Lawrence Lessig has been appointed to the faculty of Harvard Law School, and as the faculty director of Harvard University’s Edmond J. Safra Foundation Center for Ethics. The announcement was made jointly today (Dec. 12) by Harvard University Provost Steven E. Hyman and Harvard Law School Dean Elena Kagan.

“Harvard is fortunate to have such an outstanding scholar at the helm of one of its finest organizations,” said Hyman of the Center appointment. “Lawrence brings with him tremendous vision and administrative experience, which will serve the center well as he continues to build upon its remarkable success.”

As faculty director of the Center, Lessig will expand on the center’s work to encourage teaching and research about ethical issues in public and professional life. He will also launch a major five-year project examining what happens when public institutions depend on money from sources that may be affected by the work of those institutions — for example, medical research programs that receive funding from pharmaceutical companies whose drugs they review, or academics whose policy analyses are underwritten by special interest groups.

“I am very excited to be returning to Harvard to work on a project of enormous importance to our democracy,” said Lessig. “The chance to extend the work of the Center to focus on the problems of institutional independence is timely and essential. I am eager to work with friends and old colleagues from the Law School and across the University to make this project a success.”

Lessig will join the Law School faculty and take up his duties as director of the Center in the summer of 2009.

Photo by Robert Scoble Under CC-BY License

CC has announced some major shifts in leadership today:

Lawrence Lessig is stepping down as CEO of Creative Commons. He will be replaced by entrepreneur, venture capitalist, and free culture advocate Joi Ito. Lessig will remain on the Creative Commons board.

James Boyle will become chair of the board, replacing Ito, who remains on the board.

Diane Peters joins CC as General Counsel. Peters arrives from the Mozilla Corporation, serves on the board of the Software Freedom Law Center, and was previously General Counsel for Open Source Development Labs and the Linux Foundation. She has extensive experience collaborating with and advising nonprofit organizations, development communities, and high-tech companies on a variety of matters.

Vice President and General Counsel Virginia Rutledge will take on a new role as Vice President and Special Counsel. In her new role, Rutledge will focus on development and external relations, while continuing to lead special legal projects.

These are good moves for CC’s long term sustainability. Lessig has moved his scholarship and political focus away from copyright reform and to political reform. The Change Congress campaign is the right place from him to focus. Joi Ito is well known board member of CC will easily be able to transition to ED while providing leadership from a business prospective. Diane Peters also appears to be a large gain for CC. Her commitment to open software and NPO’s should be a valuable addition to CC.

Official Press Release

Professor Lessig, an inspiration for Students for Free Culture, is Speaking at University of Washington

Title: Is Google (2008) Microsoft (1998)?
Date: Nov . 2, 2007
Time: 7:00 PM
Location: in room 130 of Kane Hall.
Cost: Free (tickets available at UW book store)

Lawrence Lessig is a Professor of Law at Stanford Law School and founder of the school’s Center for Internet and Society. Prior to joining the Stanford faculty, he was the Berkman Professor of Law at Harvard Law School, and a Professor at the University of Chicago. He clerked for Judge Richard Posner on the 7th Circuit Court of Appeals and Justice Antonin Scalia on the United States Supreme Court.

Professor Lessig represented web site operator Eric Eldred in the ground-breaking case Eldred v. Ashcroft, a challenge to the 1998 Sonny Bono Copyright Term Extension Act.

Professor Lessig is the author of Free Culture (2004), The Future of Ideas (2001) and Code and Other Laws of Cyberspace (1999). He chairs the Creative Commons project, and serves on the board of the Free Software Foundation, the Electronic Frontier Foundation, the Public Library of Science, and Public Knowledge. He is also a columnist for Wired.

If you are interested in corruption scholarship or the copyfight I would recommended reading Lessig’s blog.

Related Links:
More information on the talk
Students for Free Culture

BREWSTER KAHLE
TO SPEAK OCTOBER 9 (in less than 24 hours)

Title: Universal Access to All Human Knowledge
Date: October 9, 2007
Time: 4:00 PM – 6:00 PM
Location: UW Main Campus, Henry Art Gallery, Auditorium 301
Cost: Free

The UW Information School is pleased to welcome Brewster Kahle, the
“internet librarian,” to speak about the past, present and future of
digital librarianship during his lecture, “Universal Access to All Human
Knowledge.” He will discuss the roles, rights, and responsibilities of
our libraries and archives in providing public access to digital
collections of human knowledge. He sees a near future where the promise
of the digital age-to make all of human knowledge available to students
and scholars all over the world-is a reality.

About Brewster Kahle:

Brewster Kahle is a U.S. internet entrepreneur, activist and digital
librarian. Kahle graduated from Massachusetts IT in 1982 with an SB degree in Computer Science & Engineering.

Kahle was an early member of the Thinking Machines team, where he helped
develop the WAIS system, a precursor to today’s internet search engines.
He later started WAIS, Inc. (sold to AOL), and the nonprofit Internet
Archive. He is currently Director of the Internet Archive. He is also a member of
the Board of Directors of the Electronic Frontier Foundation and a key
supporter of the Open Content Alliance. His stated goal is “Universal
Access to all Knowledge.”

Also, Lawrence Lessig is coming to
University of Washington in November

Title: Is Google (2008) Microsoft (1998)?
Date: Nov . 2, 2007
Time: 7:00 PM
Location: in room 130 of Kane Hall.
Cost: Free

Lawrence Lessig is a Professor of Law at Stanford Law School and founder of the school’s Center for Internet and Society. Prior to joining the Stanford faculty, he was the Berkman Professor of Law at Harvard Law School, and a Professor at the University of Chicago. He clerked for Judge Richard Posner on the 7th Circuit Court of Appeals and Justice Antonin Scalia on the United States Supreme Court.

Professor Lessig represented web site operator Eric Eldred in the ground-breaking case Eldred v. Ashcroft, a challenge to the 1998 Sonny Bono Copyright Term Extension Act. He has won numerous awards, including the Free Software Foundation’s Freedom Award, and was named one of Scientific American’s Top 50 Visionaries, for arguing “against interpretations of copyright that could stifle innovation and discourse online.”

Professor Lessig is the author of Free Culture (2004), The Future of Ideas (2001) and Code and Other Laws of Cyberspace (1999). He chairs the Creative Commons project, and serves on the board of the Free Software Foundation, the Electronic Frontier Foundation, the Public Library of Science, and Public Knowledge. He is also a columnist for Wired.

Professor Lessig earned a BA in economics and a BS in management from the University of Pennsylvania, an MA in philosophy from Cambridge, and a JD from Yale. He teaches and writes in the areas of constitutional law, contracts, and the law of cyberspace.

Mark your calendars! More information here:

http://www.grad.washington.edu/lectures/schedule.htm#Lawrence%20Lessig