30 Years vs. 30 Days: A Battle Lessig Had to Turn Down to Win His War
March 7, 2008
When Larry Lessig, Stanford University law professor and copyright activist, announced he would not in fact run for a seat in the US Congress last week, he disappointed thousands of supporters of his cause: to change congress.
In a five-minute video posted on his blog (www.lessig.org/blog/), Lessig reasons that his competition, longtime Democratic Party member Jackie Speiers, was an opponent too difficult to defeat. What’s more, the polls showed he would not lose the election (which was only 30 days away) just by a nose or two, but that he would “lose in a big way.”
Jackie Speiers has a 30 year-long history with the Democratic Party, and has also been campaigning for a seat in the US Congress for over a year. Thirty days, Lessig rationalized, was simply not enough time to sway the minds of voters and win against such a popular and well-known candidate. Nor would it be enough time gain support for his latest initiative, which he simply calls Change Congress.
In essence, the “30 years versus 30 days” loss would discredit Lessig’s new pet project considerably. Losing the election in the Bay Area (California) by a landslide would signal to the rest of the country “that a Change Congress message has no salience or support. That would, in my view, harm the movement more than it would help.”
So exactly what is Change Congress? True to what its name suggests, the movement was created by Lessig as a means to weaken what he sees as the stream of corruption running through the US Congress, and his chosen weapon in this war is — to no one’s surprise — the Internet. The advocate of a “read/write culture” and founder of Creative Commons is now building a website to tackle the problems he perceives as damaging the integrity of the US Congress.
According to Lessig, the initiative is based on three main changes he would like to see in the US Congress today: 1) the end of Congressmen accepting money from lobbyists and political action committees, 2) a ban on earmarks, and 3) public financing for Congressional campaigns.
On this new website, Congressional candidates will be able to indicate their level of support to Change Congress and its proposed reforms, and people can make donations to those who back the movement. In addition, a page will be set up that encourages running against candidates who do not support Change Congress’s reforms.
Although Lessig says he does not see himself entering public service any time soon, he still questions his decision to not run for Congress this time around, despite certain defeat: “It’s impossible to make a decision like that without fearing that you made a fundamental mistake. Succeeding could have been amazing. It’s not a decision I will ever feel 100 percent comfortable with.”
But will this new undertaking detract Lessig’s attention away from his passion for liberalizing copyright laws and lobbying for reforms on intellectual property? Probably not. But perhaps while this cyberlaw warrior is busy trying to revolutionize what have become traditional political campaign measures, we’ll see a cease-fire on the “permission culture” versus “remix culture” front.
As the man said, “I never expected that this would happen quickly. I think it is going to take many years and many cycles. It’s going to take many more people becoming involved.”
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In my opinion, Lawrence Lessig is owed a huge debt of gratitude for tackling subjects that forward the core values of free societies. I for one am especially grateful to Lessig for resolving an important intellectual property issue for Creative Artists.
That he has set his sights on reforming the American Congress is admirable and I hope all Americans will hear about and support this endeavor to rid American politics and society of corruption.
Great article, Sandra. Definitely one to follow up on and watch with interest.