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Open Source in Politics

Open Source in Politics

Posted Jan 12, 2004 23:24 UTC (Mon) by stonedown (guest, #2987)
Parent article: Open Source in Politics

Dean posted on Lessig's blog last year. He makes heavy use of open source software, and his campaign has been heavily aided by technology advocates. He will be hard pressed to ignore our views on digital rights.

Even so, it's a bit early for the Dean campaign to formulate a policy on digital rights. This is the stage in the campaign where Dean is starting to select his senior campaign advisors.

I've written about this in my Kos diary.


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Open Source in Politics

Posted Jan 13, 2004 12:05 UTC (Tue) by frazier (subscriber, #3060) [Link]

Dean posted on Lessig's blog last year. He makes heavy use of open source software, and his campaign has been heavily aided by technology advocates.
So he's using this to his advantage...
He will be hard pressed to ignore our views on digital rights.
...or that's the perception strategy...
Even so, it's a bit early for the Dean campaign to formulate a policy on digital rights.
Perhaps in detail, but the obvious level of "own DVD, own DVD drive, can't play DVD even though the code is available outside of artificial legal restriction" is still there. Really, how obvious do things need to be? This is not rhetorical, please fill me in here.

He's been in contact with Lessig. The DVD/player/computer reality is painfully obvious within 30 minutes, even when looking at all sides with no background.

Politicians back out of campaign promises all the time. When they won't even make something a campaign promise, be very concerned, especially when it is this obvious.

On another note, I followed your link and noticed the "Help the Democratic Party raise the money" link from there. Just to repeat what I stated before, you partison people need to bark hard at your own houses. The (quoting from your page) "Dean should understand" doesn't cut it. People involved with political parties spend way too much time on 'they suck' and need to spend more time on 'we could be better'.

The 'oh geez, I sure hope they'll do good' procedure doesn't work in general, let alone with politicians. I agree that indepth policy can be tricky, but the easy stuff like "own DVD, own hardware, software freely available" is not. If that's a struggle, well, draw your own logical conclusion. If that's potentially conflicting with something else it shouldn't be, and again take a deeper look.

You know better. Bark and bark hard! I know you're an active participant in a two-party system that has removed obvious rights from me as well as yourself. Stop feeding it and start fixing it or continue to be part of the problem.

You have full right to do whatever you want. I wouldn't fund anything unless

  1. I have at least a decent idea what's going to happen ("Dean should understand" doesn't cut it)
  2. I'm pretty certain I'm not funding evil
...but hey, that's me.

Please don't take this as disrespectful. I am very frustrated. I bought a laptop to put Red Hat on last year that had a DVD and my wife wondered why I couldn't play a DVD on there. I had to explain. Then I went back and read further. It only got worse.

Open Source in Politics

Posted Jan 15, 2004 3:11 UTC (Thu) by stonedown (guest, #2987) [Link]

If you want to bark at Dean, go for it. But, Dean is actually our best chance for reform in this area. His Net Advisory Net is a good indication of that.

Politicians do break their campaign promises, but Dean is a very special candidate. His main source of monetary support turns out not to be from unions or corporations, but from small donors like you and me. Ok, not like you. But, like me. If he is elected and sells us out, it will be at his own political peril.

I take the "you partisan people" label with some pride. I'm participating in the political process. What are you doing to try to make things better?

Just so you know a little more about me, I'm a slightly left of center independent, who reregistered as a Democrat for the sole purpose of voting for Dean. Like most Dean supporters, I've never participated in politics before.

The "Help the Democratic Party raise the money" link isn't mine. I don't donate to the Democratic Party, only to the Dean campaign and Moveon. The link you saw is displayed by the parent site which my diary resides on.

Finally, since I've mentioned Moveon, I feel the need to head off a possibly scathing attack on the so-called Moveon "advertisements" comparing Bush to Hitler. Moveon held a contest. There were over 100 entries, and two of them made allusions to Hitler or the Nazi party. These were nothing more than contest submissions, and they were voted down by the membership. Moveon has promised to screen this kind of stuff more carefully in the future.

OK, that's far more politics than should be posted here, but I wanted to respond to your comments.

Open Source in Politics

Posted Jan 15, 2004 4:49 UTC (Thu) by frazier (subscriber, #3060) [Link]

I take the "you partisan people" label with some pride. I'm participating in the political process. What are you doing to try to make things better?
A couple days ago I tried to discourage supporting the two party system that's gotten us where we are today.

As to Dean, I don't know. I do know that sending money to "our best chance for reform in this area" doesn't cut it with me. How much of that is positioning vs. result? Hard to tell from here.

Now Rick Boucher, there's a guy who's got it figured out.

Maybe Dean will get it done, but betting on the politician who looks most promising isn't sufficient for me. I've been underemployed for the last year plus, but back in my money to spare days I dropped it on toys for needy children around the holidays and tried to pay for Disc Golf equipment for a local park (this was rejected through parks and rec, though).

I have no problem supporting things I believe in. I do have problems with supporting a maybe.

Political parties form a great mechanism to get people to directly or indirectly support things they don't believe in. I'll pass on that.

Open Source in Politics

Posted Jan 15, 2004 6:26 UTC (Thu) by stonedown (guest, #2987) [Link]

"A couple days ago I tried to discourage supporting the two party system that's gotten us where we are today."

Not much chance of a third party effectively challenging the status quo, unfortunately. The laws have been crafted to prevent such an occurrence.

Open Source in Politics

Posted Jan 15, 2004 22:50 UTC (Thu) by Ross (subscriber, #4065) [Link]

I'm surprised at MoveOn's reaction to those attacks. Why do they distance
themselves so much from those submissions but not from others? I have to
admit I haven't viewed them myself so maybe they really are as unfair as
everyone says but I don't think it's completely unreasonable to make
comparisons with Hitler. That is not to say the current administration is
killing millions of people or that they are evil, but there ARE comparisons
which can be made about suspending civil rights in the name of protecting
the father^Whome land.

Open Source in Politics

Posted Jan 16, 2004 23:00 UTC (Fri) by stonedown (guest, #2987) [Link]

The Moveon "Bush in 30 Seconds" ad submissions were as varied as the people who sent them in. There's no way to judge whether they were fair or unfair as a whole. Some were terrible, others excellent. Some were comedic, others thoughtful. The entry which won the contest was Child's Pay, which I highly recommend watching online, since CBS has refused to air it during the Super Bowl (they claim it is CBS policy not to air "issue ads").

Open Source in Politics

Posted Jan 18, 2004 3:43 UTC (Sun) by rfunk (subscriber, #4054) [Link]

"you partison people need to bark hard at your own houses."

That's exactly why I'm working to get Howard Dean elected. The only way to change the system is to work within it, as Thom Hartmann pointed out last March.

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