Lessig’s new brainchild: Code v.2
Those that know me know that Lawrence Lessig is my hero. A lawyer that spends every waking hour, it seems, to cry foul on the dangerous expansion of copyright law and other mis-applications of intellectual property law. He also sets precedents left and right with projects such as creative commons.
His new project Code v.2, a collaborative revision of his 1999 book with the public certainly falls in the precedent-setting category:
Lawrence Lessig first published Code and Other Laws of Cyberspace in 1999. After five years in print and five years of changes in law, technology, and the context in which they reside, Code needs an update. But rather than do this alone, Professor Lessig is using this wiki to open the editing process to all, to draw upon the creativity and knowledge of the community. This is an online, collaborative book update; a first of its kind.
He’s my hero because he practices what he preaches, and illustrates his points visually and really takes advantage of new technologies, such as this project, which is wiki based.
It also looks like there is a new and interesting creative commons license - drafts/wiki_0.5 - that is being used. I cannot find evidence of this on the actual creative commons site, however. If anyone knows about this license, please let me know where I can find reference material for it. It is also clearly labeled a DRAFT, is this a gaff on the site? I’ll certainly post an update once I find out.
UPDATE: Lessig has updated the entry on his site to talk about the draft wiki license, very exciting news. Basically the license is modified to allow for contribution back to any given party (the wiki) rather than the original creator (of the wiki page).
