One of the definitions of irony, according to dictionary.com, is:
5. an outcome of events contrary to what was, or might have been, expected.
6. the incongruity of this.
According to Wikipedia Lessig is:
… founding board member of Creative Commons and is a board member of the Electronic Frontier Foundation and of the Software Freedom Law Center. He is best known as a proponent of reduced legal restrictions on copyright, trademark and radio frequency spectrum, particularly in technology applications.
Put the two together with a DRM’d version of his book from Amazon which has just gone on sale, and we have a perfect example of the definition quoted above.
You can download a PDF copy of Free Culture from http://www.free-culture.cc/freecontent/ . I see nothing wrong with selling DRM content while simultaneously giving away that same content.
This is available under a creative commons licence, see http://www.authorama.com/book/free-culture.html
Amazon may require DRM, but a $15 list price for an ebook of a CC work seems exorbitant.
The books official website has many free versions: http://www.free-culture.cc/remixes/
As others point out, Free Culture remains available in DRM-free editions.
I’m another person strongly opposed to DRM… but I’m just as strongly committed not restricting the way my audience consumes my content. Controlling choice is as bad as limiting access… and so my book is available in a multitude of formats, including DRM-free as well as Kindle and iPhone.
Agreed that $15 is a high price, but you can bet that’s the publisher’s decision, not Lessig’s.
I uploaded this book on Feedbooks, which mean that you can download it directly to your Kindle for free, or read it in ePub: http://www.feedbooks.com/book/2750