Free Culture

Been reading Prof Lawrence Lessig’s ‘Free Culture’, available for free download here. A very interesting read on copyright law and how big media, in an attempt to preserve its interests, is using, abusing and contorting it while strangling innovation in the process. Interesting to consider how, in a digital age where information and creative content is supposed to be all around us and readily available at broadband speeds upon the entering of a search string, copyright law increasingly seeks to restrict access to even that which may be used without restriction, or provide it only to those willing to pay. It really makes the case for ‘free’ content, software, etc, such as those covered under the Creative Commons license.

Makes me wonder, if I ever released any creative work of my own, would I want access to it to be tightly controlled, at the (hypothetical) risk of losing an opportunity to make money out of it? At this moment, I’m thinking ‘No’.