Coyote Gulch

Friday, May 16, 2003

Lawrence Lessig - Changes to Copyright Law
Below is a post from Lawrence Lessig concerning the importance of the introduction of a bill that is designed to move 98% of copyrighted works to the Public Domain after 50 years:
we need your help. About a month ago, I started sounding optimistic about getting a bill introduced into Congress to help right the wrong of the Sonny Bono Copyright Term Extension Act. I was optimistic because we had found a congressperson who was willing to introduce the bill. But after pressure from lobbyists, that is no longer clear. And so we need help to counter that pressure, and to find a sponsor.
The idea is a simple one: Fifty years after a work has been published, the copyright owner must pay a $1 maintanence fee. If the copyright owner pays the fee, then the copyright continues. If the owner fails to pay the fee, the work passes into the public domain. Based on historical precedent, we expect 98% of copyrighted works would pass into the public domain after just 50 years. They could keep Mickey for as long as Congress lets them. But we would get a public domain.
The need for even this tiny compromise is becoming clearer each day. Stanford's library, for example, has announced a digitization project to digitize books. They have technology that can scan 1,000 pages an hour. They are chafing for the opportunity to scan books that are no longer commercially available, but that under current law remain under copyright. If this proposal passed, 98% of books just 50 years old could be scanned and posted for free on the Internet.
Stanford is not alone. This has long been a passion of Brewster Kahle and his Internet Archive, as well as many others. Yet because of current copyright regulation, these projects -- that would lower the cost of libraries dramatically, and spread knowledge broadly -- cannot go forward. The costs of clearing the rights to makes these works available is extraordinarily high.
Yet the lobbyists are fighting even this tiny compromise. The public domain is competition for them. They will fight this competition. And so long as they have the lobbyists, and the rest of the world remains silent, they will win.
We need to your help to resist this now. At this stage, all that we need is one congressperson to introduce the proposal. Whether you call it the Copyright Term Deregulation Act, or the Public Domain Enhancement Act, doesn't matter. What matters is finding a sponsor, so we can begin to show the world just how extreme this debate has become: They have already gotten a 20 year extension of all copyrights just so 2% can benefit; and now they object to paying just $1 for that benefit, so that no one else might compete with them.
If you believe this is wrong, here are two things you can do: (1) Write your Representative and Senator, and ask them to be the first to introduce this statute; point them to the website http://eldred.cc, and ask them to respond. And even more importantly, (2) blog this request, so that others who think about these issues can get involved in the conversation.
I have given this movement as much as I can over the past four years, and I will not stop until we have reclaimed the public domain. Stay tuned for more litigation, and more ideas from Creative Commons. But please take these two steps now. [Lessig Blog]
9:22:47 PM

2003 Denver City Council Runoff Election
Here's an article from the Denver Post highlighting organized labor's effort to get a bloc of votes when the new city council is sworn in this summer. The article mentions five candidates, who won on May 6th, that were backed by the Denver Area Labor Federation, Elbra Wedgeworth, Kathleen MacKenzie, Carol Boigon, Doug Linkhart and Peggy Lehmann. The Federation is backing another 5 candidates in the June 3rd runoff, Rick Garcia in District 1, Rosemary Rodriquez in District 3, Michael Hancock in District 11, Judy Montero in District 9 and Marcia Johnson in District 5. From the article, "In the event Mares is elected mayor, the slate could be a formidable force in advancing his agenda. If John Hickenlooper is elected, the council would have the potential to throw up roadblocks or pressure Hickenlooper on union goals, such as collective bargaining for non-safety city employees."
5:02:31 AM

2003 Denver Municpal Runoff Election
Here's the link to today's Election Watch from the Denver Post.
Here's the link to today's The Stump from the Rocky Mountain News.
Patricia Calhoun's column in this week's Westword contains her views of few of the bright spots in the election this year while Westword's "Off Limits" touts the predictive powers of Kenny Be.
Don Mares, John Hickenlooper, and Ed Thomas pressed the flesh with city employees who showed up for a scheduled benefits hearing at the Webb building yesterday according to the Rocky Mountain News. The hearing was postponed until June 5th. Thomas and Mares are opposed to benefit cuts until city spending is in line and Hickenlooper acknowledged that many employees feel left out of the process.
Coyote Gulch will be at City Park on Sunday at the City Park Festival of the Arts Mayoral Forum. Send me ( jworr@operamail.com ) your tough questions, even though not one of our questions has gotten through yet, I'll keep trying.
Coyote Gulch would like to take this opportunity to remind the remaining candidates, all of you, except for Don Mares and John Hickenlooper, to update your websites with current event information. How are we gonna find information otherwise?
4:29:50 AM

2003 Denver Runoff Election for Auditor
Dennis Gallagher is leading Ed Thomas 44% to 24% according to the first runoff poll conducted by News4 and the Rocky Mountain News. The Rocky quotes pollster, Lori Weigel, as saying, "Things are still wide open. Given the high percentage of undecided voters, anything can happen."
4:27:40 AM

2003 Denver Mayoral Runoff Election
The first poll since the mayoral race narrowed to John Hickenlooper and Don Mares shows Hickenlooper way out in front of Mares according to the Rocky Mountain News. The lead is currently 59% to 31%. The article quotes Lori Weigel, a partner with Public Opinion Strategies, as saying, "Given that a majority of likely voters indicate they are registered Democrats, the battle for the Democrat vote in the city is clearly going to be fierce over the next three weeks ... It's the ultimate revenge of the nerds for John Hickenlooper. Everybody loves him now. His main opponent now is voter apathy, not Mares."
The Northeast Denver Ministerial Alliance may love Hickenlooper but they've thrown their support to Don Mares according to the Rocky Mountain News. From the article, "Don just knows how to talk to us,' said the Rev. Acen Phillips, senior pastor at Mount Gilead Baptist Church in east Denver. 'Don's part of the community. He's astute."
The Denver Post has an article about a private meeting held yesterday between Mayor Webb, many of his appointees, and John Hickenlooper. From the article, "Many of the two dozen people in attendance skirted reporters by going out the back door. Participants went to great lengths to keep Thursday's meeting private. One told a reporter the meeting was in another room, then locked the door when he left." Hickenlooper has been walking a tightrope trying to be the candidate of change and new ideas, and not to appear to close to Webb, while trying to avoid attacking city hall and alienating Webb and his inner circle. Mares has accused Webb of cronyism and backroom deals during his administration. From the article, "Webb, who has battled with Mares for years, acknowledged Wednesday that he met privately with Tate before Tate endorsed Hickenlooper."
According to the Denver Post the city budget was once again the hot topic at a mayoral forum. From the article, "Hickenlooper insisted the mayor and City Council need to cut the cost of paying and providing benefits to city workers. Mares said he would trim other costs before cutting worker pay and benefits ... Supportive city workers are essential for a new mayor to succeed in implementing a vision for the city, he added."
Don Mares' campaign is opening two new satellite offices, one in Northeast Denver and one in Northwest Denver to help with get out the vote efforts in both communities.
Highlights of the last Denver Decides forum for city employees: Both candidates are firmly supportive of the city doing more to help the mentally ill. John Hickenlooper would support a regional housing trust and Don Mares said that after safety, social services would be his top priority. Mares' praised the incorporation of the old 1445 Cleveland building into the Webb building and Hickenlooper stressed the need to appoint a strong director of planning when they were asked what they would have done differently with respect to the Denver Convention Center. Both candidates expressed their belief that partial public funding of elections is appropriate to give less well-healed candidates a better chance. They also praised Denver's election laws with Mares stating that Denver was ahead of the curve on this issue. When asked about the $60 million in uncollected parking fines Mares stated that there is a time to stop spending dough chasing uncollectable debts and that Parking Management generally has done a good job at collections. Hickenlooper thinks the city needs to be more agressive by turning scofflaws over to collection agencies and offering an amnesty program similar to a program in Chicago. John Hickenlooper took the opportunity to ask Don Mares if his campaign was going negative in light of reports to that effect in the papers this week. Mares denied that his was a negative campaign but reserved the right to make distinctions by pointing out differences between himself and Hickenlooper. Mares asked Hickenlooper if he'd switched positions on parking meter rates, since his first ad aired, by not advocating a reduction in rates downtown, and whether or not he was misleading the voters. Hickenlooper countered that as mayor he would need to find an alternate funding source to replace revenue if the city lowered rates and that he did not mean to mislead people with his ad, it was designed to point out that government can make bad decisions when they do not include effected parties. Both candidates support the continued existence of the Scientific and Cultural Facilities District and the State Historical Fund. On a question about the growing influence of metro office holders in the State Legislature both candidates advocated working regionally to influence legislation and policy. Mares mentioned his experience in the legislature as a distinguishing trait. During the forum Mares reiterated his opposition to reducing employee pay and benefits before getting the budget in line. Hickenlooper, in closing, mentioned that the Public Works Department needs someone experienced in managing a large bureaucracy. He also stressed that he has no plans to privatize any city services and mentioned that city workers should receive a part of any savings they help to produce.
John Hickenlooper has picked up the endorsement from the Metro Housing Coalition -- the Home Builder's Association of metro Denver's political arm, according to the Denver Business Journal.
Support for the mentally ill is the subject of this editorial from the Denver Post. From the editorial, "Let's hope that it's not just pre-runoff rhetoric between political foes vying for the same job that has the candidates for Denver mayor talking seriously about mental illness. Let's hope the winner actually will focus on helping the city's mentally ill population."
Here's a link to the Post's letters to the editor with quite a few people weighing in on the mayoral runoff.
4:20:40 AM

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