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Republic, Lost New Lessig Book

Dr_William_HaywardDr_William_Hayward
edited May 2012
I'm about a third into this book by Mr Open Source, and Mr get the money out of politics dude Lawrence Lessig. He explains how both Dems&Repubs adopted essentially the same policies toward Wall St in the early 90's and why. Also why retail politics is so shrill. And exactly what happened with the big crash. He has good arguments that appeal to Repubs, Tea's & Dems.

Comments

  • kdawgkdawg
    Lessig to me is Mr Unintended Consequences. Free Culture ideology = wack.
  • LelandLeland
    I too appreciate his functional, structural, broad-spectrum approach to discussions of democracy and political economy. I really enjoyed the pithy powerpoint presentation he brought to Seattle last September. I would like to think that he is influencing a new burgeoning breed of political leaders and citizens. He hung out at Occupied Seattle when it was still fresh and lovely. It was an interesting day.
  • kdawgkdawg
    The book does look cool! I am glad the dude has moved on to a different beat.
  • LelandLeland
    edited May 2012
    Looking through the WikiP crib notes of Free Culture. Finding reasonable, if possibly dated, concerns re: copyright law facilitating concentrated corporate control of the cultural commons.

    Huge fines and preemptive lawsuits for personal use of culture = wack, in my reckoning.

    95 year copyrights? This benefits public life how?
  • Dr_William_HaywardDr_William_Hayward
    Always respected mrkdawg's views. Haven't dug deep into his copyright views, but I'm for limited copyright duration for sure. The essence of copyright is emotional resonance sampling, so we need to get real sh*t discussing that. Maybe micropayments. And maybe the $ flows should go from sampler to copyright owner rather than the reverse.
  • kdawgkdawg
    edited May 2012
    There are a lot of reasonable arguments that one can make about the crappiness of the current copyright law regimen. I am a copyright reformist, so I agree with that. Lessig just went way further than that, and provided the theoretical foundation that led to Spotify, Grooveshark, and a billion other ways to make people at tech companies rich while artists starve. I don't think he intended to, but I also don't think he paid much attention to how his ideology interacted with the material reality of artists' lives.
  • kdawgkdawg
    I do really like the trope I've seen him pushing about the normalization of dependence though!
  • kdawgkdawg
    Hilariously I just found out Lessig is on the advisory board at my new gig! Oops!
  • LelandLeland
    LOL! I saw that and was wondering.... Look out, I bet somebody on the board has Koch Bros. connections too. /jk

    Would be interested in any readings that further illustrate your characterizations of Spotify, et al. Thanks!
  • kdawgkdawg
    edited May 2012
    Hmm, how can I phrase this neutrally? Lessig is acknowledged as a figure of some notoriety in the field of IP law, but this does not mean his views are widely respected by artist advocates, copyright reformists etc. Indeed, a fair bit of what I am now doing is debunking myths spread by Lessig and "free culture" disciples on one hand and copyright maximalists (e.g. MPAA, RIAA) on the other.

    If you are looking for info on the revenue models of Spotify, Grooveshark: first, note that Grooveshark doesn't actually bother licensing material at all; ie they don't think it's important to pay artists EVER. To me this seems better than Spotify in that it's less deceptive; it may be legal, but the terms are dictated by the major labels who have an equity stake; indies and self-released artists have no bargaining power in setting artist compensation levels, and $0.0004137 a play does not translate into an income stream of any significance. Spotify's founder Daniel Ek is constantly pushing this "Music should be like water" stuff, which is sort of a variant on Lessig ideology (and simultaneously misrepresents the nature of both water and music). Ek's fortune is valued at $308 million, ranking him among the top 10 richest people in the UK (tied with Mick Jagger!)

    http://www.digitalmusicnews.com/ usually has decent coverage of these issues.
  • kdawgkdawg
    Here is a review of the Lessig book by awesome blogger and my cousin-by-impending-marriage, Henry Farrell http://crookedtimber.org/2012/06/25/lessigs-republic-lost/
  • LelandLeland
    Yes, most awesome! Very insightful, possibly true! And impressive, mostly on point, contributions in the comments section as well. Thanks.

    But will the deep reforms contemplated in these texts get a chance at implementation...? Or are we on an irrevocable course toward a new permanent 'post-meritocracy'.....
  • Dr_William_HaywardDr_William_Hayward
    kd, excellent article! Still think the book is worth reading, especially for some history. Agree with the article that LL uses a model that supports his solution, public financing. And agree with the article that LL is trying to appeal to a broad audience with his argument, and that is why he doesn't address economic inequality. Disagree with the article at the end that forces of economic inequality are at a stasis, I think policies will continue to change due to lobbying to make it worse before better.

    For example, Kansas and some other mid states: http://www2.ljworld.com/news/2012/jun/16/brownback-tax-cut-law-produces-winners-and-losers-/

    Haven't made it through the comments...
  • distant_shoedistant_shoe
    groovesharks!
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