[FYI] (Fwd) FC: Weekly column: Is it time for a GeekPAC?

["Axel H Horns" <horns@ipjur.com>]

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Date sent:      	Mon, 25 Nov 2002 08:55:40 -0500
To:             	politech@politechbot.com
From:           	Declan McCullagh <declan@well.com>
Subject:        	FC: Weekly column: Is it time for a GeekPAC?
Send reply to:  	declan@well.com




http://news.com.com/2010-1023-971115.html

    Is it time for a GeekPAC?
    By Declan McCullagh
    November 25, 2002, 4:00 AM PT

    WASHINGTON--Geeks are beginning to realize they need to punish the
    Luddites in Congress who are standing in the way of progress.

    In a recent column, I suggested that the technology industry find
    a way to reward its friends and, more importantly, punish its
    enemies. Politicians have spent the past few years concocting
    increasingly dangerous schemes, and targeting them for defeat in
    the next election is one way to make them abandon their plans.

    I didn't know it when I wrote that column, but there's good news
    to report: Some efforts already are under way.

    One plan is to resuscitate the dormant League for Programming
    Freedom (LPF), which was founded in 1989 to oppose software
    patents. It's now moribund, but the LPF may find a new life as a
    political action committee opposing the disturbing expansions of
    copyright and patent law.

    Dean Anderson, who has been president of the LPF since 1993, says
    he's planning to work with free software maven Richard Stallman to
    organize a meeting in the next few weeks in the Cambridge, Mass.,
    area. "We're going to get some people together from the old LPF
    and decide how we want to proceed," Anderson says. "What I'd like
    to do is get more people together to develop a consensus on what
    the next mission should be, especially if we're going to
    re-incorporate (as a PAC)."

    In its heyday, the LPF focused on software patents and user
    interface copyright, including the Lotus v. Borland lawsuit over
    the design of the Lotus 1-2-3 spreadsheet. Software patents are as
    problematic for today's programmers as they were a decade ago, but
    new threats such as the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA)
    have since emerged.

    [...]

    But forget PACs. Probably the best model to follow is that adopted
    by Steve Moore, who runs the Club for Growth, which punishes
    pro-tax candidates and rewards those who favor lower taxes and
    limited government. It raised about $9.3 million during the last
    two-year election cycle, and spent about $7 million to influence
    races (the rest went to salaries, rent and overhead expenses).

    Moore's group is incorporated as a PAC, but to avoid spending
    limits, it doesn't operate as one. Under federal law, PACs are
    permitted to spend only $5,000 on each candidate in an election.
    Instead, Club for Growth targets an important race, asks its
    members to write checks, then bundles them together and sends them
    to the candidate.

    [...]




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