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WIDER_FIGHT

                                             June 20-27, 2007
                                             July    15, 2007

Lawrence Lessig has spent ten years
or so fighting for the Cultural
Commons to exist, and he has now
decided to go after a larger
problem, which he calls "corruption":

  "That the real problem here was
  (what I will call a 'corruption'
  of) the political process. That
  our government can't understand
  basic facts when strong
  interests have an interest in
  its misunderstanding."

  [ref]

He's apparently noticed that the
congress and the courts appear to
have no interest in the nearly        "From a public policy perspective,
unassailable logic of his case.        the question of extending existing
                                       copyright terms is, as Milton
                                       Friedman put it, a 'no brainer.' "

   So Lessig is
   after the big
   game, the            He claims he has no
   central problem.     preconceptions on what
                        do about it... he is       I'm tempted to
                        merely a beginner, a       write up a curriculum
                        student in a new field.    for him, but I'm
                                                   not the only one...

                                                       WEB_LOG_COMMENTS
I don't know that I agree that
"corruption" is the name of the
devil here.

The opposite presumption: the
tendency toward "corruption"
is inevitable, and that the
actual difficulty is a lack
of an effective
counter-vailing force...

  One way of looking at it is that
  the only effective large-scale             One example: the
  organizing strategy anyone has             dueling advocacy
  found is "checks and balances".            of the law courts.

    So the problem would then                Though, while we expect
    be that the "corrupting"                 paid advocates to present
    forces are not arranged in               arguments with a certain
    opposition to each other                 bias, we expect a certain
    well enough.                             impartiality on the part
                                             of judges and law-makers.
    There may be a way
    to play them                                   At the very least we
    against each other.                            expect them to care about
                                                   the *appearence* of
                                                   impartiality, but often
                                                   apparently they don't.
        Consider the possibility that
        you can get the bastards to                The self-interested
        sell out their future                      actors performing
        counterparts: they only have               these roles see
        temporary alliances without                little advantage in
        any loyalty to any larger                  performing them well.
        group or vision of history.

        I would think it would not be
        that hard to pass election
        reforms such as restrictions
        on fund-raising provided that
        they phase in very *gradually*        The ultimate checks on
        over the next decade. This            these functions in a
        would barely be of concern to         democratic society is
        a present day politician, no          supposed to be the ballot
        matter how "corrupt".                 box, but the ballot box

          Why not go for it if it             (1) is increasingly
          keeps the rubes happy for           under attack in the form
          another few terms, while            of electoral corruption.
          you continue to cash-in?
                                                 LAST_EXIT_FOR_DEMOCRACY

                                              (2) reflects the spin
                                              placed on the world by
                                              the major media

                                                 MOST_TRUSTED_NAME

                                                 Though perhaps the
                                                 major media gets
                                                 away only with what
                                                 it feels it can get
                                                 away with...

                                                    The lack of any
                                                    shock on our part
                                                    from hearing
                                                    about media bias
                                                    is probably part
                                                    of the problem.
    A simple
    model,
    a chain of           Or: a network
    corruption:          of self-reinforcing
                         corruptions?
      On the bench,
      in high office,
      in news media,
      of the spirit.

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