harvard debate

Wednesday, November 28, 2001, at 05:17PM

By Eric Richardson

I just watched/listened to the Lessig vs. Valenti debate from Harvard last year. Interesting, but it left me more unfulfilled than anything. Jack Valenti didn't really debate. To paraphrase Lessig, when you give an answer, you have to give a reason. Jack Valenti didn't give reasons. When asked why something was right, he'd say that it was right because the courts said so, or the current law says so. I know what the law says. I know what the courts have said. I don't agree. I think the DMCA is unconstitutional. I want to know why this should be the law.

Perhaps tomorrow will be a different story, but I doubt it. If nothing else, hopefully the Napster case won't be involved. The DMCA repercussions and repercussions of the deCSS case are far more fundamental than those of Napster.