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We live in a world with 'free' content, and this freedom is not an imperfection. We listen to the radio without paying for the songs we hear; we hear friends humming tunes that they have not licensed. We tell jokes that reference movie plots without the permission of the directors. We read our children books, borrowed from a library, without paying the original copyright holder for the performance rights.

Lawrence Lessig#7

Daily lifeNormsSharing

About this quote

What does it mean?
Many daily uses like reading libraries or sharing jokes work fine without formal permissions.
In plain terms
People share and use content freely all the time.
What can you take from it?
Free use is normal.

Where it applies

  • family reading
  • social sharing
  • media consumption

Putting it to work

  • normalize informal use
  • support library access

Questions to consider

  • What do you share without thinking?
  • Why do we ignore some rules?

Another view

Not all uses are fair or ethical.

More from Lawrence Lessig

  1. All around us are the consequences of the most significant technological, and hence cultural, revolution in generations. This revolution has produced the most …

    Permalink to quote #6
  2. In arguing for increasing content owners' control over content users, it's not sufficient to say 'They didn't pay for this use.'

    Permalink to quote #8
  3. A time is marked not so much by ideas that are argued about as by ideas that are taken for granted. The character of an era hangs upon what needs no defense. P…

    Permalink to quote #5

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