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In ordinary language, to call a copyright a "property" right is a bit misleading, for the property of copyright is an odd kind of property. . . . I understand what I am taking when I take the picnic table you put in your backyard. I am taking a thing, the picnic table, and after I take it, you don't have it. But what am I taking when I take the good idea you had to put a picnic table in the backyard—by, for example, going to Sears, buying a table, and putting it in my backyard? What is the thing that I am taking then? The point is not just about the thingness of picnic tables versus ideas, though that is an important difference. The point instead is that in the ordinary case—indeed, in practically every case except for a narrow range of exceptions—ideas released to the world are free. I don't take anything from you when I copy the way you dress—though I might seem weird if I do it every day. . . . Instead, as Thomas Jefferson said (and this is especially true when I copy the way someone dresses), "He who receives an idea from me, receives instruction himself without lessening mine; as he who lights his taper at mine, receives light without darkening me."

arguments that Lessig has with the hard-core proponents of intellectual property are almost all arguments about where and when the line should be drawn between the right to copy and the right to protection from copying, not whether a line should be drawn.

when it comes to literature, we have somehow decided that copying is never acceptable.

A successful music executive has to understand the distinction between borrowing that is transformative and borrowing that is merely derivative, and that distinction, I realized, was what was missing from the discussion of Bryony Lavery's borrowings.

problem with plagiarism. It is not merely extremist. It has also become disconnected from the broader question of what does and does not inhibit creativity.

But the truth is that Lavery has every right to create an affair for Agnetha, because Agnetha is not Dorothy Lewis. She is a fictional character, drawn from Lewis's life but endowed with a completely imaginary set of circumstances and actions.

dred and seventy-five rather ordinary words could bring the walls tumbling down.

Recovery of stranded costs is perhaps the most contentious issue confronting regulators in promoting competition.  Stranded costs (or assets) are costs that have been prudently incurred by utilities to serve their customers but cannot be recovered if the consumers choose other electricity suppliers. One study has estimated current stranded assets at $88 billion, and estimates of projected stranded costs range from $10 billion to $500 billion. In its Order 888, FERC reaffirmed "that the recovery of legitimate, prudent and verifiable stranded costs should be allowed." FERC's directive is grounded in the belief that the recovery of stranded costs "is critical to the successful transition of the electricity industry to a competitive, open-access environment." For this purpose, direct assignment of costs to departing customers was selected as the appropriate method for recovery of stranded costs.

The research confirms what we know to be true. The arts impact all learning.

Neuroscience has also provided an emerging branch of research related to studying the arts. For instance, "Learning Arts and the Brain: The Dana Consortium Report on Arts and Cognition" reinforced the positive impact arts learning has on a young person's ability to retain information.

Neither the arts nor the sciences have a monopoly on teaching creativity, collaboration, or problem-solving skills.

The design process proved to be as important as the finished product.

Schools must provide opportunities for students to learn across disciplines. No longer can we teach in silos.