Lawrence Lessig Quotes about Past

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Freedom is about stopping the past.

Lawrence Lessig

Past, Stopping, Refrain

Lawrence Lessig's keynote address at the O'Reilly Open Source Convention (OSCON) in Portland, Oregon, July 24, 2002.

A free culture supports and protects creators and innovators. It does this directly by granting intellectual property rights. But it does so indirectly by limiting the reach of those rights, to guarantee that follow-on creators and innovators remain as free as possible from the control of the past. A free culture is not a culture without property, just as a free market is not a market in which everything is free. The opposite of a free culture is a "permission culture" -- a culture in which creators get to create only with the permission of the powerful, or of creators from the past.

Lawrence Lessig

Powerful, Past, Rights

We always build on the past; the past always tries to stop us.

Lawrence Lessig

Past, Trying, Refrain

Keynote address at the Open Source Convention, July 24, 2002.

A free culture has been our past, but it will only be our future if we change the path we are on right now.

Lawrence Lessig

Past, Culture, Path

Lawrence Lessig “Free Culture”, Lulu.com

One great feature of modern society is the institutionalized respect we give to processes designed to destroy the past.

Lawrence Lessig

Past, Giving, Modern

Lawrence Lessig (2009). “Remix: Making art and commerce thrive in the hybrid economy”, p.140, A&C Black

Creativity and innovation always builds on the past. The past always tries to control the creativity that builds upon it. Free societies enable the future by limiting this power of the past. Ours is less and less a free society.

Lawrence Lessig

Creativity, Past, Innovation

Keynote address at the Open Source Convention, July 24, 2002.