There has been a movement afoot to convince Lawrence Lessig, Stanford Law professor and thoughtful copyright activist, to run for Congress in the 12th district in California, a seat just vacated by the death of Democrat Tom Lantos. Apparently, he has heard the call; in a video available here, at Lessig08.org, he makes announcements: the second is that he is considering this move, and will have some answer by March 1. The first, and arguably just as important, is the pre-announcement of his project “Change Congress,” a grassroots movement to change the “economy of influence” in Washginton. This stems from the scholarship he has taken on since his work on copyright and free culture, about the power of lobbying and money in our political process.If you think highly of Lessig and his work, say so — on his site, or by joining the “Draft Lessig for Congress” Facebook group. And whether he runs or not, look into the Change Congress project. You can add your email and be alerted when the project itself goes live. I believe this issue is the most important issue today for free speech and character of the public discourse, and is a crucial piece of the puzzle of why every major political issue of our day is conducted on a far-from-level playing field. I have long said, when asked what needs to change in copyright law, that the answer is campaign finance reform. Lessig can take this point right to D.C.

While you’re at it, you might also be interested in Lessig’s video explaining his support of Barack Obama. (If nothing else, Lessig’s particular gift for lucid talks and weirdly compelling Apple-Keynote presentations would itself be a welcome addition to our nation’s political discourse. Gore-Lessig for Powerpoint-President, 2012!)

Update: Lessig has announced in his blog that he will not run for Congress, but will focus his efforts on developing the “Change Congress” grassroots project. I suppose being in Congress is not the ideal way to move one issue forward — even when that issue is endemic to all political concerns — since you would be spread across so many issues. Fair.