However, with the decision to choose Joe Biden as VP, many worried that with his ties to copyright lobby groups, he would influence things to further increase the reach of already-draconian laws. Despite this, he was endorsed by both Lawrence Lessig, and the US Pirate Party, with the former’s wife even campaigning for him.

After his election he wasted little time in establishing a ‘transition’ website at change.gov. However, to the dismay of some, the copyright notices were as draconian as ever. That has all changed now, though, as the site embraces Creative Commons, opting for CC-BY. While Obama is not exactly a stranger to Creative Commons licensing – his flickr photos are under a CC BY-NC-SA license – it is no small step to go from photo album to entire website.

What does this mean for copyright? Well, as Creative Commons themselves point out in their blog, the group behind change.gov is not a part of the government – yet. It’s a non-profit organization, so could (and did) fill the site with copyright notices. Yet, that a Creative Commons license has been embraced by the President-Elect means good things. Most importantly, that the President has knowledge of less-restrictive copyright methods, and first-hand experience that not only do they work, but that the sky doesn’t fall down when they are used, cannot hurt. That the license chosen was, in Lessig’s words, the ‘freest license’ is more encouraging still.

One can only hope that when the likes of the RIAA and MPAA come to talk about further strengthening copyright, he turns around and says, “I’ve been using these great CC licenses, have you heard of them?” Regardless, it’s a great boost to Creative Commons, as they prepare to celebrate their sixth birthday.

TorrentFreak articles are published under a Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 2.0 license.

Article from: TorrentFreak, check out our new blog at FreakBits.

Andrew Norton, a spokesperson of the US Pirate Party told TorrentFreak: “We believe in democracy, and progress. Since we are not putting forward a candidate of our own, we stand solidly behind Mr. Obama, as he is the only candidate that seems to realize that personal privacy is a right, not a privilege, and believes that copyright is, as the constitution defines, for progress, rather than profit.”

Mr. Obama clearly understands the important role that the Internet plays in delivering information and communications in general according to the US Pirate Party. A great example of this is the speech he gave at the at the Google campus where he said, “I will take a backseat to no one in my commitment to network neutrality.” He later told TechCrunch: “I will prevent network providers from discriminating in ways that limit the freedom of expression on the Internet.” So, no BitTorrent blocking if it was up to Obama, sorry Comcast.

Don’t want to trust on the Pirate Parties? You can do a votematch here if you’re tired of all the campaign commercials and want to base your decision on what the candidates actually stand for.

Note: all Ron Paul comments will be censored ;)

Article from: TorrentFreak, check out our new blog at FreakBits.