"The tradition of balance that insists on limiting the powers of monopolies and monopolists" while supporting the development of open platforms has "produced an explosion of innovation throughout our history-most importantly and most recently in this valley," Lessig said.

"That tradition is being lost, and we are doing nothing effective" to change the political climate that threatens this balance, he said.

The policy favoring strong intellectual property regulation, Lessig said, has produced "binary thinking" by "bitheads" who say "that you are either for property or you are for no property."-- Lawrence Lessig, 2004-03-17