Creative Communism

After my last post about the expected visit of Lawrence Lessig to the Basque Country, I wrote him an email, mentioning this post and the modest Basque subtitle remixing effort, if he just thought it worth to be introduced in his talk. Indeed, he liked the example, and yes, Basque subtitles appeared in his presentation! This image of Prince Ashitaka in Mononoke Hime with the subtitles that I translated.

I had the pleasure to personally thank that to Mr. Lessig after the talk. It was an interesting and inspiring presentation, basically the one he has been delivered since he has been preparing his new book Remix. In this video, you get the basics, although not the Basque example, of course.

Argazkiak.org | Lawrence Lessigen hitzaldia Miñaon © cc-by-sa: garaolaza

I particularly liked the analogy he made at the end. Copyright and laws about intellectual property are a broken system; yet, just like in the USSR of time, nobody in the Politburo dares to say so or proposes the substantial and risky changes that need to be taken. In that context, reform is the acceptable way out in opinion of Mr. Lessig, who sees himself as a Gorbachev, of course, not as Yeltsin eager to destroy it all. Reform is the way, Lessig told us, because the alternatives are worse:

• Complete prohibitionism, control of Internet and technologies, official labelling as criminals for our children (a moral danger, particularly, in Lessig's opinion).
• A revolution wipes out copyright.

Well, I guess I'm more a yeltsinist than a gorbachovian, but anyway, it was delightful to hear the well balanced and very intelligent proposals of Mr. Lessig. It was a pity that they couldn't bring the newly printed Remix books to the presentation.