Lessig Gives A Well-Timed Speech To The Italian Parliament On Internet Freedom
from the internet-is-freedom dept
We have noted, recently, that Italian laws and politicians seem to have a somewhat troubling view of the internet, where they are quick to blame the internet for anything bad that happens, and then look to pass laws that would throw out plenty of good just to protect against the possibility of any bad happening. This, of course, culminated just recently in the ruling in an Italian court that three Google execs were guilty of criminal violations, over a Google-hosted video.Given all that, it's quite interesting timing to see that Larry Lessig just gave a speech to the Italian Parliament about how Internet is Freedom. You can see it below (assuming YouTube doesn't take it down) and it runs a little over half an hour:
Not surprisingly, there's plenty in the video that I agree with -- but also plenty that I disagree with. While he does a great job highlighting three areas (copyright, journalism and transparency), where the internet does both good and bad, I disagree with his suggestions for "minimizing the bad." I do agree that we should always look to see if there are ways to minimize the "bad," but I'm not sure I agree with what he considers to actually be "harm" in all three of those cases. What he calls "harm," looks to me an awful lot like disruption. And you can't minimize disruption (at least not successfully).
Still, it is a worthwhile video to watch, with especially interesting timing and audience, given all that's been happening in Italy lately. It would be nice to know how the audience reacted and responded to the speech as well.
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Filed Under: freedom, internet, italy, larry lessig
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Think of the harm done by forcing someone who's religious beliefs to not eat certain foods to eat those foods. They will still digest them and poop later, and (hey - bright side!) they might find they like these foods. But clearly forcing them to partake is just wrong.
Waiting for the dinosaurs to die is a really nice thing. Taunting them isn't. Nor is enabling them, which is where the guvamint is at. THAT is major harm done to the future, but I digress. And digest so I'm gonna go share some previously used food.
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Re:
How so? Look, people do stuff that other people don't want done all the time. That's not harm. You could say bad things about Techdirt. I wouldn't like it, but it's not "harm." Saying that just because I created some content it harms me if you do something I don't like to it or with it, is wrong.
Think of the harm done by forcing someone who's religious beliefs to not eat certain foods to eat those foods. They will still digest them and poop later, and (hey - bright side!) they might find they like these foods. But clearly forcing them to partake is just wrong.
Right, that's a direct infringement on their own *personal* space. Someone sharing someone else's song, which does not have any direct impact on the content creator is entirely different.
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Some slack...
He's making this speech to the dinosaur generation. A group of Italian lawmakers... It's not like he's got a snowball's chance in hell of converting them into open culture fanatics. He's trying to make some incremental progress by saying, "Look, I understand your perspective. And given the choice between giving a radical speech and having you ignore it completely, or toning my message down a bit so that you might, just might take it to heart, I'll do the latter."
He has a very effective message here that I think would play well to an open minded person, even if you're a stuffy old legislator. "Don't regulate punitively. You're just waging war on your children. Find a way to keep the good while making the bad not quite so bad. If you focus only on ELIMINATING the bad, you will also eliminate the good."
So yea, I cut him a little slack on moderating his message a bit. Consider the audience.
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Jeff knows.
And all of your paintings have been hung
Just remember what was yours is everyone’s from now on"
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A few things...
The thing that made me tweet him immediatly after seeing the video, was the decrease of the Music Market. Mike, here, as shown us the numbers several times. What as fallen is the CD selling part of the music businness. The overall music market has actually grown.
Also, the way that he kept referring to P2P as a "BAD". P2P is neither good nor bad. It is. Simply. P2P is a technology allowing to share digital content. P2P doesn't mean "pirates". Because pirates don't share, they only take. By force.
So, from someone that I consider a beacon, that has shown me how well informed and educated on these subjects he is, this, simply doesn't fit, and, it's completely uncharacteristic.
There were a few things that I didn't like about the Transparency part of the speech. It is not Internet's fault that no one with a sane mind trusts politicians, it's their own fault, and the amount or lack of transparency will not change it, until the politicians change their ways. Yeah right...
The waiting for dinosaurs to die, was quite good actualy and it sure reflects the reality. Let's hope for a way to speed up that process. (Metaphorically, of course).
The rest of the speech was at Lessig level. Very good, very well paced and interesting and captivating. I do like his presentations and speeches. I only had trouble swalowing the above points, on this one.
I will wait patiently for his answer to my Tweet. LOL.
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perhaps a bit too subtle
And sorry if I created the suggestion that p2p is "bad." It was the harm to some artists -- which I believe there is some -- which is bad. And whether or not "p2p doesn't harm people, people harm people," I support ways to minimize it.
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Re: A few things...
Also, the way that he kept referring to P2P as a "BAD". P2P is neither good nor bad. It is. Simply. P2P is a technology allowing to share digital content. P2P doesn't mean "pirates". Because pirates don't share, they only take. By force.
Yup, absolutely agreed. Also agree on the transparency thing. I don't get why he thinks transparency is bad in that way at all. It's exposing problems with the overall system. That's not a bad thing at all.
And, yes, even considering the audience... I'm not sure it helps the presentation to have those questionable points there.
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Re:
What is to be considered harm depends on what baseline you choose. If you are trying to establish whether the currently law is justifiable or not then it doesn't make sense to use the provisions setup by the law as a baseline.
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Re: Re:
It's not the sharing or usage that is the harm, it is the inability to control whether or not others do those things. And I'm one of those that agree, that that control should be severely limited because the deliberate creation of artificial scarcity introduces inefficiency into the market, and as you've shown often, doesn't produce the benefits perceived to be created by the scarcity.
I agree that if someone doesn't want to share their content, they are perfectly valid in their desire (keep it at home, never show it to anyone, don't make it available for viewing). However, if they want that content to enter the *market*, then they are remiss in believing they should continue to have total control. They can't have it both ways. If you wish to be a market participant, then you must be subject to its raw rules without gaming the system through artificial scarcity. In other words, compete or exit.
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Compensation through law?
For example, piracy of games is a significant issue to me. I want to , sooner rather than later, get into the games industry and make games. Unfortunately, games are a digital media that can easily be replicated ad infinitum at little to no cost. DRM doesn't work, it only reinforces the animosity between consumers and publishers. The current business model just doesn't work anymore and it rightly shouldn't. So the next logical step would be to offer these games for a price that consumers are willing to pay while creating something tangible and quantifiable that gamers will want to pay for in order to get the most out of their games.
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Re: perhaps a bit too subtle
Found a flaw in your belief ... Britney Spears, Lindsay Lohan, Lily Allen, and Metallica. ;)
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Re: Re: Re:
"Share you work and for a limited time you can mostly control what is done with it commercially"
In those terms the sharing mentioned by EdB is a sort of harm if the sharing is done on an "industrial" scale. The big problem is that copyright was born at the birth of the industrial era and is best suited to that world.
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Re:
Harm to toolmakers who do not want their tools shared freely is sharing their tools freely.
Harm to clothes designers who do not want their clothes shared freely is sharing their clothes freely.
I mean, if you buy a nice blanket and someone asks you to share it with them, and the maker doesn't want you too, he also should be able to ask for a government ban or three-strikes-law on blanket-sharing. Because it's not like content creators should get any special treatment, right? What THEY want is all that matters, not what the buyer wants.
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Man, that is right on the money and not just on the subject of things digital.
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Piracy is not the only reason for dropping sales
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Lessig's Gone Off the Deep End
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Re: Lessig's Gone Off the Deep End
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