Lessig and Wood

As discussed in class, the Lessig reading can be closely related to the Wood reading in evaluating the past to the present. The idea from the past and the present that was explored deals with the concept of how individuals and groups kept others from intruding on property or private information. As Wood explains, in the past property was kept individualized by using fences to keep others out of the land. This idea can be related to nowadays where many companies use code and firewalls to keep others away from private information. The fences from the past can be seen as the code of the future. Code is used to make it hard for intruders to get a hold of copyrighted materials. Without this code, which more or less acts as a firewall, outsiders would simply come in and copy an idea and use it as their own. This idea relates to intellectual property rights in that those who have invented something have the right to keep it as their own without having to worry about others stealing the idea of invention. Code is simply a way for those inventors to make sure others are not infringing on their ideas. Companies and inventors have the right to their invention and the benefits that are associated with the invention. Whether these benefits are simply monetary or pride does not matter. In both cases, it is unfair for an outsider to come in and take an idea and reproduce it at a cheaper cost. For example, many drugs when first released could be replicated and produced at a much cheaper cost. But patent laws restrict this from happening to encourage inventors to keep inventing. At first, code is simply a term that many think is associated with computer jargon that allows a program to run. But it also serves as a barrier to outsiders who are trying to reproduce or steal ideas.