Povety-fighter Edwards still mute on Bono–even though it harms the best anti-poverty weapon
John Edwards, podcaster, UNC professor and poverty-fighter, explicitly promised to try to answer all questions submitted for his podcasts. But sure enough, Podcast Two ignored our polite query on the Sonny Bono Copyright Term Extension Act.
As a lifelong liberal Democrat who voted for Edwards last November, I loved his populist answers on bankruptcy legislation and other issues. So far, though, his populism doesn’t extend to copyright questions involving his Hollywood benefactors.
Has Edwards made a Faustian bargain: “Donate to me and I’ll never go against the movie industry line”?
It’s not as if copyright is a matter isolated from the poverty, Prof. Edwards’ big issue. And given his interest in education, the best anti-poverty weapon, his silence on copyright is all the more disappointing. Over the years Bono will transfer billions from schools, libraries and ordinary folks to corporations and rich copyright heirs. Why is the Professor, so accustomed to framing issues in moral terms, absolutely refusing to say a word?
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