One of my favorite blogs is Belle Lettre’s Law & Letters - a blog devoted to issues of law, culture, politics and society. Yeah, that encompasses a whole hell of a lot, but I’m pretty convinced that Belle doesn’t sleep, watch television, or follow sports. For me, an Anaheim Angels, San Diego Chargers, and L.A. Lakers fan, who, as I write this, is watching Project Runway, I can say that most of Law & Letters is way over my head… but, occasionally, there are a few articles I can follow (without a dictionary).
Recently, one of Belle’s contributers to Law & Letters, Paul Gowder, wrote a post regarding a movement to recruit Lawrence Lessig, a law professor at Stanford and one of the darlings of the open source software movement, to run for the congressional seat made available by the death of Rep. Tom Lantos. Let’s just say I am very ecstatic that Lessig is even considering a congressional run - even though I don’t live in his district.
Wait… did I just use the words “darling” and “ecstatic”? Damn that Project Runway.
Ars Technica has an interview with Lawrence Lessig regarding his congressional campaign and what his congressional term might look like. It’s worth a read - take, for example, Lessig’s view on the FCC:
One obstacle to such innovation is the Federal Communications Commission, which “was established in order to protect the incumbents,” and may now need to be “restructured to facilitate competition.” As an example, Lessig points to recent spectrum policy, which he describes as “extremely disappointing.” According to Lessig, “circa 2001, the basic lesson we had learned is that we had undervalued unlicensed spectrum, that we didn’t understand its innovation potential. Everyone was adopting the view that we needed more unlicensed areas alongside more spectrum auctions.”
But in the intervening years, he says that “lobbyists have been very effective at changing the conversation, at making the property model seem like the only model”—a trend Lessig believes has enriched a few spectrum owners at the expense of overall economic growth.
My only critique of Lessig’s commments about the FCC is that the spectrum allocations are least of the concerns with regards to the FCC’s regulation of media. But one can’t be all things in the course of a short, online interview.
Win or lose - Lawrence Lessig should definitely run for the seat in the special election, which, if you happen to live in the 12th district, is April 8th. When good people like Lessig choose not to run when they have the opportunity to run and win public office - we all lose out.
For more information on Lessig’s campaign, visit the Draft Lessig website (http://www.draftlessig.org).
Standard Podcast [59:14m]: 
