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IPcentral's Tom Sydnor reviewed a recent presentation by Professor Lawrence Lessig- Lessig’s presentation was edifying. In his 1999 book Code, Lessig’s doomsaying ire—while broadly distributed—focused in particular upon commercial providers of online services. Lessig warned that these service providers would turn the Net into a “panopticon,” (a prison of pervasive surveillance), unless we embraced “the idea of placing the design of … the Internet into the hands of government.” Professor Lessig is not a self-proclaimed free market Libertarian, and being a moderate one myself, I don't find fault in his policy framework that markets rely on regulatory bases. However, my view is that after initial phases of technological development, business model stabilization and societal reach, the market should trump the government in steering the course of innovation. Hence, I take issue with Lessig's view on FOSS.
Lessig's vision of innovation is one that aims to limit intellectual property rights and weaken the commercial sector. His subsequent support for FOSS technologies relies on government subsidies for investment and sustenance. Note a passage from the Future of Ideas where Lessig positions his support for FOSS by downplaying the role of commercialization in developing early Internet technologies and the innovation that ensued from intellectual property rights. The core of the Internet was this collection of code built outside the proprietary model. For the property obsessed, or those who believe that progress comes only from strong and powerful property rights, pause on this point and read it again: The most important space for innovation in our time was built upon a platform that was free. Historically, minus commercial industry, the other major players in the advancement of early Internet technologies were the US DoD and its DARPA center, which bank-rolled R&D through academic institutions and federal research labs. Yet private industry was essential to the diffusion of basic federal research into mass market consumer products. (see this history reviewed by Professor Philip Weiser, The Internet, Innovation and IP Policy, 2003- "by calling on commerce to take the leading role in developing the Internet, the government created a gold rush for companies to introduce proprietary technologies to the developing Internet infrastructure.")
Over the past few decades, private industry has vastly over-taken the government in developing and improving on Internet innovations. Lessig's vision would have innovation in Internet technologies return to their very early beginnings under government subsidies, while depriving society of the benefits enabled by commercialization of technologies.
Many FOSS advocates may support Lessig's opposition to intellectual property rights, but if they're free market Libertarians, their bases for FOSS support may be incongruent with his.
posted by Noel Le @ 8:00 AM | Academia, Free Culture Movement
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