Once upon a time, I wrote a review of Larry Lessig’s book The Future of Ideas (Mossback’s Progress: The Future of Mediocrity) emphasizing Lessig’s errors of fact and logic, coming to the conclusion that the Lessig Method isn’t informed by research. Writer Stephen Manes finds the same dynamics at work in Free Culture, the new Lessig diatribe against copyright law:
One point I made was that “Disney reworked public-domain material like ‘Snow White,’ gratis, but paid to use copyrighted works like Peter Pan.” Lessig says I got that wrong: “…Mr. Manes does the great master a great disservice when he underplays the significance of his ‘reworked public-domain material.’ Here’s a list of those ‘reworkings’: Snow White (1937), Fantasia (1940), Pinocchio (1940), Dumbo (1941), Bambi (1942), Song of the South (1946), Cinderella (1950), Alice in Wonderland (1951), Robin Hood (1952), Peter Pan (1953), Lady and the Tramp (1955), Sleeping Beauty (1959), 101 Dalmatians (1961), The Sword in the Stone (1963) and The Jungle Book (1967)–not to mention a recent example that we should perhaps quickly forget, Treasure Planet (2003).”
When the Great Oz asserts it, it must be true. Alas, Lessig apparently cut and pasted this list from his book, complete with the final jape, without paying much attention. A half-hour of lazy Googling would have revealed that at least seven of these titles–Dumbo, Bambi, Peter Pan, Lady and the Tramp, 101 Dalmatians, The Sword in the Stone and The Jungle Book were based on literary material that was in copyright–and paid for by The Walt Disney Co. (nyse: DIS – news – people )–when they were made.
Given that Lessig doesn’t care enough about his audience to research his books, it’s not surprising that he’s offering this one to Internet users for free; I’d say that’s a fair price.
Lessig has developed a writing formula that’s as efficient as Stephen King’s: he gloms on to a minor issue and explodes it into something huge and God Awful Important by surrounding it with a context of lies. He’s now done this so many times that I feel comfortable predicting that his next book will employ the same method.
We don’t know what its subject will be (George Bush the Oil Baron’s war on the compassionate Saddam?) but we’re willing to take bets that its tone will be hysterical, its facts seriously distorted, and its appeal primarily to the demented.
See Lessig’s rejoinder to Manes here, but be aware that it’s already been edited several times.
See also: Jeff Jarvis and Roger L. Simon.
I just wanted to mention something Eric S. Raymond wrote on his weblog a while back, in which he says that, “Webbing one’s books seems to be really effective way to build a fan base.” He backs up that statement pretty well- take a look.
This whole post seemed like a series of personal attacks. Instead of engaging in a flame war that I sincerely doubt will even warrant a response from Professor Lessig, perhaps you’d like to go find some inaccuracies in Free Culture and contribute to the discussion in a more constructive manner?
No thanks Evan, after reading Future of Ideas, I’m once-burned; if I go down that road a second time, I have only myself to blame.