Lawrence Lessig poses his final arguments and very reasonable answers in these sections of his book. He has primed us with a history of copyright law, the direction it has taken in the past fifty years and why this should alarm us. When there was little control over creative work the law intervened but only enough to give original artists an opportunity to profit for a reasonable time from their work. Even then lawmakers recognized the importance this creative work had in establishing our culture and history and that others should be allowed to freely build upon it. In the past century, with the advances in technology that allowed easy copying, laws became more restrictive in favor of copyright owners. While this was understandable, the law was still balanced to allow "fair use" and reasonable time restrictions. That is no longer the case today. "Fair use" hardly has any meaning because of the hostile and threatening climate instigated by large corporations who control creative property. Enormous fines can be levied against relatively innocent use and ordinary citizens are becoming felons under the heavy handed laws that have been passed. Now Mr. Lessig tells us that the very technology which should have opened the world of creativity to us is being used to make us felons. These huge media corporations are being allowed, by laws they pressed for passage, to search private computers and make felons of private citizens. This justifiably alarms him even more than the threat to our culture. He sites the Supreme Court case he and others prepared, presented and lost but he manages to put even this in it's proper perspective. He understood the mistakes that were made and continues to have the support that saw him through this court battle. They are preparing to fight another day, this war has not been lost.
Much to his credit, Lessig has provided us not only with information most of us were completely unaware of but has founded his arguments in objective and reasonable form. We are reminded of the need to protect creative property rights while ha carefully explains the difference between this and material property, a difference that even our forefathers understood and allowed for. In answer to this defeat and afterthought he proposed Eldred's Law. This law is elegant in it's simplicity. Lessig, as he has done before, makes no effort to dismantle Copyright Law but makes it reasonable. This law, while it does not shorten the absolute length of copyright, requires those seeking copyright to apply for it and to renew the copyright after a period of fifty years. He poses several suggestions to streamline this procedure and make applications not only easy but inexpensive. As he argues, this is not only reasonable but fair. It would accommodate those who have creative property that still has commercial value. At the same time that which does not and is not worth the trouble renewing a copyright would be open to the public domain for everyone to freely share.
What I found particularly troubling in Mr. Lessig's book was the discussion of the attempts by the media moguls to use technology to make criminals of ordinary citizens. While I realize the law should be respected, this is not an attempt to protect citizens from criminal harm. The fact that Internet servers and colleges can invade personal hard drives and use this information against computer owners is mortifying. What happened to the Fifth Amendment of the Constitution which provides relief from self-incrimination. These laws are not meant to protect anyone but the powerful. Those who are accused of "breaking" these laws are seldom committing any act that is harmful to the plaintiffs. They have not been proven to lessen any profits, in fact they more likely are improving profits by allowing unpaid advertising for the work they are accused of stealing. I know I will be strongly recommending Lawrence Lessig's book to anyone who will hear me out. The real irony is that I was allowed to read his book for free and that any bookstore where I have attempted to buy his book has told me it is out of print. I won't let that stop me.
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