The only things that will not be free are the things created by people who are doing it precisely because they want to put out a product and want to make money off of it. And the copyright system does a very good job of supporting that, and leaving the rest of the stuff basically in the public domain.
Predictor: Lehman, Bruce
Prediction, in context:A 1995 article for Educom Review quotes Bruce Lehman, U.S. Commissioner of Patent and Trademarks. Lehman says: ”A lot of the people who use the slogan ‘information should be free’ assume that simply because one talks about copyright one is suggesting that all kinds of things that are now free ought not to be free anymore – and I think that assumption is enormously mistaken. Most things are and will be free, because people have no interest in asserting their copyright. The only things that will not be free are the things created by people who are doing it precisely because they want to put out a product and want to make money off of it. And the copyright system does a very good job of supporting that, and leaving the rest of the stuff basically in the public domain.”
Date of prediction: January 1, 1995
Topic of prediction: Controversial Issues
Subtopic: Copyright/Intellectual Property/Plagiarism
Name of publication: Educom Review
Title, headline, chapter name: Interview with Bruce Lehman
Quote Type: Direct quote
Page number or URL of document at time of study:
Page 30
This data was logged into the Elon/Pew Predictions Database by: Anderson, Janna Quitney