formerly free culture

Missed the opening of the "Free" exhibition at the New Museum this week. In a piece for Artforum's online edition, "Free" curator Lauren Cornell says she originally planned to call the show "Free Culture," after Lawrence Lessig's book. Frankly that would have been a gutsier name, playing on the dual notion that online actors are freer in their movements than their gallery counterparts but also offering a countercultural-esque reply to the copyright, trademark, and patent regimes that confuse and strangulate expression. But this is a museum show and you can't offend the galleries and you can't upset the venture capitalists. That's not why Cornell says she dropped the word "culture" from the title; am just thinking about the implications of the two names and can find nothing to say about "Free." I think of "Born Free," the tale of two lionesses, and Freedom Fries, which are no longer sold in the House of Representatives cafeteria.