The Trouble With Larry.

"The Trouble With Larry." Forbes (2004) Vol. 173 Issue 6, p84, 1p

The article is a response to Lessig and his beliefs than anything else. The technology section of Forbes Magazine is usually not a theater for copyright arguments and Manes goal is clear from the beginning of the article: to discredit Lessig and his extreme view of fair use. As such, Manes’ arguments are less academic and more of a subjective style. While this has limited value, Manes opinion serves as at least a dissenting view of the situation. It is these general disagreements in which Manes basis his article.

Manes believes that there is a strong need for a balanced definition of fair use for copyright law, but that Lessig’s opinion is far too liberal, allowing for illegal activities to occur at the expense of the creators. To finish his attack on Lessig, Manes points to a Supreme Court ruling that Lessig lost attempting to reform the current copyright law. Lessig believes in legal file sharing and is a proponent of technology, whereas Manes prefers current law is adequate.

A major point of disagreement comes from the fact that Manes believes a new copyright law similar in proposal to Lessig’s would be detrimental to our current international copyright law. If changed, Manes argues, it could effectively destroy treaties, agreements, and current practices of media culture, thus greatly affecting America’s cultural export.

The closing comment relates to my thesis in that Manes argues that current copyright law has established the United States as the major culture center in the world. He states that “our intellectual property provides America’s greatest worldwide successes,” and that current copyright law facilitates this flow. Manes credits current copyright law to the success and globalization of American movies and music and that Lessig’s attempt to change copyright laws would greatly detriment this.

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The Trouble With Larry.