Lawrence Lessig suddenly changed his focus from copyright law to corruption after many years. He had an epiphany of sorts - he's been right for decades, but it doesn't matter. Why? Because corporations can openly hand out cash to congress.
So, he focused on corruption, but exactly as you've defined it to be ok. He explicitly said he isn't talking about lobbying behind closed doors. He's talking about the fact that Disney can walk into congress with a pile of cash, completely open about what it wants to do: we're giving you cash so for the first time ever, nothing new will enter the public domain for the next 20 years (or perhaps more, in 20 years, there will be a knock on your door, and we'll be there, with a pile of cash, to make that 40 years instead of 20).[1]
Is it really not corruption if it's in the open? This seems like almost total capitulation to corruption and corporate rule.
[1] probably clear, but I should emphasize, this is what I interpreted Lessig's argument to be. Read his words for his opinion.
Lawrence Lessig suddenly changed his focus from copyright law to corruption after many years. He had an epiphany of sorts - he's been right for decades, but it doesn't matter. Why? Because corporations can openly hand out cash to congress.
So, he focused on corruption, but exactly as you've defined it to be ok. He explicitly said he isn't talking about lobbying behind closed doors. He's talking about the fact that Disney can walk into congress with a pile of cash, completely open about what it wants to do: we're giving you cash so for the first time ever, nothing new will enter the public domain for the next 20 years (or perhaps more, in 20 years, there will be a knock on your door, and we'll be there, with a pile of cash, to make that 40 years instead of 20).[1]
Is it really not corruption if it's in the open? This seems like almost total capitulation to corruption and corporate rule.
[1] probably clear, but I should emphasize, this is what I interpreted Lessig's argument to be. Read his words for his opinion.