Strike A Balance

Balanced intellectual property laws are essential to innovation. Silicon Valley needs to step up and protect the open traditions that have helped build the high-technology industry, Stanford Law School Professor Lawrence Lessig told an audience of Silicon Valley entrepreneurs, lawyers, and venture capitalists at the recent Open Source Business Conference in San Francisco. Otherwise, we run the risk of being dominated by "IP extremists" whose restrictions on the use of intellectual property (IP) would stifle innovation, he says.