John EdwardsSince November 2003, I’ve been trying to get presidential candidate John Edwards to speak out against the Sonny Bono Copyright Term Extension Act, the current DMCA and other atrocities. It’s a canary-in-the-mine kind of thing, not just the fact he went to the University of North Carolina, my own school, and I have some Tar Heel pride.

Edwards, after all, is among the more populist of the Democratic candidates and even started a poverty center at UNC. If he can’t appreciate the damage that Draconian copyright can do schools, libraries and free speech, then who can—among the major candidates? Just why has he been so mum on important copyright issues despite having served on the copyright-related Senate Judiciary Committee, in addition to being a law school grad?

Perhaps a little progress

Well, better late than never? Perhaps Edwards, recipient of millions in Hollywood money, has made a little progress. According to a Wired-related blog, Edwards is among the candidates responding to an appeal by Larry Lessig to have broadcasts of presidential debates unencumbered by the usual copyright restrictions. Instead the resultant TV would carry a Creative Commons license. Here’s an excerpt from the blog post about Lessig’s efforts:

“Sens. Barack Obama, Chris Dodd, and John Edwards have joined the call, but Hillary Clinton has remained conspicuously silent, he noted.

“‘Where is Clinton in this debate?’ Lessig asked. ‘Where is she in this?'”

Hollywood’s unholy trio

“Lessig noted that three Hollywood-friendly copyright laws were enacted under Bill Clinton’s watch, referring to the Net Act, the DMCA and the Sonny Bono Copyright Term Extension Act.

“‘Three of these radical acts of extremism were given to us by the Democrats,’ he said, his voice choking at certain points during the talk.”

Not nirvana yet

So will Edwards do the right thing? If you go just by the Wired blog—I haven’t seen his response to Larry Lessig—he’s a little closer than he was earlier. But that’s still no substitute for living up to his populism and explicitly denouncing the horrors of Bono and the rest.

Detail: So far in the current campaign, if some financial data from OpenSecrets.org is representative, Edwrards hasn’t depended that much on Hollywood money. But, hey, you know what? It isn’t the money that counts; in the end it’s what Edwards says and does?

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