The Life Cycle podcast discusses the future of freedom with Lawrence Lessig

Fifteen percent of all human consciousness that has ever existed is present and happening today. As we speed up and grow ever more connected via the Internet, what are the implications for this massive digital shift? In this episode recorded last year, renowned Harvard Law professor Lawrence Lessig discusses the state of the digital landscape and its impact on notions of freedom and democracy. — Read the rest

America, Compromised: Lawrence Lessig explains corruption in words small enough for the Supreme Court to understand

Lawrence Lessig was once best-known as the special master in the Microsoft Antitrust Case, then he was best known as the co-founder of Creative Commons, then as a fire-breathing corruption fighter: in America, Compromised, a long essay (or short nonfiction book), Lessig proposes as lucid and devastating a theory of corruption as you'll ever find, a theory whose explanatory power makes today's terrifying news cycle make sense -- and a theory that demands action.

Lessig wants to fix the electoral college

Federalism is hard: to reassure small states that bigger ones won't clobber them and their interests, federalist agreements usually have some kind of non-proportional representation built into their articles, such as a senate or an assembly where it's "one state, one vote" instead of "one person, one vote" — so each state gets as much say as any other, but the people who live in the bigger states have their votes diluted to a tiny fraction of the influence of the votes of people in the less populous states.

Lawrence Lessig on how Congress should behave when the president breaks the law

Lessig compares the current constitutional crisis — a lawless, reckless president; law enforcement officers flouting federal court orders — with previous crises, such as the impeachment of Nixon, and says the major difference between then and now: then, Congress had a bipartisan consensus that "they were engaged in the most serious job a member of Congress could have — because they knew that in a critical sense, the very stability of the Republic depended on them behaving as adults."

Lawrence Lessig on how to fix America's campaign finance corruption problem

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"Real reform will require changing the way campaigns are funded — moving from large-dollar private funding to small-dollar public funding," writes professor Lawrence Lessig in a New York Times op-ed today. Basically, what if elections relied more on lots of little contributions from lots of different regular working people, instead of relying on a small number of huge donations from the rich and powerful, or the big and powerful institutions that serve their interests. — Read the rest

Lessig's U Chicago lectures on corruption this fall


Levi says, "Lawrence Lessig will be lecturing at the University of Chicago in October, launching a new series with a series of talks on institutional corruption, with separate talks on the problem in Congress, finance, the media, and the academy, then wrapping up with a lecture that covers possible remedies."

MAYDAY: Larry Lessig launches a Superpac to get money out of US politics

Lawrence Lessig has announced the next step in his campaign against corruption in American politics with the launch of MAYDAY, a Superpac intended to raise enough money through small donations (and, eventually, major ones) to elect a large enough roster of congressmen and senators that they can pass meaningful campaign finance reform, making Superpacs and other perversions of democracy a bad memory. — Read the rest

This Day in Blogging History: DC's liberated municipal codes; Game-design lessons from Disneyland; Blogger-read audiobook of Lessig's FREE CULTURE

One year ago today

Municipal codes of DC, free for all — liberated without permission: I was lucky enough to get another one of rogue archivist Carl Malamud's boxes of awesome. It's a copy of the municipal codes of DC, which are laws that you're required to follow, but aren't allowed to see without paying. — Read the rest

This Day in Blogging History: Venn Diagram of Irrational Nonsense; G20 Welcoming Committee Gets Ready; Lessig's Free Culture, free online

One year ago today

Venn Diagram of Irrational Nonsense: chart of woo: Crispian Jago has compiled a handy Venn Diagram of Irrational Nonsense.

Five years ago today

G20 Welcoming Committee Gets Ready: It's sure gonna be a long, hot FUN summer…

Ten years ago today
Lessig's Free Culture, free online, under a Creative Commons license: Larry Lessig's new book "Free Culture" — which is about the value of freedom to cultural production — is out in stores today, and, unlike his previous two books, Larry has foudn the leverage to convince his publisher to let him release the full text of the new book online under a Creative Commons license. — Read the rest

Phoenix on Lessig and Lisztomania: "We Support Fair Use of Our Music!"

Last August, I posted about a lawsuit brought by Larry Lessig and the Electronic Frontier Foundation against Australia's Liberation Music, who hold the rights to "Lisztomania," a song by the French band Phoenix. Lessig had used brief clips from Lisztomania in a presentation on remix culture, and when the lecture was posted to Youtube, Phoenix Music sent a series of bogus copyright notices and threats to Youtube and Lessig. — Read the rest