[$] Lawrence Lessig on East-Coast vs West-Coast code

At SCALE12x in Los Angeles, Harvard law professor Lawrence Lessig delivered an opening keynote that challenged the free software community to do something it does not normally attempt: engage with the political system. Lessig is perhaps best known as a public advocate for reform in the US government's patent and copyright systems and for his activism in intellectual property issues (such as founding Creative Commons), but in recent years he has focused his attention on the more fundamental problems of how campaign financing skews the political system, severely hindering the chances for real reform in many public policy areas. As he explained to the SCALE crowd, however, those affected public policy areas include some key technology issues—and Lessig's own commitment to the cause he credits directly to his friendship with developer Aaron Swartz.