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Who Will Obama Choose As Copyright Czar?

Posted by timothy on from the lessig-has-my-bet dept.

seanpark writes "Who will President Elect Obama select for the recently established post of Copyright Czar? Biden has a longstanding relationship with Big Content, and he was partly responsible for the PRO-IP Act that created the position. The short list according to the article includes a few lobbyists (who would likely be disqualified by stringent ethical guidelines) and Lawrence Lessig, who was a technology adviser to the Obama Campaign."

2 of 174 comments (clear)

  1. He had the good sense... by alexborges · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Of having lessig on his team. Lets hope he still has that now that he is heading to The House.

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    NO SIG
  2. Re:Not the good professor by yetijoe · · Score: 5, Insightful

    I feel you have a point. But I feel the first question we need to ask is will this position have any real power. Because if there is no real power then who care who is picked.

    I see it going down one of two ways. 1. Obama is able to use the capital that he has gained an push this through rather quickly and having congress act as a rubber stamp.

    2. There are bigger priorities than this in the Obama administration (economy, war). As a result this is placed on the back burner. Corporate interests therefore have more time to react and press members of congress to vote against making a copyright czar have any real power. As a result this initiative dies or must be used as a bargaining chip once things get harder to push through congress.

    I think we should not be asking who he will chose yet, but rather how large of a priority is he going to make this.