John Lam sent me a mail with a link to Lawrence Lessig's OSCON 2002 presentation...

I listened to the entire presentation and looked at the slides... The slides where awesome. I've seen other presentations with this same kind of style and I absolutely love it. The message that Lessig has is really interesting also. I still don't know how I personally feel about some of these copyright and patent issues... I totally understand the value of scientific innovations building on past innovations, but I also believe that those that fund innovation should reap the benefit. If nothing else, the talk was amazingly engaging...

It is always good to keep an open mind to new ideas... even if they are from 1790.