A level-headed response.

Lawrence Lessig is among the most prominent proponents of the open software movement, but that's a very limited description of his numerous activities. A professor at Harvard Law School, he's involved in a wide array of social movements, including for a short period of time a candidacy for President. In the eyes of the Democratic Party hierarchy his candidacy was far from desirable. In a recent Wikileaks dump rather crude emails from party functionaries discussing Lessig became public. Rather than condemning his attackers, however, Lessig's response was highly forgiving:

I’m a big believer in leaks for the public interest. That’s why I support Snowden, and why I believe the President should pardon him.

But I can’t for the life of me see the public good in a leak like this — at least one that reveals no crime or violation of any important public policy.

We all deserve privacy. The burdens of public service are insane enough without the perpetual threat that every thought shared with a friend becomes Twitter fodder. Neera has only ever served in the public (and public interest) sector. Her work has always and only been devoted to advancing her vision of the public good. It is not right that she should bear the burden of this sort of breach.

Lessig seems fully aware that the technology to view everything we do, and thus also to publicly disgrace someone when someone else thinks he or she deserves disgracing, is readily available. But even when the capabilities of the Panopticon have been used to put his attackers in a highly unflattering light, he prefers to support the right to privacy.

Go to: Who should we really fear, or
Go to: That's the best word you can find?, or
Go to: Ain't no need to hide, ain't no need to run.