One fun way to read Lawrence Lessig’s new book is to read a chapter or two each through:

1) a copy you buy online or at the bookstore;

2) a PDF copy you download for free on the Net;

3) a tagged html version that you access for free from the Net; and

4) an audio version you download for free on the Net. 

5) A fifth way, which I’d forgotten about: Lessig has a talk he gives on just this topic — hear him retell it in person, as he now is at iLaw, and as he’s done at public (and free) lectures all over.  The fifth is by far the most fun.  As great as the Net is, performance in real space is better.

Another five ways: Lessig just offered one additional possibility for how he’d fix the problem facing the recoding industry, based in large measure on the presumption that we’re in the midst of a “moment of transition in the architecture of the Net”:

1) set up an economic council to calculate the losses of the entertainment industries;

2) mutliply by 3 or 5 or whatever you’d like; 

3) write them a check for that amount for the next 5 years from the public;

4) in exchange for agreeing not to pursue the technologies and lawsuits they’re deploying that will kill the future of the network — heavy DRM, broadcast flag, etc.; and,

5) artists and intermediaries are fully compensated, and free culture flourishes.