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While known as a pioneering voice for copyright reform, Lessig's recent focus has been putting an end to political corruption. At Momentum, he speaks on the ills of money and politics, and how the dynamics in politics are shifting. A sobering and refreshing analysis.
Lawrence Lessig, dubbed "the king of Internet law" by New York Magazine, is a Professor of Law at Stanford, founder of the school's Center for Internet and Society, and founding board member and now board chair of the Creative Commons project. He has been a pioneering voice for reduced legal restrictions on copyright and trademark and was named one of Scientific American's Top 50 Visionaries for arguing "against interpretations of copyright that could stifle innovation and discourse online." He has recently shifted his focus to political corruption, setting up a page on the Lessig Wiki to gather research and suggestions about corruption and launching Change-Congress.org with political advisor Joe Trippi. Lessig has also taught at Harvard Law School and the University of Chicago, and clerked for both Judge Richard Posner on the 7th Circuit Court of Appeals and Justice Antonin Scalia on the United States Supreme Court. He has won numerous awards, including the Free Software Foundation's Freedom Award, and is also a columnist for Wired.
What is your momentum? My momentum is to get a culture to check unhealthy dependencies—most urgently the dependency of democracy upon private campaign funding. This is, in my view, a corrupting influence which has distorted the work of democracy.
