If you watch the EFF’s Fred von Lohman in his debate on C-Span (via BoingBoing) you’ll notice that C-Span inserts three phone numbers: one for Democratic supporters, one for President Bush’s supporters and one for “others.”
Am I idealistic in thinking that Grokster goes across partisan lines? Caricaturing the sides quite a bit, Republicans don’t want liberal Hollywood controlling what kinds of businesses they can start and Democrats don’t want conservative corporations controlling their computers. I don’t recall President Bush ever taking a position on P2P, and I suspect that if Betamax was overturned he’d be upset if his iPod was outlawed.
If I want Big Copyright to file fewer frivolous lawsuits, if I want to use P2P to share music, if I love Larry Lessig, am I a Democrat or Republican?
Ted Olson, who represents Big Copyright in the debate, was Solicitor General for the Bush Administration. Does that mean that President Bush’s side in Grokster consists of “Hollywood-loving left-wing freak shows?”
(Also, about 20 minutes in the RIAA and MPAA’s lawyer tries to pull a Felton but von Lohman calls him on it. w00t)
3 responses to “Grokster along party lines?”
I forget when exactly, but some time before the last election C-SPAN changed the descriptions of the phone lines. It had something to do with, if I remember correctly, that large majority of the calls C-SPAN was getting were of the same opinion, and they found that when they reworded the descriptions of the phone lines, they got more diversity of opinion in the phone calls.
I saw one of the hosts on Washington Journal explain it once to a caller who was irate that they had changed the phone lines.
You’re exactly right, I thought the same thing when I was watching this.
I love the idea of ‘others’: since I don’t agree with either of the party lines, some Neo Nazi fringe group and I will call the same number.
Not a dem or republican? We’re all the same to C-Span!
Is this why there is no CSPAN-Italia? The screen would be covered in numbers… or all they all just "other?"