Don't read ideas that you might not agree with - Underway in Ireland welcomes Lawrence Lessig to the blogosphere, and says you should visit his site. But then says "mull over Dave Winer's rebuttals before you decide to buy any of Lessig's books."
I have a problem with that statement. Lessig may be wrong about some things, and his ideas may not appeal to everyone, but his purpose in advancing the ideas is noble enough (if there is a nefarious purpose that I've been blinded to please let me know right away). I have read his book, and I think the ideas he advances are very, very important. I don't agree with everything he says either. I'm sorry that Dave doesn't want to read the book (I'll buy it for him and have it shipped to his house if he changes his mind). I'd be interested in having Dave point to passages in the book and explain why he disagrees with them (I'd also be interested in knowing what he agrees with in the book, which I'm sure would be a lot). Hey, they're just ideas. Doesn't anyone want to discuss ideas that they don't agree with and fine-tune their thinking or refine their objections? I do.
And by the way, I don't know if Dave thinks that the book contains a proposal about a ten year limit on copyrights. He seems to. It doesn't. What is the book about? Well, it starts like this: "This book is fundamentally about the Internet and its effect on innovation, both commercially and non-." I see that Dave thinks that Larry should put the book out on the Internet for free, and then he says he'd read some excerpts. He mentions irony too. I find this sort of clever repartee really sad. Maybe the Internet is really a vast playground that has gotten out of control. Maybe it's inevitable that Hollywood and the giant financial interests will reign it in. I like the Internet because it seems to facilitate important conversations. But sometimes people don't like what others say and choose not to participate beyond a certain level. Fine, whatever.
12:50:54 PM
I control you therefore I exist - Okay so I'm reading another post about KM. The reason KM doesn't work in many organizations is that people don't want to "share." Then I'm reading a post about copyrights and software and what people will let other people see or not see. And then one about the never ending quest of the media companies to regain control of the Internet. That got me thinking. Sharing. Openess. Control. How are these all connected? Maybe it's because my dad was a psychoanalyst, and I was raised in a world of psychological undrpinnings, but it looks like a lot of the technology issues that we are confronting these days have to do with control.
The record companies don't want to allow file-sharing. Hell they are scared to even put music on the Internet, even though there is a huge thirst for it. Why? Control. The Internet is one of those things that got built sort of by accident, without any adult supervision. Like the ultimate cool treehouse where the kids could hang out and do cool kid stuff. The sign posted outside originally said "no soliciting." And there wasn't. Well some adults noticed the commotion and stopped by, started looking the mess, and began making plans for some useful changes. Mostly, they wanted what adults crave: control.
At one very deep level, that's what all of these efforts to legislate the Internet are all about. Oh, the kids can see porn? Oh, my God! Let's put some controls on this thing! Wait a minute, the record guys are saying that people are sharing files that belong to them. How did that happen? No controls were put on the Internet? Okay well get me someone in charge because when I find out who was in charge of this project some heads are going to roll. [Long delay] Oh, no one was in charge of creating the Internet? Well, this thing is out of control. I'm going to Congress. They'll understand. We need some control here.
And I don't know if you have ever noticed what happens when you take control away from a person or group that has long had it and gotten used to it, but they generally don't like it. Whites didn't like it in the 50's and 60's when blacks pointed out that, hey, they'd like some freedom too. Yeah, freedom. That's what our country is all about, right? That's what we say all the time. But is that really it? Or is it about control? What country is misbehaving today that we can go in and fix their problems (even if most of the people in that country don't want us there)? We could ask them if they want us there, but they'd just say no. They're children you know. We are the adults here, and this situation calls for some control. Because with control, my friends, comes.....freedom. That's the simple equation. So simple. So pat. Therefore, so true.
Well thank God for adults and for freedom. The Internet may have been a childhood fantasy, and it was fun while it lasted. People shared a little too much, though. And that was bad. It's funny, though, that in the free-play world of the Internet the kids automatically default to a mode of sharing, but in the structured world of a corporation it is damn near impossible to get folks to share knowledge, even when doing so would clearly benefit the group as a whole. Why can't you get people to share information in a corporation? Well maybe it's because adults don't like sharing so much; they think it takes away their control.
9:45:53 AM
