February 10th, 2005

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Lessig on the West Wing

Everyone’s a twitter this morning because Lawrence Lessig, lawyer, blogger, defender of digital rights and all-around good guy, appeared on The West Wing last night. Well, he didn’t actually appear, but Christopher Lloyd (you, know “Doc, this is heavy”) played him. He was a kind of democracy consultant, helping the leaders of Belarus write their constituation (which, as it turns out, he actually did). There was promise of video here, but the link is currently broken. You can entertain yourself instead with this compelling 2002 speech.

It’s unfortunate that Lessig-cum-Ignatowski couldn’t disparage the RIAA and advocate against copyright law, intead of just furnishing a former Soviet state with a reliable bill of rights.

Comments: One Response so far

Richard
February 10th, 2005
12:59 pm

Lessig has just written about the experience of seeing himself portrayed on TV, and he generally seems happy: http://www.lessig.org/blog/archives/002421.shtml

I haven’t seen the video, but I’m glad that the Lessig didn’t trash the RIAA (too obvious), and besides, he is on record as supporting copyright as it was intended, as being protection of creative works for a limited time, so expecting him to disparage copyright law ignores his nuanced argument both for it and the need for alternatives that co-exist with it. Also, the word “just” is misplaced here: a former Soviet state getting a reliable constitutional document (and, more importantly, as Lessig writes, a culture that recognizes the rule of law) is–or would be–a pretty substantial achievement.

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