Talk About a Zealot...

From our limited reading, Manes appears to oppose Lessig more adamantly than Lessig does current copyright law. His sarcastic reproach of Lessig's ideals only softens his arguement. Fighting fire with fire only makes for a conflagaration. (That said, I do appreciate Manes' provokative journalism and venomous pen).

I admire Manes' dedication to covering advancing technology, but I'm afraid Lessig's strong background rooted in a Stanford law education does warrant his liberal ideology concerning copyright law (this isn't an elitist thought, although something tells me Manes, clearly offended by Lessig's reference to him as a "mere 'technology writer'," may see it as such). Lessig, though perhaps a wacky, over-enlightened idealist, is no moron. But neither is the well-informed Manes.

Unfortunately, I can't side with Lessig over Manes or Manes over Lessig. I'm indeed a bit off-put by Lessig's "grand wish" that just about everything be put in the public domain, but I feel stranded by Manes who offers more questions and quips than solutions to the issue at hand (in fact, he even questions whether modern copyright law is even as "onerous" as Lessig pretends). So while I admire each man for being able to take such a single sided stance, I feel tarred and feathered while straddling the fence seperating the "Emerald City of Palo Alto" from what Manes believes to be the rest of the country.

I like that Lessig values "tinkering" as a major part of the creative process, and I have (somewhat passively) come to accept his philosophy of a "rip,mix, and burn" culture. Then again, I'm not blind to Lessig's "sound-bite mastery," and I agree with Manes that "Lessig preemptively calls his opponets radicals when he's the one who's throwing the bombs."

I agree to an extent with Manes that Lessig's assault on copyright "largely helps a ragtag bunch of gleaners who claim that copying is 'creativity' because they can't create anything without directly reusing copyrighted material." I do not, however, agree with him that "copyright largely works fine." When it comes to this stuff, it is shades of grey wherever I go. The more I find out the less that I know. Black and white is how it should be, but shades of grey are the colors I see.

That final jaunt comes from a Billy Joel song. I probably should have put it in quotes so as not infringe on any copyright, but I didn't. According to Manes, "nobody ever seems to sue in cases of plagarism."


***As an additional note, Holland's critique of Lessig and the Copy Left, though not as amusing to read, has more to offer. Perhaps this is because there is no rift between the two of them. Nonetheless, he precisely points out that the abolition of copyright "deadens motivation" despite being "public spirited." ***