IP Czar: The Copyleft's Own Short List

No doubt alarmed by the copyright-industry-heavy list of names floated as potential nominees as the first-ever US IP Czar, the copyleft is coming up with its own wish-list. Or at least the Georgetown University Students for Free Culture group is. And they've started a FaceBook cause called "Towards a Comprehensive, Balanced U.S. Patent and Copyright Policy" with the goal of "Encourag[ing] President-Elect Obama to Choose the Best IP Enforcement Coordinator Possible":

If you believe that the new administration needs to take a new look at patent, trademark, and copyright law so that the US can take full advantage of the power of the Internet and other new technologies, sign up and help ensure the first White House patent and copyright czar does something more than just try to think up new ways to harass teenagers who download music.

The cause page then asks members to vote on six suggested czars:

• Larry Lessig
  
• Mary Bono Mack -- Congresswoman from CA
  
• Hal Varian -- Google Chief Economist and Berkeley economics professor (currently on leave)
  
• Gigi Sohn -- President of Public Knowledge, a relatively moderate copyleft group
  
• Pam Samuelson -- Berkeley law professor and longtime nemesis of copyright owners
  
• James Boyle -- Duke law professor and Co-Director of Duke's "Center for the Study of the Public Domain"

Appointment of any of these people would thrill the copyleft and send the entertainment industry into fits of panic and rage -- with the exception of Mary Bono Mack. As to Bono Mack: what in the world were they thinking?