Coyote Gulch

Sunday, April 6, 2003

2003 Denver Municipal Election
Column with several election and candidate references from the Denver Post.
1:27:29 PM

2003 Denver Mayoral Election
A new poll today reports the Denver Post. This one shows, "Among those respondents, 29 percent were undecided. Zavaras was named by 17 percent, followed by 15 percent each for Mares and Hickenlooper. Former City Councilwoman Susan Casey garnered 9 percent; former state Sen. Penfield Tate, 6 percent; and 1 percent each for historic preservationist Elizabeth Schlosser and businessman Phil Perington." The poll was commisioned by a Zavaras supporter and targeted people that requested an absentee ballot.
1:21:29 PM

2003 Denver Municipal Election - Events 4/7-4/13
I've been wishing this morning that the campaigns had an RSS feed for event information. But they would have had to pop for $40 for Radio. Then they would have the software to do it.
Saturday, April 12, Denver Decides will host the face-off for the citywide races:
9-10:30 a.m.: Denver City Council At-large Candidates, 10:30 a.m.-12 noon: Denver Auditor Candidates, 12 noon-1:30 p.m.: Mayoral Candidates: budget and economic development issues, Washington Park United Methodist Church 1955 East Arizona Street Email Events from John Hickenlooper's campaign:
Monday, April 7th
Denver Police Protection Association Events Center, 2105 Decatur, 6:30 - 8:30 PM
Tuesday, April 8
Downtown Denver Partnership Mayoral Forum, Westin Hotel, 1672 Lawrence, 7:30 - 9 AM
Tuesday, April 8
City Club of Denver Mayoral Forum, Brown Palace Hotel, 17th and Broadway, 12:30 - 1:30 PM
Wednesday, April 9, The Gathering Place Candidates Forum, 1535 High Street, 8 - 10:00 AM
Wednesday, April 9, CU-Denver Communications Day Forum, St. Cajetun?s Church on Auraria Campus, 11:30 AM
Wednesday, April 9, Patton Boggs, 5280, GK Baum, Historic Denver Forum, King Center Recital Hall on Auraria Campus, 7:30 PM - 9
Thursday, April 10, Colorado Business Council & GLBT Center of Colorado Mayoral Candidates Luncheon, Four Points Hotel, 1475 S. Colorado Blvd, 11:30 AM - 1:30 PM
Thursday, April 10, Colorado Conservation Voters Education Fund Forum, REI Flagship, 1416 Platte St., 7:30 - 9:30 PM
You can find links to campaign websites on DenverGov.
1:01:12 PM

Lawrence Lessig Regarding Alan Greenspan and IP
GREENspan points to the place in the middle. Thanks to Scott Lazerwith and Murry Chapman for sending along this bit of good news: Alan Greenspan has signaled what other smart economists have been saying for a long time: That this race to protectionism in the field of intellectual property is not without cost. As Greenspan said, "If our objective is to maximize economic growth, are we striking the right balance in our protection of intellectual property rights? Are the protections sufficiently broad to encourage innovation but not so broad as to shut down follow-on innovation?"
This is good news for all things happy and light, for it helps a meme that we should be pressing hard: IP is of course good; but it does not follow that more IP is better. [Lessig Blog]
12:41:07 PM

Lawrence Lessig on the RIAA Lawuit Against University Students
on what we need courts for. They say I'm a pessimist about the future of freedom on the net, and they've got two books of mine to prove it. But the report that the RIAA has now filed suit against four students for sharing content over a university network is a moment of hope. If we work hard to report the details and reality of this suit, then the extremism of the RIAA's tactics will finally get through.
Let this extremism finally force recognition of the best response to this problem for now: a compulsory license with a large carve out for non-commercial "sharing." Napster proposed as much in 1998. Had Congress listened, then we would have had just as much sharing over these last 5 years, but artists would have 5 years of income, and fewer of our children would now be felons. Instead, Congress did nothing (except pass the Sonny Bono Act and the DMCA), and 5 years later, artists are no better off, our kids are now "terrorists" (such is the rhetoric of the other side), and the cartel of the RIAA is only stronger.
What politicians need to remember is that Congress has always adjusted the rules by which creators get paid as a response to new technology. That's just what they should be doing today. Never before has the law been used to force new technology into old way of doing business. Every time before this, it was the law that adjusted to assure artists got paid given the new technology.
There are any number of proposals floating about just now for a compulsory license for content [Ed Felten has a nice post on this; my favorites are William Fisher's from Harvard, and Neil Netanel's from Texas] -- a way to free content while assuring that artists get paid. All of them would also have the salutary effect of leaving our courts to deal with real criminals (can anyone spell Enron anymore?), and leaving the internet to do what it does best (making content broadly and efficiently available).
It's time for Congress to turn its attention to constructive ways to assure that artists get paid without destroying the extraordinary freedom of the internet. This has been Congress's role in the past. It needs to get beyond the distortions of a bunch of lobbyists if its to play its proper role in the future. [Lessig Blog]
12:39:20 PM

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