An interview with lawrence lessig

• Pages: 4-6

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FE BR UA RY 2 01 1

AN INTERVIEW WITH

LAWRENCE LESSIG

freedoms they wanted t hem to carr y. This system

affirms a belief in copyr ight, be cause it is in

essence a copyright license, but it also affirms the

values that underpin those c reative environments

– or ecologies – in which the rules of exch ange are

not defined by commerce but dep end on the abil-

ity to sha re and build on th e work of others freely.

In how many countr ies is Crea tive Common s

present?

Creative Co mmons has launc hed projects in

around 80 countries. Our influence is constantly

expanding as new jurisdi ctions come on board.

CC’s work around th e world is largely accom-

plished through a dedicated network of CC affili -

ates who under take a range of promot ion and

outreach activit ies in vario us jur isdictions. These

include r aising awareness a bout CC legal too ls

generally – helping communities use CC licenses

for e xample, to develop open edu cational re-

sources and su pporting would- be adopters in un-

derstandi ng how our licenses work. In 2009, the

Creative Comm ons (CC) Project experi enced its

strongest b urst of growth and n ow covers at least

350 mill ion objects on the web.

The Middle East has become one o f the biggest

growth areas. Egy pt, Jordan , Lebanon, Qatar and

the Unite d Arab Emirates have all begun process-

ing CC licenses. What i s very inte resting is th at, in

these countri es, CC ac tually encourages greater

respect for co pyright. So it seems that, in a co n-

text in which copyri ght is not w idely respecte d, a

more mode rate claim by copyright owne rs for

rights to be applied in some ar eas while all owing

freedom in others, is more li kely to encourag e

that respect by c onsumers. CC is a way to build

understan ding and respect for copyright and tha t

is what we are seei ng in the M iddle East.

What mot ivated you to set up Creative C ommons?

At the turn of the centur y, we saw a kind of “per-

fect storm” for culture on t he hori zon. We had a

digital infra structure that encourag ed a wi de

range of sh aring, remixing a nd publishing tha t

just cou ld not have ha ppened in the 20th century.

We also had an a rchitecture

that triggered co pyright law

each time a copy was pro-

duced. This put digital cre-

ators on a collisi on course

with the law, whether they

recognized i t or not. For many,

especiall y those operating i n

what I call th e sharing econo-

my, this made no se nse. A

large percentage of t hem

continued to create on digita l

platforms irrespect ive of

copyright law, and piracy rates

skyrocke ted.

We feared that a collision of

these two forces would pro-

duce either a movemen t that

sought to abolish copyright or a rigid system of

enforcement that would shut down all of these

great new activities.

At the time, the prevailing vie w was if you weren’t

in the traditional “all rights reserve d” camp, you

must be anti-c opyright or a pir ate. We soug ht to

establish some midd le gro und b ecause we rec-

ognized th at, in fact, ma ny people believ ed in

copyright but did not be lieve th at their creative

works sho uld be as tight ly regulated as t hey were

under th e all right s reserved model.

We decided to buil d a voluntary opt-in s ystem

whereby creator s could mark th eir works with t he

Amid the gat hering co pyright s torm of the early “no ughties,” which p itched th e establi shed cop yright

world ag ainst new-fo und digital creators, La wrence Lessig and his c olleagues sou ght to esta blish a mid-

dle gro und by lau nching the Creative Co mmons (CC) Project. In this inte rview, Profe ssor Lessig explains

how Cr eative Com mons came about, a nd why he thinks it is so popula r. He al so shares his vie ws about

what needs to be done to translate copy right’s legal architect ure, born in the 19

th

century analo gue

world, t o the reali ties of the 21

st

century digital worl d.

Photo: L. Lessig

Lawrence Lessig talks

about Creative

Commons.