Larry Lessig is a genius. This man is a great thinker of our times. I hope that we all listen to him and make the right choice about how content is licensed for use. This is a link to a talk that he did for TED: Ideas worth spreading. Watch it. Learn it. Do it!

You can see his ideas in action at places like Flickr, which provide its users a way to allow others to share and use their artwork in other artistic ways. That is what Creative Commons is all about. Its also what open source is all about.

Our copyright and patent systems have become an abomination. They are now used to fight against the very reason they were created. They were created to increase innovation and ideas, and now they are used with a draconian fist to stifle those ideals.