Congressman Lessig?

UPDATED 6:25pm

Man the ramparts! Corrupt lawmakers beware! Larry Lessig eyes Congress!

Lessig, the Stanford law professor and "free culture" cyber-hero, announced today that he is considering running as a Democratic candidate for Congress in the 12th district of California, which encompasses a large swath of Silicon Valley. The seat is now vacant following the death of Rep. Tom Lantos last month.

Lessig is widely known in the tech community for his advocacy of reduced copyright restrictions, and for his support of free, open-source technology. He is the founder and C.E.O. of Creative Commons, a non-profit organization that seeks to give artists more flexibility over their works. He is also on the board of the Electronic Frontier Foundation, which seeks to preserve free speech on the internet.

Although Lessig is best known for his work in cyber-law, he recently announced that he was shifting his attention to combating political corruption.

In an interview with Portfolio.com today, Lessig talked about why he supports Barack Obama over Hillary Clinton and why Silicon Valley needs a representative who understands the internet. (Oh, and the little matter of that $250,000 that his chief rival Jackie Speier accepted from the insurance industry while she was serving in the California state senate.)

"People have a sense that real change is possible now," Lessig said, adding that he is receiving 200 emails of support per hour. "This is defining the difference between Obama and Clinton. And the Obama effect has given people a real sense that maybe there is real way to do something different here."

Lessig's first priority is to address what he calls the "skewing" influence of money in politics. In a ten minute video posted online, Lessig decried "the economy of influence that money now has in Washington which skews public policy in extraordinarily important ways."

He is asking lawmakers to take the three-part "Change Congress" pledge: First, abstain from taking lobbyist or PAC money. Second, vote to ban earmarks. And third, support publicly financed elections.

His chief rival, former California state senator Jackie Speier, is one of the most respected politicians in the state. In his video, while praising Speier, Lessig noted that she had accepted $250,000 in campaign contributions from the insurance industry while sitting on a committee in the state senate that regulates the insurance industry.

"This is a charge that she has not denied," Lessig said today. "But [my] claim is, if you're taking money from the industries you claim to regulate, you're skewing the process of deciding what the best regulation should be."

"I don't think anyone is able to say that it influenced particular decisions," he added. "But when you have a system of people running for office depending on this kind of money, it skews their attention. Who they listen to, who they talk to, who has access, who doesn't have access, what issues they hear about, what issues they don't hear about."

If he decides to run, Lessig said, he would only accept private, individual donations.

Another issue Lessig is focused on is one that hits very close to home.

"The second issue that's really important to people in this district, in particular, is the internet," Lessig said. "This is Silicon Valley. And Silicon Valley needs a representative who actually understands something about the technology, and how to make the internet economy work."

Lessig sees two big threats facing the internet economy - threats he would seek to address in Congress.

"One of them is going to be this massive increase in control [over the internet] because of security, and the other is that the owners of the pipes or the owners of the wireless spectrum are going to try to exercise more and more control over those two, possibly injuring the internet."

"Both of these changes - security, and the ownership of the pipes - fundamentally weaken the opportunity for innovation on the network," Lessig said. "That's why network neutrality is so important."

"Silicon Valley ought to have someone who can actually push this argument, and understands the technology and can stand up to the representatives from Comcast or wherever and call their arguments malarkey," he said.

by Sam Gustin

Photograph used under Creative Commons license by Flickr user Joi