Lessig

Curriculum Vitae

PDF version (248 kb).

Lawrence Lessig
559 Nathan Abbott Way
Stanford, CA 94305
650-736-0999

Education

Yale Law School, New Haven, Ct.
J.D., 1989.

Trinity College; Cambridge University, Cambridge, England.
M.A. Philosophy, 1986; Honors First Class.

University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, Pa.
B.A. Economics, B.S. Management (Wharton), 1983.

Employment and Positions

Stanford Law School, Stanford, CA,
C. Wendell and Edith M. Carlsmith Professor of Law, 2005-present; John A. Wilson Distinguished Faculty Scholar 2003-05; Wilson Faculty Scholar, 2002; Professor of Law, 2000-2002; Co-Director, Center for Internet and Society 2000-present; Courses taught: Contracts, Constitutional Law I (structure, equal protection, due process), Constitutional Law II (First Amendment), Torts, Contracts. Seminars taught: Open Sources, Patents in Developing Worlds, Architectures of Identity, Law of the Virtual World, Contracts II; Immunity; Research on Corruption; Fair Use in Film.

American Academy in Berlin, Berlin, Germany,
Fellow, 2007-2008.

Wired Magazine, San Francisco, CA,
Columnist, 2003-2007.

Creative Commons, San Francisco, CA,
CEO, 2001-2007.

Red Herring, San Francisco, CA,
Columnist, 2002-2003.

CIO Insight, New York, NY,
Columnist, 2002-2003.

Business Law Center, Tokyo University, Tokyo, Japan,
Fellow, 2002.

Wissenschaftskolleg zu Berlin, Berlin, Germany,
Fellow, 1999-2000.

Harvard Law School, Cambridge, MA,
Jack N. and Lillian R. Berkman Professor for Entrepreneurial Legal Studies, 1998; Professor of Law, 1997-2000; Visiting Professor of Law, Winter term, 1997. Courses taught: Contracts, Constitutional Law. Seminars taught: The Microsoft Case, The Law of Cyberspace: Social Protocols, The High-Tech Entrepreneur, Fidelity.

The Industry Standard, San Francisco, CA,
Columnist, 1998-2001.

Program on Ethics and the Professions, Harvard University, Cambridge, MA,
Fellow, 1996-1997.

The Yale Law School, New Haven, CT,
Visiting Professor of Law, Spring term, 1995. Course taught: Antitrust. Seminar taught: The Law of Cyberspace.

University of Chicago Law School, Chicago, IL,
Professor of Law, 1995-97; Assistant Professor of Law, 1991-1995. Co-Director, Center for the Study of Constitutionalism in Eastern Europe. Courses taught: Constitutional Law I (federalism, separation of powers, judicial review); Constitutional Law II (free speech); Contracts. Seminars taught: The Law of Cyberspace; The Public Good; Comparative Constitutional Law; Legal Theory Workshop; Fidelity Theory: Theories of Originalism.

Lexis Counsel Connect, Miamisburg, OH,

Moderator, Constitutional Law Discussion Group, 1994-1995.

Legal Studies Programme, CEU Budapest College, Budapest, Hungary,

Lecturer in LLM program for Eastern and Central European lawyers.
Courses taught: Law and Economics, Separation of Powers, and Constitutional Privacy. Summer, 1992, 1993, 1995 (Budapest); 1994 (Moscow).

Justice Antonin Scalia, United States Supreme Court, Washington, DC
Law Clerk, 1990-1991.

Judge Richard Posner; U.S. Court of Appeals, Seventh Circuit, Chicago, IL,
Law Clerk, 1989-1990.

Honors and Awards

American Philosophical Society, Philadelphia, PA,
Fellow, 2007.

American Academy of Art and Science, Cambridge, MA,
Fellow, 2006.

Monaco Media Prize Winner, 2008.

Finalist, FT Best Business Book, 2008.

National Law Journal “100 Most Influential Lawyers in America,” 2000, 2006.

Free Software Foundation Award for the Advancement of Free Software, 2003.

Scientific American, Top 50 Innovators, 2002.

Editors’ Choice, Best Non-Technical Book, Linux Journal, 2002.

World Technology Award for Law, 2001.

BusinessWeek “25 Top eBiz Leaders,” 2001, 2000.

Testimony and Litigation

Hearing on “The Future of the Internet,”
US Senate Committee on Commerce, Science & Transportation, 2008

Hearing on “Network Neutrality,”
US Senate Committee on Commerce, Science & Transportation, 2006

H.R. 107 – The Digital Media Consumers’ Rights act of 2003
House Subcommittee on Commerce, Trade, and Consumer Protection, 2004.

Kahle v. Ashcroft (2004)
Counsel for the plaintiff.

Hardwicke v. American Boychoir (2003),
Counsel for the plaintiff.

Eldred v. Ashcroft (2003),
Counsel of Record in challenge to 1998 Sonny Bono Copyright Term Extension Act.

Government Role in Promoting the Future of Telecommunications Industry and Broadband Deployment,
US Senate Committee on Commerce, Science & Transportation, 2002.

Exemptions from Section 1201 of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act,
Copyright Office, 2002.

Universal Music v. Corley (2001),
Author, Amicus Brief.

Simon v. AT&T (2001),
Plaintiffs' expert.

A&M Records v. Napster (2000),
Defendant's expert .

Microsystems Software v. Scandinavia Online (1999),
Author, Amicus Brief.

United States v. Microsoft (1997-2002),
Author. Amicus Brief, 2000,
Testimony before Senate Committee on the Judiciary, 2001.

In the Matter of AT&T/Media One,
FCC filing (with Mark Lemley), 1999.

ICANN DNS Proposal,
NTIA comments, 1998.

Child Online Protection Act,
Testimony before House Subcommittee on Telecommunications and Consumer Protection, 1998.

Books

Remix: Making Art and Commerce Thrive in the Hybrid Economy
Penguin Press, 2008

Code v2, and Other Laws of Cyberspace
Basic Books, 2007

Free Culture: How Big Media Uses Technology and the Law to Lock Down Creativity
Penguin Press, 2004

The Future of Ideas: The Fate of the Commons in a Connected World
Random House, 2001

Code, and Other Laws of Cyberspace
Basic Books, 1999

Articles

The Vision for the Creative Commons: What are We and Where are We Headed? Free Culture
in Open Content Licensing: Cultivating the Creative Commons, Sydney University Press (2007).

Foreword
in Freedom of Expression: Resistance and Repression in the AGe of Intellectual Property, University of Minnesota Press (2007).

.Commons
in Norms and the Law, Cambridge University Press (2006).

Creativity in Real Space
in Censoring Culture: Contemporary Threats to Free Expression, New Press (2006).

The Second Annual Distinguished Lecture in Intellectual Property and Communications Law: Creative Economies
1 Michigan State Law Review Spring(2006)

Reply: Re-Marking the Progress in Frischmann
89 Minnesota Law Review, Issue 4 (2005)

Creative Freedom for All
The Best American Legal Commentary (2005)

Free(ing) Culture for Remix
4 Utah Law Review 961-975 (2004)

Ideas Without Boundaries: Creating and Protecting Intellectual Property in the International Arena
24 Loyola of Los Angeles Entertainment Law Review (2004)

The Creative Commons
65 Montana Law Review (Winter 2004)

The Balance of Robert Kastenmeier
4 Wisconsin Law Review (2004)

The Lesson Patterson Taught
11 Journal of Intellectual Property Law ix (2003).

Law Regulating Code Regulating Law
Loyola University of Chicago Law Journal (2003).

The Creative Comons
55 Florida Law Review763 (2003).

An Information Society: Free or Feudal?
The COOK Report on Internet , pp. 102-104 (2003).

Governance
The COOK Report on Internet, pp. 34-39 (2003).

The Place of Cyberlaw
In THE PLACE OF LAW (Austin Sarat & Martha
Merrill Umphrey, eds. 2002).

Open Source Baselines: Compared to What?
In GOVERNMENT POLICY TOWARD OPEN SOURCE
SOFTWARE (Robert W. Hahn, ed. 2002).

Privacy as Property
69 Social Research 247-269 (2002).

The Architecture of Innovation
51 Duke Law Journal 1783 (2002).

Innovating Copyright
20 Cardozo Arts & Entertainment Law Journal 611
(2002).

The End of End-to-End: Preserving the Architecture of the Internet in the Broadband Era
(with Mark Lemley)
48 UCLA Law Review 925 (2001).

Architecting Innovation
49 Drake Law Review 397 (2001).

Preface to a Conference on Trust
81 Boston University Law Review 329 (2001).

The Internet Under Siege
Foreign Policy, November 1, 2001.

Privacy and Attention Span
89 Georgetown Law Journal 2063 (2001).

Copyright’s First Amendment
48 UCLA Law Review 1057 (2001).

A Roundtable Discussion with Lawrence Lessig, David G. Post, and Jeffrey Rosen; Moderated and Edited by Thomas E. Baker
49 Drake Law Review 441 (2001).

Foreword: Symposium Cyberspace and Privacy
52 Stanford Law Review 987 (2000).

The Death of Cyberspace
57 Washington & Lee Law Review 337 (2000).

Open Access to Cable Modems
(with Mark Lemley)
22 Whittier Law Review 3 (2000).

Code is Law: On Liberty in Cyberspace
Harvard Magazine, (Jan-Feb 2000).

Innovation, Regulation and the Internet
11 American Prospect (March 2000).

On the Contribution of Robert Fano
Proceedings of the IEEE (December 1999).

The Law of the Horse: What Cyberlaw Might Teach
113 Harvard Law Review 501 (1999) .

Zoning Internet Speech (with Paul Resnick)
98 Michigan Law Review 395(1999).

The Limits in Open Code: Regulatory Standards and the Future of the Net<br> 14 Berkeley Technology Law Journal 759 (1999).

The Architecture of Privacy
1 Vanderbilt Journal of Entertainment Law & Practice
56 (1999).

Commons and Code
9 Fordham Intellectual Property, Media and
Entertainment Law Journal 459 (1999).

Open Code and Open Societies: Values of Internet
Governance
74 Chicago Kent Law Review 1405 (1999).

Understanding Federalism’s Text
66 George Washington Law Review 1218 (1998).

What Things Regulate Speech
38 Jurimetrics 629 (Summer 1998).

The New Chicago School
27 Journal of Legal Studies 661 (1998).

Judicial Influence: A Citation Analysis of Federal Courts of Appeals Judges
(with William Landes and Michael Solimine)
27Journal of Legal Studies 271 (1998).

The Erie-Effects of Volume 110: An Essay on Context in Interpretive Theory
110 Harvard Law Review 1785 (1997).

Lessons from a Line Item Veto Law
47 Case Western Reserve Law Review 1659 (1997).

The Puzzling Persistence of Bellbottom Theory: What a Constitutional Theory Should Be
15 Georgetown Law Journal 1837 (1997).

The Constitution of Code: Limitations on Choice-Based Critiques of Cyberspace Regulation
5 CommLaw Conspectus 181 (1997).

Intellectual Property and Code
11 St. Johns Journal of Legal Commentary 635
(1997).

Constitution and Code
27 Cumberland Law Review 1 (1997).

Fidelity and Constraint
65 Fordham Law Review 1365 (1997).

Reading the Constitution in Cyberspace
45 Emory Law Review 869 (1996).

The Zones of Cyberspace
48 Stanford Law Review 1403 (1996).

Translating Federalism: United States v. Lopez
1995 Supreme Court Review 125 (1996).

What Drives Derivability: Response to Responding to Imperfection (Book Review)
74 Texas Law Review 839 (1996).

Post-Constitutionalism (Book Review)
94 Michigan Law Review 1422 (1996).

Making Sense of the Hague Tribunal
Eastern European Constitutional Review, Fall, 1996.

Grounding the Virtual Magistrate
(with Jack Goldsmith)
http://www.law.vill.edu/ncair/disres/groundvm.htm .

Social Meaning and Social Norms
144 University of Pennsylvania Law Review 2181
(1996).

The Limits of Lieber
16 Cardozo Law Review. 2249 (1995).

The Path of Cyberlaw
104 Yale Law Journal. 1743 (1995).

The Regulation of Social Meaning
62 University of Chicago Law Review 943 (1995).

Understanding Changed Readings: Fidelity and Theory
47 Stanford Law Review 395 (1995).

An Introduction to the New Russian Constitutional Court
Eastern European Constitutional Review, (Winter
1995).

An Empirical Analysis of the 7th Circuit
43 DePaul Law Review 673 (1994).

A Review of the Russian Constitution: Separation of Powers
ABA CEELI Project Report, January, 1994.

Redesigning the Russian Court
3 East European Constitutional Review 72-73 (Fall
1994).

The President and the Administration
With Cass Sunstein, 94 Columbia Law Review 1
(1994).

The Path of the Presidency
3 East European Constitutional Review 104 (1994).

Readings by Our Unitary Executive
15 Cardozo Law Review 175 (1993).

Fidelity in Translation
71 Texas Law Review 1165 (1993).

Plastics: Unger and Ackerman on Transformation
98 Yale Law Review 1173 (1989).

Columns

Free, as in Beer
Wired Magazine, September 1, 2006

Where the Truth Lies
Wired Magazine, July 1, 2006

Can Microsoft Save the Net?
Wired Magazine, March 1, 2006

When Theft Serves Art
Wired Magazine, January 1, 2006

Google's Tough Call
Wired Magazine, November 1, 2005

A Rotten Ruling
Wired Magazine, September 1, 2005

The Same Old Song
Wired Magazine, July 1, 2005

Voice-Over-IP's Unlikely Hero
Wired Magazine, May 1, 2005

Why Your Broadband Sucks
Wired Magazine, March 1, 2005

hy Wilco is the Future of Music
Wired Magazine, February 1, 2005

They're Not Worthy
Wired Magazine, January 1, 2005

Technology over Ideology
Wired Magazine, December 1, 2004

Our Kids are in Big Trouble
Wired Magazine, October 1, 2004

Porn Free
Wired Magazine, September 1, 2004

Copyrighting the President
Wired Magazine, August 1, 2004

Stamping out Good Science
Wired Magazine, July 1, 2004

Antitrust Smackdown
Wired Magazine, June 1, 2004

Protectionism Will Kill Recovery!
Wired Magazine, May 1, 2004

The Stump Speech Silicon Valley Needs to Hear
Wired Magazine, April 1, 2004

Insanely Destructive Devices
Wired Magazine, March 1, 2004

Stop Making Pills Political Prisoners
Wired Magazine, February 1, 2004.

A modest proposal: Hold Hollywood hostage till we kill
farm subsidies
Wired Magazine, January 1, 2004.

Fiber to the People
Wired Magazine, December 1, 2003.

The New Road to the White House
Wired Magazine, November 1, 2003.

May the Source Be With You
Wired, December 2001, p. 78.

Essays

Do Not Bow Down Before the Famous on Copyright
Financial Times, December 7, 2006

Congress Must Keep Broadband Competition Alive
Financial Times, October 19, 2006

No Tolls on the Internet
The Washington Post, June 8, 2006

Creatives Face a Closed Net
Financial Times, December 2005

(Re)Creativity: How Creativity Lives
Copyright and Other Fairy Tales
Elgar Publishers (Scheduled release 2005)

Do You Floss?
London Review of Books, August 18, 2005, Vol. 27 No. 16

Epstein is Smart, but Still Wrong
Technology Review, June 2005

The People Own Ideas!
Technology Review, June 2005

Let a Thousand Googles Bloom
Los Angeles Times, January 12, 2005

The Failures of Fair Use and the Future of Free Culture
Cut: Film as Found Object in Contemporary Video, 2005

Bytes and Bullets
Washington Post, November 24, 2004

Coase's First Question
Regulation, Fall 2004, Vol. 27 No. 3

Fair Use of 'Fair and Balanced'?
Daily Variety, July 14, 2004

How I Lost the Big One
Legal Affairs, March/April 2004

Internet Providers Must Not Dictate Content
Financial Times, February 20, 2004

Open Source, Closed Minds
eWeek.com, October 1, 2003.

The BBC’s lessons for America
Financial Times, September 8, 2003.

Code Breaking: Service Calls
CIO Insight, June 16, 2003, p. 1.

Spamsters Know the Law Will Never Be Enforced
Philadelphia Enquirer, May 9, 2003.

How to unspam the Internet
Philadelphia Enquirer, May 4, 2003.

Wireless Spectrum: Defining the ‘Commons’ in
Cyberspace
CIO Insight, March 13, 2003.

Laying Down the Law
The Guardian(London), March 13, 2003.

Spectrum For All
CIO Insight, March 1, 2003.

Protecting Mickey Mouse at Art’s Expense
New York Times, January 18, 2003, Sec. A, p. 17.

Copy cats and robotic dogs
Red Herring, January 10, 2003.

A Threat to Innovation on the Web
Financial Times, December 12, 2002.

Racing Against Time
CIO Insight, December 1, 2002.

Copyright Law and Roasted Pig
Red Herring, October 22, 2002.

Time to End the Race for Ever-Longer Copyright
Financial Times, October 17, 2002.

A Bounty on Spammers
CIO Insight, September 16, 2002.

Anti-Trusting Microsoft
Red Herring, September 10, 2002, p. 34.

Hollywood v. Silicon Valley: Make Code, Not War
CIO Insight, June 17, 2002.

The End of Innovation?
Stanford Lawyer, Spring 2002, pp. 28-32.

US Should Speed Broadband Development
Newsday, January 10, 2002, p.A35.

Who’s Holding Back Broadband?
Washington Post, January 8, 2002, p. A17.

The Internet’s Undoing
Financial Times, November 29, 2001, p. 23.

It’s Still a Safe World for Microsoft
New York Times, November 9, 2001.

Visible Hand
The Industry Standard, August 13, 2001.

Jail Time in the Digital Age
New York Times, July 30, 2001. p.A17.

Jail Time, Digital Style
Moscow Times, July 31, 2001. p.12.

Antitrust and Verify: Will Microsoft Admit It Has Lost?
The New Republic, July 23, 2001, p.14.

The Limits of Credibility
The Industry Standard, July 23, 2001.

Artful Dodges
The Industry Standard, June 18, 2001.

Copyright Thugs
The Industry Standard, May 7, 2001.

Copyright Extensions Absurd
New York Times, April 30, 2001, p. A19.

Let the Stories Go
New York Times, April 30, 2001, p. A23.

Just Compensation
The Industry Standard, April 16, 2001.

Adobe in Wonderland
The Industry Standard, March 19, 2001.

The Rules of Politics
The Industry Standard, January 15, 2001.

The Rules of Law
The Industry Standard, December 4, 2000.

Government Property
The Industry Standard, October 30, 2000.

Straitjacket on the Internet?
Washington Post, October 25, 2000, p. A31.

Copyrights Rule
The Industry Standard, October 2, 2000.

Behind the Curtain
The Industry Standard, September 4, 2000.

Microsoft Misreads Professor Lessig. Tie Game.
The New Republic, August 14, 2000, pp. 13-14.

Right Back At Ya
The Industry Standard, July 24, 2000.

Europe’s "Me-Too" Patent Law
Financial Times, July 11, 2000.

End Game
The New Republic, June 19, 2000.

The Limits of Copyright
The Industry Standard, June 19, 2000.

Will AOL Own Everything?
Time, June 19, 2000, pp. 106-107.

A Letter to Bill
The Industry Standard, June 5, 2000.

Cracking the Microsoft Case
(with Larry Kramer)
Boston Globe, June 5, 2000

Technology Will Solve Web Privacy Problems
Wall Street Journal, May 31, 2000.

In Search of Skeptics
The Industry Standard, April 17, 2000.

Battling Censorware
The Industry Standard, April 3, 2000.

Should Public Policy Promote Open-Source Software?
American Prospect, April 3, 2000.

Online Patents: Keep Them Pending
Wall Street Journal, March 23, 2000.

Cyberspace Prosecutor
The Industry Standard, February 21, 2000.

Who’s Controlling Cyberspace?
Computerworld, February 7, 2000.

Judgment Calls
Daily Deal, February 2, 2000.

Patent Problems
The Industry Standard, January 21, 2000.

Connection Trouble
Slate Magazine, January 20, 2000.

Common Ground
Slate Magazine, January 19, 2000.

Cyber-Liberty Depends on the Architecture
Slate Magazine, January 18, 2000.

Real World Libertarians and the Net
Slate Magazine, January 17, 2000.

Code and Other Laws of Cyberspace
Slate Magazine, January 17, 2000.

The Net, Version 2000
The Industry Standard, December 27, 1999.

The Prolific Iconoclast: Richard Posner
American Lawyer 109, December 1999.

The Code of Cyberspace
The Industry Standard, December 6, 1999.

G-Rated Browsers
The Industry Standard, December 3, 1999.

Architecting Innovation
The Industry Standard, November 14, 1999.

Filtering Content
The Industry Standard, October 15, 1999.

Thinking Different(ly)
The Industry Standard, September 10, 1999.

The Cable Debate, Pt. II
The Industry Standard, July 20, 1999.

Broadband Blackmail
The Industry Standard, June 15, 1999.

Coding Privacy
The Industry Standard, May 20, 1999.

The Problem with Patents
The Industry Standard, April 23, 1999.

The Code is the Law
The Industry Standard, April 9, 1999.

Memo to the Leviathan
The Industry Standard, March 5, 1999.

Pain in the OS
The Industry Standard, February 5, 1999.

The Spam Wars
The Industry Standard, December 31, 1998.

Net Gains: Will Technology Make CBS
Unconstitutional?
(with Yochai Benkler)
New Republic, December 14, 1998.

Sign It and Weep
The Industry Standard, November 20, 1998.

Digital Dog Tags
The Industry Standard, October 16, 1998.

A Bad Turn for Net Governance
The Industry Standard, September 18, 1998.

In Defiance of the Public Interest
The Washington Post, July 13, 1998.

Tyranny in the Infrastructure
Wired Magazine, 5.07, July, 1997.

A Good Plan for a Bad Idea
op-ed, Wall Street Journal, December 6, 1996.

An End Run to a Balanced Budget
op-ed, L.A. Times, January 17, 1995.

The Supreme Court and Our Future
38 University of Chicago Law School Record 13
(1992).