News
Harvard Researchers Develop AI-Driven Framework To Study Social Interactions, A Step Forward for Autism Research
News
Harvard Innovation Labs Announces 25 President’s Innovation Challenge Finalists
News
Graduate Student Council To Vote on Meeting Attendance Policy
News
Pop Hits and Politics: At Yardfest, Students Dance to Bedingfield and a Student Band Condemns Trump
News
Billionaire Investor Gerald Chan Under Scrutiny for Neglect of Historic Harvard Square Theater
Calling the response to his potential candidacy “simply humbling and inspiring,” former Harvard law professor Lawrence Lessig announced yesterday that he will not mount a bid for Congress from his San Francisco-area district.
The copyright and cyberlaw expert, who has been at Stanford since 2000, had been encouraged to run for office by Harvard cyberlaw professor John G. Palfrey, Jr. ’94. Palfrey was the leader of a Web-based “Draft Lessig” movement to encourage his friend to seek office.
In a video posted on his Web site yesterday evening, Lessig said that his chances for defeating Democratic opponent Jackie Speier, a state senator and 30-year veteran of local politics, would be thinner than a computer chip.
“It is not possible,” he said. “Certainly, we would lose this race and not just one in a tight contest, but we would lose in a big way.”
Lessig said he would direct the money that had been donated for his campaign to his “Change Congress” movement, which aims to get politicians to refuse money from lobbyists, ban “earmarks,” and support public financing of campaigns.
“Changing congress is the hardest political challenge that we as a nation face,” Lessig said in the video.
Lessig, famous for bringing a 2003 case that unsuccessfully challenged prevailing U.S. copyright law, is the founder of Creative Commons, a non-profit organization that allows copyright holders to provide some or all of the rights to their work online for free.
“Lawrence Lessig is a great American and would make a great member of Congress,” Palfrey said in an interview last week. “We would be sorry to see him leave academia, but he will have a great public service career ahead of him if he decides to take on this challenge.”
—THE CRIMSON STAFF
Want to keep up with breaking news? Subscribe to our email newsletter.
Over 300+ courses at prestigious colleges and universities in the US and UK are at your disposal.
Where you should have gotten your protein since 1998.
Serve as a proctor for Harvard Summer School (HSS) students, either in the Secondary School Program (SSP), General Program (GP), or Pre-College Program.
With an increasingly competitive Law School admissions process, it's important to understand what makes an applicant stand out.
Welcome to your one-stop gifting destination for men and women—it's like your neighborhood holiday shop, but way cooler.
HUSL seeks to create and empower a community of students who are seeking pathways into the Sports Business Industry.