[artinfo] Lessig: Free Culture

[Inke Arns]

>From CBC News:

Influential scholar Lawrence Lessig is making his latest book
available for free on the internet.

Lessig is an advocate for greater consumer rights to copyrighted works.

The book, Free Culture, explores technical and legal restrictions
that publishers and other media corporations use to control
information and keep it from the public domain. Lessig says the
process limits creativity.

The author, who is a law professor at Stanford University, argues
that making information more widely available can make business
sense. His publisher, The Penguin Press, agreed to make the book
available online at to demonstrate the point.

"This is an experiment," he said in a statement. "But it is my view
that exercising less control over at least some content is a better
way to drive demand."

Users who download the book may redistribute, copy or include it in
other works as long as the use is non-commercial and Lessig is
credited.

Published this month, the printed version retails for $24.95 US. The
advertised Canadian price on Amazon.ca is $37.50.

http://www.free-culture.org/freecontent/