Yeah right, like that law actually has any teeth. I wonder just what percentage of the media cartels in influenced by foreigner or worse yet disloyal Americans who have sold out to globalism.

Mr. Ashdown, if you are for real, I wish you all the luck in the world. I don’t like the Democrat-Republican party, but there are a few honest people who work within it. If you are one of them, please keep up the good work. I will do some research to check out your stance on Constitutional issues. If you are for protecting the Constitution, then I’m for you and will give to your campaign.

Help spread the word to your American friends. One thing I’ve learned from this site is the influence American law has on the rest of the world. Thanks for that.

It’s good to hear someone like yourself talk about the ripping they do. 4000+ CD’s though! I definitely don’t envy you, I thought my 400+ CD” were plenty enough lol. But at least your using FLAC this time around which is great to hear. Storage space if very cheap these days, so that really isn’t a very good excuse not to choose lossless. I would have recommened a Rio Karma for playing OGG Vorbis, or perhaps an iRiver H140 with the latest Rockboxx firmware, but both of those players are really hard to find what with being discontinued models, and unfortunately there just isn’t anything really good audio quality-wise on the market currently, nor will there be for some time I suspect. Personally I would not recommend an iPod, but you have to do what you have to do I guess. At least with FLAC you can easily transcode to any lossy format you need in the future without having to re-rip all those CD’s again.

I live in Canada and it was great to read your stance on things technological in nature, and was especially nice (and amazing) to see you take the time to post to comments in an open forum such as this one. Even more amazing is that you obviously do understand all the things you are talking about. I sure wish more politicians were as open and clear as you’ve chosen to be. It would make voting so much easier. Like another poster here said, whom was from Britain I believe, other nations tend to follow what America does when it comes to law making, so in that way you winning does matter to folks like myself. Personally I really hope you win and wish you the best of luck.

Also, remember who Ashdown is up against. Orrin Hatch makes no secret that he backs the RIAA and MPAA in their campaign to sue ordinary people for the heinous act of sharing .mp3s. You would have a hard time finding anybody WORSE than Orrin Hatch.

It is right and propper to question a candidate’s motives (call it voter’s “due diligence”), but from the way Pete Ashdown is talking I can see him being a valuable member of the U.S. Senate for anyone who takes their digital rights seriously.

Mr Ashdown, however, is possibly the first politician I’ve heard who appears to have any understanding of the issues surrounding P2P. If he wants people to act to support him, fine. At least we actually have some reason to do so.

Even if Pete Ashdown is unable to present any bills in our favour, at least he can be a starting point for others in government supportive of P2P.

BTW, I’m from England so what happens in the U.S. is of little concern to me, except that the laws of the rest of the world tend to follow what happens in America.

Sounds like …..

If you want change you need to “donate” more cash than
the other guys. Laws don’t grow without proper “watering”.

I have seen from one of your comments that you support the FOSS software. Well, I am just discovering that. I got fed up with the security issues of windoze, the expense to protect the OS, and the hobbling of my ability to attempt a fix on my own. As of a couple of months ago, I run Suse on one machine and I run Ubuntu on another. I see nothing in the future that leads me to believe I will need Microsucks products as an OS down the road. The monopoly has gotten to big. Much like the music cartels, it has denied us all the advances that would have been present through anticompetive measures. That denial has lead to a lot of extra expense to the average consumer. As was mentioned it was one of the driving forces that led me to Linux. Cost is also a driving factor that is driving other countries to Linux as the government OS. Even the pentagon has put in orders for Linux, planning on a more secure computing enviroment than can be provided by Microsucks.

Anyway more important than all of that is I am glad to see your presence here. That you are here is winning you some good points with the readership here. You’re here to defend and make plain your stance. That’s sort of a rare thing now-a-days. Through that act alone, you have increased considerably my respect for you from the post I made above.

Now XMission is 99% Linux. The servers run Debian and I run Ubuntu on my desktops at home and at work. I have always realized the value of open source in my business.

I advocate the use of FOSS, especially in government. The US is falling behind Linux adoption, while the rest of the world is rapidly understanding its value.

Will closed-source software companies continue to survive? Most likely. I would not be in favor of active legislation against them. The market can make that decision. Athough I think mass adoption of the open source model will happen, it won’t happen in my lifetime.

In regards to RIAA lawsuits, that question wasn’t asked, but I’ll answer it anyway. No, I can’t stop them. What can be stopped is making the Federal law enforcement the private police of copyright holders. If RIAA/MPAA want to embarrass themselves with excessive civil copyright suits, that is their problem.

What will happen with Grokster vs. MGM? That question has already been answered by the Supreme Court and by me in the interview. Commercial P2P file-sharing software will cease to exist in the United States, only to be replaced by free software.

Yes, I do like cheese. If you have any other questions email them to me or post them here. I’ll check back.

Pete

I say this guy is legit. I’d be beyond elated if he won. I’d treat all my friends to a bottle of grey goose, and throw a party which would last 3 solid days.

Of course I don’t hold much hope for that.. nobody elects COMPETENT leaders (T_T), but I urge him to shoot for it!

“Use the Internet to your advantage instead of attempting to legislate it away.”

While this is great advise to the entertainment industry as a whole, it isn’t a message for the cartels or the “software manufacturing” monopolists. We need to remember that any future that works well for the vast majority of the economy will be bad for them. Times have and will change, and I simply do not see a future for these unnecessary middle men.

On the software side I believe people are going to get fed up with the lack of accountability and transparency in the “code” that governs many aspects of their online lives. Like citizens under a dictatorship they will eventually revolt, although in this case the switch from “software manufacturing” to fully commercially supported Free/Libre software is an invisible and painless choice for most people and not a revolt.

One thing is for sure, change would be far better for all of us that what is now there.

Also, so what if he’d be a freshman senator. we’ve all bee yelling about Hatch and how he’s got to go. who do you think’s going to replace him??? not a veteran, it has to be someone who can beat him in an election and that’s means a freshman. he may not be able to get many bills through but he will be able to vote. that’s one more vote and one more voice in congress suporting the internet.

And what if he’s does a complete 180, takes the industries bribes and supports all their legislation (maybe some but not likely all), he’ll have a whole lot less pull than Hatch did, thereby giving us some time to regroup.

I say let’s give these guys a chance if we want to get rid of Hatch and stop criticizing until we know different. BTW Jon’s doing great and wouldn’t put it up if it wasn’t relevant.

Morg