DivaBlog

Larry Lessig is one of my heros. He works to make people aware of dangerous backroom machinations between corporate interests and governments that threaten the Open Source movement and our precious right to Freedom of Speech in the USA. He makes me want to go to Law School. And he's a really nice guy on top of it all ;-).

Anyway, I just read a /. story about Microsoft filing a defamation suit against Sergio Amadue, a Brazilian government official, for his recent public remarks about their business practices. The complaint refers to an "excess of Free Speech" employed by Amadue in his public criticism of the "lock-in" mechanisms. Larry Lessig is pointing out that in the US this suit would have no basis (cause here in the land of the free and home of the brave we generally get to say what we believe to be true, even if it hurts someone else's feelings, although there are exceptions).

Check out my good friend Simon Phipps' excellent coverage of his impressions on his trip to the FISL conference!