What is "freedom of expression"

n. (context chiefly US legal English) The right to express an opinion in public without being restrained or censored.(quote-book year=1996 author=John S. Gibson title=Dictionary of International Human Rights Law publisher=Scarecrow Press, Inc. url= isbn= page=79 passage=Strode's Act in the Parliament of 1512 was the first statute to protect such early freedom of expression, although limited to members of Parliament. )(quote-book year=1997 author=David Robertson title=A Dictionary of Human Rights publisher=Europa Publications Limited url= isbn= page=89 passage=Freedom of expression is essentially another, and perhaps more accurate, way of referring to the composite of rights usually labelled freedom of speech.)(quote-book year=1999 author=Frank Bealey, Allan G. Johnson title=The Blackwell Dictionary of Political Science publisher=Blackwell Publishers Ltd url= isbn= page=137 passage=freedom of expression — a group of the most important democratic rights. Freedom of speech and freedom of the press allow people to express their opinions and preferences and to communicate these to others. They allow criticism of those in power and and are basic to freedom to oppose the government. No authority can be sacred where freedom to criticize exists.)

Freedom of expression or Freedom of speech is the political right to communicate one's opinions and ideas.

Freedom of expression may also refer to:

• Freedom of religious expression
• Freedom of expression in India
• Section Two of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms#Freedom of expression
• Freedom of Expression (book), a book by Kembrew McLeod about freedom of speech issues

Freedom of Expression® is a book written by Kembrew McLeod about freedom of speech issues involving concepts of intellectual property. The book was first published in 2005 by Doubleday as Freedom of Expression®: Overzealous Copyright Bozos and Other Enemies of Creativity, and in 2007 by University of Minnesota Press as Freedom of Expression®: Resistance and Repression in the Age of Intellectual Property. The paperback edition includes a foreword by Lawrence Lessig. The author recounts a history of the use of counter-cultural artistry, illegal art, and the use of copyrighted works in art as a form of fair use and creative expression. The book encourages the reader to continue such uses in art and other forms of creative expression.

The book received a positive reception and the Intellectual Freedom Round Table of the American Library Association awarded McLeod with the Eli M. Oboler Memorial Award, which honors the "best published work in the area of intellectual freedom". A review in The American Scholar said that McLeod " ... delivers a lively, personal account of the ways intellectual property messes with people—and how he messes with intellectual property." American Book Review said the work is "a clever compendium of examples" for those familiar with its subject matter. The Journal of Popular Culture called it "an informative, thought-provoking, and occasionally laugh-out-loud funny examination of specific ways the privatization of ideas suppresses creativity in contemporary culture." Publishers Weekly said that McLeod's views echo prior comments about intellectual property by academicsincluding Lessig.