professor lessig serves on the boards of creative commons, maplelight, brave new film foundation, the american academy berlin, axa research fund and on the advisory board of the sunlight foundation. he's a member of the american academy of arts and sciences and the american philosophical association and has received numerous awards including the freedom award, fast cast 50 award and being named one of scientific americans top 50 visionaries. >> thank you very much for the opportunity to testify. as you know, since the beginning of this republic, there has been a fierce debate about how best to create incentives for scientists and innovators to discover and to bring to market advances in science that address important public needs. on one side of that debate have been the supporters of exclusive rights secured by the government, the constitution gives congress the power to secure such rights, and since the earliest days of the republic congress has by law established mechanisms which secure exclusive rights to inventors. on the other side of this debate have been skeptics about exclusi