Intellectual Property Law

Pitch

By Susan Crawford

Both at OneWebDay on Monday (in person) and today (online), I’m hearing a strained-to-breaking tone in peoples’ voices.  “Do something,” we tell each other.  “Make sure this candidate is elected.”  There seems to be no time to wait - for anything.  The economy is crumbling, houses in Ann Arbor just aren’t selling, Galveston is wiped out, and yet another group led by prominent content and routing companies wants to make the Internet safe for Disney.  Lessig says:

And .. at the center of this mess is a government ? the product of a democracy ? which too few of us respect. A president favorably thought of by less that a third of the Nation. A Congress favorably thought of by less than 10%. The only branch enjoying majority support is the one branch not elected by the people ? the Court.

We should pause to think about just what this means. There were more who supported the British Crown at the [time of the] revolution than support the US Congress today.

It’s all quite dark, something my generation isn’t used to.  We haven’t had much adversity - we had Nixon, sure, but we were quite small at the time.  We have been dreaming our way along, stolidly marching towards retirement together.  Now my generation (and Lessig’s, and Obama’s) is in charge, and we’re anxious.  I hope we’re ready.

Full post as published by Susan Crawford Blog on September 24, 2008 (boomark / email).