163 Quotes by Lawrence Lessig

So uncritically do we accept the idea of property in culture that we don’t even question when the control of that property removes our ability, as a people, to develop our culture democratically.

Creation always involves building upon something else. There is no art that doesn’t reuse. And there will be less art if every reuse is taxed by the appropriator.

A culture without property, or in which creators can’t get paid, is anarchy, not freedom.

Some may not like the Constitution’s requirements, but that doesn’t make the Constitution a pirate’s charter.

I don’t care if the Koch brothers or Soros spend their money to promote one candidate or another. I care about members of Congress spending 30%-70% of their time raising money from .05% of us. Change the way we fund elections and you change the corruption.

We take this for granted in America today: a democracy in which the first test of credibility is not votes, or broad public support, but money.

We established a regime that left creativity unregulated. Now it was unregulated because copyright law only covered “printing.” Copyright law did not control derivative work. And copyright law granted this protection for the limited time of 14 years.

The current term of protection for software is the life of an author plus 70 years, or, if it’s work-for-hire, a total of 95 years. This is a bastardization of the Constitution’s requirement that copyright be for “limited times.”

I’m a lawyer. I make lawyers for a living.