User: thomasn528

Re:How would Disney vote?

On: Best Presidential Candidate, Democrats

Clinton's campaign, when asked about supporting free/open debates, said: "Calling for free debates might be seen as opposing copyright." That's not how I read Lessig's statement:

Her failure here was not because her campaign didn't know of the issue. I spoke directly to leading figures (or so they said) in the campaign. The issue was discussed, and a decision was made. And the decision was to say nothing about the issue. You can almost see the kind of tiny speak that was battered around inside HQ. "Calling for free debates might be seen as opposing copyright." "It might weaken our support among IP lawyers and Hollywood." "What would Disney think?" Better to say nothing about the issue. Better to let it simply go away.

(Emphasis added.) I'll stipulate that you're right about her Senate votes, I don't follow the issues involved closely enough. But the "WWDT?" and "might be seen as opposing copyright" quotes are just Lessig ranting; he doesn't know why they decided what they did, so he supplied hypotheses -- that wind up getting cited as facts on Slashdot.