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John Kerry's real tech agenda

By Declan McCullagh
http://news.com.com/2010-1028-5291476.html

Story last modified August 2, 2004, 4:00 AM PDT


The Democratic National Convention is over, some $65 million has been spent on a week-long party in Boston, and what do we now know about John Kerry?

The Massachusetts senator barely mentioned technology in his convention speech, except to marvel at ever-shrinking microchips and implore everyone to visit JohnKerry.com. That's not much to work with.

So let's take a look at what Kerry was doing before he announced his bid for the White House--long before the usual phalanx of speech writers and marketing consultants began filtering his public statements into something that resembles the texture and flavor of Velveeta.

A careful review of Kerry's history in the Senate shows that his record on technology is mixed. The Massachusetts Democrat frequently sought to levy intrusive new restrictions on technology businesses that could harm the U.S. economy. He was no friend of privacy and sided with Hollywood over Silicon Valley in the copyright wars.

But his votes in favor of free trade won him a rating of 87 percent in the 106th Congress and 71 percent in the 107th, according to a scorecard compiled by the Information Technology Industry Council. A Wired News technology scorecard in 2000 was less flattering, giving Kerry a mere 50 percent.

Kerry never was a steadfast foe of the tech industry, as were politicians like Sen. Fritz Hollings, D-S.C. But Kerry did veer in that direction a few times.

Copyright
At one hearing I wrote about in 2002, members of the Senate Commerce committee were trying to figure out what to do with a Hollings bill that would have required copy protection controls to be embedded in all consumer electronic devices. Intel Executive Vice President Leslie Vadasz told the committee that Hollings' idea was a brain-dead approach that ignored Silicon Valley's concerns in favor of those raised by Hollywood lobbyists.

Kerry's advice? "We might need to legislate," he said, ignoring Vadasz's objections.

Internet regulation
Then there's Kerry's support for a second piece of worrisome legislation backed by Hollings that would have imposed stricter data collection requirements on Internet firms than apply to the rest of the U.S. economy.

Tech firms and the U.S. Chamber of Commerce sensibly cried foul, predicting the proposal would lead to higher prices and would "hinder the growth of electronic commerce." Kerry also co-sponsored a similarly intrusive bill in 2000; all of these proposals died in the Senate.

Kerry never was a steadfast foe of the tech industry, as were politicians like Sen. Fritz Hollings. But Kerry did veer in that direction a few times.
Kerry made enemies of tech firms by rallying support for a Democratic-supported measure dealing with liability in lawsuits arising from the Y2K bug problem. A competing Republican measure preferred by businesses prevailed, and the Kerry-backed plan was rejected by a vote of 57 to 41.

more at http://news.com.com/2010-1028-5291476.html

"He was no friend of privacy and sided with Hollywood over Silicon Valley in the copyright wars.

But his votes in favor of free trade won him a rating of 87 percent"

pardon.. i thought free trade agreements were always topheavy with intellectual property crap... once again that has nothing to do with tech, except exporting DMCA requirements in order to stifle tech.

I vote for Badnarik. He's a computer programmer and lives in the city I just moved from...Austin.

Declan's Attempt to Mislead His Readers
Posted by: Unknown
Posted on: August 4, 2004, 1:24 PM PDT
Story: John Kerry's real tech agenda
It's a sad tendency of Internet users to assume that if a link is provided, the paraphrase must be accurate. People rely on the honesty of the author and assume that, if they're willing to provide a link, then they wouldn't lie.

Declan relies on this tendency to mislead his readers at nearly every turn. Moreover, he loves to plaster his articles with them in the hopes that people will just be overwhelmed and find the idea of doublechecking them all to much of an effort.

Case in point, in this article he writes:

"Intel Executive Vice President Leslie Vadasz told the committee that Hollings' idea was a brain-dead approach that ignored Silicon Valley's concerns in favor of those raised by Hollywood lobbyists.

Kerry's advice? "We might need to legislate," he said, ignoring Vadasz's objections."

Here's what the article he links to says (and originally wrote):
""We might need to legislate," said Sen. John Kerry (D-Massachusetts), though he emphasized that he would prefer the private sector reach an agreement on how to protect copyrighted electronic content."

That's right. Flying in the face of Declan's Kerry "ignoring" comment is the fact that Kerry "emphasized" he would prefer not to legislate.

Moreover, Declan, in this article, fails to note that in the original article, Vadasz eventually conceded what was a big part of the problem: "At one point, Eisner badgered Vadasz, asking him, "Can you protect open content on the Internet that's been stolen and now (is) sitting on a file. Is there a technological way?" After several half-answers, Vadasz eventually replied: "No."" That's why "[they] might need to legislate." Not that Kerry has some ant-tech agenda.

As for the 2000 Wired Survey, here's why Kerry was in the middle of the pack at 50%:
He voted yes for a "juvenile crime bill that included Internet regulation."
He voted yes to "require Internet providers to offer filtering software."
He voted yes to "support special restrictions on online sales of firearms."
He voted yes to "restrict online sales of alcohol."
And he voted yes on a "vote to single out purportedly offensive content online and offline and create a commission to study it."

Disregarding the fact that the survey is 4 years old, his votes listed above that didn't get him any points hardly indicate that he's an anti-tech luddite. Moreover, the highest rated Senator (of those that participated in all the votes) got a 7 out of 10. Thus, we're talking a difference of 2 votes between "the best" (note the scare quotes) the Senate has to offer and Kerry.

In any case, this is Declan's style and it's amazing that a respectable site like News.com puts up with his nonsense.

Declan misses the biggest points...
Posted by: Richard Kokoska
Posted on: August 2, 2004, 12:07 PM PDT
Story: John Kerry's real tech agenda
Declan is one of those cranky anti-government tech folks who tries really hard to bash politicians whenever he can, so it's actually reassuring that he couldn't find much to excite us on this story.

This whole tech biography of Kerry just shows what we already know about our Congress as a whole: that they're a bunch of middle-aged non-tech-savvy guys trying to make industrial policy for an industry that doesn't know what it wants. There's nobody in Congress who can satisfy the tecchies every time, or even understand what they want a lot of the time.

The 2 most important points in the article jumped right out at my end-user eyes: that Kerry wants to preserve the tax exemption on Web commerce, which seems to me like it ought to induce paroxisms of joy and thunderous endorsements from Silicon Valley as the one truly simple and effective technology policy the government can put in play; and that the tech industry only accounts for 8% of the US economy, which makes it clear why no politician worries too much about this primadonna posturing from the Tech sector to begin with.

Bush policy supports MS monopoly
Posted by: Paul Lewis
Posted on: August 3, 2004, 1:26 PM PDT
Story: John Kerry's real tech agenda
Let's not forget the Bush Justice Department sweetheart deal that essentially let Microsoft off the hook for any substantial penalties despite the fact that MS was found guilty of numerous antitrust violations. The Bush JD even threatened the European Union with trade sanctions after the EU found MS guilty of antitrust violations over there earlier this year. If you support the proposition that the open source movement is a good thing, then the preference for Kerry over Bush is clear.

leflaw.. i didnt say anything on kerry's tech stance...

but free trade agreements ARE filled with DMCA crap that stifles tech worldwide.. even though congressmen and interest groups are still challenging the anticircumvention clauses today.

the reason why few people complain about the DMCA is that it is still void in many nations, meaning developers can still traffic circumvention devices for DRM.

People dont see the difference, or the threat of export of said convention.

Agreeing with leflaw completely!
See the article I posted on Bush backing the RIAA in 2003

Well, if Kerry gets elected, I'll try and talk some sense into him. He seems like someone who can be reasoned with.

All I know is that Dave Matthews is having concerts to bring voters into Kerry's camp. And Jessica Simpson is doing the same for Bush. Apparently Bush had the same question about "chicken of the sea."

LOL

Azurre is my idol for the night.

"the reason why few people complain about the DMCA is that it is still void in many nations, meaning developers can still traffic circumvention devices for DRM."

Correct me please, If I am wrong ...
Wouldn't WIPO enforce DMCA worldwide ( WIPO, which Kerry backs to the point of banning people from his site for questioning it ) ?
His WIPO support would seem to show where his Tech stance REALLY is.

Kerry is only marginally less worse than Bush on our issues/agenda. If you are hoping for a presidential candidate on our side with any chance in hell this time around, forget it. Folks, your choices are Bush vs Kerry. Pick the one that best represents you in ways that are NOT music or copyright related or do like me and throw away your vote on the Codewarrior/Ziemann ticket.

If I were all of you, I would pay more attention to who is running for Congress/Senate than on the Presidential choice in regards to our issues.

Shmoo, of Electric Gypsy
Support Local and Independent Music!

"If I were all of you, I would pay more attention to who is running for Congress/Senate than on the Presidential choice in regards to our issues."

That is spot on.

When it comes to tech issues, Bush and Kerry are just 6 of one and half a dozen of the other......

Actually,
I was still looking at Badnarik, but if Code/Ziemann are on the ticket ... hmmm