“Americans have been selling this view around the world: that progress comes from perfect protection of intellectual property. Notwithstanding the fact that the most innovative and progressive space we've seen — the Internet — has been the place where intellectual property has been least respected. You know, facts don't get in the way of this ideology.”

— Lawrence Lessig

"Code + Law: An Interview with Lawrence Lessig" http://www.openp2p.com/pub/a/p2p/2001/01/30/lessig.html at O'Reilly P2P (29 January 2001)

Adopted from Wikiquote. Last update June 3, 2021. History

Help us to complete the source, original and additional information

Do you have more details about the quote "Americans have been selling this view around the world: that progress comes from perfect protection of intellectual pro…" by Lawrence Lessig?

Lawrence Lessig 71

American academic, political activist. 1961

Related quotes

“Innovation is important; it has transformed the lives of everyone in the world. And intellectual property laws can and should play a role in stimulating innovation. However, the contention that stronger intellectual property rights always boost economic performance is not in general correct. It is an example of how special interests—those who benefit from stronger intellectual property rights—use simplistic ideology to advance their causes.”

Joseph E. Stiglitz book Making Globalization Work

§4, p. 106
Making globalization work (2006)

“In certain intellectual circles in France, the very basis for discussion—a minimal respect for facts and logic—has been virtually abandoned.”

Noam Chomsky (1928) american linguist, philosopher and activist

Noam Chomsky interviewed by an anonymous interviewer, October 26, 1981; Published in: " The Treachery of the Intelligentsia: A French Travesty http://www.chomsky.info/interviews/19811026.htm " in C. P. Otero (ed.), Language and Politics, Black Rose, 1988, pp. 312-323.
Quotes 1960s-1980s, 1980s

“They're not terribly imaginative. They're not entrepreneurial. They don't innovate. That's why they're stealing our intellectual property.”

Carly Fiorina (1954) American corporate executive and politician

As quoted in "Carly Fiorina Calls The Chinese Unimaginative Idea Thieves", by Lydia O'Connor, The Huffington Post (25 May 2015).
2010s, 2015

“Most people are not intellectuals — a fact that intellectuals have terrible trouble coming to terms with.”

John Derbyshire (1945) writer

Source: The Wood Has Been Made Into a Boat http://www.nationalreview.com/articles/216568/wood-has-been-made-boat/john-derbyshire, National Review January 23, 2006.

“Intellectual property has the shelf life of a banana.”

Bill Gates (1955) American business magnate and philanthropist

The Wall Street Journal (December 29, 2011).
Attributed

“The Indian system of counting is probably the most successful intellectual innovation ever devised by human beings. It has been universally adopted. …It is the nearest thing we have to a universal language.”

John D. Barrow (1952–2020) British scientist

Source: The Book of Nothing (2009), chapter one "Zero—The Whole Story"

“TRIPs imposed on the entire world the dominant intellectual property regime in the United States and Europe, as it is today. I believe that the way that intellectual property regime has evolved is not good for the United States and the EU; but even more, I believe it is not in the interest of the developing countries.”

Joseph E. Stiglitz book Making Globalization Work

§4.2 TRIPs, p. 117
Making globalization work (2006)

“There has been progress in design, but not progress in accomplishment.”

Richard Dawkins book The Blind Watchmaker

Source: The Blind Watchmaker (1986), Chapter 7 “Constructive Evolution” (p. 186)

“We begin to wonder if it is due to the fact that we don't know enough. But it can't be that. Because in terms of accumulated knowledge we know more today than men have known in any period of human history. We have the facts at our disposal. We know more about mathematics, about science, about social science, and philosophy than we've ever known in any period of the world's history. So it can't be because we don't know enough. And then we wonder if it is due to the fact that our scientific genius lags behind. That is, if we have not made enough progress scientifically. Well then, it can't be that. For our scientific progress over the past years has been amazing.”

Martin Luther King, Jr. (1929–1968) American clergyman, activist, and leader in the American Civil Rights Movement

1950s, Rediscovering Lost Values (1954)
Context: There is something wrong with our world, something fundamentally and basically wrong. I don't think we have to look too far to see that. I'm sure that most of you would agree with me in making that assertion. And when we stop to analyze the cause of our world's ills, many things come to mind. We begin to wonder if it is due to the fact that we don't know enough. But it can't be that. Because in terms of accumulated knowledge we know more today than men have known in any period of human history. We have the facts at our disposal. We know more about mathematics, about science, about social science, and philosophy than we've ever known in any period of the world's history. So it can't be because we don't know enough. And then we wonder if it is due to the fact that our scientific genius lags behind. That is, if we have not made enough progress scientifically. Well then, it can't be that. For our scientific progress over the past years has been amazing. Man through his scientific genius has been able to dwarf distance and place time in chains, so that today it's possible to eat breakfast in New York City and supper in London, England. Back in about 1753 it took a letter three days to go from New York City to Washington, and today you can go from here to China in less time than that. It can't be because man is stagnant in his scientific progress. Man's scientific genius has been amazing. I think we have to look much deeper than that if we are to find the real cause of man's problems and the real cause of the world's ills today. If we are to really find it I think we will have to look in the hearts and souls of men.

“From the first the progress of man has been slowly but surely from the artificial to the natural, from the arbitrary and chimerical to the simple and scientific. Getting himself and his affairs more and more into natural currents and following them, this is the way man has progressed.”

John Burroughs (1837–1921) American naturalist and essayist

Source: The Light of Day (1900), Ch. II: From the Artificial to the Natural

Help us to complete the source, original and additional information

Lawrence Lessig 71

Related quotes

Related topics