Mathcaddy readers are probably a little familiar with Lawrence Lessig. If you’re not, you should be [mirror here] For those of you who have known me for some time, you know that I pursued going to law school and working in intellectual property. But my plans changed, so I get to sit and read Lessig’s new book, Free Culture instead.
And it’s GREAT!
And he and his publisher, Penguin Books, released it in under a Creative Commons license, as well as free download as a PDF.
Well a few people started thinking: The CC license for Lessig’s book says, “You are free: to copy, distribute, display, and perform the work [and] to make derivative works.” What if a group of bloggers got together and recorded this (wonderful) book as an Audiobook, chapter by chapter?
Within 48 hours, it was nearly complete. I even contributed a few chapters. Lessig was pretty excited himself about the project and said he wants to record one of the chapters.
AKMA, one of the originators of the idea, hosts the majority of the relevant conversation on this project, as well as the collection of links to each of the chapters. You can find the Audiobook project here.
Prompted by the allowance in the license for derivative works, another individual has created an eBook that’s much easier to read than the PDF.
Here are my three recorded sections:
Chapter 4: Pirates [9 MB: 25 Minutes]
I highly recommend this chapter, which is also available here in a recent Wired excerpt from Lessig’s book
Introduction to “Property” Section [2 MB: 4 Minutes]
I get to say “the thingness of picnic tables” here!
Chapter 6: Founders [10 MB: 29 Minutes]
Not the most thrilling chapter in the book, but it is essential to frame the historical issue of copyright and “free culture”.