Lester Lawrence "Larry" Lessig III (born June 3, 1961) is an American legal scholar and
political activist
A political movement is a collective attempt by a group of people to change government policy or social values. Political movements are usually in opposition to an element of the status quo, and are often associated with a certain ideology. Some ...
. He is the Roy L. Furman Professor of Law at
Harvard Law School
Harvard Law School (HLS) is the law school of Harvard University, a Private university, private research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Founded in 1817, Harvard Law School is the oldest law school in continuous operation in the United ...
and the former director of the
Edmond J. Safra Center for Ethics at
Harvard University
Harvard University is a Private university, private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States. Founded in 1636 and named for its first benefactor, the History of the Puritans in North America, Puritan clergyma ...
. He is the founder of
Creative Commons
Creative Commons (CC) is an American non-profit organization and international network devoted to educational access and expanding the range of creative works available for others to build upon legally and to share. The organization has release ...
and of
Equal Citizens. Lessig was a
candidate
A candidate, or nominee, is a prospective recipient of an award or honor, or a person seeking or being considered for some kind of position. For example, one can be a candidate for membership in a group (sociology), group or election to an offic ...
for the
Democratic Party's nomination for
president of the United States
The president of the United States (POTUS) is the head of state and head of government of the United States. The president directs the Federal government of the United States#Executive branch, executive branch of the Federal government of t ...
in the
2016 U.S. presidential election but withdrew before the primaries.
Life and career
Lessig was born on June 3, 1961, in
Rapid City, South Dakota
Rapid City is the county seat of Pennington County, South Dakota, United States. It is located on the eastern slope of the Black Hills in western South Dakota and was named after Rapid Creek (South Dakota), Rapid Creek, where the settlement deve ...
to Lester Lawrence "Jack" Lessig II (1929–2020) who was an engineer and Patricia "Pat" West Lessig (1930–2019), a real estate agent. He has two older step-siblings, Robert (died 2019) and Kitty, and a younger biological sister, Leslie. He grew up in
Williamsport, Pennsylvania
Williamsport is a city in and the county seat of Lycoming County, Pennsylvania, United States. As of the 2020 census, it had a population of 27,754. It is the principal city of the Williamsport Metropolitan Statistical Area, which has a populati ...
. He graduated from the
University of Pennsylvania
The University of Pennsylvania (Penn or UPenn) is a Private university, private Ivy League research university in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States. One of nine colonial colleges, it was chartered in 1755 through the efforts of f ...
in 1983 with a double degree
B.A. in
economics
Economics () is a behavioral science that studies the Production (economics), production, distribution (economics), distribution, and Consumption (economics), consumption of goods and services.
Economics focuses on the behaviour and interac ...
and a
B.S. in management. He then studied
philosophy
Philosophy ('love of wisdom' in Ancient Greek) is a systematic study of general and fundamental questions concerning topics like existence, reason, knowledge, Value (ethics and social sciences), value, mind, and language. It is a rational an ...
at
Trinity College, Cambridge
Trinity College is a Colleges of the University of Cambridge, constituent college of the University of Cambridge. Founded in 1546 by King Henry VIII, Trinity is one of the largest Cambridge colleges, with the largest financial endowment of any ...
, receiving a
M.A. in 1986. Lessig then returned to the United States to attend law school. He did his first year at the
University of Chicago Law School
The University of Chicago Law School is the Law school in the United States, law school of the University of Chicago, a Private university, private research university in Chicago, Illinois. It employs more than 180 full-time and part-time facul ...
before transferring to
Yale Law School
Yale Law School (YLS) is the law school of Yale University, a Private university, private research university in New Haven, Connecticut. It was established in 1824. The 2020–21 acceptance rate was 4%, the lowest of any law school in the United ...
, and graduated in 1989 with a
J.D. degree.
After graduation from law school, Lessig was a
law clerk
A law clerk, judicial clerk, or judicial assistant is a person, often a lawyer, who provides direct counsel and assistance to a lawyer or judge by Legal research, researching issues and drafting legal opinions for cases before the court. Judicial ...
for
Richard Posner
Richard Allen Posner (; born January 11, 1939) is an American legal scholar and retired United States circuit judge who served on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit from 1981 to 2017. A senior lecturer at the University of Chicag ...
of the
U.S. Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit from 1989 to 1990, and then for Justice
Antonin Scalia
Antonin Gregory Scalia (March 11, 1936 – February 13, 2016) was an American jurist who served as an associate justice of the Supreme Court of the United States from 1986 until his death in 2016. He was described as the intellectual an ...
of the
U.S. Supreme Court from 1990 to 1991.
Lessig started his academic career at the
University of Chicago Law School
The University of Chicago Law School is the Law school in the United States, law school of the University of Chicago, a Private university, private research university in Chicago, Illinois. It employs more than 180 full-time and part-time facul ...
, where he was professor from 1991 to 1997. As co-director of its Center for the Study of Constitutionalism in Eastern Europe, he helped the newly independent
Republic of Georgia draft a constitution. From 1997 to 2000, he was at
Harvard Law School
Harvard Law School (HLS) is the law school of Harvard University, a Private university, private research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Founded in 1817, Harvard Law School is the oldest law school in continuous operation in the United ...
, holding for a year the chair of Berkman Professor of Law, affiliated with the
Berkman Klein Center for Internet & Society
The Berkman Klein Center for Internet & Society is a research center at Harvard University that focuses on the study of cyberspace. Founded at Harvard Law School, the center traditionally focused on internet-related legal issues. On May 15, 2008, ...
.
He subsequently joined
Stanford Law School
Stanford Law School (SLS) is the Law school in the United States, law school of Stanford University, a Private university, private research university near Palo Alto, California. Established in 1893, Stanford Law had an acceptance rate of 6.28% i ...
, where he established the
Stanford Center for Internet and Society
The Center for Internet and Society (CIS) is a public interest technology law and policy program founded in 2000 by Lawrence Lessig at Stanford Law School and a part of Law, Science and Technology Program at Stanford Law School. CIS brings toget ...
.
Lessig returned to Harvard in July 2009 as professor and director of the Edmond J. Safra Center for Ethics.
In 2013, Lessig was appointed as the Roy L. Furman Professor of Law and Leadership at Harvard; his chair lecture was entitled "Aaron's Laws: Law and Justice in a Digital Age."
Views
Lessig is a proponent of reduced legal restrictions on
copyright
A copyright is a type of intellectual property that gives its owner the exclusive legal right to copy, distribute, adapt, display, and perform a creative work, usually for a limited time. The creative work may be in a literary, artistic, ...
,
trademark
A trademark (also written trade mark or trade-mark) is a form of intellectual property that consists of a word, phrase, symbol, design, or a combination that identifies a Good (economics and accounting), product or Service (economics), service f ...
, and
radio frequency
Radio frequency (RF) is the oscillation rate of an alternating electric current or voltage or of a magnetic, electric or electromagnetic field or mechanical system in the frequency range from around to around . This is roughly between the u ...
spectrum, particularly in technology applications. In 2001, he founded
Creative Commons
Creative Commons (CC) is an American non-profit organization and international network devoted to educational access and expanding the range of creative works available for others to build upon legally and to share. The organization has release ...
, a nonprofit organization devoted to expanding the range of creative works available for others to build upon and to share legally. Prior to his most recent appointment at Harvard, he was a professor of law at
Stanford Law School
Stanford Law School (SLS) is the Law school in the United States, law school of Stanford University, a Private university, private research university near Palo Alto, California. Established in 1893, Stanford Law had an acceptance rate of 6.28% i ...
, where he founded the Stanford Center for Internet and Society, and at the
University of Chicago
The University of Chicago (UChicago, Chicago, or UChi) is a Private university, private research university in Chicago, Illinois, United States. Its main campus is in the Hyde Park, Chicago, Hyde Park neighborhood on Chicago's South Side, Chic ...
. He is a former board member of the
Free Software Foundation
The Free Software Foundation (FSF) is a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization founded by Richard Stallman on October 4, 1985. The organisation supports the free software movement, with the organization's preference for software being distributed ...
and
Software Freedom Law Center
The Software Freedom Law Center (SFLC) is an organization that provides ''pro bono'' legal representation and related services to not-for-profit developers of free software/open source software. It was launched in February 2005 with Eben Moglen ...
; the Washington, D.C. lobbying groups
Public Knowledge and
Free Press; and the
Electronic Frontier Foundation
The Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) is an American international non-profit digital rights group based in San Francisco, California. It was founded in 1990 to promote Internet civil liberties.
It provides funds for legal defense in court, ...
. He was elected to the
American Philosophical Society
The American Philosophical Society (APS) is an American scholarly organization and learned society founded in 1743 in Philadelphia that promotes knowledge in the humanities and natural sciences through research, professional meetings, publicat ...
in 2007.
As a political activist, Lessig has called for state-based activism to promote substantive reform of government with a
Second Constitutional Convention.
In May 2014, he launched a crowd-funded
political action committee
In the United States, a political action committee (PAC) is a tax-exempt 527 organization that pools campaign contributions from members and donates those funds to campaigns for or against candidates, ballot initiatives, or legislation. The l ...
that he entitled,
Mayday PAC
Mayday PAC is an American crowd-funded non-partisan Super PAC created by Harvard Law School professor and activist Lawrence Lessig. Its purpose is to help elect candidates to the Congress to pass campaign finance reform. It is notable for raisin ...
, with the purpose of electing candidates to
Congress
A congress is a formal meeting of the representatives of different countries, constituent states, organizations, trade unions, political parties, or other groups. The term originated in Late Middle English to denote an encounter (meeting of ...
who would pass
campaign finance reform. Lessig is also the co-founder of
Rootstrikers, and is on the boards of
MapLight and
Represent.Us. He serves on the advisory boards of the ''Democracy Café'' and the
Sunlight Foundation.
In August 2015, Lessig announced that he was exploring a possible candidacy for president of the United States, promising to run if his exploratory committee raised $1 million by
Labor Day
Labor Day is a Federal holidays in the United States, federal holiday in the United States celebrated on the first Monday of September to honor and recognize the Labor history of the United States, American labor movement and the works and con ...
.
After accomplishing this, on September 6, 2015, Lessig announced that he was entering the race
to become a candidate for the 2016
Democratic Party presidential nomination
In United States politics and government, the term presidential nominee has two different meanings:
# A candidate for president of the United States who has been selected by the delegates of a political party at the party's national convention ...
. Lessig described his candidacy as a referendum on
campaign finance reform and
electoral reform
Electoral reform is a change in electoral systems that alters how public desires, usually expressed by cast votes, produce election results.
Description
Reforms can include changes to:
* Voting systems, such as adoption of proportional represen ...
legislation. He stated that, if elected, he would serve a full term as president with his proposed reforms as his legislative priorities.
He ended his campaign in November 2015, citing rule changes from the Democratic Party that precluded him from appearing in the televised debates.
Political background
Lessig has emphasized in interviews that his study of philosophy at
Cambridge
Cambridge ( ) is a List of cities in the United Kingdom, city and non-metropolitan district in the county of Cambridgeshire, England. It is the county town of Cambridgeshire and is located on the River Cam, north of London. As of the 2021 Unit ...
radically changed his values and career path. Previously, he had held strong conservative or
libertarian
Libertarianism (from ; or from ) is a political philosophy that holds freedom, personal sovereignty, and liberty as primary values. Many libertarians believe that the concept of freedom is in accord with the Non-Aggression Principle, according ...
political views, desired a career in business, was a highly active member of
Teenage Republicans, served as the 1978 youth governor for Pennsylvania through the
YMCA Youth and Government program, and almost pursued a
Republican political career.
Since studying philosophy at Cambridge in the mid-1980s, Lessig has been politically
liberal. What was intended to be a year abroad at Cambridge convinced him instead to stay another two years to complete an undergraduate degree in philosophy and develop his changing political values. During this time, he also traveled in the
Eastern Bloc
The Eastern Bloc, also known as the Communist Bloc (Combloc), the Socialist Bloc, the Workers Bloc, and the Soviet Bloc, was an unofficial coalition of communist states of Central and Eastern Europe, Asia, Africa, and Latin America that were a ...
, where he acquired a lifelong interest in
Eastern Europe
Eastern Europe is a subregion of the Europe, European continent. As a largely ambiguous term, it has a wide range of geopolitical, geographical, ethnic, cultural and socio-economic connotations. Its eastern boundary is marked by the Ural Mountain ...
an law and politics.
By the late 1980s, two influential
conservative
Conservatism is a cultural, social, and political philosophy and ideology that seeks to promote and preserve traditional institutions, customs, and values. The central tenets of conservatism may vary in relation to the culture and civiliza ...
judges, Judge
Richard Posner
Richard Allen Posner (; born January 11, 1939) is an American legal scholar and retired United States circuit judge who served on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit from 1981 to 2017. A senior lecturer at the University of Chicag ...
and Justice
Antonin Scalia
Antonin Gregory Scalia (March 11, 1936 – February 13, 2016) was an American jurist who served as an associate justice of the Supreme Court of the United States from 1986 until his death in 2016. He was described as the intellectual an ...
, selected him to serve as a
law clerk
A law clerk, judicial clerk, or judicial assistant is a person, often a lawyer, who provides direct counsel and assistance to a lawyer or judge by Legal research, researching issues and drafting legal opinions for cases before the court. Judicial ...
, choosing him because they considered him brilliant, rather than for his ideology, and effectively making him the "token liberal" on their respective staffs. Later, Posner would call Lessig "the most distinguished law professor of his generation."
Lessig remains skeptical of government intervention, but favors some regulation, calling himself "a constitutionalist". On one occasion, Lessig also commended the
John McCain
John Sidney McCain III (August 29, 1936 – August 25, 2018) was an American statesman and United States Navy, naval officer who represented the Arizona, state of Arizona in United States Congress, Congress for over 35 years, first as ...
campaign for discussing
fair use
Fair use is a Legal doctrine, doctrine in United States law that permits limited use of copyrighted material without having to first acquire permission from the copyright holder. Fair use is one of the limitations to copyright intended to bal ...
rights in a letter to
YouTube
YouTube is an American social media and online video sharing platform owned by Google. YouTube was founded on February 14, 2005, by Steve Chen, Chad Hurley, and Jawed Karim who were three former employees of PayPal. Headquartered in ...
where it took issue with YouTube for indulging overreaching copyright claims that led to the removal of various campaign videos.
Internet and computer activism
"Code is law"
In
computer science
Computer science is the study of computation, information, and automation. Computer science spans Theoretical computer science, theoretical disciplines (such as algorithms, theory of computation, and information theory) to Applied science, ...
, "code" typically refers to the text of a computer program (the
source code
In computing, source code, or simply code or source, is a plain text computer program written in a programming language. A programmer writes the human readable source code to control the behavior of a computer.
Since a computer, at base, only ...
). In law, "code" may refer to the texts that constitute
statutory law
A statute is a law or formal written enactment of a legislature. Statutes typically declare, command or prohibit something. Statutes are distinguished from court law and unwritten law (also known as common law) in that they are the expressed wi ...
. In his 1999 book entitled ''
Code and Other Laws of Cyberspace'', Lessig explores the ways in which code can be instruments for
social control
Social control is the regulations, sanctions, mechanisms, and systems that restrict the behaviour of individuals in accordance with social norms and orders. Through both informal and formal means, individuals and groups exercise social con ...
in both senses, leading to his dictum that "Code is law". Lessig later updated his work in order to keep up with the prevailing views of the time and released the book as ''
Code: Version 2.0'' in December 2006.
Remix culture
Lessig has been a proponent of the
remix culture
Remix culture, also known as read-write culture, is a term describing a culture that allows and encourages the creation of derivative works by combining or editing existing materials. Remix cultures are permissive of efforts to improve upon, ch ...
since the early 2000s. In his 2008 book entitled,
''Remix'', he presents this as a desirable cultural practice distinct from piracy. Lessig further articulates remix culture as intrinsic to technology and the Internet. Remix culture is therefore an amalgam of practice, creativity, "read/write" culture, and the hybrid economy.
According to Lessig, the problem with the remix comes when it is at odds with stringent U.S. copyright law. He has compared this to the failure of
prohibition
Prohibition is the act or practice of forbidding something by law; more particularly the term refers to the banning of the manufacture, storage (whether in barrels or in bottles), transportation, sale, possession, and consumption of alcoholic b ...
, both in its ineffectiveness and in its tendency to normalize criminal behavior. Instead he proposes more lenient licensing, namely
Creative Commons license
A Creative Commons (CC) license is one of several public copyright licenses that enable the free distribution of an otherwise copyrighted "work". A CC license is used when an author wants to give other people the right to share, use, and bu ...
s, as a remedy to maintain "rule of law" while combating plagiarism.
Free culture

On March 28, 2004 Lessig was elected to the FSF board of directors.
He proposed the concept of "
free culture
The free-culture movement is a social movement that promotes the freedom to distribute and modify the creative works of others in the form of free content, otherwise known as open content. They encourage creators to create such content by using ...
". He also supports
free and open-source software
Free and open-source software (FOSS) is software available under a license that grants users the right to use, modify, and distribute the software modified or not to everyone free of charge. FOSS is an inclusive umbrella term encompassing free ...
and
open spectrum. At his free culture keynote speech at the
O'Reilly Open Source Convention
The O'Reilly Open Source Convention (OSCON) was an American annual convention for the discussion of free and open-source software. It was organized by publisher O'Reilly Media and was held each summer, mostly in Portland, Oregon, from 1999 to ...
2002, a few minutes of his speech was about
software patent
A software patent is a patent on a piece of software, such as a computer program, library, user interface, or algorithm. The validity of these patents can be difficult to evaluate, as software is often at once a product of engineering, something ...
s, which he views as a rising threat to
free software
Free software, libre software, libreware sometimes known as freedom-respecting software is computer software distributed open-source license, under terms that allow users to run the software for any purpose as well as to study, change, distribut ...
,
open source software
Open-source software (OSS) is Software, computer software that is released under a Open-source license, license in which the copyright holder grants users the rights to use, study, change, and Software distribution, distribute the software an ...
, and innovation.
In March 2006, Lessig joined the board of advisors of the
Digital Universe project. A few months later, Lessig gave a talk on the ethics of the Free Culture Movement at the 2006
Wikimania
Wikimania is the Wikimedia movement's annual conference, organized by Wikimedian, volunteers and hosted by the Wikimedia Foundation. Topics of presentations and discussions include Wikimedia projects such as Wikipedia, other wikis, open-source ...
conference. In December 2006, his lecture ''On Free, and the Differences between Culture and Code'' was one of the highlights at
23C3 ''Who can you trust?''.
According to Comedy Central, Lessig claimed in 2009 that because 70 percent of young people obtain digital information from illegal sources, laws should be changed.
In a foreword to the
Freesouls
''FREESOULS: Captured and Released by Joi Ito'' is a book by Joi Ito featuring 296 photographic portraits of members of the free culture movement. The project began in 2007 as way for Ito to freely distribute, through a Creative Commons Attrib ...
book project, Lessig makes an argument in favor of amateur artists in the world of digital technologies: "there is a different class of amateur creators that digital technologies have ... enabled, and a different kind of creativity has emerged as a consequence".
Lessig is also a well-known critic of
copyright term
The copyright term is the length of time copyright subsists in a work before it passes into the public domain. In most of the world, this length of time is the life of the author plus either 50 or 70 years https://w.wiki/ETPJ.
Length of copyright ...
extensions.
Net neutrality

Lessig has long been known to be a supporter of
net neutrality
Net neutrality, sometimes referred to as network neutrality, is the principle that Internet service providers (ISPs) must treat all Internet communications equally, offering User (computing), users and online content providers consistent tra ...
. In 2006, he testified before the U.S. Senate that he believed Congress should ratify
Michael Powell
Michael Latham Powell (30 September 1905 – 19 February 1990) was an English filmmaker, celebrated for his partnership with Emeric Pressburger. Through their production company Powell and Pressburger, The Archers, they together wrote, produced ...
's four Internet freedoms and add a restriction to access-tiering, i.e., he does not believe content providers should be charged different amounts. The reason is that the Internet, under the neutral end-to-end design is an invaluable platform for innovation, and the economic benefit of innovation would be threatened if large corporations could purchase faster service to the detriment of newer companies with less capital. However, Lessig has supported the idea of allowing ISPs to give consumers the option of different tiers of service at different prices. He was reported on CBC News as saying that he has always been in favour of allowing internet providers to charge differently for consumer access at different speeds. He said, "Now, no doubt, my position might be wrong. Some friends in the network neutrality movement as well as some scholars believe it is wrong—that it doesn't go far enough. But the suggestion that the position is 'recent' is baseless. If I'm wrong, I've always been wrong."
Legislative reform
Despite presenting an anti-regulatory standpoint in many fora, Lessig still sees the need for legislative enforcement of copyright. He has called for limiting copyright terms for creative professionals to five years, but believes that since many of them are independent, the work of creative professionals would become more easily and quickly available if a bureaucratic procedure were introduced to renew trademarks for up to 75 years after this five-year term.
Lessig has repeatedly taken a stance that privatization through legislation such as that seen in the 1980s in the UK with British Telecommunications is not the best way to help the Internet grow. He said, "When government disappears, it's not as if paradise will take its place. When governments are gone, other interests will take their place", "My claim is that we should focus on the values of liberty. If there is not government to insist on those values, then who?" "The single unifying force should be that we govern ourselves."
Legal challenges
From 1999 to 2002, Lessig represented a high-profile challenge to the
Sonny Bono Copyright Term Extension Act
Sonny is a common nickname and occasional given name. Often it can be a derivative of the English word "Son", a name derived from the Ancient Germanic element *sunn meaning "sun"; a nickname derived from the Italian names Salvatore, Santo, or ...
. Working with the
Berkman Center for Internet and Society, Lessig led the team representing the plaintiff in ''
Eldred v. Ashcroft
''Eldred v. Ashcroft'', 537 U.S. 186 (2003), was a decision by the Supreme Court of the United States upholding the constitutionality of the 1998 Sonny Bono Copyright Term Extension Act (CTEA). The practical result of this was to prevent a numb ...
''. The plaintiff in the case was joined by a group of publishers who frequently published work in the
public domain
The public domain (PD) consists of all the creative work to which no Exclusive exclusive intellectual property rights apply. Those rights may have expired, been forfeited, expressly Waiver, waived, or may be inapplicable. Because no one holds ...
and a large number of ''
amici'' including the
Free Software Foundation
The Free Software Foundation (FSF) is a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization founded by Richard Stallman on October 4, 1985. The organisation supports the free software movement, with the organization's preference for software being distributed ...
, the
American Association of Law Libraries
The American Association of Law Libraries (AALL) is a nonprofit educational organization with over 5,000 members across the United States. AALL's mission is to promote and enhance the value of law libraries to the legal and public communities, to ...
, the
Bureau of National Affairs, and the
College Art Association
The College Art Association of America (CAA) is the principal organization in the United States for professionals in the visual arts, from students to art historians to emeritus faculty. Founded in 1911, it "promotes these arts and their understan ...
.
In March 2003, Lessig acknowledged severe disappointment with his Supreme Court defeat in the Eldred copyright-extension case, where he unsuccessfully tried to convince Chief Justice William Rehnquist, who had sympathies for de-regulation, to back his "market-based" approach to intellectual property regulation.
In August 2013, Lawrence Lessig brought suit against Liberation Music PTY Ltd., after Liberation issued a takedown notice of one of Lessig's lectures on YouTube that had used the song "
Lisztomania
Lisztomania or Liszt fever was the intense fan frenzy directed toward Hungarian composer Franz Liszt during his performances. This frenzy first occurred in Berlin in 1841 and the term was later coined by Heinrich Heine in a feuilleton he wrote o ...
" by the band
Phoenix, whom Liberation Music represents.
Lessig sought damages under section 512(f) of the
Digital Millennium Copyright Act
The Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) is a 1998 United States copyright law that implements two 1996 treaties of the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO). It criminalizes production and dissemination of technology, devices, or ...
, which holds parties liable for misrepresentations of infringement or removal of material.
Lessig was represented by the
Electronic Frontier Foundation
The Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) is an American international non-profit digital rights group based in San Francisco, California. It was founded in 1990 to promote Internet civil liberties.
It provides funds for legal defense in court, ...
and
Jones Day.
In February 2014, the case ended with a settlement in which Liberation Music admitted wrongdoing in issuing the takedown notice, issued an apology, and paid a confidential sum in compensation.
''Killswitch''
In October 2014, ''Killswitch'', a film featuring Lawrence Lessig, as well as
Aaron Swartz
Aaron Hillel Swartz (; November 8, 1986January 11, 2013), also known as AaronSw, was an American computer programmer, entrepreneur, writer, political organizer, and Internet hacktivism, hacktivist. As a programmer, Swartz helped develop the we ...
,
Tim Wu
Timothy Shiou-Ming Wu (born 1971 or 1972) is a Taiwanese-American legal scholar who served as Special Assistant to the President for Technology and Competition Policy at the United States from 2021 to 2023. He is also a professor of law at Colum ...
, and
Edward Snowden
Edward Joseph Snowden (born June 21, 1983) is a former National Security Agency (NSA) intelligence contractor and whistleblower who leaked classified documents revealing the existence of global surveillance programs.
Born in 1983 in Elizabeth ...
received its World Premiere at the
Woodstock Film Festival, where it won the award for Best Editing. In the film, Lessig frames the story of two young hacktivists, Swartz and Snowden, who symbolize the disruptive and dynamic nature of the Internet. The film reveals the emotional bond between Lessig and Swartz, and how it was Swartz (the mentee) who challenged Lessig (the mentor) to engage in the political activism that has led to Lessig's crusade for
campaign finance reform.
In February 2015, ''Killswitch'' was invited to be screened at the Capitol Visitor's Center in Washington, D.C., by Congressman
Alan Grayson. The event was held on the eve of the Federal Communications Commission's historic decision on
Net Neutrality
Net neutrality, sometimes referred to as network neutrality, is the principle that Internet service providers (ISPs) must treat all Internet communications equally, offering User (computing), users and online content providers consistent tra ...
. Lessig, Congressman Grayson, and
Free Press CEO Craig Aaron spoke about the importance of protecting net neutrality and the free and open Internet.
Congressman Grayson states that Killswitch is "One of the most honest accounts of the battle to control the Internet -- and access to information itself."
Richard von Busack of the
Metro Silicon Valley
''Metro'', also known as ''Metro Silicon Valley'', is a free weekly newspaper published by the San Jose, California-based Weeklys media group for four decades, a period during which its readership area became known as Silicon Valley.
Metro was ...
, writes of ''Killswitch'', "Some of the most lapidary use of found footage this side of The Atomic Café".
Fred Swegles of the
Orange County Register
''The Orange County Register'' is a paid daily List of newspapers in California, newspaper published in California. The ''Register'', published in Orange County, California, is owned by the private equity firm Alden Global Capital via its Digit ...
, remarks, "Anyone who values unfettered access to online information is apt to be captivated by ''Killswitch'', a gripping and fast-paced documentary."
Kathy Gill of
GeekWire asserts that "''Killswitch'' is much more than a dry recitation of technical history. Director Ali Akbarzadeh, producer Jeff Horn, and writer Chris Dollar created a human centered story. A large part of that connection comes from Lessig and his relationship with Swartz."
The Electors Trust
In December 2016 Lawrence Lessig and
Laurence Tribe established
The Electors Trust under the aegis of
EqualCitizens.US to provide
pro bono
( English: 'for the public good'), usually shortened to , is a Latin phrase for professional work undertaken voluntarily and without payment. The term traditionally referred to provision of legal services by legal professionals for people who a ...
legal counsel as well as a secure communications platform for those of the
538 members of the
United States Electoral College
In the United States, the Electoral College is the group of presidential electors that is formed every four years for the sole purpose of voting for the President of the United States, president and Vice President of the United States, vice p ...
regarding a
vote of conscience against
Donald Trump
Donald John Trump (born June 14, 1946) is an American politician, media personality, and businessman who is the 47th president of the United States. A member of the Republican Party (United States), Republican Party, he served as the 45 ...
in the
presidential election.
Lessig hosts the podcast "Another Way" in conjunction with
The Young Turks Network.
Artificial intelligence
Lessig came out in favor of a "right to warn" proposed by former
OpenAI
OpenAI, Inc. is an American artificial intelligence (AI) organization founded in December 2015 and headquartered in San Francisco, California. It aims to develop "safe and beneficial" artificial general intelligence (AGI), which it defines ...
employees that would protect their right to warn the public of the
catastrophic risks of AI. Lessig also agreed to work pro bono in defense of the whistleblowers.
In August 2024, Lessig co-authored a letter alongside AI researchers
Yoshua Bengio,
Geoffrey Hinton
Geoffrey Everest Hinton (born 1947) is a British-Canadian computer scientist, cognitive scientist, and cognitive psychologist known for his work on artificial neural networks, which earned him the title "the Godfather of AI".
Hinton is Univer ...
, and
Stuart Russell in favor of
SB 1047, a California AI safety bill that would require companies training the most powerful models to perform risk assessments on their models before release. The letter argued that the bill would be a first step towards mitigating the severe risks posed by AI, and "the bare minimum for effective regulation of this technology". Lessig said that
Gavin Newsom
Gavin Christopher Newsom ( ; born October 10, 1967) is an American politician and businessman serving since 2019 as the 40th governor of California. A member of the Democratic Party (United States), Democratic Party, he served from 2011 to 201 ...
, the Governor of California, would have the opportunity to "cement California as a national first-mover in regulating AI."
Money-in-politics activism
At the iCommons iSummit 07, Lessig announced that he would stop focusing his attention on copyright and related matters in order to work on
political corruption
Political corruption is the use of powers by government officials or their network contacts for illegitimate private gain. Forms of corruption vary but can include bribery, lobbying, extortion, cronyism, nepotism, parochialism, patronage, influen ...
instead, as the result of a transformative conversation with
Aaron Swartz
Aaron Hillel Swartz (; November 8, 1986January 11, 2013), also known as AaronSw, was an American computer programmer, entrepreneur, writer, political organizer, and Internet hacktivism, hacktivist. As a programmer, Swartz helped develop the we ...
, a young internet prodigy whom Lessig met through his work with
Creative Commons
Creative Commons (CC) is an American non-profit organization and international network devoted to educational access and expanding the range of creative works available for others to build upon legally and to share. The organization has release ...
. This new work was partially facilitated through his
wiki
A wiki ( ) is a form of hypertext publication on the internet which is collaboratively edited and managed by its audience directly through a web browser. A typical wiki contains multiple pages that can either be edited by the public or l ...
, Lessig Wiki, through which he has encouraged the public to document cases of corruption. Lessig criticized the
revolving-door phenomenon in which legislators and staffers leave office to become
lobbyists
Lobbying is a form of advocacy, which lawfully attempts to directly influence legislators or government officials, such as regulatory agencies or judiciary. Lobbying involves direct, face-to-face contact and is carried out by various entities, in ...
and after having become beholden to special interests.
In February 2008, a
Facebook
Facebook is a social media and social networking service owned by the American technology conglomerate Meta Platforms, Meta. Created in 2004 by Mark Zuckerberg with four other Harvard College students and roommates, Eduardo Saverin, Andre ...
group formed by law professor
John Palfrey
John Gorham Palfrey VII (born 1972) is an American educator, scholar, and law professor. His areas of focus include emerging media, Internet censorship, Internet freedom, online Transparency (social), transparency and accountability, and child sa ...
encouraged Lessig to run for Congress from
California's 12th congressional district
California's 12th congressional district is a congressional district in northern California. Lateefah Simon, a Democratic Party (United States), Democrat, has represented the district since January 2025. The district was represented previously b ...
, the seat vacated by the death of Representative
Tom Lantos
Thomas Peter Lantos (born Tamás Péter Lantos; February 1, 1928 – February 11, 2008) was a Hungarian-born American politician who served as a United States House of Representatives, U.S. representative from California from 1981 until his deat ...
. Later that month, after forming an "exploratory project", he decided not to run for the vacant seat.
Rootstrikers
Despite having decided to forgo running for Congress, Lessig remained interested in attempting to change Congress to reduce corruption.
To this end, he worked with political consultant
Joe Trippi
Joseph Paul Trippi (born June 10, 1956) is an American political strategist. A member of the Democratic Party, Trippi most notably served as campaign manager of Howard Dean's 2004 presidential bid, and has served as a political commentator for ...
to launch a web based project called "
Change Congress". In a press conference on March 20, 2008, Lessig explained that he hoped the Change Congress website would help provide technological tools voters could use to hold their representatives accountable and reduce the influence of money on politics. He is a board member of
MAPLight.org, a nonprofit research group illuminating the connection between money and politics.
Change Congress later became ''Fix Congress First'', and was finally named
Rootstrikers. In November 2011, Lessig announced that Rootstrikers would join forces with
Dylan Ratigan's ''Get Money Out'' campaign, under the umbrella of the United Republic organization. Rootstrikers subsequently came under the aegis of
Demand Progress, an organization co-founded by Aaron Swartz.
Article V convention

In 2010, Lessig began to organize for a national Article V convention. He co-founded ''Fix Congress First!'' with
Joe Trippi
Joseph Paul Trippi (born June 10, 1956) is an American political strategist. A member of the Democratic Party, Trippi most notably served as campaign manager of Howard Dean's 2004 presidential bid, and has served as a political commentator for ...
. In a speech in 2011, Lessig revealed that he was disappointed with Obama's performance in office, criticizing it as a "betrayal", and he criticized the president for using "the (Hillary) Clinton playbook".
Lessig has called for state governments to call for a national Article V convention,
including by supporting
Wolf-PAC, a national organization attempting to call an Article V convention to address the problem. The convention Lessig supports would be populated by a "random proportional selection of citizens" which he suggested would work effectively. He said "politics is a rare sport where the amateur is better than the professional."
He promoted this idea at a September 24–25, 2011, conference he co-chaired with the
Tea Party Patriots' national coordinator,
[Conference on the Constitutional Convention]
, Harvard University, September 24–5, 2011 in Lessig's October 5, 2011, book, ''
Republic, Lost: How Money Corrupts Congress—and a Plan to Stop It,''
[Lessig, L. (2011]
''Republic, Lost: How Money Corrupts Congress—and a Plan to Stop It''
(New York City: Hachette/Twelve
excerpt
and at the Occupy protest in Washington, D.C.
[Tackett, C. (October 19, 2011]
"Could #OccupyWallStreet Become a Constitutional Convention?"
''Discovery / TreeHugger.com'' Reporter
Dan Froomkin said the book offers a manifesto for the
Occupy Wall Street
Occupy Wall Street (OWS) was a left-wing populist movement against economic inequality, capitalism, corporate greed, big finance, and the influence of money in politics that began in Zuccotti Park, located in New York City's Financial ...
protestors, focusing on the core problem of corruption in both political parties and their elections. An Article V convention does not dictate a solution, but Lessig would support a constitutional amendment that would allow legislatures to limit political contributions from non-citizens, including corporations, anonymous organizations, and foreign nationals and he also supports
public campaign financing and
electoral college
An electoral college is a body whose task is to elect a candidate to a particular office. It is mostly used in the political context for a constitutional body that appoints the head of state or government, and sometimes the upper parliament ...
reform to establish the
one person, one vote
"One man, one vote" or "one vote, one value" is a slogan used to advocate for the principle of equal representation in voting. This slogan is used by advocates of democracy and political equality, especially with regard to electoral reforms like ...
principle.
New Hampshire Rebellion
The
New Hampshire Rebellion is a walk to raise awareness about corruption in politics.
[Lawrence Lessig]
"Why We're Marching Across New Hampshire to Honor Aaron Swartz"
, ''The Atlantic'', January 10, 2014. The event began in 2014 with a 185-mile march in New Hampshire. In its second year the walk expanded to include other locations in New Hampshire.
From January 11 to January 24, 2014, Lessig and many others, such as New York activist
Jeff Kurzon, marched from
Dixville Notch, New Hampshire to Nashua (a 185-mile march) to promote the idea of tackling "the systemic corruption in Washington". Lessig chose this language over the related term "campaign finance reform", commenting in an interview with the
Carnegie Council that the term "sounds like an alcoholic as someone who has a liquid intake problem." The walk was to continue the work of New Hampshire native
Doris "Granny D" Haddock, and in honor of deceased activist
Aaron Swartz
Aaron Hillel Swartz (; November 8, 1986January 11, 2013), also known as AaronSw, was an American computer programmer, entrepreneur, writer, political organizer, and Internet hacktivism, hacktivist. As a programmer, Swartz helped develop the we ...
.
The New Hampshire Rebellion marched 16 miles from Hampton to New Castle on the New Hampshire Seacoast.
[Flore Vasseur]
"The New Hampshire Rebellion: Larry Lessig's Long Walk"
, ''The Medium'', December 15, 2014. The initial location also was chosen because of its important and visible role in the quadrennial "New Hampshire primaries", the traditional first primary of the presidential election.
2016 presidential candidacy
Lessig announced the launch of his long shot presidential campaign on September 6, 2015.
On August 11, 2015, Lessig announced that he had launched an exploratory campaign for the purpose of exploring his prospects of winning the
Democratic Party nomination
Nomination is part of the process of selecting a candidate for either election to a public office, or the bestowing of an honor or award. A collection of nominees narrowed from the full list of candidates is a short list.
Political office
In ...
for
president of the United States
The president of the United States (POTUS) is the head of state and head of government of the United States. The president directs the Federal government of the United States#Executive branch, executive branch of the Federal government of t ...
in the
2016 election.
Lessig pledged to seek the nomination if he raised one million dollars by
Labor Day
Labor Day is a Federal holidays in the United States, federal holiday in the United States celebrated on the first Monday of September to honor and recognize the Labor history of the United States, American labor movement and the works and con ...
2015.
The announcement was widely reported in national media outlets, and was timed to coincide with a media blitz by the Lessig 2016 Campaign. Lessig was interviewed in ''
The New York Times
''The New York Times'' (''NYT'') is an American daily newspaper based in New York City. ''The New York Times'' covers domestic, national, and international news, and publishes opinion pieces, investigative reports, and reviews. As one of ...
'' and
Bloomberg
Bloomberg may refer to:
People
* Daniel J. Bloomberg (1905–1984), audio engineer
* Georgina Bloomberg (born 1983), professional equestrian
* Michael Bloomberg (born 1942), American businessman and founder of Bloomberg L.P.; politician a ...
. Campaign messages and Lessig's electoral finance reform positions were circulated widely on social media.
His campaign was focused on a single issue:
The Citizen Equality Act, a proposal that couples
campaign finance reform with other laws aimed at curbing
gerrymandering
Gerrymandering, ( , originally ) defined in the contexts of Representative democracy, representative electoral systems, is the political manipulation of Boundary delimitation, electoral district boundaries to advantage a Political party, pa ...
and ensuring
voting access.
As an expression of his commitment to the proposal, Lessig initially promised to resign once the Citizen Equality Act became law and turn the presidency over to his vice president, who would then serve out the remainder of the term as a typical American president and act on a variety of issues. In October 2015, Lessig abandoned his automatic resignation plan and adopted a full policy platform for the presidency, although he did retain the passage of the Citizen Equality Act as his primary legislative objective.
Lessig made a single campaign stop in Iowa, with an eye toward the first-in-the-nation precinct caucuses: at Dordt College, in Sioux Center, in late October. He announced the end of his campaign on November 2, 2015.
Electoral College reform
In 2017, Lessig announced a movement to challenge the
winner-take-all Electoral College
An electoral college is a body whose task is to elect a candidate to a particular office. It is mostly used in the political context for a constitutional body that appoints the head of state or government, and sometimes the upper parliament ...
vote allocation in the various states, called ''
Equal Votes''.
Lessig was also a counsel for electors in the Supreme Court case ''
Chiafalo v. Washington
''Chiafalo v. Washington'', , was a United States Supreme Court case on the issue of "faithless electors" in the United States Electoral College, Electoral College stemming from the 2016 United States presidential election. The Court ruled unan ...
'' where the court decided states could force electors to follow the popular vote for their state.
Amendment Fourteen, section three
In 2023, Lessig wrote an editorial in ''
Slate
Slate is a fine-grained, foliated, homogeneous, metamorphic rock derived from an original shale-type sedimentary rock composed of clay or volcanic ash through low-grade, regional metamorphism. It is the finest-grained foliated metamorphic ro ...
'' suggesting that the electoral college should be the body that decides whether
Donald Trump
Donald John Trump (born June 14, 1946) is an American politician, media personality, and businessman who is the 47th president of the United States. A member of the Republican Party (United States), Republican Party, he served as the 45 ...
engaged in insurrection under the U.S. Constitution. He explained that it was better "that the college called into being for the sole purpose of selecting a president decide the matter than for sitting politicians or state officials."
Awards and honors
In 2002, Lessig received the
Award for the Advancement of Free Software
The Free Software Foundation (FSF) grants two annual awards. Since 1998, FSF has granted the award for Advancement of Free Software and since 2005, also the Free Software Award for Projects of Social Benefit.
Presentation ceremonies
In 1999 the a ...
from the
Free Software Foundation
The Free Software Foundation (FSF) is a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization founded by Richard Stallman on October 4, 1985. The organisation supports the free software movement, with the organization's preference for software being distributed ...
(FSF).
He also received the
Scientific American 50 Award for having "argued against interpretations of copyright that could stifle innovation and discourse online." In 2006, Lessig was elected to the
American Academy of Arts and Sciences
The American Academy of Arts and Sciences (The Academy) is one of the oldest learned societies in the United States. It was founded in 1780 during the American Revolution by John Adams, John Hancock, James Bowdoin, Andrew Oliver, and other ...
.
In 2011, Lessig was named to the
Fastcase 50, "honoring the law's smartest, most courageous innovators, techies, visionaries, and leaders." Lessig was awarded honorary doctorates by the Faculty of Social Sciences at
Lund University
Lund University () is a Public university, public research university in Sweden and one of Northern Europe's oldest universities. The university is located in the city of Lund in the Swedish province of Scania. The university was officially foun ...
, Sweden in 2013 and by the
Université catholique de Louvain
UCLouvain (or Université catholique de Louvain , French for Catholic University of Louvain, officially in English the University of Louvain) is Belgium's largest French-speaking university and one of the oldest in Europe (originally establishe ...
in 2014. Lessig received the
2014 Webby Lifetime Achievement award for co-founding Creative Commons and defending net neutrality and the
free and open software movement.
Personal life
In May 2005, it was revealed that Lessig had experienced
sexual abuse
Sexual abuse or sex abuse is abusive sexual behavior by one person upon another. It is often perpetrated using physical force, or by taking advantage of another. It often consists of a persistent pattern of sexual assaults. The offender is re ...
by the director at the
American Boychoir School, which he had attended as an adolescent. Lessig reached a settlement with the school in the past, under confidential terms. He revealed his experiences in the course of representing another student victim, John Hardwicke, in court. In August 2006, he succeeded in persuading the
New Jersey Supreme Court
The Supreme Court of New Jersey is the supreme court, highest court in the U.S. state of New Jersey. In its current form, the Supreme Court of New Jersey is the final judicial authority on all cases in the state court system, including cases cha ...
to radically restrict the scope of immunity, which had protected nonprofits that failed to prevent sexual abuse from legal liability.
Lessig is married to Bettina Neuefeind, a German-born Harvard University colleague. The two married in 1999. He and Neuefeind have three children: Willem, Coffy, and Tess.
Defamation lawsuit against ''The New York Times''
In 2019, during the criminal investigation of
Jeffrey Epstein
Jeffrey Edward Epstein ( , ; January 20, 1953August 10, 2019) was an American financier and child sex offender. Born and raised in New York City, Epstein began his professional career as a teacher at the Dalton School, despite lacking a col ...
, it was discovered that the
MIT Media Lab
The MIT Media Lab is a research laboratory at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, growing out of MIT's Architecture Machine Group in the MIT School of Architecture and Planning, School of Architecture. Its research does not restrict to fi ...
, under former director
Joichi Ito, had accepted secret donations from Epstein after Epstein had been convicted on criminal charges. Ito eventually resigned as director of the
MIT Media Lab
The MIT Media Lab is a research laboratory at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, growing out of MIT's Architecture Machine Group in the MIT School of Architecture and Planning, School of Architecture. Its research does not restrict to fi ...
following this discovery. After making supportive comments to Ito, Lessig wrote a
Medium post in September 2019 to explain his stance. In his post, Lessig acknowledged that universities should not take donations from convicted criminals such as Epstein who had become wealthy through actions unrelated to their criminal convictions; however, if such donations were to be accepted, it was better to take them secretly rather than publicly connect the university to the criminal. Lessig's essay drew criticism, and about a week later,
Nellie Bowles of ''
The New York Times
''The New York Times'' (''NYT'') is an American daily newspaper based in New York City. ''The New York Times'' covers domestic, national, and international news, and publishes opinion pieces, investigative reports, and reviews. As one of ...
'' had an interview with Lessig in which he reiterated his stance related to such donations broadly. The article used the headline "A Harvard Professor Doubles Down: If You Take Epstein’s Money, Do It in Secret", which Lessig confirmed was based on a statement he had made to the ''Times''. Lessig took issue with the headline overlooking his argument that MIT should not accept such donations in the first place and also criticized the first two lines of the article which read "It is hard to defend soliciting donations from the convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein. But Lawrence Lessig, a Harvard Law professor, has been trying." He subsequently accused the ''Times'' of writing
clickbait
Clickbait (also known as link bait or linkbait) is a text or a thumbnail hyperlink, link that is designed to attract attention and to entice users to follow ("click") that link and view, read, stream or listen to the linked piece of online cont ...
with the headline crafted to defame him, and stated that the circulation of the article on social media had hurt his reputation.
In January 2020, Lessig filed a defamation lawsuit against the ''Times'', including writer Bowles, business editor Ellen Pollock, and executive editor Dean Baquet. The ''Times'' stated they would "vigorously" defend against Lessig's claim, and believed that what they had published was accurate and had been reviewed by senior editors following Lessig's initial complaints.
In April 2020, ''The New York Times'' changed its original headline to read: "What Are the Ethics of Taking Tainted Funds? A conversation with Lawrence Lessig about Jeffrey Epstein, M.I.T. and reputation laundering." Lessig reported he subsequently withdrew his defamation lawsuit.
Notable cases
* ''
Golan v. Gonzales'' (representing multiple plaintiffs)
* ''
Eldred v. Ashcroft
''Eldred v. Ashcroft'', 537 U.S. 186 (2003), was a decision by the Supreme Court of the United States upholding the constitutionality of the 1998 Sonny Bono Copyright Term Extension Act (CTEA). The practical result of this was to prevent a numb ...
'' (representing plaintiff
Eric Eldred) Lost
* ''
Kahle v. Gonzales'' (also see
Brewster Kahle) Dismissed
* ''
United States v. Microsoft'' (special master and author of an amicus brief addressing the Sherman Act)
** Lessig was appointed
special master
In the law of the United States, a special master is an official appointed by a judge to ensure judicial orders are followed, or in the alternative, to hear evidence on behalf of the judge and make recommendations to the judge as to the dispositi ...
by Judge
Thomas Penfield Jackson in 1997; the appointment was vacated by the
; the appellate court ruled that the powers granted to Lessig exceeded the scope of the Federal statute providing for special masters; Judge Jackson then solicited Lessig's
amicus brief
An amicus curiae (; ) is an individual or organization that is not a party to a legal case, but that is permitted to assist a court by offering information, expertise, or insight that has a bearing on the issues in the case. Whether an ''amic ...
** Lessig said about this appointment: "Did Justice Jackson pick me to be his special master because he had determined I was the perfect mix of
Holmes, and
Ed Felten
Edward William Felten (born March 25, 1963) is an American computer scientist. At Princeton University, he served as the Robert E. Kahn Professor of Computer Science and Public Affairs, as well as being director of the Center for Information Tec ...
? No, I was picked because I was a Harvard Law Professor teaching the law of cyberspace. Remember: So is 'fame' made."
* ''
MPAA v. 2600'' (submitted an amicus brief with
Yochai Benkler
Yochai Benkler ( ; born 1964) is an Israeli-American author and the Berkman Professor of Entrepreneurial Legal Studies at Harvard Law School. He is also a faculty co-director of the Berkman Klein Center for Internet & Society at Harvard Univers ...
in support of 2600)
* ''
McCutcheon v. FEC'' (submitted an amicus brief in support of FEC)
* ''
Chiafalo v. Washington
''Chiafalo v. Washington'', , was a United States Supreme Court case on the issue of "faithless electors" in the United States Electoral College, Electoral College stemming from the 2016 United States presidential election. The Court ruled unan ...
'' (representing Chiafalo)
Bibliography
* ''
Code and Other Laws of Cyberspace'' (Basic Books, 1999)
* ''
The Future of Ideas'' (Vintage Books, 2001)
* ''
Free Culture
The free-culture movement is a social movement that promotes the freedom to distribute and modify the creative works of others in the form of free content, otherwise known as open content. They encourage creators to create such content by using ...
'' (Penguin, 2004)
* ''
Code: Version 2.0'' (Basic Books, 2006)
* ''
Remix: Making Art and Commerce Thrive in the Hybrid Economy'' (Penguin, 2008)
* ''
Republic, Lost: How Money Corrupts Congress—and a Plan to Stop It'' (Twelve, 2011)
* ''
One Way Forward: The Outsider's Guide to Fixing the Republic'' (Kindle Single/Amazon, 2012)
*
Lesterland: The Corruption of Congress and How to End It' (2013,
CC BY-NC
A Creative Commons NonCommercial license (CC NC, CC BY-NC or NC license) is a Creative Commons license which a copyright holder can apply to their media to give public permission for anyone to reuse that media only for noncommercial activities. C ...
)
* ''
Republic, Lost: The Corruption of Equality and the Steps to End It'' (Twelve, rev. ed., 2015)
* ''America, Compromised'' (University of Chicago Press, 2018)
* ''Fidelity & Constraint: How the Supreme Court Has Read the American Constitution'' (Oxford University Press, 2019)
* ''They Don't Represent Us: Reclaiming Our Democracy'' (Dey Street/William Morrow, 2019)
* ''
How to Steal a Presidential Election'' (Yale University Press, 2024)
Filmography
* ''
RiP!: A Remix Manifesto'', a 2008 documentary film
*''
The Internet's Own Boy: The Story of Aaron Swartz'', 2014 documentary film
* ''
Killswitch'', 2015 documentary film
* ''
The Swamp'', 2020 documentary film
* ''
Meeting Snowden'', a 2017 documentary film where Lessig goes to
Moscow
Moscow is the Capital city, capital and List of cities and towns in Russia by population, largest city of Russia, standing on the Moskva (river), Moskva River in Central Russia. It has a population estimated at over 13 million residents with ...
to meet
Edward Snowden
Edward Joseph Snowden (born June 21, 1983) is a former National Security Agency (NSA) intelligence contractor and whistleblower who leaked classified documents revealing the existence of global surveillance programs.
Born in 1983 in Elizabeth ...
* ''
Kim Dotcom: The Most Wanted Man Online'', 2021 documentary film
* Additionally, Lessig himself was portrayed by
Christopher Lloyd in season 6 of political drama ''
The West Wing
''The West Wing'' is an American political drama television series created by Aaron Sorkin that was originally broadcast on NBC from September 22, 1999, to May 14, 2006. The series is set primarily in the West Wing of the White House, where t ...
'' in the episode "The Wake Up Call."
See also
*
List of law clerks of the Supreme Court of the United States (Seat 9)
*
Copyleft
Copyleft is the legal technique of granting certain freedoms over copies of copyrighted works with the requirement that the same rights be preserved in derivative works. In this sense, ''freedoms'' refers to the use of the work for any purpose, ...
*
Free software movement
The free software movement is a social movement with the goal of obtaining and guaranteeing certain freedoms for user (computing), software users, namely the freedoms to run, study, modify, and share copies of software. Software which meets thes ...
*
Free content
Free content, libre content, libre information, or free information is any kind of creative work, such as a work of art, a book, a software program, or any other creative content for which there are very minimal copyright and other legal limi ...
*
FreeCulture.org
*
Open educational resources
Open educational resources (OER) are Instructional materials, teaching, learning, and research materials intentionally created and Free license, licensed to be free for the end user to own, share, and in most cases, modify. The term "OER" descr ...
*
Gratis versus libre
The adjective ''free'' in English is commonly used in one of two meanings: "at no monetary cost" (''gratis'') or "with little or no restriction" (''libre''). This ambiguity can cause issues where the distinction is important, as it often is in ...
*
Open content
Free content, libre content, libre information, or free information is any kind of creative work, such as a work of art, a book, a software, software program, or any other creative Media (communication), content for which there are very minimal ...
*
Law of the Horse
*
Lobbying in the United States
Lobbying in the United States is paid activity in which special interest groups hire well-connected professional advocates, often lawyers, to argue for specific legislation in decision-making bodies such as the United States Congress. It is of ...
*
Second Constitutional Convention of the United States proposal for constitutional reform
References
External links
* (includes Curriculum Vitae and Lessig blog 2002–2009)
* Lessig Blog, beyond 2009
*
* (Presidential Campaign site)
*
*
*
*
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