My TED talk is up

Posted on November 7, 2007 by Lessig

Somethings old, somethings new, lots that’s borrowed, none that’s blue. Watch it at the TED site here.

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12 Responses to My TED talk is up

  1. Tom Poe says:
    November 7, 2007 at 4:17 am

    Enjoyed the talk. Would be fun to know who did the video examples used. Your mention that creativity generally requires a $1000 computer misleads the audience. Universities typically sell their older desktop computers for under $100, and have done so for several years. Load those used computers with the software from Stanford University’s Center for Computer Research in Music and Acoustics, and the user now has the same exact software that the major film studios use. State-of-the-art digital recording/editing setups run less than $100 in the U.S. How ridiculous is that? 🙂

    On a sidenote, it might be worth reminding you that community wireless mesh networks that provide broadband access of between 1Mbps and 54Mbps can be created for a total cost of $50 per house, and a shared monthly cost of less than $10 per house per month. The only catch is that encumbents won’t permit present ISP wholesale pricing to be extended to community groups (acting as their own ISP). Check out the Meraki project in San Francisco for a case study.

  2. Matt A says:
    November 9, 2007 at 1:16 am

    I sent a link to this lecture to my parents. Wonderfully spoken! I hope they’ll understand me more now.

    As an owner of one of those $1500 computers (which is, ironically, the exact price I paid for my used Macbook Pro), I can also tell you that the price of the tools of creativity is a bit higher. For video editing, a copy of Sony Vegas Pro is $228.96. Final Cut Studio 2 is $1299.00. Audacity is free, and decent, but there are better sound editing tools. Photoshop is about $385. AfterEffects is $49.95. To get GarageBand, iLife is $79 ($99 for the family pack). If you want something more, you can get FruityLoops for $99, Reason for $238.95. Similar to the open source world, I can remix in my free time, but I need a job to give me that free time. Less true with young people, but certainly true for young professionals like me. The user-generated content that floats to the top tends to have the mark of higher end software. I would say a fully tricked out free culture costs about $5000 per person.

    I completely agree that this is ridiculously cheap compared to the past and that creative production has been widely democratized. But there are certainly still people left out of the loop because of the costs, both in money and time, and yet so many people still seem to create. It’s probably not politically correct to say, but the ease with which you can bypass much of the costs beyond the cost of the computer (i.e., pirating that software) has probably been one of the major reasons that creativity is so democratic. Is it right? Certainly not. But, in my opinion, still true.

  3. Mike_Shadow says:
    November 9, 2007 at 11:07 am

    Yes, your talk is up, and it’s bloody brilliant! Cheers. (p.s – I got pirate software on my home computer because I couldn’t afford it for my own projects, but I demand the company I work for puts it on the machine they pay for, yet I never use it for work, so that somehow, somewhere, my licence is paid, if you know what I mean?)

  4. Roblo says:
    November 9, 2007 at 7:25 pm

    Excellent! How did you create that excellent, fluid presentation? I assume they’re not done in Open Office Impress (which I’m currently trying to do what I want). So what tools then?

  5. sarahk says:
    November 11, 2007 at 5:17 pm

    This is brilliant – I particularly enjoy the attention paid to developing creativity among young people. This is constantly being squashed, undermined, or scoffed at by generations before us…. see Thomas Friedman for more.

  6. Ramana Rajgopaul says:
    November 14, 2007 at 3:24 pm

    I watched you on your video referred to by another site and wished to compliment you on a very well presented and highly thought provoking idea. Are there any initiatives being taken on your suggestions?

  7. Abdul Rahman says:
    November 15, 2007 at 2:06 am

    Hi Larry, excellent presentation!
    One of the best TED presentation I’ve seen.
    Hope to see more from you on TED!

  8. aquavit says:
    November 15, 2007 at 6:28 pm

    Thanks for the video. Your argument against the status quo is excellent. I was wondering where I could find some of your arguments against the other “extreme”, copyright abolishion? If anyone has any links I would appreciate it.

  9. wooden serving trays says:
    November 17, 2007 at 3:04 am

    I watched you on your video referred to by another site and wished to compliment you on a very well presented and highly thought provoking idea. Are there any initiatives being taken on your suggestions?

  10. Brian Auer says:
    November 17, 2007 at 5:28 am

    Really great stuff Larry. I’m really amazed and impressed at the way things are going with the Internet and the way information is being shared. But at the same time, I’m quite disappointed at the lack of understanding and support from the mass majority. I’m constantly coming across creative artists with so much to share, completely unwilling to release their grip from their sense of control and protection. Oh well, great things take time I suppose.

    Loved the Vampire Hunter D remix by the way… haven’t seen that before just now.

  11. Tom Reeves says:
    December 21, 2007 at 9:04 pm

    I’m late to the party. Great presentation. I embedded it in my blog (www.pwnership.com) and plenty of links. Something about my the post title seemed to fit the sentiment of your presentation better than my own comments. The title is Prohibit: Against The Law.

  12. KAM says:
    January 8, 2008 at 4:03 pm

    Terrific presentation except for the fact that you walked on your own conclusion. I.e., in my opinion you should have repeated your main conclusion and you should not have used THE MOST SOPHISTICATED tech tricks under the punch line.

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