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The Future of Ideas: The Fate of the Commons in a Connected World | 
| Author: Lawrence Lessig
Publisher: Vintage
Category: Book
List Price: $15.00
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Avg. Customer Rating:  34 reviews
Sales Rank: 222195
Media: Paperback
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 384
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.6
Dimensions (in): 7.9 x 5.2 x 0.9
ISBN: 0375726446
Dewey Decimal Number: 346
EAN: 9780375726446
ASIN: 0375726446
Publication Date: October 22, 2002
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| Editorial Reviews:
Amazon.com's Best of 2001
If The Future of Ideas is bleak, we have nobody to blame but ourselves. Author Lawrence Lessig, a Stanford law professor and keen observer of emerging technologies, makes a strong case that large corporations are staging an innovation-stifling power grab while we watch idly. The changes in copyright and other forms of intellectual property protection demanded by the media and software industries have the potential to choke off publicly held material, which Lessig sees as a kind of intellectual commons. He eloquently and persuasively decries this lopsided control of ideas and suggests practical solutions that consider the rights of both creators and consumers, while acknowledging the serious impact of new technologies on old ways of doing business. His proposals would let existing companies make money without using the tremendous advantages of incumbency to eliminate new killer apps before they can threaten the status quo. Readers who want a fair intellectual marketplace would do well to absorb the lessons in The Future of Ideas. --Rob Lightner
Product Description
The Internet revolution has come. Some say it has gone. In The Future of Ideas, Lawrence Lessig explains how the revolution has produced a counterrevolution of potentially devastating power and effect. Creativity once flourished because the Net protected a commons on which widest range of innovators could experiment. But now, manipulating the law for their own purposes, corporations have established themselves as virtual gatekeepers of the Net while Congress, in the pockets of media magnates, has rewritten copyright and patent laws to stifle creativity and progress.
Lessig weaves the history of technology and its relevant laws to make a lucid and accessible case to protect the sanctity of intellectual freedom. He shows how the door to a future of ideas is being shut just as technology is creating extraordinary possibilities that have implications for all of us. Vital, eloquent, judicious and forthright, The Future of Ideas is a call to arms that we can ill afford to ignore.
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| Customer Reviews: Read 29 more reviews...
 This is Now Creative Commons January 16, 2008
This books is now free and available under the creative commons license. You can find it as a downloadable PDF online. Search google for it.
Good review September 10, 2007
Deep understanding on what is going on with intelectual property that we don't see on the newspapers
Best on the subject November 4, 2006
0 out of 1 found this review helpful
The author has great insight in the area of intellectual property and how it has an impact in future innovation.
 Complex But Wonderful Nonetheless June 16, 2005
The book is written in a very complex style -- especially the sections where Lessig goes into the nitty gritty of the architecture behind the Internet -- but the book is a wonderful read, especially for those who come from the mindset that copyright laws should serve to give full control to the creator. While Lessig's style is unnecessarily complex, the book is ultimately worth the effort -- especially for Internet enthusiasts and entrepreneurs who need to understand the implications of copyright laws and how they affect culture and future ideas.
Important book for IP lawyers and internet architects June 19, 2004
8 out of 9 found this review helpful
This is the best of Lessig's books that I've read so far. Lessig is one of the more articulate spokespersons for the movement to protect the public domain, which includes such groups as the Electronic Frontier Foundation, Creative Commons, etc., although he may be more moderate in his views than some.In this book, Lessig does a great job explaining why the Internet became what it is (or at least what it was in 1999 or 2000). Ultimately the success of the Internet resulted from the fact that no one was in control... But his most important message is that corporate interests don't necessary like what it is, and are using their considerable powers to change it into something more useful to them. This isn't because these companies are evil - their approach is completely rational and legitimate. However, their interests and the interests of the public probably don't coincide here. The only way to ensure that future control and/or regulation properly balances public and corporate interests is to have an informed public. Professor Lessig's book is a great start.
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