Free Culture

About This Ebook

On March 25, 2004, Professor Lessig released a PDF version of this book under a Creative Commons license. This HTML version, produced by José Menéndez and amended by Zachary Brewster-Geisz, is released under the same license.

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This HTML version of Free Culture is licensed under a Creative Commons license. This license permits non-commercial use of this work, so long as attribution is given. For more information about the license, click the icon above, or visit <http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/1.0/>.

ALSO BY LAWRENCE LESSIG

The Future of Ideas: The Fate of the Commons
in a Connected World

Code: And Other Laws of Cyberspace

FREE CULTURE

  HOW BIG MEDIA USES TECHNOLOGY AND
  THE LAW TO LOCK DOWN CULTURE
  AND CONTROL CREATIVITY

LAWRENCE LESSIG

The Penguin Press
a member of
Penguin Group (USA) Inc.
375 Hudson Street
New York, New York 10014

Copyright © Lawrence Lessig, 2004
All rights reserved

Excerpt from an editorial titled “The Coming of Copyright Perpetuity,”
The New York Times, January 16, 2003. Copyright © 2003 by The New York Times Co.
Reprinted with permission.

Cartoon by Paul Conrad on page 159. Copyright Tribune Media Services, Inc.
All rights reserved. Reprinted with permission.
Diagram on page 164 courtesy of the office of FCC Commissioner, Michael J. Copps.

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Lessig, Lawrence.
Free culture : how big media uses technology and the law to lock down
culture and control creativity / Lawrence Lessig.
p. cm.
Includes index.
ISBN 1-59420-006-8 (hardcover)
1. Intellectual property—United States. 2. Mass media—United States.
3. Technological innovations—United States. 4. Art—United States. I. Title.

KF2979.L47 2004
343.7309'9—dc22 2003063276

This book is printed on acid-free paper.

Printed in the United States of America
1 3 5 7 9 10 8 6 4 2

Designed by Marysarah Quinn

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To Eric Eldred—whose work first drew me
to this cause, and for whom
it continues still.