Lessig congratulates Edwards for having courage viz open source s/w

[AP]

thank you, Senator Edwards

I’m grateful to Senator Edwards for spending some cycles on my blog. I am particularly grateful given his willingness to say a few things about the sort of things Democrats don’t talk about enough — IP and Free and Open Source Software. As obvious as the issues of balance and choice are to the likes of many who hang around here, I think we should not underestimate just how politically difficult it is to say the obvious. In particular, I read the comment about the importance of a level playing field for software to be a clear rejection of the move pushed by, e.g., Congressman Adam Smith to ban GPL within government research. (Apparently Adam Smith was named by the same guys who named the Patriot Act). To side with, e.g., the Free Software Foundation (which also opposes mandates, but endorses competition) and against Microsoft (which gave Adam Smith his bad idea) is not to side with power against right.

Most candidates seem to think it better to just stay quiet about these issues. They might be right. It might be better, politically. God knows, the Democrats can’t upset the content industry. But character takes small steps such as these — regularly, as part of the routine. And it doesn’t suprise me to see such character here.

Thank you again, Senator.

http://lessig.org/blog/

[DemDogs]

1. The real cutting edge candidate

Edwards the only candidate out there on the real issues that the internet generation cares about.
And thanks to Lessig for giving him a forum.

[AP]

2. Someone on the Lessig blog said...

... of course he's for Open Source; Red Hat's a NC company.

However, Red Hat or no Red Hat, his position is totally consistent with his entire meta-message about American not being run to make corporations richer and more powerful.

He's taking on Microsoft and it's not like Red Hat is going to protect him. It the principle not the alleged home state bias.