Lessig shows Keen interest in new book

Andrew Keen’s new book, The Cult of the Amateur (mentioned in passing in these parts earlier this month, receives Lawrence Lessig’s strict scrutiny over here. Lessig concludes that the errors and assumptions in Keen’s book are in fact self-parody (I haven’t read the book yet, so I’m reserving comment for now!), and then sets out (in a detailed post, copied to a – yes – wiki entitled The Keen Reader) some particular examples. A fun one is Keen saying that “every defunct record label and round of newspaper downsizing are a consequence of “free” user-generated Internet content—from Craigslist’s free advertising, to free music videos, to free encyclopedias, to free weblogs.” I hope (for his sake) that there is one hell of a footnote to that; otherwise, it’s just like shooting fish in a barrel. I’ve been looking forward to reading Keen’s book, and now that there is a good old-fashioned factcheck and spat breaking out (the use of the wiki format for it must annoy Keen to no end), it’s certainly a must-read.