Just a note to say that Internet law scholar John Palfrey and friends have begun a campaign to get Lawrence Lessig to...campaign. For Congress. They want the man behind the alternative copyright system, Creative Commons, and the book/online social movement, Free Culture, to run for a seat, rather than merely criticizing Congressional decisions (which he does quite well—his blog shows him to be a master of the political flame).
Lessig, a UChicago/Harvard/Stanford law scholar, may be a bit radical for some people's taste. Scientific American named him one of the country's top 50 innovators in 2002. He believes in dramatically reforming copyright laws to bring them in line with the intent of the country's founders, and make them Internet friendly. Many of his arguments are, I think, pretty convincing. Then again, so were Marx's. At any rate, Lessig would be running in California's 12th District, right in the heart of the Silicon Valley where he would likely have a lot of sympathetic ears.
Palfrey and friends have started a facebook group, which passed 2000 members in, I believe, a span of less than a week. And of course, there's a website, draftlessig.org. I'll leave it to the tech gurus on this site to give a proper analysis of these happenings. In the meantime, it'll be interesting to watch Lessig's own site to see what he says about this effort.
If you'd like a taste of Lessig's views, I recommend the following 20-minute video, courtesy of TED. What say all of you?
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