FC: Gore's Internet record is "a big disappointment," by Jamie Love

[Declan McCullagh <declan () well com>]

Below Jamie Love, who works for Ralph Nader at the Consumer Project on 
Technology, attacks Al Gore.

-Declan

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Date: Tue, 31 Oct 2000 15:03:09 -0500
From: James Love <love () cptech org>
Organization: http://www.cptech.org
To: declan () well com
Cc: politech () politechbot com, rotenberg () epic org
Subject: Re: FC: Some defenses of Al Gore and his tech-savviness

Declan, I would like to comment on Marc Rotenberg's note.  I think there
is an argument for voting for Gore.   Bush would be predictably very
much in the pocket of big business interests.  However, I don't think it
makes much sense to say that Gore's record with respect to the Internet
or ecommerce has been good. I would agree with Marc that as a Senator,
Gore was an early and important advocate of supporting the development
of the Internet.  However, the Clinton/Gore record since 1992 has been a
big disappointment.  What Gore has not done is do anything to protect
the Internet, and he has done very little to support the creation of
high quality public domain information resources. He has never spoken in
favor of open access for cable/Internet platforms, never expressed any
notable support for antitrust enforcement against Microsoft (his
daughter became a Microsoft employee during the DOJ investigation),
never said a word about USPTO patents on software or ecommerce, never
said a word about the free software/Open source movement, never
addressed any of the problems with ICANN, he opposed the EU privacy
directive, he opposed US government regulation of privacy on the
Internet, opposed Article 7 of the Hague Convention because businesses
don't like it, supported gutting consumer protection laws in favor of
business led ADR/self regulation/safe harbor provisions, vastly expanded
FOIA exceptions, not supported putting government contracts on the
Internet, ignored efforts to restrain high prices on government
information, was the last person on board in getting USPTO and SEC
records on the Internet, protected West Publishing when it was owned by
his friend Vance Opperman, and a lot of other things.  What's more, he
never hired even one information policy NGO/public interest advocate in
the Clinton/Gore administration, surrounded himself with corporate
lobbyists, uncritical cronies and relatively timid policy wonks, and has
given public interest groups practically zero access.   We are
continually lied to about basic facts regarding US positions on
ecommerce in trade negotiations and the WTO ecommerce programs.  The USG
is now requiring countries in bilaterial treaties to agree to issue
business method and software patents (See the recent Jordan/FTA), and is
forcing a chamber of commerce agenda on the entire world.  He may be
better than Bush, but it's hard to see how from his record on
information policy.

  Jamie Love
--
> James Love  mailto:love () cptech org http://www.cptech.org
> Consumer Project on Technology, P.O. Box 19367, Washington, DC 20036
> voice 1.202.387.8030  fax  1.202.234.5176

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Date: Tue, 31 Oct 2000 15:07:03 -0500
To: James Love <love () cptech org>, declan () well com
From: Marc Rotenberg <rotenberg () epic org>
Subject: Re: FC: Some defenses of Al Gore and his tech-savviness
Cc: politech () politechbot com

Jamie makes a lot of good points. My original message
was only to make clear that I think Gore is "getting
a bad deal in the Internet debate." I said further
on that as a public interest advocate I am not thrilled
by Gore's close ties to business. Jamie carries this
argument further and makes it well.

I will probably post next my response to Todd Gittlin
in Salon. I think the Democratic establishment is
making a mistake by going after Nader's supporters.

Marc Rotenberg

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> Date: Mon, 30 Oct 2000 14:12:32 -0800 (PST)
> From: Art Brodsky <artbrodsky () yahoo com>
> Subject: Re: FC: Some defenses of Al Gore and his tech-savviness
> To: declan () well com
>
> Declan,
> Nice of you to post my message about Al Gore.  Thank you.  Just
> for the record, my note to you was written in my capacity as a
> former reporter on the beat.  I believe I expressed similar
> sentiments about that story when I was still at Comm Daily.  My
> note had nothing to do with my position here, which is why I
> used my personal account rather than my NTIA one.  I should have
> made that more clear, and I apologize for any confusion.
>
> Rgds,
>
> Art

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