I don’t think that I’ve particularly hidden my dislike of Barak Obama. I think that he’s a pompous windbag with no experience and fucked up views of pretty much everything.
That said, while I’d vote for McCain, I can’t say that I like him either. For one thing there was the delightful McCain-Feingold limitation put on freedom of speech; and for another there was his fuckwitted support of some of the less sensible (and that’s saying something) parts of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act. Which he’s trying to back-pedal from just now.
After having several campaign videos removed from YouTube for alleged copyright violations, Republican presidential candidate John McCain wants the video-sharing web site to consider special takedown privileges for politicians and their ilk.
McCain ’08 general counsel Trevor Potter yesterday sent a letter to YouTube execs claiming the site is too quick to remove their campaign videos based on “overreaching copyright claims.” He wrote that on numerous occasions that the material in question was “clearly” privileged under the US fair use doctrine.
Ah yes. And now his campaign is trying to say that politicians should have extra special, more legally guaranteed Freedom Of Speech, after he led the charge against mere plebes having such a thing.
While it’s certainly nice to see a politician advocate against abuse of DMCA takedown policies from copyright holders without a valid claim or even as a tool to discourage free speech, perhaps these complications should have been considered before passing the law in the first place. ®
Schadenfreude, anyone?
Especially when Google, never one to let legal or moral stands get in the way of making a quick buck, slaps him down over it.
That said, despite all this, I still think that McCain is much the better candidate. Does that tell you how bad a candidate I think Obama is?
“Much better candidate”??
I actually want Obama to win. Partly in the hope that we can then get past all the identity politics crap, but also because this is the election you don’t want to win – and of the two parties, the Republicans are the most likely to come round to some sensible ideas if they’re given a big enough kicking.
Bah, humbug. Can’t wait for it to be over.
I’d be tempted to agree with you, but the idea of both the legislative and executive arms being under one party in interesting times like this terrifies me…
That’s part of the “big enough kicking” thing. Maybe it’s not just the Republicans that need a good hiding.