Andrew, apart from the obvious recommendation to read Free Culture (in almost any format imaginable), I think this Lessig presentation is a much better one. I was glad of the “culture is remix” slant of the Edinburgh talk because I hadn’t heard him do it before, but the other talk has better grounding, better developed arguments, and a very good Q+A at the end.

I am not worried that the copyright cartels might use the opt-out licenses as an excuse not to change their own policies. I care more about, the Long Tail, “the 80% of stuff that didn’t used to be worth selling “the 80% of stuff that didn’t used to be worth selling”. Meanwhile it isn’t as if Lessig isn’t fighting hard for various very moderate yet highly desirable copyright reforms.

With respect to localizing the GPL, I believe the explanation is that rmsINAL, but of cours IANAL either. But the existing text is plain English with a well-established global interpretation, and a less direct relationship with the details of copyright that do have a more jurisdiction-dependent status. And I think you can always assign copyright to the FSF after the fact if there’s ever a need to bring a case to trial (clearly not an option for many of the CC licenses.)

The thing I learnt that surprised me the most was our ridiculous
legislation regarding so-called “derogatory treatments” of work. I would like an option to assign that right away in the Scottish port of CC, thanks very much! Who wants to build on a work when the creator has the right to claim you’ve hurt their feelings and so can take their ball away again at any time?

I still think that Bill Thompson’s concern (as quoted by you, haven’t read the linked article) is valid, but not as strongly as stated. From my other readings of Lessig I think what he’s getting at is a change of culture, as well as a change of law (or prevention of new laws, depending). In this light his intertwining of the themes makes a lot more sense.

“LET THE PEOPLE CHOOSE TO SHARE” and “WHERE DID ALL OUR FREEDOM GO” have a common foundation in a culture of information sharing. It seems to me that “WHERE DID ALL OUR FREEDOM GO” represents the loss of an old culture of information sharing — one where the law was set up to protect creators, but contained an acknowledgement that there is an intellectual commons. “LET THE PEOPLE CHOOSE TO SHARE” represents a new culture of information sharing — in the light of increasing attempts (through law and technology) to control created content, people can choose (as Lessig states) something between absolute control and the public domain.

And, I wish I’d known that the talk was happening ….