Gawker: valleywag, larry lessig

How Lessig made the GOP's hit list

Paul Boutin — Fri, 10 Oct 2008 16:40:00 EDT

A couple of friends want me to blog about how Larry Lessig has been added to the evil friends of Barack Obama at the anti-Obama parody site BarackBook. Why oh why, they ask? RTFM! The one live link on the BarackBook page explains it all: It's not Lessig's hard-to-follow opinions on copyright that honked off the right-wingers. It's this video he's shown at talks, in which a campy Jesus character gets hit by a bus. One man's Monty Python is another man's blasphemy. I wonder if the Professor would dare show a remix where, oh, let's make it Joe Biden gets run over instead. I know people who would love that.

Nerds battle rockers as SXSW turns to music

Melissa Gira Grant — Tue, 11 Mar 2008 20:40:22 EDT

Tonight's Bigg Digg Shindigg will be our last dance, nerd promsters. The real guitar heroes are here in Austin now, skinny pants and all. The star closing panel of the day, The Futurists Sandbox, featured slides from P. T. Anderson's lovesong to '70s porn, Boogie Nights, played to a series of monologues to eulogize Dirk Diggler as if he were a real person who died in 2025. Not even dropping Larry Lessig's name roused the crowd from Twittering. Or maybe they mistook the packed-to-capacity conference room for PureVolume.

Lessig abandons bid for Congress

Paul Boutin — Tue, 26 Feb 2008 03:02:25 EST

You can watch Stanford Law prof Larry Lessig's five-minute video explaining why he's decided not to pursue the 12th Congressional District seat vacated by the late Tom Lantos. Or you can read the snappy summary by my anti-free-culture overlords at The Wall Street Journal: "He had no chance of winning against fellow Democrat Jackie Speier, a highly popular former state senator who was endorsed by Lantos shortly before his death." Pretty funny how The Internets thought they were going to blog and tweet Lessig into Washington, without first finding the 12th District on a map.

"I never cease to be amazed when supporters...

Paul Boutin — Wed, 20 Feb 2008 19:30:53 EST

"I never cease to be amazed when supporters of Open Source, Open Standards and the relative anarchy that such regimes allow turn to the government sector and want to do just the opposite: centralize everything." — macbeach on "free culture" advocate Lawrence "Larry" Lessig's proposal to publicly fund election campaigns.

Lessig's plan to change Congress — the 100-word version

Paul Boutin — Wed, 20 Feb 2008 10:55:50 EST

Stanford law prof Larry Lessig announced two things yesterday in a 10-minute video that ran about 9-1/2 minutes too long. One is that he'll decide whether or not to run for Congress by March 1. The other is a plan called Change Congress. It comes down to three bullet points.

The influence that money now has in Washington skews public policy in important areas. Good people working in a bad system. Change that system, change that ethic. It is the first problem that has to be solved. How? A bipartisan coalition of members of Congress who pledge to support three things:
1. No money from lobbyists or political action groups
2. Ban earmarks in the Congressional appropriations process
3. Public financing of campaigns

Lessig considers run for Congress

Owen Thomas — Wed, 20 Feb 2008 00:53:22 EST

We were just tweaking Stanford law professor Larry Lessig, really, when we asked him if he planned to just study the law, or actually make it. But Lessig now says he's seriously considering a run for the late Tom Lantos's House seat. A grassroots "Draft Lessig" movement prompted him to think about it, he says. Will he or won't he? Lessig, an Obama supporter who's also riding a "change" theme, posted a video explaining his thinking:

The oddest thing about his tentative run: He's switched from "Lawrence," the name he prefers, to the more proletarian "Larry." See, Larry, you're already becoming a politician!

So, would you vote for him?

Remainders: Kotaku E3 edition

Nick Douglas — Wed, 10 May 2006 22:19:41 EDT

Thanks to that health nut Steve Jobs, your kids are gonna get Hot Wheels and Barbies in every Happy Meal from now on — just as Jobs becomes Disney's biggest stockholder, the Mouse stops signing Happy Meal toy contracts with McDonald's. [ZDNet]
With his excoriation of copyright freedom fighter Larry Lessig, pundit Andrew Keen confirms that besides being a flame-baiter, he's kind of a dick. [Andrew Keen]
As Google gets better and better, the Register decides to take the subtle, calibrated perspective: "The worse Google gets, the more money it makes?" [Register]

And big brother Kotaku gets off the beanbag chair and blogs gaming mega-conf E3:

Sega's releasing a new Golden Axe. Now that is a classic worth reviving, despite creepy memories of my brother always playing the chainmail bikini girl. [Kotaku]
Live video of people reacting to Wii. (Dear Nintendo: Stop horning in on the stupid-wimpy-name industry. Love, Web 2.0.) [Kotaku]
Oh hell, read the whole string of coverage. Tons of video, tons of use of the word "fuck."

Geeking out: Mashup Camp, Day 1

ndouglas — Tue, 21 Feb 2006 15:47:33 EST

Tired of camps about actual from-scratch products, Valley developers, pundits, and businessfolk mixed it up at Mashup Camp, the two-day "unconference" about remixed tech. Laughing Squid tentaclemaster Scott Beale kindly let me abuse his pics from Monday.

Blogger Doc Searls rocks out the Microsoft-lanyard-Firefox-shirt mashup: business in front, party in the back.

"You'd think I'd shave it off, but when I'm in my bowler and three-piece it looks divine."

White-hat lawyers, Mucho Camp invasion, and the hippest user-experience expert in the Valley — all after the jump.

Technorati's Niall Kennedy: "Seriously, you say it through that thing and I'll pay you ten bucks." David Berlind: "For ten bucks? You're on."

"Larry Lessig totally hearts the RIAA!"

He didn't even see the hand until his face was firm in its grip.

The goatse-ing of an entire audience proves disappointing.

Scott visits the nearby Meebo headquarters. "I don't know how he got in here, but I need him evacuated before he takes a photo of the blank whiteboard."

Preserved for posterity, a dot-com geek.

Lawyer Larry Lessig cannot believe you asked about the Eldred case.

Members of the nearby Mucho Camp join the Mashup crowd. But they are still indie, so they will code standing up.

When it's time to blog the camp, everyone cheats off ZDNet's Dan Farber.

Doc Searls: "Hey, my award, don't touch!"

"Psst. You. Wanna buy a mashup of Marilyn Manson and the Mormon Tabernacle Choir?"

That's not even special ice. That is the bioluminescence of Jonathan Grubb's face.

Mashup Camp photos [Laughing Squid]
Mashup Camp [MashupCamp.com]