Quotes by Lawrence Lessig

Just as we are beginning to see the power that free resources produce, changes in the architecture of the Internet--both legal and technical--are sapping the Internet of this power. Fueled by bias in favor of control, pushed by those whose financial interest favor control, our social and political institutions are ratifying changes in the Internet that will reestablish control, in turn, reduce innovation on the Internet and in society generally.

Some blame the drug companies. I don’t. They are corporations. Their managers are ordered by law to make money for the corporation. They push a certain patent policy not because of ideals,but because it is the policy that makes them the most money. And it only makes them the most money because of a certain corruption within our political system—a corruption the drug companies are certainly not responsible for. The corruption is our own politicians’ failure of integrity.

These prices are not high because the ingredients of the drugs are expensive. These prices are high because the drugs are protected by patents.The drug companies that produced these life-saving mixes enjoy at least a twenty-year monopoly for their inventions.They use that monopoly power to extract the most they can from the market.That power is in turn used to keep the prices high. 

A war about copyright rages all around—and we’re all focusing on the wrong thing. No doubt, current technologies threaten existing businesses. No doubt they may threaten artists. But technologies change.  The industry and technologists have plenty of ways to use technology  to protect themselves against the current threats of the Internet. This is a fire that if let alone would burn itself out.