Lessig @ Pitt on September 25

The Sara Fine Institute at the University of Pittsburgh, with support from the University of Pittsburgh School of Law and Panopto, present the Annual Sara Fine Institute Lecture on September 25, 2008 @ 3:00 pm.

This year's lecturer is Professor Lawrence Lessig:

"A Declaration for Independence"

There is a growing threat to some of the most important institutions in our culture and political life from an improper dependence on money. In this lecture, Professor Lessig will describe this threat to institutions, from the academy to Congress, and the developing movement to check it.

Where: Teplitz Memorial Moot Courtroom in the Barco Law Building of the University of Pittsburgh School of Law. It's on the ground floor of the building, at the corner of Forbes & Bouquet Streets in Oakland.

When: 3 pm, Thursday, September 25. Free and open to the public.

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.

**No reservation or RSVP required. See you there!**