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Projects & Tools

Artificial Intelligence and the Law

This initiative focuses on new challenges and opportunities for the law created by the rise of AI.

Creative Commons

Creative Commons helps you legally share your knowledge and creativity to build a more equitable, accessible, and innovative world.

Past

Internet Law Program (iLaw)

Taught by world-renowned experts in the field, the Berkman Klein Center’s Internet Law Program addresses the most pressing cyberlaw issues being debated by lawmakers in the U.S…

Openlaw

[Berkman Project 2001-2002] Openlaw is an experiment in crafting legal argument in an open forum.


Publications

Dec 30, 2006

Code: Version 2.0

Lessig's "Code and Other Laws of Cyberspace" was published in 1999. The book quickly began to define a certain vocabulary for thinking about the regulation of cyberspace. More…

Jan 1, 2005

Net Dialogue Perspectives on International Net Governance

There is an urgent need for policymakers to prepare for the future and not just focus on problems of the past. To do so, they need to maintain better dialogue with the technology…

Mar 25, 2004

Free Culture

How Big Media Uses Technology and the Law to Lock Down Culture and Control Creativity

In his two previous books, CODE and THE FUTURE OF IDEAS, Lessig concentrated on the destruction of much of the original promise of the Internet. Now, in FREE CULTURE, he widens…

Dec 1, 2001

The Future of Ideas

The Fate of the Commons in a Connected World

Book Description, from Amazon: The Internet revolution has come. Some say it has gone. In The Future of Ideas, Lawrence Lessig explains how the revolution has produced a…

Dec 15, 1999

Zoning Speech on the Internet: A Legal and Technical Model

Speech, it is said, divides into three sorts — (1) speech that everyone has a right to (political speech, speech about public affairs); (2) speech that no one has a right to …

Dec 15, 1999

Code and Other Laws of Cyberspace

From the Book Jacket "[Lessig] has staked out a role as one of academia's avant-garde thinkers about cyberspace and the law." The Wall Street Journal "Lessig's…

Dec 3, 1999

The Law of the Horse: What Cyberlaw Might Teach

A few years ago, at a conference on the “Law of Cyberspace” held at the University of Chicago, Judge Frank Easterbrook told the assembled listeners, a room packed with “cyberlaw”…

May 20, 1999

Open Code / Open Content / Open Law: Building a Digital Commons

Strategic Planning Session Paper

The Berkman Center proposed the formation of a legally independent nonprofit entity - a consortium of educational centers to foster the development of open software, open research…

Mar 8, 1999

The Censorship of Television

Only an informed public can meaningfully participate in decisions about matters of public import. Television is one aspect of an informal public education. Thus...we should…

May 11, 1998

What Things Regulate Speech: CDA 2.0 vs. Filtering (Draft 3.01)

In 1995, California passed a statute making it a crime to sell porn in vending machines. More precisely, the statute made it a crime to sell “harmful matter” (meaning harmful to…


News

The New York Times
Sep 24, 2024

Rethinking ‘Checks and Balances’ for the A.I. Age

Can our institutions account for AI?

Mar 17, 2011

Radio Berkman 175: Lessig and Zittrain Take On...the Kill Switch

This week on Radio Berkman: Professors Lessig and Zittrain discuss turning off the Internet, the "Cybersecurity and Internet Freedom Act of 2011," and more, with Andrew McLaughlin…

Dec 9, 2010

Radio Berkman 171: Wikileaks and the Information Wars

This week on Radio Berkman: Zittrain, Lessig, and the Berkman Center Fellows explore many facets surrounding the Wikileaks imbroglio, including the values of transparency and…

Dec 2, 2010

Radio Berkman 170: Lessig and Zittrain take on... Corruption!

This week on Radio Berkman: With the November elections behind us here in the US Jonathan Zittrain and Lawrence Lessig take on the issue of money in politics, and investigate how…

Oct 15, 2010

Radio Berkman 165: Zittrain & Lessig TAKE ON...Net Neutrality!

This week, Radio Berkman rolls out the second episode in a new, special series of conversations between Professor Lessig and Professor Zittrain, and the topic is especially thorny…

Sep 9, 2010

Radio Berkman 162: Lessig & Zittrain Take On...Competition

This week, Radio Berkman returns from summer vacation with a big new episode in which Professors Lessig and Zittrain think through the Microsoft antitrust case and its…

Jun 9, 2010

Law.gov workshops on June 17 and 18

Registration is open!

Next Thursday (6/17) and Friday (6/18) the Harvard Law School Library and the Berkman Center for Internet & Society will host two workshops focused on the Law.gov initiative, a…

May 6, 2009

Reflections on ten years of Code

Jonathan Zittrain takes up the "arguments over cyberlibertarianism sparked by the release of [Lessig's] Code [and Other Laws of Cyberspace]" at Cato Unbound...

News
Apr 21, 2009

On Remix and Born Digital

book reviews in Science Magazine

The Books et al. section in the current issue of Science features two Berkman Center-related pieces of interest to the wider community. Yochai Benkler considers Lawrence Lessig's…

News
Dec 12, 2008

Cambridge bound!

Lawrence Lessig receives two Harvard appointments

Tremendous news: former Berkman Center faculty director Lawrence Lessig is returning to Harvard as a professor of law and faculty director of Harvard's Edmond J. Safra Foundation…

Oct 22, 2008

Piracy on the Choppy Copyright (C)s

The Digital Natives project has been doing a lot of thinking about digital piracy and creativity lately...

Aug 29, 2008

New opportunities with Berkman Center friends

The UC Berkeley School of Law is seeking a clinical professor to serve as the director of the Samuelson Law, Technology and Public Policy Clinic. And Stanford Law School has…


Community

The Nation

Big Tech Is Very Afraid of a Very Modest AI Safety Bill

Despite claiming to support AI safety, powerful tech interests are trying to kill SB1047.

"It’s like saying that a bill addressing wildfire risks should be rejected because it doesn’t address flooding risks."

Aug 30, 2024
The Economist

Not all AI Models should be Freely Available, Argues a Legal Scholar

The more capable they are, the greater the risk of catastrophe, reckons Lawrence Lessig

Lawrence Lessig argues highlights important differences between AI models and other sorts of software more amenable to open-source principles.

Jul 29, 2024
Above the Law

Harvard Law School Professor Finds ChatGPT Invents Fake Law Less Than The Supreme Court

BKC Faculty Associate Larry Lessig interacts with ChatGPT, finding that it ChatGPT was both more forthright and more analytically astute about the tensions (and worse) in Supreme…

Nov 28, 2023
The Hill

Elon Musk’s Twitter is a ‘$44 billion albatross’ a year later

BKC Faculty Associate Larry Lessig discusses Twitter, now X, a year after Elon Musk's takeover of the platform.

Oct 31, 2023
The Verge

Harvard professor Lawrence Lessig on why AI and social media are causing a free speech crisis for the internet

BKC Faculty Associate Larry Lessig speaks with The Verge's Nilay Patel about BKC's new Applied Social Media Lab and why AI and social media are causing a free speech crisis for…

Oct 24, 2023

Courses

Digital Platforms - Spring 2014

The Internet operates in layers, and so does much of the technology that hooks up to it: PCs, mobile phones, tablets. Nearly two decades ago those platforms were conceptually…

The Law of Cyberspace: Social Protocols - Fall 1998

The class will consider the interaction between policy and technology, or more specifically, between law and various architectures of cyberspace. We will cover topics including…

The Microsoft Case - Fall 1998

Professors Lessig and Zittrain will teach a research seminar on the Microsoft case. The seminar will meet at least once a week, beginning the week of 9/21. It will review the…

The High Tech Entrepreneur - Winter 1998

The High Tech Entrepreneur - Winter 1998

The Law of Cyberspace - Winter 1997

This seminar will explore issues related to the regulation of cyberspace. It is not a course in computer law, or copyright, or intellectual property. It is instead an effort to…

The Law of Cyberspace - Winter 1997

This seminar will explore issues related to the regulation of cyberspace.


Events

Sep 12, 2024 @ 1:30 PM

Beyond Discourse Dumpster Fires

Strategies and Tools for Better Online Civil Space

Join us on Thursday, September 12th, 2024, from 1:30-5:00 pm ET for a series of panels featuring leading technologists, researchers, and civil society leaders to learn more about…

Event
May 8, 2024 @ 4:00 PM

Democracy and Technology

Democratic values are facing significant challenges globally, with democratic processes often feeling stagnant as social technologies become increasingly integrated into our…

Oct 23, 2023 @ 6:00 PM

The YouTube Effect: film screening and conversation with director Alex Winter

Join us for a screening of "The YouTube Effect," followed by a conversation with writer-director Alex Winter, BU professor Joan Donovan, data scientist Avriel Epps, and HLS…

Oct 17, 2023 @ 12:00 PM

Artificial Intelligence and the Law

Lightning Talks with Experts

Join us for a series of lightning talks to kick off of the Initiative on Artificial Intelligence and the Law...

Event
Feb 26, 2019 @ 12:00 PM

Waking Up to the Internet Platform Disaster

Featuring the author Roger McNamee in conversation with Lawrence Lessig

PODCAST & VIDEO: A former mentor to Mark Zuckerberg explains the danger posed by Facebook, Google and other internet platforms and what we must do about it.

Event
Apr 16, 2018 @ 4:00 PM

Force of Nature

Celebrating 20 Years of the Laws of Cyberspace

Join us as we celebrate 20 years of the Laws of Cyberspace and the ways in which it laid the groundwork for our Center's field of study.

Nov 21, 2011 @ 6:00 PM

Intellectual Property Strategy

John Palfrey, Berkman Center Faculty Co-Director and Vice Dean for Library and Information Resources at Harvard Law School + Special Guests

Entrepreneurs, corporate managers and nonprofit administrators should look at intellectual property as a key strategic asset. In his new book, “Intellectual Property Strategy” …

Nov 1, 2011 @ 5:00 PM

Republic, Lost: How Money Corrupts Congress--and a Plan to Stop It

A conversation between Lawrence Lessig and David Gergen

Professor David Gergen, Director of the Harvard Kennedy School’s Center for Public Leadership converses with Professor Lawrence Lessig about his new book, "Republic, Lost: How…

Jun 17, 2010 @ 10:00 AM

Law.gov: Massachusetts

Do we have access to all primary legal materials in Massachusetts? What are the best practices for making information accessible? Join a Law.gov workshop focused on outlining the…

Feb 25, 2010 @ 6:00 PM

Wireside Chat with Lawrence Lessig: Fair Use, Politics, and Online Video

Lawrence Lessig, the foundational voice of the free culture movement, will deliver a talk on fair use and politics from Harvard Law School in Cambridge, Massachusetts.

Event
Dec 12, 2008 @ 6:30 PM

The Commons: Celebrating accomplishments, discerning futures

Jamie Boyle, Lawrence Lessig, Joi Ito, Molly S. Van Houweling, and Jonathan Zittrain

Creative Commons and the Berkman Center for Internet & Society present "The Commons: Celebrating accomplishments, discerning futures" tonight.

Apr 4, 2008 @ 6:00 PM

Building the Change Congress Movement

Lawrence Lessig

Lawrence Lessig returned to Cambridge to speak about Change Congress, a project to build support for reforming how the United States government functions.

Oct 1, 2000 @ 9:57 PM

The Future of Intellectual Property on the Internet: A Debate

Lawrence Lessig and Jack Valenti

The Berkman Center presented a debate between Valenti and Lessig on the future of intellectual property online.

Nov 8, 1999 @ 3:59 AM

Technology and Culture Book Panel

The Berkman Center webcast a Harvard Bookstore technology book panel featuring Neil Postman, Stewart Brand, James O'Donnell, Berkman Fellow John Perry Barlow, and Berkman…