Lessig: never again
What is the role of information? To whom does information belong? Whose right is it to control information or knowledge that I create?
These are questions that Lawrence Lessig has struggled with for some time. His post of 15 March 2005 indicates the extent to which he will go to ensure his control over the information he creates. This is not to keep the information bottled up, but rather to guarantee that the information remain freely available. Professor Lessig says that he will never again submit to publication agreements in which he is forced to surrender all rights to his work.
As an academic kinda-wannabe, the question of who controls the knowledge I create is of particular importance. I wish, of course, for some benefit to accrue to me. I don’t think this is unusual, nor do I think it’s wrong. But if I am creating knowledge for the exclusive purpose of acquiring some personal benefit, then I think I am missing the mark. The creation of knowledge is a social enterprise, one that cannot occur in isolation. Even the most brilliant of luminaries relies in some measure upon current or past work, either as a foundation or as something to challenge in search of a better way of understanding. A social enterprise is of little value if its fruits are controlled by the very few.
The purpose of knowledge creation is to better the human condition, or so I believe. Intellectual exercises are interesting, but ultimately their worth is measured by their effect on humanity. I agree with this statement by Nelson and Sklar:
…[S]cholarship should be problem-oriented and critical of existing institutions…When you question the foundations of institutions and go to the roots of things, the implications for rational change become clear.
…[T]he present need is for a scientific approach that is firmly based upon humanistic foundations. (Toward a Humanistic Science of Politics: Essays in Honor of Francis Dunham Wormuth, p. 3)
Scholarship, science, knowledge creation are for the express purpose of bettering the human condition, of asserting human dignity and maintaining it. The control of scholarship, the assertion of “exclusive rights” are, I think, destructive of these ends. Perhaps I’ll change my mind when trying to get tenure. But for now, that’s what I believe. I congratulate Professor Lessig.
