Lessig spoke at Cooper Union on Monday evening. His speech was titled Free Culture: The Struggle to Liberate Creativity and the Internet from the Law. He explained, using Walt Disney as an example, how creative types have always appropriated ideas and images from others when building their own creations. "Steamboat Willie," the animated short that introduced Mickey Mouse, was based in large part on a Buster Keaton movie, Steamboat Bill, Jr.
The digital age, Lessig argues, makes it much easier to use existing culture in such innovative ways. Digital video, sampling, and other technologies make it simple for an artist to create a digital collage of sound or image. The threat to this innovation is a growing body of law that protects the interests of copyright holders--which, more and more, are large corporations operating in an age of increased media concentration.
This is really just a quick-and-dirty summary. His talk was interesting, although I've encounted the main ideas before, in his writings and in those of other commentators.
Finally getting into Cooper Union was also a treat. The centerpiece of the CU campus is an imposing large stone building near Astor Place. That thing is so solid, I suspect that thing could survive a direct nuclear assault. It opened in the 1850s and among the first speakers to grace its halls was Abraham Lincoln.