Larry Lessig In Deep Thought

With many other bloggers today, I’m really sorry to read these words on Professor Lessig’s blog: “The Supreme Court rejected our challenge to the Sonny Bono law.” I’m sorry for him and sorry for us. But as usual, I wanted to write about another angle to the Lessig story.

I’ve long been absolutely transfixed by the picture of Professor Lessig on his blog. I love that picture. Deep in thought, working like hell to get the words out on the net, pensive, focused, serious. It’s just about the most perfect picture of someone in the act of blogging I’ve ever seen. It gives us something to which we should all aspire, dedicated thought and communication.

Professor Lessig actually reminds me of Betty Grable — that quintessential pose of the pretty girl with the million dollar legs that every GI had tacked up in his barracks. A photograph with a perfect essence, a perfect expression of a certain time and place. I don’t mean anything racy here. I just mean that the picture of Lessig is the perfect knowledge worker pin-up photo.

So thank you for all your hard work and please roll with the punches today, Professor Lessig. With a millon dollar furrowed brow like that, we know you’ll be back to win another day! [Halley’s Comment]

Challenge to Bono Act Rejected 7-2 – “Here’s the decision (via Copyfight via Lessig).  Copyfight and Law Meme will be burning up the blogosphere on this one.”  [via The Trademark Blog]. 

First of all, I want to say that Larry Lessig is to be commended for his heroic efforts.  I haven’t read the opinion but I am sure that it will reveal that larger forces dictated the ruling.  I don’t think that there is any way that Lessig could have won the case.  I hope one day to have the opportunity to shake his hand and thank him for trying.

[Ernie the Attorney]

A little inspiration.

Thinking about what we face in our renewed battle against Business as Usual, I recall some of the quotes from Martin Luther King, inscribed in glass at his Yerba Buena Gardens memorial, which stands behind a waterfall beside the grassy roof of Moscone North in San Francisco. Each brings to mind a different leader in our movement:

For Larry: The ultimate measure of a man is not where he stands in moments of comfort and convenience but where he stands at times of challenge and controversy.

For Dave: Through our scientific genius, we have made this world a neighborhood; now through our moral and spiritual development we must make of it a brotherhood. In a real sense, we must learn to live together as brothers, or we will perish together as fools.

For Richard: There is nothing in all the world greater than freedom. It is worth paying for; it is worth going to jail for. I would rather die in abject poverty with my convictions than live in inordinate riches with lack of self-respect.

For all of us (and especially David): We must rapidly begin to shift from a thing-oriented society to a person-oriented society. When machines and computers, profit motives and property rights are considered more important than people, the giant triplets of racism, materialism and militarism are incapable of being conquered.

Yes, I know they don’t all agree about everything. That doesn’t matter.

[The Doc Searls Weblog]

Halley: “..transfixed by the picture of Professor Lessig on his blog.” [Scripting News]

Why Britain needs more guns. As gun crime leaps by 35% in a year, plans are afoot for a further crack down on firearms. Yet what we need is more guns, not fewer. [BBC News | UK | UK Edition]

I’m planning the blogging website for Harvard in my head, and thought of a question I’d like to ask Harvard students and faculty. Would you like to participate in a project to create knowledge? I would have liked that question when I was a student. Of course! Yes yes yes. That’s why I came to college. But there were so few ways for students to participate when I was a student. I wonder if it’s like that at Harvard. I think about the Yahoo guys at Stanford and how inspired they were. What if a university like Harvard, not just a few students, got busy mapping the world of knowledge on the Internet. Each student would take responsibility for some period of time for some aspect of world knowledge. When they graduate they pass it on, or even better, take the responsibility with them, into life. Does any of this make sense? I’m beta testing ideas here as I go. [Scripting News]

Kmart Closes 326 Stores and Eliminates Over 30,000 Jobs. Kmart Corp. will close 326 stores and cut 30,000-35,000 jobs as it works to emerge from bankruptcy by April 30, the retailer said today. By The Associated Press. [New York Times: NYT HomePage]