CNET is carrying an interview with Lawrence Lessig (noted copyright and internet privacy expert from Stanford University).

The interview was brought on by the petition started earlier this week (and featured here on Tuesday) which Lessig has backed.

The interview contains some nice quotes, including "Before the Internet, long copyright terms sometimes didn't matter. What were you going to do with a book that was out of print before the Internet?" and gives the professor some length to describe the importance of the public domain, especially with the internet as a medium of distributing information for which the copyrights have now expired.