No one enters the market for anonymous communications. No one sets up a Web site based in the Cayman Islands to process anonymous financial transactions. Considering the record of entrepreneurs in reaping rewards from the Internet, his claim is astonishingly erroneous. Consumers have gone AWOL in Lessig's world as well. They are easily bribed to reveal information about themselves and against their interests by frequent flyer programs and the like.
Consumers surrender vital information either without realizing it or for a pittance.
According to Lessig, they need protection from the greedy corporations seeking information. What Lessig fails to see is that information about most of us as individuals is not worth very much. Information about a whole bunch of us, on the other hand, can be worth quite a bit. When entrepreneurs spot opportunities to gather and sell information, a new market is born. In a free market system, the price entrepreneurs pay for individual pieces is irrelevant, so long as people freely agreed to accept the payments.