presidential

A coalition of entertainment and publishing industry heavyweights would like to see the 2008 presidential candidates champion "meaningful copyright protection" in their policy platforms.

The requests came Tuesday in the form of a letter (PDF) and a questionnaire (PDF), dispatched by the Washington-based Copyright Alliance to 17 candidates vying for Democratic or Republican nominations next year. The group has requested responses to its questionnaire by early January of next year and plans to make the answers public.

The alliance's 44 members include the Recording Industry Association of America, Motion Picture Association of America, Association of American Publishers, … Read more

Just in time for a Wednesday visit to the Googleplex and other Silicon Valley outposts, Democratic presidential hopeful Barack Obama plans to take the wraps off his technology platform.

Obama's agenda (PDF), which numbers nine pages, isn't limited to the usual talking points, although they're in there, too: enacting Net neutrality rules, speeding next-generation broadband deployment to all corners of the nation, improving math and science education, beefing up federal research spending, letting in more foreign tech workers, and making the research and development tax credit permanent.

His plan also includes a number of technology-laced provisions aimed … Read more

On October 16, Stephen Colbert announced that he is seeking the presidential nomination from both the Republican and Democratic parties in his home state of South Carolina. Though Colbert has never asserted he is serious (he recently told students at Columbia University, "I don't actually want to win, I just want to f**k with people."), his candidacy continues to be covered by just about every media outlet you can think of. Some people fully support his run for president whereas others are less than excited about turning the U.S. into a Colbert Nation.

While it'… Read more

If elected president, Barack Obama plans to prioritize, well, barring broadband providers like AT&T and Comcast from prioritizing Internet content.

Affixing his signature to federal Net neutrality rules would be high on the list during his first year in the Oval Office, the junior senator from Illinois said during an interactive forum Monday afternoon with the popular contender put on by MTV and MySpace at Coe College in Iowa.

Net neutrality, of course, is the idea that broadband operators shouldn't be allowed to block or degrade Internet content and services--or charge content providers an extra fee for … Read more

Net Neutrality could soon get top billing in the upcoming 2008 U.S. presidential race.

Or at least, that's what the folks at MoveOn.org are hoping. A question about the issue will be asked of Senator Barack Obama on Monday during an MTV dialogue in Iowa. The event will be streamed live on the Internet at 1:30 p.m. EST and air on MTV at 7:00 p.m. EST.

MTV agreed to ask Obama the top-rated question submitted by a voter in the online video contest 10Questions.com. And the top-rated question is from a MoveOn … Read more

Either Republican presidential hopeful Mitt Romney is trying to redeem himself for previously knocking the CNN-YouTube debates' "demeaning" format (thanks to an animated snowman posing questions about global warming), or he's not so hostile to the user-generated sphere after all.

In any case, the former Massachusetts governor's campaign on Wednesday announced it is now soliciting help from the mashup-happy masses in crafting his new official television ad. Partnering with Yahoo's Jumpcut.com online video-editing service, a new contest implores savvy video splicers to put together a 27- or 57-second feature using multimedia furnished by his … Read more

The presidential crawl back and forth across the country is less of a race and more of a marathon. At this point, there are a lot of candidates on both sides, and likewise an onslaught of news coverage. To help keep track of it all, there's a new site, aptly named Map the Candidates, which does just that. It's a Google maps mashup of where candidates are, and what they're doing in the form of news feeds and video clips.

Each candidate gets an icon to match their campaign branding, and various map markers around the country … Read more

For a while there, the fate of the Republican counterpart to last month's CNN-YouTube debates among Democratic presidential contenders was looking pretty bleak. But it appears that the event in St. Petersburg, Fla., will, indeed take place--albeit a few months later than planned.

CNN and YouTube on Monday issued a brief press release announcing that the candidates will be invited to take the Mahaffey Theatre's stage on November 28. As of Sunday night, John McCain and Rudy Giuliani had agreed to show up for the post-Thanksgiving event, but there was no immediate word on the others, a CNN … Read more

Text messaging as means of political outreach is hardly a new idea, but 2008 Democratic presidential hopeful Dennis Kucinich claims a new drive launched by his campaign on Monday stands out from all the rest.

The vegan congressman from Ohio is asking Americans opposed to the Iraq war to text the word "peace" to the number 73223. From there, he plans to forward on the responses to President Bush and the Pentagon.

It all amounts to what his campaign staff calls "the first time text messaging has been used to try and change American policy." (Wait, … Read more