But I still don't like their music

Lawrence Lessig, a law professor at Stanford and arguably the most important figure in the rhetoric of intellectual property law, wrote a column for Wired on why he felt that the band Wilco, through its use of new media and the Internet (streaming their mp3s and doing live Web casts, for example), best exemplified what will be, in Lessig's words, "The future of music."

Lessig hopes that more bands and artists will follow Wilco's lead and eschew the corporate music industry and try to make it out on an independent, smaller label. Or perhaps even without any label at all, using direct to consumer business models to cut out the middle man of the record industry.

I'd also like to point out that Christopher Lloyd made an appearance on NBC's The West Wing this week as Lessig himself. This 7th and final season of the show takes place in 2006. Apparently Lessig made the transition from hero of the nerds to the hero of democratic theorists and constitutionalists. The Lessig character is brought into the West Wing to assist in creating a democratic structure for the country of Georgia.

I haven't checked Lessig's blog yet (sidebar link), but I wonder if he had anything to say about being represented by an actor who is most famous for either solving the question of time travel, or for being a Harvard dropout/burn out who works in a taxi garage? UPDATE: There was a one line update on Lessig's blog, advertising the appearance. Nothing more beyond that.

I should start talking more about The West Wing, I think.