Re:TheAshLad - Sandbooks

protections.. The most recent example is the Sonny Bono Copyright
Term Extension. Act which extended by years both existing copyrights
and future. copyrights. A copyright grant is a limited monopoly a
reward for. innovation but the reward if too generous (long) will surely.
stifle it for any increase in copyright term strengthens monopolist.
practice and isolates innovation from improvement in much the same.
way that Sunstein fears that cybercascades weaken the dialogue of.
democracy. For that reason Lessig predicts that. ...two companies AOL
Time Warner and Microsoft will define. the next five years of the
Internet's life. Neither company has. committed itself to a neutral and
open platform. Hence the. next five years will be radically different
from the past ten.. Innovation in content and applications will be as
these platform. owners permit. Additions that benefit either company
will be. encouraged additions that don't won't....Content and access.
will once again be controlled the innovation commons will have. been
carved up and sold.. If software code the DNA of the internet is
privately held. citizens will be cyberserfs on corporate estates. There
can be no. freedom without commons. Businesspersons artists and
academics must. be free to graze on the rich field of ideas that lead to
further. innovation. In his previous book Professor Lessig argued that
just. as police regulate cities code regulates cyberspace. If state. police
power was the principal concern of the th century corporate. control of
code should be that of the st. Just as we defeated. Hitler and Stalin the
argument continues implicitly so must we. strike AOL and Microsoft.
Corporations wield power invidiously. veiled by the promise of free
markets effectively coopting the. institutions that should balance public
and private ownership.. Lessig will. For many technologists those who
believe that. technology properly configured will save the planet he is
the. muchlauded (and wellschooled) David against an array of
corporate. to increasing the sum and access of intellectual property
online. and as lead counsel for the petitioner in Eldred v Ashcroft. in
which he challenged the constitutionality of the Bono. Copyright
Extension Act Lessig has argued that Congress had. overstepped the
authority vested by the Constitution by essentially. marching the
copyright term toward perpetuity. In January the. Supreme Court
disagreed upholding the act. His fight continues.. Victory will not elude
Professor Lessig though it may surprise him.. A public weaned on the
Web will be increasingly sensitive to the. value of open platforms and
the possibilities inherent in shared. media and code. The increasing ease
with which even moderately. trained musicians mix and sample
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