Real-space libraries

Writing in the February 4th issue of New Republic, Lawrence Lessig writes about the crippling web of legal entanglement he foresees in digital media. (His analogy of the debilitating framework of copyright in regards to documentary films is a chilling tale.)

Anyway. I liked what he wrote about "real-space" libraries: something we don't want to ever take for granted:

In real libraries, in real space, access is not metered at the level of the page (or the image on the page). Access is metered at the level of books (or magazines, or CDs, or DVDs). You get to browse through the whole library, for free. You get to check out the books you want to read, for free. The real-space library is a den protected from the metering of the market...

This freedom gave us something real. It gave us the freedom to research, regardless of our wealth; the freedom to read, widely and technically, beyond our means. It was a way to assure that all of our culture was available and reachable - not just that part that happens to be profitable to stock. It is a guarantee that we have the opportunity to learn about our past, even if we lack the will to do so. The architecture of access that we have in real space created an important and valuable balance between the part of culture that is effectively and meaningfully regulated by copyright and the part of culture that is not. The world of our real-space was a world in which copyright intruded only rarely, and when it did, its relationship to the objectives of copyright was relatively clear.