back to article Lessig quits presidential race to spend more time with his idiotic ideas

Law professor Lawrence Lessig has quit the US presidential race. The author of Code and Other Laws of Cyberspace and the driving force behind Creative Commons announced the decision on Monday, after it became clear he wouldn't make it into the second Democratic candidate debate. In a video explaining the decision, Lessig …

  1. graeme leggett Silver badge

    if history has taught us anything

    The way to change the system - for good or ill - is to be elected first on a popular platform.

    1. Mark 85

      Re: if history has taught us anything

      I'd like to add "and be more than a one-trick pony". Government is complicated and one answer for one problem just won't pull many votes. He'd be far better off running a grass-roots campaign in each state to change the campaign funding laws in the individual states.

    2. Anonymous Coward
      Mushroom

      Re: if history has taught us anything

      The way to change the system - for good or ill - is revolution.

      FTFY O:)

      Oh crap, what are all these red dots on my forehe

    3. Bleu

      Re: if history has taught us anything

      To describe Lessig's ideas as 'idiotic' is a little short-sighted.

      His initial action against the endless extension of copyrights and trademark rights was very sound, just a shame that the USA supreme court combined incomprehension with being pulled by infuence appliers.

      Lessig had all of logic on his side.

      So, his action at the time failed, where it should not have.

      I have and have read his book after that, where he tries to define the situation, I disagree with much, but at least he tries to define an alternative after the loss at the Supreme Court of the USA, which will pose as the Supreme Court of all countries foolish enough to sign up for the TPP and TTIP, I forget what the Antlantic version of this fraud is to be called.

      TITSUP? Trans-International Trans-Atlantic Superiority of bullshit law in USA Project?

      Supine is sure the position of governments which will subject themselves to either, and their people.

  2. Turtle

    He looks like...

    Interesting that his choice in eyewear is such that it accentuates the beadiness of his beady little eyes.

  3. 404

    Who?

    I'd remember the glasses if I ever saw/heard of this guy before - besides, it's Hillary's 'turn' & she has a vagina.

    :|

    1. Alan W. Rateliff, II
      Paris Hilton

      Re: Who?

      Indeed: VOTE VAGINA 2016

    2. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: Who?

      I'd be Hillary's "Monica Lewinsky".

      1. Anonymous Coward
        Anonymous Coward

        Re: Who?

        Oh god no, please make the eyelid movies of that statement stop, PLEASE!

    3. Your alien overlord - fear me

      Re: Who?

      I'm suprised they haven't just out-sourced the job to the Chinese.

  4. Will Godfrey Silver badge
    Unhappy

    Why so much hate from the writer?

    See title

    1. Geoffrey W

      Re: Why so much hate from the writer?

      Quite. I rather liked Lessig when I heard him speak. He must have run over Kieren McCarthy's granny, or his kitty or something.

    2. mediabeing

      Re: Why so much hate from the writer?

      I'm thinking the ire is from disappointment that Lessig stepped out when he did.

      I know I'm not happy he made this decision. You never know...Hillary might blow away or something.

      She certainly doesn't have the 'fire in the belly' we require of our next President.

    3. Michael Wojcik Silver badge

      Re: Why so much hate from the writer?

      Hate? Kieren's merely puncturing a bit of Lessig's self-importance and bombast.

      I'm with Kieren on this one. I've read a couple of Lessig's books and watched a few of his talks, and generally followed his career. I'm not impressed by his understanding of information technology or the cultural manifestations that have developed around it. I'm not impressed, particularly, by Creative Commons; I know some people think it's the greatest thing since sliced bread, but I find it an overly-complicated solution to a problem that wasn't that difficult in the first place, and is not all that terribly important in the greater scheme of things.

      The Lessig hagiographers treat him as some sort of prophet of the digital age (and "digital age" is just the sort of hackneyed, overstated, imprecise phrasing they're prone to) who's arrived to show us all the way. But as far as I can tell, he's gone to great lengths to explain the same simple ideas and petty insights over and over again, and in practice he's not done much good arguing his positions in the venues that matter, like in front of SCOTUS. Lessig hasn't been the reason we have various DMCA exemptions, for example - and I know people who did present arguments before the Librarian of Congress for DMCA exemptions, and were quoted and cited at length in the decision to grant those exemptions. That's actually being effective. Running a vanity campaign for the Presidency is not.

  5. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    With 99.9% accuracy, I now predict the official winner of the 2016 Presidential Election. The winner is...

    ...Corporate America.

    1. Sherrie Ludwig

      Corporate America

      Fears a guy who hasn't taken a penny from them, Senator Bernie Sanders. Check out his message, and the fact that his online presence is huge while the mainstream media has been trying very hard not to report on him. He's either crushing it in the polls or not a contender - depends on which lying polls you believe. the primary elections will be interesting this year.

      1. Bongwater

        Re: Corporate America

        How come nobody cared when Mike Gravel said all of this? I can't understand how so many people ride the Sanders bandwagon when Gravel stated everything you hear already. I really don't understand politics but what I understand less is why Bernie is so cool and Gravel isn't.

        Guess he wasn't cool enough.

  6. allthecoolshortnamesweretaken

    Not a big fan of Lessing myself,

    but looking at the other would-be candidates... oh dear.

    Ok Team USA, get it over with and elect The Donald(TM), this is bound to clear up things one way or another.

    1. jake Silver badge

      Re: Not a big fan of Lessing myself,

      Who in their right mind would want that hot-headed, short-sighted, xenophobic[0] idiot Trump to have his finger on the US's nuclear strike capability? I mean, really? I don't want any of whatever it is you are smoking and/or being brainwashed by. Trump in charge would make that putz Putin look like a good idea.

      [0] Well ... to be honest, Trump's only xenophobic when he's not being bamboozled by a European super-model gold-digger, of course. Can you say "hypocrite"?

      1. allthecoolshortnamesweretaken

        Re: Not a big fan of Lessing myself,

        Well Jake, if you must know: cigars.

        From an outsider's perspective it looks like US politics is in a bit of a rut and needs something truly disruptive (actually, for once the current buzzword seems appropiate here) to shake it up a bit and maybe get things going again.

        'Stand clear!' <kaZZZZZRRRRTtttt> *beep* *beep* *beep*

      2. Dan Paul

        Re: Not a big fan of Lessing myself,

        Jealous much Jake? If Trump can have a "European super-model gold-digger" why can't you? Is that it? As long as he has a pre-nup he should be able to do anything he wants with her.

        The fact that Trump has only spent 3 million of his OWN MONEY (No PACS are involved) when Hillarity has already spent 30 million seems to escape all you Trump bashers here. She's spending 3 to 1 and getting nowhere near all the free publicity that Trump is.

        Trump has more business acumen than any candidate running or not and he will not owe his soul to a political action committee as he is financially independent. The "running dog lackey" Demoncrats are most afraid of that fact as they can't tolerate candidates that are really free of undue influence. The Democrats owe a whole lotta money (and their souls) to some cigar chomping men in a back room.

        Both NBC and all it's subsidiary networks are obviously biased against him and they should be prevented from ever hosting another debate ever. The chicken shit questions they asked were rather telling. But the funny thing is that the crappy moderators lifted the skirt on liberal media bias in a way that only served to help the Republican cause by making it too real to ignore.

        All you hypocrites in Europe just make me laugh when you call Trump xenophobic when it turns out that every government in Europe is already sinking under the weight of immigrants that they don't really want and are finally saying so. And many are putting up fences, walls and stationing police and military to prevent their entry. And if we hadn't been more interested in apologizing and less interested in keeping the military gains we made in Iraq and Afghanistan; there might be less of a need for people to migrate from those countries and Syria because ISIS may not have had free reign.

        We don't need any more immigrants here in the US because we ALREADY have too many illegal ones. Trump has at least been upfront and truthful about his views on the subject, unlike most of your leaders. Illegals need to be sent home, they broke the law and we don't need any more people like that. Legal immigrants shouldn't have less rights than illegal ones.

        Trump has the chutzpah that no Democrat will ever express. We don't need another gutless, wimp, apologist running this country and we don't need another cheating, thieving liar.

        Trump as President will scare the scat out of Putin and his cronies because Trump won't take anymore of his BS and will call his bluff.

        1. Geoffrey W

          Re: Not a big fan of Lessing myself,

          Go Dan! Bang them war drums! Plenty more cannon fodder to sacrifice on the alter of "Being Tough!" You show them durn commies who really rules the world. Watch Trump get rid of all the immigrants then watch as his hotel chain collapses coz they cant find anyone to clean the rooms at the same shit wage level.

          As for Afghanistan, et al: The trouble with military empires that use force to impose their will on the world is that they are fucking expensive and need to be maintained in perpetuity and always ultimately collapse under the crippling costs, both monetary and in human life. No one, absolutely no one, likes to live under the enforced rule of another people no matter how wonderful you think the invading culture is, and the moment it withdraws even a little, if you have destroyed the local structures thoroughly enough, someone who you will not like rises to try and take over. Always. Invasion makes you hated, and with Trump you will also enjoy mockery. No one in the entire world will take Trump seriously. He has a cartoon view of the world. He thinks at the level of a B movie Western from the 1950's and I think you will find the world is not quite that simple.

        2. jake Silver badge

          Re: Not a big fan of Lessing myself,

          "Jealous much Jake?"

          Uh ... no. Celebretards are just that. I'm a real human being. They are not. They are plastic.

          Trump is a chump. I'd be happy to take a dump on him, live, on national TV.

          The rest of your rant suggests that you have zero clue about the implications involved.

  7. Pascal Monett Silver badge

    "the political establishment is not keen on promoting people determined to undermine it"

    That, very much. Going into politics is like entering a monastery : you're going to spend all your time with the same people. If you are completely against everything they do, you are by definition uniting them against you. And they have more experience than you. So your failure is a foregone conclusion.

    The only way to change the system is create an overwhelming public movement against it that the monks can simply no longer ignore. Takes time, dedication, mountains of effort and probably not a small amount of cash. The only alternative is to wait for people to wake up, but, save for a miracle, you'll be dead before that happens.

    1. allthecoolshortnamesweretaken

      Re: "the political establishment is not keen on promoting people determined to undermine it"

      True. They do not even like change from within - just look at what happened to Julius Ceasar.

  8. factinista

    Courage of Author's convictions ...

    Have the courage of your convictions Dude and sign the biased nonsense you write! Hang on! On reflection ... best not! If you did, you might get the drubbing you deserve!

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: Courage of Author's convictions ...

      The article is bylined...

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