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22 février, 2008 13:59

Pamela A. MacLean

The National Law Journal

02-21-2008

Lawrence Lessig, Stanford University professor, techno thinker, and fighter against restrictive copyright law in the digital world, has announced he is considering a run for Congress, for the seat held by the late Rep. Tom Lantos.

In what might come to be expected from someone in the heart of Silicon Valley's 12th Congressional District, much of the comment, support and fundraising has been bubbling on the Internet.

Lessig has a 10-minute video on www.lessig08.org explaining his plans to launch a Change Congress movement, to fight what he has called a corruption of the political process. He also talks about "the decision I am trying to make about whether to run for Congress."

Lessig said he would make a decision by March 1.

But that has not stopped supporters who have also launched a Web site at draftlessig.org, to urge him to run and those who began raising money at, again another Internet site, called Actblue.com, an online clearinghouse for Democrats. It lists $17,000 raised in just three days for Lessig.

Lessig, 46, founded Stanford's Center for the Internet and Society, founded Creative Commons, a nonprofit devoted to expanding creative material that may be legally shared, and he is on the board of the Electronic Frontier Foundation, a legal advocacy group that promotes free speech particularly in the digital context.

He will have a tough fight against longtime California state Sen. Jackie Speier, who is currently running for the Lantos seat. A longtime Democrat, she won her senate seat in 2002 with 78 percent of the vote but was termed out of office in 2006, under the state's term limit law.

Lessig posted on his blog that whether to run "is a very difficult decision. In the coming days, I'll reflect a bit about it here. Thank you to everyone who has tried to help ­ both through very strong words of encouragement and very, very strong words to dissuade."