'Lessig's proposals for revising copyright are compelling, because they rethink intellectual property rights without abandoning them.' - Briefly Noted The New Yorker

'Lessig... has written a splendid combative manifesto – pungent, witty and persuasive.' - Financial Times

The author of Free Culture shows how we harm our children—and almost anyone who creates, enjoys, or sells any art form—with a restrictive copyright system driven by corporate interests. Lessig reveals the solutions to this impasse offered by a collaborative yet profitable “hybrid economy”.

Lawrence Lessig, the reigning authority on intellectual property in the Internet age, spotlights the newest and possibly the most harmful culture war—a war waged against our kids and others who create and consume art. America’s copyright laws have ceased to perform their original, beneficial role: protecting artists’ creations while allowing them to build on previous creative works. In fact, our system now criminalizes those very actions.

For many, new technologies have made it irresistible to flout these unreasonable and ultimately untenable laws. Some of today’s most talented artists are felons, and so are our kids, who see no reason why they shouldn’t do what their computers and the Web let them do, from burning a copyrighted CD for a friend to “biting” riffs from films, videos, songs, etc and making new art from them.

Criminalizing our children and others is exactly what our society should not do, and Lessig shows how we can and must end this conflict—a war as ill conceived and unwinnable as the war on drugs. By embracing “read-write culture,” which allows its users to create art as readily as they consume it, we can ensure that creators get the support—artistic, commercial, and ethical—that they deserve and need. Indeed, we can already see glimmers of a new hybrid economy that combines the profit motives of traditional business with the “sharing economy” evident in such Web sites as Wikipedia and YouTube. The hybrid economy will become ever more prominent in every creative realm—from news to music—and Lessig shows how we can and should use it to benefit those who make and consume culture.

Remix is an urgent, eloquent plea to end a war that harms our children and other intrepid creative users of new technologies. It also offers an inspiring vision of the post-war world where enormous opportunities await those who view art as a resource to be shared openly rather than a commodity to be hoarded.

Visit Remix: Making Art and Commerce Thrive in a Hybrid Economy Download Page

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INTRODUCTION
In early February 2007, Stephanie Lenz’s eighteen- month- old son, Holden, started dancing. Pushing a walker across her kitchen floor, Holden started moving to the distinctive beat of a song by Prince (that’s the current name of the artist formerly known as Prince), “Let’s Go Crazy.” Holden had heard the song a couple of weeks before while the family watched the Super Bowl. The beat had obviously stuck.

So when he heard the song again, he did what any sensible eighteen- month- old would do— he accepted Prince’s invitation and went “crazy” to the beat, in the clumsy but insanely cute way that any precocious eighteen- month- old would.

Holden’s mom, understandably, thought the scene hilarious. She grabbed her camcorder and captured the dance digitally. For twenty- nine seconds, she had the priceless image of Holden dancing, with the barely discernible Prince playing on a radio somewhere in the background. ...

PREFACE
In early 2007, I was at dinner with some friends in Berlin. We were talking about global warming. After an increasingly intense exchange about the threats from climate change, one overeager American at the table blurted, “We need to wage a war on carbon. Governments need to mobilize. Get our troops on the march!” Then he fell back into his chair, proud of his bold resolve, sipping a bit too much of the wildly too-expensive red wine.

It was obvious that my friend was speaking metaphorically. Carbon is not an “enemy.” Not even an American marine could fi ght it. Yet, as I looked around the table, a kind of reticence seemed to float above our German companions. “What does that look mean?” I asked one of my friends. After a short pause, he almost whispered,
“Germans don’t like war.” ...

About the Author
Lawrence Lessig is a Professor of Law at Stanford Law School and founder of the School’s Center for Internet and Society. He is the author of Free Culture, The Future of Ideas, and Code and Other Laws of Cyberspace, and is a columnist at Wired.

He chairs the Creative Commons project and has won numerous awards, including the Free Software Foundation’s Freedom Award. He was named one of Scientific American’s Top 50 Visionaries and has also been listed as one of BusinessWeek’s “eBiz 25,” the magazine’s roundup of the twenty-five most influential people in electronic business, several times.

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