[EAS]The Future of Ideas

[pjk]

Subject:   The Future of Ideas

Dear Colleagues -

That is the title of what I believe to be an excellent book pulling
together the diverse threads of a crucial topic, by Lawrence Lessig,
Prof. of Law at The Stanford Law School (formerly Harvard Law and U.
of Chicago Law).

"The Future of Ideas: The Fate of the Commons in a Connected World"
by Lawrence Lessig
Random House, Oct. 30, 2001
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0375505784/

Since I have only just received and not yet read the book, let me
quote below just a couple of the reviews. Others call in the "Silent
Spring" of ideas.

For some time I have watched the failure of the assumption that a free
marketplace will continue to protect the public and the future of
innovation. You may recall occasional concerned comments in the
mailings to this list.

    --PJK

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"The Future of Ideas is the most important work yet written about the
grave threat posed to innovation and creativity in America and
throughout the world. Lawrence Lessig documents the rapid and largely
undocumented expansion of government-granted monopolies over broad
swatches of the knowledge our society relies on, and compared this
with the role common access to knowledge has always played in
America's culture and economy. He has written a Rosetta stone to a
highly technical, legalistic debate and explains this trend in words
we can all understand. This is a debate that finds today's largest
global publishing and technology corporations on one side and Thomas
Jefferson, the United States Constitution, and the rest of us on the
other."
          --Bob Young, cofounder and chairman of Red Hat, Inc., and
            the Center for the Public Domain


"The very best books give you new tools to think with and, as a
result, change the way you see things you had previously taken for
granted. The Future of Ideas addresses the ways law and technology are
nibbling away at our fundamental values and assumptions. Anyone who
cares about the kind of world we leave to our grandchildren needs to
read this book."
          --Tim O'Reilly, founder and CEO of high-tech publisher and
            online information provider O'Reilly & Associates