Lawrence Lessig Reviews The Social Network 223
Hugh Pickens writes "Lawrence Lessig — author, Harvard law professor, co-founder of Creative Commons — reviews The Social Network in The New Republic. Although Lessig says the movie is an 'intelligent, beautiful, and compelling film,' he adds that as a story about Facebook, it is deeply, deeply flawed because the movie fails to even mention the real magic behind the Facebook story, and while everyone walking out out of the movie will think they understand the genius of the internet, almost none of them will have seen the real ethic of internet creativity that makes success stories like Facebook possible. 'Because the platform of the Internet is open and free, or in the language of the day, because it is a "neutral network," a billion Mark Zuckerbergs have the opportunity to invent for the platform,' writes Lessig. 'And that is tragedy because just at the moment when we celebrate the product of these two wonders — Zuckerberg and the Internet — working together, policymakers are conspiring ferociously with old world powers to remove the conditions for this success. As "network neutrality" gets bargained away — to add insult to injury, by an administration that was elected with the promise to defend it — the opportunities for the Zuckerbergs of tomorrow will shrink.' Lessig laments that the creators of the movie didn't understand the ethic of Internet creativity and thought that the real story was the invention of Facebook not the platform that made such democratic innovation possible. 'Zuckerberg is a rightful hero of our time,' concludes Lessig. 'As I looked around at the packed theater of teens and twenty-somethings, there was no doubt who was in the right, however geeky and clumsy and sad. That generation will judge this new world. If, that is, we allow that new world to continue to flourish.'"
He's still a blowhard. (Score:1, Insightful)
'Nuff said.
Comment removed (Score:5, Insightful)
The flaw is .... (Score:4, Insightful)
that there exist people that want to see the movie in the first place....
Re:"the real magic behind the Facebook story..." (Score:5, Insightful)
Right.. (Score:5, Insightful)
Of course! Every movie having anything to do with the internet should be an op-ed piece supporting net neutrality. That'll work.
Re:Has everyone forgotten... (Score:2, Insightful)
Yeah, but at Harvard Business School, I think they call that a "Free Market Economy." He must have been doing some advanced reading before dropping out to pursue a rewarding career as a douche bag.
Re:Narcissism (Score:5, Insightful)
Since when is it "narcissism" to "see" bits of ourselves in characters we read about, or see in film?
Audience identification with characters in artistic works is as old as the media those artistic works have been presented in. Those works with the most timeless, universal themes are generally considered to be some of the best, most durable & long-lasting works - in other words, the ones which MANY people can "see" bits of themselves in.
Empathetic characters are nothing to be scared of or ashamed of. Do you really want films & books about nothing but outsized caricatures of humanity as characters, or filled with people who we are so utterly incapable of identifying with that they might as well be aliens from a civilization antithetical to our own? Because those types of stories might be fun one-trick ponies, but the thought of them doesn't hold much appeal for me.
Facebook is a lame site (Score:0, Insightful)
There are so many better sites, and better ways of accomplishing social networking. It's just that there are so many lamers who just use the easiest, most popular crap without ever knowing, or caring, that there is far better.
Zuckerberg made a walled garden (Score:5, Insightful)
He used the open internet and tools to make a walled garden. Not exactly a triumph of openness.
Re:My concerns about network neutrality. (Score:5, Insightful)
No, this is part of the problem with the network neutrality debate. It actually got started after CEO of some big American telco whose name I forget said things like "Why should Google make money by using my pipes? I paid for those pipes, they should share the costs", ignoring the fact that he was already being paid by his customers. ISPs charging companies for priority access to customers purely on the basis of wanting more profit would clearly be both new and bad, thus network neutrality was born.
Somewhere along the way the debate seems to have got hijacked by those you describe, aka "people wanting free stuff", and somehow bandwidth shaping got lumped in too (sometimes). ISPs controlling how their customers use limited, overcommitted bandwidth isn't new nor particularly alarming, as you point out it can even be seen as a feature by others who aren't sitting on BitTorrent 24/7 and want fast access. Also, anyone can buy dedicated, non-overcommitted bandwidth if they want it by renting a leased line from various providers, so it's not even a matter of lacking choice.
The result is quite a mess. The original principles are sound but what the debate morphed into no longer bears much resemblence to them.
Re:Narcissism (Score:5, Insightful)
Do you really want films & books about nothing but outsized caricatures of humanity as characters, or filled with people who we are so utterly incapable of identifying with that they might as well be aliens from a civilization antithetical to our own?
We call that Atlas Shrugged.
Re:"Zuckerberg is a rightful hero of our time" (Score:5, Insightful)
"In the U.S., morality is praised over quick wit."
You new here or something?
Hard not to mod you as a troll (Score:5, Insightful)
Good one, claim you are not a troll when trolling.
Guns are only wanted by criminals.
Cars are only wanted by speeders.
The article links net neutrality to Facebook. You link it to copyright infringement, completly ignoring the case of Lessig.
Net neutrality means ANYONE, no matter their status has the same access to the web. That means that if I start a website tomorrow, it will be transported around the web with the same speed as Facebook, the ISP's own home page, Apples iTunes, CNN or someone's homepage.
This means I get the same breaks. This is REVOLUTIONARY about the web. BEFORE the web, the only way to be published big was to publish big. ONLY the largest newspapers could afford to distribute cross country, nevermind distribute globally. With the internet, MY website can be accessed ANYWHERE!
This allows me to compete. Imagine if Myspace had simply been able to buy special access. If ISP's could demand of every website a fee to be distributed like with Cable TV. Can't pay the fee? Then you don't get on their network. How was Facebook to startup then? How can you start a new tv network without millions in backing and the lockin that brings?
How CAN I start a new news network that broadcasts to every home independent of the powers that be if I need the powers that be to pay for the access?
If you don't get this, if you think it is about copyright infringement then you are the person who wanted presses banned because it allowed books to be owned by poor people. Either you are too stupid to get freedom, or you hate freedom.
There is no middle ground in this. You can't put restrictions on who can access a media and expect everyone to be able to use it. Unless of course you think only those with enough money should have a voice.
What the press did for political freedom, the internet is doing a thousand times over. But then, if you take your freedom for granted, or worse are willing to sell it, then I suppose none of this means anything.
Perhaps you are not a troll after all. There are worse things then trolls. People who do not value freedom. A willing slave.
Re:My concerns about network neutrality. (Score:1, Insightful)
Net neutrality is not about restricting types of content. Without net neutrality firms like ISPs can charge their users for access to the internet and then turn around and say to companies that unless they pay up the ISP will throttle triffic to and from their site. Net neutrality is about companies double dipping, which goes against the point of the internet.
Considering the amount of money many porn sites make, this won't have any effect on them but may shut down other businesses who don't want to pay every single ISP out there for fair access.
And don't be fooled, once it starts becoming common practice businesses will have to pay every ISP.
Lawrence Lessig on a soapbox (Score:4, Insightful)
The openness and magical qualities of the internet was not the plot of the story. The [fictional] movie was about friendship, betrayal, and the abrasive personality of Mark Zuckerberg. Rating the film down because it was lacking an explaination of the internet is stupid, and it seems more like an opportunity to talk about something Lessig cares about.
It was an interesting movie btw. After watching it I went home and Google'd Sean Parker info because I didn't know he had a hand in facebook. I also wanted to find out whether he was as big a douchebag as they played him out to be on the movie.
Re:"Zuckerberg is a rightful hero of our time" (Score:3, Insightful)
It's ironic that you chose Prometheus as the dubious divinity because he's been adopted by our culture as the patron saint of progress. You'll find his image everywhere that human ingenuity is celebrated, from the famous statue in the Rockefeller Center to Ayn Rand's paean to Prometheus in Atlas Shrugged. As a god he celebrates the best part in all of us, the cleverness that separates us from the animals.
Nothing gets a Monday started like a great joke. Thanks man!
Re:My concerns about network neutrality. (Score:5, Insightful)
Mind you, there's another aspect to this as well, which is the whole "double dipping" problem. Because what I, you, and every other ISP subscriber out there are paying for is (at least used to be) a connection that would deliver whatever we requested at the speed we paid for. We're still doing that, but the providers are trying to take a cut from the people on the other side of the connection as well, and that's where we get into problems. See, if I want to go to "watchingpaintdry.com" and stream it 24 hours a day, I should be able to use just as much bandwidth as if I were watching Hulu. Because I paid for it. Because it's good for competition. Because if my ISP limits watchingpaintdry.com to a lower bandwidth in an attempt to extort them into paying them off, they degrade the utility and quality of the service I paid for.
Like Lessig said, the beauty of the platform is its openness. All the ISPs have to do is route bits to your home at the rate you paid for. And because those bits can come from anybody, the platform is incredibly useful as a multi-purpose tool. Except if all they're doing is routing bits, they lose all those money-making goodies like advertisements and service add-ons, and they don't want that. It's greed, pure and simple.
Re:He's still a blowhard. (Score:3, Insightful)
If nothing else he's a little bit obsessed. Not every motion picture about WWII is about the Holocaust. That doesn't make those movies crashing rhetorical failures, it just means they had a different subject.
Re:My concerns about network neutrality. (Score:3, Insightful)
Oh, you've just not heard from Google and others...
Net Neutrality is about not dinking with traffic- just deliver it.
Net Neutrality is about not interfering with bittorrent traffic- I don't pirate, I get Linux distributions and other things that're a LEGITIMATE use of that protocol.
Net Neutrality is about not interfering with SIP traffic from a competing telecom interest so that the ISP can sell their own SIP or h.323 service.
Net Neutrality is about not interfering with HTTP traffic going to/from Google and all of those others you mention.
It's all of that. And it DOES affect you. You're wrong like you surmise at the end of your post.
The fact that Obama and the Dems promised something along these lines, haven't done much WITH it, and what they've done is much like what they did with Healthcare "Reform", makes for interesting discussion- but that's not really germane to the thread you started here and would just merely start up a flamefest from the liberal and conservative crowd on /. :-D
Re:My concerns about network neutrality. (Score:4, Insightful)
Network neutrality is not about "free stuff" at all, it's about no discrimination based on source and destination. If a cartel of major ISPs is paid to promote YouTube, say, at the expense of everyone else's video site, small businesses everywhere will feel the sting. And the other big thing here is censorship. Without network neutrality, a Christian lobby, for example, may be able to block or throttle down A LOT of stuff. And, considering how much money they have, you can be sure that the network content will become more similar to the day-time cable.
Your point about wanting to access movies and music without paying for it is without merit. We are all paying for data transfer, and without network neutrality in place, even the free-as-in-freedom content which artists created with the intention of sharing freely will be marginalized, because it will compete with a handful of extremely well-funded commercial offerings.
A car analogy really works here, I think. The internet is kind of like the road system: it is designed from the ground up so that any host can communicate with any other host, as long as they pay for data transfer. Just like the roads are designed so that anyone in the USA can travel anywhere in the USA, as long as they have a car or can afford a bus. Imagine that almost all good roads in the USA are private and that there is no law which amounts to "road neutrality". The road barons would be able to isolate whole states and prevent the workforce from moving to a place with better employment opportunities. In this context, your opposition is similar to saying that we don't need road neutrality because some people would use it to drive to a titty bar. Who cares, there is much, much more at stake: our freedom to express ourselves, to educate ourselves, and our economic freedom.
Re:My concerns about network neutrality. (Score:5, Insightful)
My real concern is that the proponents of network neutrality just want to be able to have unabated access to download music and movies and porn without paying for them - that there's no real "freedom" issues at hand; it's just people wanting free stuff.
The trouble with fighting for human freedom is that one spends most of one's time defending scoundrels. For it is against scoundrels that oppressive laws are first aimed, and oppression must be stopped at the beginning if it is to be stopped at all. (H. L. Mencken)
Re:Facebook is a lame site (Score:4, Insightful)
Yes, I wonder why someone would use popularity as a guide to choose a social network.
Re:Has everyone forgotten... (Score:5, Insightful)
and:
I don't know the particulars (if the code was part of a work for hire, then Zuckerberg would be guilty of copyright infringement for his subsequent use of it... but that doesn't appear to be what is alleged), but assuming Lessig's account of the facts is correct, then Zuckerberg didn't "steal" anything. At least, he didn't break any laws. He may have appropriated other's ideas without credit, but plagiarism itself isn't illegal.
However I do disagree with Lessig's suggestion that we should admire Zuckerberg. It seems to me that, even if he stayed within the bounds of the law, he built-up Facebook by being mean, cut-throat, and ruthless. That makes him a bad person, regardless of the grand things he has was able to legally deploy with his tactics.
Genius overblown, evil underrepresented (Score:3, Insightful)
Since about 1995, it's not a big deal to score 1600 on the SAT--a good fraction of 1% of test-takers manages this. In prior years, with different scoring adjustments in place, only a handful in a million would score so high.
None of the programming Zuckerberg was portrayed as having done in the movie required great ability, except perhaps to do it while drunk. The programming required to produce facemash was minimal, however.
The movie omits other Zuckerberg evil antics.
http://www.businessinsider.com/mark-zuckerbergs-and-privacy-crimes-2010-3
Re:He's still a blowhard. (Score:2, Insightful)
Blowhard? Who modded that "insightful", someone from the BSA? rather than a "blowhard", he has passionately defended the public space, even as a lawyer before the Supreme Court (too bad he lost the case).
Blowhards have little or nothing to say. Lessig has a lot to say, all of it important. Nobody but one of his enemies would call him a "blowhard". interesting how it's an AC calling Lessig a blowhard, isn't it? Even more interesting how the AC's uninsightful and plain-assed incorrect comment was modded up?
Odd how those who are against freedom can only attack its proponents?
Re:My concerns about network neutrality. (Score:3, Insightful)
This post is wrong but useful. Since it shows what many "non-techies" (including politicians) think net neutrality is.
Re:Lawrence Lessig on a soapbox (Score:5, Insightful)
I admire Lessig, appreciate his political arguments, and recommend his books to others frequently. However, I've got to say, this seems like an instance of Lessig using a topical event to talk about what he wants to talk about, which is almost completely unrelated to the initial topic.
Also, I can't see the point of praising Zuckerberg so strongly. He designed a social media site that was slightly less crappy than the other competing social media sites that existed when he introduced it. Most of the work of promoting social media sites is done by their users; in the case of Facebook, there's also the constant spam from crappy games by the egregiously manipulative Zynga. There are lots of smart, hard-working, but unscrupulous and greedy entrepreneurs; Zuckerberg is simply luckier than most of them. I don't see how Zuckerberg deserves any praise.
It seems to me it weakens Lessig's message to praise Zuckerberg.
OK. He's a Drama Queen. Feel Better Now? (Score:4, Insightful)
I mean, come on. It was everything I could do to keep the Star-Spangled Banner from playing spontaneously through my speakers when I read that summary. I appreciate that he is an advocate for Freedom with a capital "F" and all that good stuff, but Christ Almighty, Lessig, learn to pick your spots. It's a movie review!
actually what I took away was... (Score:2, Insightful)
you can't put a price on cool. Damn I miss the .com days. So sick of business getting cheap.
Re:So the solution is to doom everyone to the slow (Score:5, Insightful)
I have no problem with tiered bandwidth plans. I play online games and stream movies and TV shows over Hulu and Netflix so I gladly pay for the top tier service to have the most available bandwidth. My parents check email and read the news online so they have the basic tier. There's no need for everyone to have a 30/10 Internet connection.
To quote SaveTheInternet.com
"Net Neutrality means no discrimination. Net Neutrality prevents Internet providers from blocking, speeding up or slowing down Web content based on its source, ownership or destination....The free and open Internet brings with it the revolutionary possibility that any Internet site could have the reach of a TV or radio station. The loss of Net Neutrality would end this unparalleled opportunity for freedom of expression."
Since you cite Comcast as the example, they just bought NBC. Without Network Neutrality, what's to stop Comcast from throttling the ABC and CBS websites unless they pay for top tier service? The lack of neutrality undermines competition and traps us in a system where a few powerful corporations control the content we see and hear. When was the last time you heard independent music on a radio station that wasn't in a college town? ClearChannel decides what music you want to hear and then puts it on repeat.
The success of the Internet itself and the countless success stories that have arisen from the Internet are because of the unfettered access it gives you to the rest of the world. Anyone can create something and share it with everyone without a corporation deciding to charge them or even prevent them from sharing because it doesn't agree with the corporation's viewpoint.
Re:He's still a blowhard. (Score:3, Insightful)
Well said. Every review I've seen coming down on the film for not understanding its subject, seems to come from a reviewer who didn't understand the film.
Re:Has everyone forgotten... (Score:2, Insightful)
Re:My concerns about network neutrality. (Score:3, Insightful)
Somewhere along the way the debate seems to have got hijacked by those you describe, aka "people wanting free stuff", and somehow bandwidth shaping got lumped in too (sometimes).... The original principles are sound but what the debate morphed into no longer bears much resemblence to them.
The debate has not been 'hijacked by people wanting free stuff', the telcos are deliberately muddying the waters in order to prevent the public from clearly understanding what is at stake, and preventing the government from playing his role regulating the industry.
The people you cite as hijackers are not the one controlling the PR firms and the lobby money. Follow the money.
Re:"the real magic behind the Facebook story..." (Score:3, Insightful)
One, as you rightly point out, is that services such as Facebook have to be underwritten somehow. They're commercial ventures, pure and simple. So if they seem to be free, it's only because you haven't found the catch.
The other is the Internet platform which itself makes Facebook possible. Lessig describes it as "open and free", and he doesn't mean apparently free but truly, unconditionally, free. This kind of freedom is possible because it creates greater benefit than hoarding. There is no catch.
Re:Was Zuckenberg's portrayal supposed to flatteri (Score:3, Insightful)
Be fair, though. However he earned his money, Bill Gates as an individual has done at least eight metric shit-tons more good in the world than Mark Zuckerberg ever has.
Gates has also done at least eight metric shit-tons more harm in the world than Mark Zuckerberg ever has.
But then, Zuckerberg is a lot younger.
Re:"the real magic behind the Facebook story..." (Score:2, Insightful)
There are things that are worth burning a bit of your privacy on to get something in return. Sadly, many people's thresholds for that sort of thing are kind-of low because they don't know just how valuable it really is.
I agree that it is a very sad state of affairs that most of the younger generation/s these days seem to give so little thought to their personal privacy. Being of a conspiratorial bent I suspect that the concept of privacy is being trained out of the young. It's only a minor step from 'Privacy's Overrated' to 'Freedom's Overrated'.