The Future of Copyright

The Future of Copyright FREE CULTURE: HOW BIG MEDIA USES TECHNOLOGY AND THE LAW TO LOCK DOWN CULTURE AND CONTROL CREATIVITY. By Lawrence Lessig.[dagger] New York: The Penguin Press, 2004. Pp. xvii, 346. $24.95.

Somebody once said: "Information wants to be free. "1

-Roger Clarke

There's no such thing as a free lunch.2

-Alvin Hansen

I. Introduction: Idea Slingers and Norm Entrepreneurs

Sometimes technological change is so profound that it rocks the foundations of an entire body of law. Peer-to-peer (P2P) filesharing systems-Napster, Gnutella, KaZaA, Grokster, and Freenet3-are mere symptoms of a set of technological innovations that have set in motion an ongoing process of fundamental changes in the nature of copyright law. The video tape recorder begat the Sony "substantial noninfringing use" defense.4 The digital cassette recorder begat the Audio Home Recording Act.5 The internet begat the Digital Millennium Copyright Act.6 Napster begat Napster.7 We see the law morph right in front of our eyes, but its ultimate form is still obscure. As a consequence, the future of copyright is up for grabs. We live in a magical, exhilarating, and frightening time: Many alternative copyfutures8 shimmer on the horizon, sometimes coming into sharper focus and sometimes fading away.