Lessig's "The Withering of the Net" video

Fantastic-ly informative 39-minute lecture by Lawrence Lessig describing how it was Republican inititiatives back in 1984 that broke up AT&T's proprietary, exclusive control over the communications network up until then, enabling the Internet to grow to what it is today, and jump-starting the explosion of innovations in Consumer Electronics.

Intriguing Principles:

• The owner of the network does not have absolute control, meaning that layers can grow ontop of it
  
• The past does not get to dictate future innovators out of fear of competition.
  
• Device-makers are not liable for how users use their devices.
  
• Two spaces evolving, the Read-Only Internet, and the Read/Write Internet
  
• Apart from the "Berkeley-esque" reasoning that Read/Write Internet is better for democracy, Lessig provides the "Stanford-esque" reasoning that it will increase monetary growth exponentially larger than the Right-Only Internet.