At DragonCon I attended a panel discussing politics and intellectual property. It was hosted by a patent attorney out of Alabama and it was really quite interesting, focusing on the purpose of patents and IP in general and what the candidates are looking to do in regarding the badly abused patent and copyright system, etc. At any rate he recommended two links. One was the previous post’s science debate site. The other is Scientists and Engineers For America, a group that helped put together the 14 questions from last time. They also have a searchable database for all senators and representatives with their stance on scientific questions (many, if not most, have not yet answered their questions), including displaying what scientific legislation the incumbents have voted on. It does include candidates presently running, but most have no details about their stance listed.

However, if you’re interested, they have a form letter you can send off to the candidates through their site asking them to join up and weigh in. I’ve sent this to my local representative and his opponent asking them to pipe up, though I don’t expect much from either of them.

It’s also talk like a pirate day, so as a prolific software pirate I’d like to say that neither Obama nor McCain have come up with a reasonable plan to approach overbearing and inappropriate copyright law, but on the upside Obama is very much in favor of patent reform and has laid out a surprisingly intelligent and sensible plan to do so. McCain has said he recognizes that there’s a problem but that’s about it.