[wos] Lessig: Free Culture

[Volker Grassmuck]

 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/
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