2A0A:EF40:1D88:3701:6483:5980:7BEE:D75F at 00:29, 1 November 2025

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{{Short description|Indian legal academic of Chinese descent}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=September 2014}}{{EngvarB|date=September 2014}}
{{Infobox Chinese
|birth_place = [[Kokata]], India
|pic = Lawrenceliang.jpg
|piccap = Lawrence Liang in June 2007; photo by [[Joi Ito]]
|c =
|p =
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}}
'''Lawrence Liang''' is an [[Indian people|Indian]] academic and lawyer of [[Chinese people|Chinese]] descent. He is a professor of law at [[Ambedkar University Delhi]].<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.aud.ac.in/faculty/permanent-faculty/detail/192|title=AUD Website - People - Faculty|website=www.aud.ac.in|language=en|access-date=2018-03-31}}</ref> He is known for his legal campaigns on issues of public concern. He is a co-founder of the '''Alternative Law Forum''' and by 2006 had emerged as a spokesperson against the politics of "intellectual property". In 2017, he received the [[Infosys Prize]] for Social Sciences in recognition of his creative scholarship on law and society.<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.infosys-science-foundation.com/prize/laureates/2017/lawrence-liang.asp|title=Infosys Prize - Laureates 2017 - Prof. Lawrence Liang|website=www.infosys-science-foundation.com|language=en|access-date=2017-12-01}}</ref>

Liang's key areas of interest are law, popular culture and content piracy. He has been working closely with [[The Sarai Programme at CSDS|Sarai]], New Delhi on a joint research project Intellectual Property and the Knowledge/Culture Commons. Liang is a "keen follower of the [[free software movement|open source movement]] in software", Lawrence Liang has been working on ways of translating the open source ideas into the cultural domain.<ref name="bio">{{cite web |url=http://www.altlawforum.org/node/2 |title=Our Team |date= |publisher=Alternative Law Forum |accessdate=14 December 2012 }}</ref> Segments of an interview with Liang commenting extensively on copyright and culture are featured in ''[[Steal This Film]]'' (Two).

Liang is author of ''Sex, Laws and Videotape: The Public is Watching'' (with Mayur Suresh and Namita Avriti Malhotra), published by [[Public Service Broadcasting Trust]]<ref>{{Cite web |title=The public is watching: sex, laws and videotapes (Deakin University Library Catalogue) |url=https://library.deakin.edu.au/record=b2314454~S12 |access-date=2025-01-06 |website=library.deakin.edu.au}}</ref> and ''Guide to Open Content Licenses'', published by the [[Piet Zwart Institute]] in 2004.<ref name="open">{{cite web |url=http://pzwart.wdka.hro.nl/mdr/research/lliang/open_content_guide |title=Willem de Kooning Academie | pzwart.nl |publisher=Pzwart.wdka.hro.nl |date= |accessdate=18 February 2014 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100128052948/http://pzwart.wdka.hro.nl/mdr/research/lliang/open_content_guide |archive-date=28 January 2010 |url-status=dead }}</ref>

==Work==

He has critiqued and influenced the debate on changes in the [[Indian Copyright Act]]. " We were trying to oppose that, showing how such a law would be harmful for creative [[innovation]]. Right now we are also supporting a campaign in [[pharmaceutical]] policies. But our focus is not so much on policy advocacy, because you cannot really defend the grey economy and be on policy bodies. With regard to government, we try to push for the [[open-source model]], arguing that public money should go into public intellectual property," Liang said in the December 2004 interview to World-Information.org.<ref name="world-information1">{{cite web|url=http://world-information.org/wio/readme/992003309/1102877551|archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20061014204433/http://world-information.org/wio/readme/992003309/1102877551|archivedate=14 October 2006|url-status=dead|accessdate=30 August 2006}}</ref>

In 2004 he was a research fellow at Media Design Research, Piet Zwart Institute, [[Rotterdam]]."<ref name="ReferenceA">{{cite web|url=http://pzwart.wdka.hro.nl/mdr/research/lliang/open_content_guide/09-about_author/|title=Welcome to the Piet Zwart Institute|publisher=Piet Zwart Institute|accessdate=18 February 2014|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090609145306/http://pzwart.wdka.hro.nl/mdr/research/lliang/open_content_guide/09-about_author|archive-date=9 June 2009|url-status=dead}}</ref>

==Advisor/mentor==
Liang was also group advisor/mentor of the 2006–07 International Policy Fellowship of the [[Open Society Institute]].<ref>{{cite web|last=Mikre |first=Henok |url=http://www.policy.hu/kawooya/advisor.php |title=Dick Kawooya – Advisor |publisher=Policy.hu |date= |accessdate=18 February 2014}}</ref>

==JNU Protests==
During the [[JNU sedition row|2016 protests at Jawaharlal Nehru University]] where he was a PhD student at the time, Liang gave a public speech as part of an 'Alternative Classroom' on laws relating to sedition.<ref>{{Citation|title=Lawrence Liang's Speech at JNU Alternative Classroom delivered on 28.02.2016.| date=28 February 2016 |url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GRwXJmtE2SM |archive-url=https://ghostarchive.org/varchive/youtube/20211219/GRwXJmtE2SM |archive-date=2021-12-19 |url-status=live|language=en|access-date=2019-12-05}}{{cbignore}}</ref>

==Background==
Liang is a graduate from the [[National Law School of India University]], and pursued a master's degree in [[Warwick]], England on a [[Chevening Scholarship]].<ref name="bio"/> He obtained his PhD in Cinema Studies from the School of Arts and Aesthetics at [[Jawaharlal Nehru University]] in 2017.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.jnu.ac.in/sites/default/files/40AnnualReport_Eng.pdf|title=JNU, Annual Report, page 29|last=|first=|date=|website=|archive-url=|archive-date=|access-date=}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|url=https://aud.ac.in/faculty/prof-lawrence-liang|title=Lawrence Liang AUD Faculty Bio|last=|first=|date=|website=|archive-url=|archive-date=|access-date=}}</ref> He was a visiting scholar at the [[University of Michigan School of Information]] and the Center for South Asian Studies as part of the Hughes Fellowship in 2014 and [http://southasia.macmillan.yale.edu/people/lawrence-liang Rice Visiting Scholar] at Yale University in 2016-17. He is currently Professor of Law at School of Law, Governance and Citizenship, [[Ambedkar University Delhi]], India.

==See also==
* [[Anti-copyright]]
* ''[[Steal This Film]]''

==References==
{{Reflist}}

==External links==
{{commons category}}
* [http://www.altlawforum.org/ Alternative Law Forum website]
* [http://pzwart.wdka.hro.nl/mdr/research/lliang/open_content_guide/ Guide to Open Content Licences] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20060831183445/http://pzwart.wdka.hro.nl/mdr/research/lliang/open_content_guide |date=31 August 2006 }}
* [http://www.countercurrents.org/hr-suresh010205.htm Copyright/Copyleft: Myths About Copyright by Lawrence Liang, et al.]
* [https://web.archive.org/web/20060823132639/http://www.altlawforum.org/PUBLICATIONS/shoot_share Shoot, share and create: Looking beyond copyright makes sense in film by Lawrence Liang]
* [http://world-information.org/wio/readme/992003309/1102877551 Public Domain in India. An interview with Lawrence Liang]
* [http://world-information.org/wio/readme/992003309/1115043912 The Other Information City by Lawrence Liang]
* [http://world-information.org/wio/readme/992003309/1154963624 The Black and White (and Grey) of Copyright by Lawrence Liang]
* [http://freesouls.cc/essays/04-lawrence-liang-free-as-in-soul.html Free as in Soul by Lawrence Liang]
* [http://principalhand.org/post/ZY8U8PF4US5J Assorted works by Lawrence Liang] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180810133915/http://principalhand.org/post/ZY8U8PF4US5J |date=10 August 2018 }}

{{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Liang, Lawrence}}
[[Category:Indian people of Chinese descent]]
[[Category:Living people]]
[[Category:Year of birth missing (living people)]]
[[Category:Intellectual property activism]]
[[Category:20th-century Indian lawyers]]
[[Category:Right to Information activists]]
[[Category:Indian freedom of information activists]]
[[Category:University of Michigan people]]
[[Category:Activists from Karnataka]]
[[Category:Indian intellectual property law]]

Lawrence Liang - Revision history

2A0A:EF40:1D88:3701:6483:5980:7BEE:D75F at 00:29, 1 November 2025