# Quote — Lawrence Lessig, Free Culture

> Of all the creative work produced by humans anywhere, a tiny fraction has continuing commercial value. For that tiny fraction, the copyright is a crucially important legal device. For that tiny fraction, the copyright creates incentives to produce and distribute the creative work. For that tiny fraction, the copyright acts as an "engine of free expression."
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> But even for that tiny fraction, the actual time during which the creative work has a commercial life is extremely short. As I've indicated, most books go out of print within one year. The same is true of music and film. Commercial culture is sharklike. It must keep moving. And when a creative work falls out of favor with the commercial distributors, the commercial life ends.

- Author: [Lawrence Lessig](https://www.leafyquotes.com/lawrence-lessig.md)
- Book: [Free Culture](https://www.leafyquotes.com/lawrence-lessig/free-culture.md)
- Source: [Wikiquote](https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Lawrence_Lessig#Free_Culture_(2004)) ([CC BY-SA 4.0](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/))
- Quote page: https://www.leafyquotes.com/lawrence-lessig/free-culture/of-all-the

## More from this book

> We, the most powerful democracy in the world, have developed a strong norm against talking about politics. It's fine to talk about politics with people you agree with. But it is rude to argue about politics with people you disagree with. Political discourse becomes isolated, and isolated discourse becomes more extreme. We say what our friends want to hear, and hear very little beyond what our friends say.

[Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/lawrence-lessig/free-culture/we-the-most.md)

> The law should regulate in certain areas of culture — but it should regulate culture only where that regulation does good. Yet lawyers rarely test their power, or the power they promote, against this simple pragmatic question: "Will it do good?" When challenged about the expanding reach of the law, the lawyer answers, "Why not?"
>
> We should ask, "Why?" Show me why your regulation of culture is needed. Show me how it does good. And until you can show me both, keep your lawyers away.

[Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/lawrence-lessig/free-culture/the-law-should.md)

> When it has become silly to suppose that the role of our government should be to "seek balance," then count me with the silly, for that means that this has become quite serious indeed. If it should be obvious to everyone that the government does not seek balance, that the government is simply the tool of the most powerful lobbyists, that the idea of holding the government to a different standard is absurd, that the idea of demanding of the government that it speak truth and not lies is just naïve, then who have we, the most powerful democracy in the world, become?

[Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/lawrence-lessig/free-culture/when-it-has.md)