Lessig on Perils of "Remixing" Media

Lawrence Lessig waxes eloquent on his favourite topic at the Web 2.0 Conference. There's nothing new in his talk, but he's always a dynamic and funny speaker. His topic is the changing media landscape. A democracy thrives on open dialogue -- where ideas can be discussed, analyzed, and critiqued. Traditionally, this role has been filled by broadcast journalists -- but more and more, the general public can wade in on the discourse via the internet -- especially using blogs. Copyright protection of broadcast works however, potentially stymies the discourse -- as expressing views via "remixing" of media can lead to collisions with the law. Lessig discusses the dangers of moving from today's free to a permission culture, where permission must be granted before media can be reproduced. Lessig is always interesting to listen to -- and his presentation can be download in audio from the IT Conversations website.