Creative Commons Founder Lawrence Lessig to Speak April 20 at Smith

Former presidential candidate Lawrence Lessig, the founder of Creative Commons and a professor at Harvard Law School, will speak in Weinstein Auditorium at Smith at 5 p.m. on Wednesday, April 20. His talk, which is open to the public at no charge, is part of Smith’s Presidential Colloquium series, “Thinking in Public in a Networked World.”

Lessig’s talk will focus on “Equal Citizens.” “Everyone is obsessing about the corrupting influence of money in politics—Democrats and Republicans alike,” Lessig writes. “But now it is time to recognize the more fundamental problem this corruption represents.” In this talk, Lessig recovers the most radical and extraordinary part of commitments of our flawed founders—equality—and shows how the wide range of problems we face are all tied to the betrayal of that equality.

The Roy L. Furman Professor of Law and Leadership at Harvard Law School, Lessig made headlines last August when he launched an exploratory campaign for the Democratic presidential nomination, saying he would seek the nomination if he could raise $1 million by Labor Day in a campaign focused on campaign finance reform and voter access. Lessig reached his $1 million goal one day ahead of schedule, but ended his campaign in November 2015 when it became clear that he would not be invited to participate in that month’s presidential debate.

Before launching his presidential campaign, Lessig was well known as the co-founder of Creative Commons, a non-profit organization devoted to expanding the range of creative works available for others to build upon legally and to share. He also has been a leading proponent of Net neutrality.

Lessig has led a distinguished academic career. Appointed to Harvard Law’s Furman Chair in 2009, he previously served as director of the Edmond J. Safra Center for Ethics at Harvard University, founded the Center for Internet and Society at Stanford University, and served on the faculty at the University of Chicago. Earlier in life, he clerked for Judge Richard Posner on the 7th Circuit Court of Appeals and Justice Antonin Scalia on the United States Supreme Court.

Lessig is a member of the American Academy of the Arts and Sciences and the American Philosophical Association and has received numerous awards, including the Free Software Foundation’s Freedom Award and the Fastcase 50 Award. He also was named one of Scientific American’s inaugural Top 50 Visionaries.

Lessig holds a bachelor of arts degree in economics and a bachelor of science degree in management from the University of Pennsylvania. He received his master’s degree in philosophy from Cambridge and his juris doctor degree from Yale University.

More information about Lawrence Lessig is available at www.lessig.org or on his Twitter page at www.twitter.com/lessig.