Lawrence Lessig is changing the trajectory of his leadership efforts from “copyright reform” to the corruption that makes reform necessary. By “corruption,” he doesn’t exactly mean “bribery of public officials,” but more the corrosion of the political system that presses so consistently toward extending copyright, when (to quote from Lessig’s paraphrase from Britain’s Gowers Commission) “a government should never extend an existing copyright term. No public regarding justification could justify the extraordinary deadweight loss that such extensions impose.”
Cheers from this quarter; Prof. Lessig embodies the best qualities of the activist academic, and his cause is sound, his heart is set on an ideal. “Corruption” won’t go away from Lessig’s opposition, but even if he only shines sunlight on infected political tissue he will have done plenty.