Last September, Lawrence Lessig delivered an address entitled “The Comedy of the Commons” as part of the SD Forum Distinguished Speakers Series. Yesterday I picked up the address on an IT Conversations podcast. Today I braved the snow (not much to brave early in the morning, actually, though it is getting slick now) and went in to the office for a bit, listening to Lessig on the way there and back. It’s a wonderful lecture on the difference between “rivalrous resources” that diminish when they’re shared and “non-rivalrous resources” that actually increase in value when they’re shared. Chief among the latter category are language and ideas. Lessig then goes on to talk about IP (intellectual property) in the age of the IP (Internet Protocol), and the result is a great primer in copyright law and corporate attacks on fair use. The lecture is at a fairly high (though not at all difficult) conceptual level. It’s also full of facts I either didn’t know or had forgotten about, especially the revisions to the copyright law in 1978. The Q&A period gets a little more down-and-dirty, though it’s a credit to the assembly that the occasion never gets too bash-y. (It’s all too easy to make oneself feel better among like-minded folks by reviling a common enemy, but unfortunately that kind of group hug doesn’t turn out very interesting or nuanced ideas, at least not in my experience.)

This kind of address is what I’m coming to love about podcasting, where the immediacy and energy of the speaking voice guides me through endlessly interesting content of all kinds. Great radio, great interviews, great music (did I mention the “Vinyl Podcast”?), and great lectures. I may have to start sleeping with a speaker under my pillow again, just the way I used to when I was a kid.