Gunning for the copyright reformers; Guardian, 8/15/11

Frederic Filloux, Guardian; Gunning for the copyright reformers:

"The book's most spectacular deconstruction involves Lawrence Lessig. The Harvard law professor is one of the most outspoken opponents of tough copyright. For years, he's been criss-crossing the world delivering well-crafted, compelling presentations about the need to overhaul copyright. When, in 2007, Viacom sued YouTube for copyright infringement, seeking more than $1bn in damages, Lessig accused Viacom of trying to overturn the Digital Millennium Copyright Act. It was a de facto defense of Google by Lessig who at the time was head of the Center for Internet and Society at Stanford University. What Lessig failed to disclose is that two weeks after closing the deal to acquire YouTube, Google made a $2m donation to the Stanford Center, and a year later gave another $1.5m to Creative Commons, Lessig's most famous intellectual baby. To be fair, Levine told me he didn't believe Lessig's positions on copyright were influenced by the grants from Google."