of intentions --and deeply optimistic. Simple legislative surgery, he says, can put the nation back on the path to greatness.”
Read an excerpt of Lessig's new book, Lesterland >>
Lawrence Lessig | Speaker | TED.com