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Well we could tell the govt about. Mabey they are not bought and sold, mabey they are just ignorant.

Slashdot congress. I'm going to send the EFF text to congress.

comgress.org will give you contact infoformation for your elected officials, given a zip code.

This hearing is before the House Subcommittee on Commerce, Trade and Consumer Protection Committee which is a subcommitte of the House Energy and Commerce Committee. It is the 27 members of this specific subcommittee that need to hear from us as they will make the decision on what to do this Wednesday.

This is a list of the subcommittee members.

E-mail each of these 27 members, especially if one of the members happens to be your representative. They hold the power right now. Later we'll worry about other votes and other members. For now, write these 27 reps! Here's a sample letter:

Dear Subcommittee member,

I am writing to ask you to support H.R. 107 this Wednesday and favorably recommend that it move on from your subcommittee. This bill is identical to one which Representatives Boucher and Doolittle introduced during the last Congressional session, so the time that this bill move forward has come.

H.R. 107, the Digital Media Consumer's Rights Act (DMCRA), restores consumers' fair use rights by amending the DMCA to allow circumvention of copy protection for non-infringing uses of digital copyrighted material. The DMCRA also specifies that it is not a violation of Section 1201 of the DMCA to manufacture, distribute, or make non-infringing use of a hardware or software product that enables significant non-infringing use of a copyrighted work, as in making back-up copies of legally purchased DVDs or other digital media.

Several provisions of The Digital Millenium Copyright Act have harmed law-abiding citizens of this country for too long. The DMCRA is a sensible change to the law that is necessary for consumers to enjoy their rights of fair use.

The content industry that opposes this bill has cried wolf before. They opposed the VCR, likening it to the Boston Strangler. We know now that technological advances are good for both consumers and industry, and that an industry scared of change should not be allowed to impede progress or consumer's rights.

I believe that if you are truly thinking of the interests of your constituents, then you will support the DMCRA. I urge you to take a stand for the public this Wednesday.

Thank You.

Largely, the non-slashdot concerns about e-voting seem to center around unintentional inaccuracies, like those mentioned in the FA. In other words, the worst problem typically mentioned is about errors causing disenfrachisement or delays in voting. While I don't want to discount these problems, they are fixable, either by a paper backup system or timely software or hardware repairs, likely getting better and better as the machines become more widely used.

Personally, my real concern is about intentional vote fixing by the makers of the machines. I know this has been talked about at great length on /. and elsewhere, but I think it needs more attention in the real world.

I know I'm naive, but the thought that somebody would try to steal the election infuriates me. There is no pit deep and black enough for someone so unpatriotic and dishonest. We must fight to protect one of the greatest experiments in personal freedom in the history of humanity.

Please, take the time to write your CongressCritters about e-voting in the House and Senate.

Senator Coleman seems to understand these issues relatively well. If we write to him, then the voices of music lovers and consumers can be heard at this summit, too. If media executives are the only voices heard, disaster can be the only result. Read more about these issues at dontbuycds.org. Get help writing to Senator Coleman, and others in Washington at congress.org.

That measure will be DOA, if we act. I am writing my Congress-Critters. I suggest others do likewise. If you don't have addresses (e-mail, snail mail) you can go to http://www.congress.org.

How about a simple enough protest of the can spam law? Buy a can of Spam and mail it to your congress critter or the Direct Marketing Association.

Direct Marketing Association
Washington D. C. Office
1111 19th Street, N.W.
Washington, D.C. 20036-3603
Telephone: 202.955.5030
Fax: 202.955.0085

This website will give you the address of your congress critters address when you put in your zip code. Just to play it safe I went to the USPS website and checked their prohibited items list(warning PDF) and canned meat isn't on it.

The IEEE-USA is a USA specific organization. It was created to give IEEE's U.S. members a voice. Their mission is:

"To recommend policies and implement programs specifically intended to serve and benefit the members, the profession, and the public in the United States in appropriate professional areas of economic, ethical, legislative, social and technology policy concern."

U.S. Software Professionals need their own organizations, their own voice in Congress and elsewhere. Otherwise, groups representing corporations, such as the ITAA will be the only voice. ITAA was instrumental in the great increase in H-1B levels, which was good for Corporations but not for U.S. Information Technology Professionals.

National professional organizations are quite reasonable and rational for professionals. I am certain that Indian, European, and other Techonology Professionals are organized. So should we!

BTW, it is usually best to write your congresspersion, instead of calling. E-Mail can also be effective> One site that can help you get in touch with your legislators is http://www.congress.org. It can help you identify and e-mail your U.S. Federal, State, and Local legislators.

"Other portions of the funding bill eliminate annual reports to Congress on several controversial matters, such as foreign companies' involvement in the spread of weapons of mass destruction, the effectiveness of the intelligence community and antidrug efforts."

"The bill also nixes reports on how many times national security letters are used to access individuals' credit reports. "

Lately there has been a lot of commotion regarding the National Do Not Call list. Why is there no movement for a National Do Not Spam List? Spurred on by constituents angry about in-boxes full of spam, Senator Charles Schumer (D-New York) plans to introduce new antispam legislation that would create a national "no e-mail" list similar to the recently enacted do-not-call lists aimed at curbing telemarketers. Lets show support for this and put a stop to spam Write your congresspersons and tell them to stop spam http://www.congress.org/congressorg/dbq/officials/ directory/directory.dbq?command=congdir

Sorry.

:-)

Oh yes, I LOVE nested parens. Not as much as this guy though...

In the absence of an opposing view, your representatives believe what they are told. Tell them differently.

Be concise, polite, and specific. If we can /. a website we should be able to make a point in DC.

Contacting your Representative -- The Easy Way

Don't wait. Do it now or don't whine about it later.

I suggest that everyone checks out Congress.org.

It is a cool little web site that you can write to each member of the government with a few simple mouse clicks.

I just got done writing my Reps and Senators in Indiana regarding this "model law" to see what they thought of it, if they plan to implement something like this soon in Indiana, and how I am strongly opposed to any such legislation. I suggest that everyone follows my lead so you can hear for yourself how your government feels about this matter.

This legislation can be stopped. It only takes 40 Senators to filibuster a bill, and if the Democrats are willing to show some guts, there might be enough pro-civil liberties Republicans to shoot it down there, too.

/me ducks

Hey this jerk can kiss my conservative ass too...there are plenty of jerks on both sides. Maybe we should all send him our opinions... Texass

Let's see... there were THREE OR FOUR motions filed today against Rambus by the FTC... only ONE of them stuck.

John Danforth sez:

"All the court said was that two years before the investigation started, we weren't careful about preserving evidence, There is no destruction of evidence that has happened."

Rambus wasn't found GUILTY of anything. Just that the potential "evidence" may have been lost, and in absence of it, Rambus will have to find another way to defend themselves. Should be easy for their legal team.

The most important was the DEFAULT JUDGEMENT the FTC was seeking. Denied.

If you ask me, "Adverse assumptions" means "Presumed guilty", but that's another matter. Adverse does NOT mean *GUILTY AS CHARGED* as the sensationalistic slashdot article hints towards.

So let's see... how's Rambus doing these days with all this litigation?

Rambus sues infineon...

Infineon beats Rambus in court on SDRAM patents after judge payne is convinced by Infineon's lawyers to remove their only defense from being admissible as evidence of their claims defining a "bus" (covered by the Markman ruling, which was in Rambus' favor).

Court finds Rambus guilty of FRAUD on SDRAM because they have no evidence to support otherwise. Rambus couldn't define a bus according to how their own 1990 patent stated, so they're robbed.

The FTC files its case against Rambus based on this FRAUD VERDICT.

Infineon files motion to make this fraud ruling relevant to DDR so they don't have to pay royalties there either. Payne denies the request since Rambus wasn't part of JEDEC when DDR was being developed, much less ratified as a standard. Infineon tried to show that SDRAM and DDR are so similar that it should cover both, but the judge wasn't convinced based on the evidence they presented. Motion denied.

An appeal on the fraud verdict is filed and the CAFC gets the case. THEY CLEAR Rambus 100% based on the fact that Infineon was guilty of some tomfoolery of their own, and TWO OTHER COMPANIES DID THE SAME THING (IBM and HP) while in JEDEC, actively stating they WILL NOT reveal their patents that are relevant to SDRAM. They also bring up the fact that JEDEC's notetaking and policy making sucks, since their own policies were so broad they were unenforcable.

So now, you have Rambus.. a company not guilty of fraud, and free to sue.

The FTC all of a sudden changes their entire case around to shift towards "willful document destruction" as plan B. All of a sudden, a nebulous suspicion about a 180 person company (of which ONLY FOUR are lawyers, btw) comes to light, making them look like the "next Enron", causing their stock price to drop. EVEN THOUGH RAMBUS WON TODAY BY THWARTING THE BIGGEST PROBLEM THEY HAD: The default judgement.

So now, what's Rambus left with? Well, even if they DID shred documents, they can only hold it against 'em for SDRAM if they're found guilty. DDR has NOT been in dispute EVER except for the brief time Infineon tried to weasel their way out of it on the SDRAM ticket.

Rambus filed for a summary judgement on DDR, which is ALL they need to win this case. They have the CAFC on their side (WHICH HAS JURISDICTION over the ALJ), which says "Hey, we're not guilty of fraud, and a higher court than you said so."

There is NO WAY the FTC will get anything major out of this. If you ask me, it's frivolous and a waste of taxpayer dollars to even investigate.

It's all about big dollars anyway.

http://congress.org/congressorg/bio/userletter/?le tter_id=17590381

Sure!

Rambus' biggest stumbling block is the #2 manufacturer of SDRAM - the company none other than the hugely unprofitable Micron (MU).

At least ONE person got through to Miss You-Know-Who.

There's no way the FTC can win this case. All document shredding aside, the worst that can happen to Rambus is their loss of rights to SDRAM. Since RMBS wasn't part of JEDEC in ANY WAY, SHAPE OR FORM for DDR, they'll be granted their own summary judgement dismissing charges of monopolistic practices on that technology.

Infineon tried getting Judge Payne to extend Rambus' fraud allegation to DDR, and he refused because Rambus wasn't a PART of JEDEC when they developed DDR.

The CAFC in turn reversed the ENTIRE rambus conviction in Rambus' favor and gave them the right to sue again, now on their OWN terms (reinstated markman, etc).

There's no way Rambus can lose this one, folks. The most they'll get is a slap on the wrist and maybe stripped rights for SDRAM. And let's face it - SDRAM isn't even RELEVANT anymore.

I made the following comment recently in another thead, I think it applies here as well:

I'm assuming that the majority of Slashdot folk are in favor of keeping the Internet tax-free -- at least for the time being. (IMO, new regulations forced on the internet sector for online sales and Internet access would have a horrible affect on an already hard-hit portion of our economy... but then again, I'm biased... but aren't we all.)

As mentioned in the article, legislation has been introduced in both the House and the Senate that will extend the current moratorium on new taxes for Internet access and e-commerce activity.

Contact your members of Congress and voice your support for House Bill H.R. 49 and Senate Bill S.52

Contact Congress concerning H.R.49 Here
Contact Congress concerning S.52 Here

Polite emails (and/or snail-mailed letters, as they carry the most weight) simply stating your support for these bills will suffice.

I made the following comment recently in another thead, I think it applies here as well:

I'm assuming that the majority of Slashdot folk are in favor of keeping the Internet tax-free -- at least for the time being. (IMO, new regulations forced on the internet sector for online sales and Internet access would have a horrible affect on an already hard-hit portion of our economy... but then again, I'm biased... but aren't we all.)

As mentioned in the article, legislation has been introduced in both the House and the Senate that will extend the current moratorium on new taxes for Internet access and e-commerce activity.

Contact your members of Congress and voice your support for House Bill H.R. 49 and Senate Bill S.52

Contact Congress concerning H.R.49 Here
Contact Congress concerning S.52 Here

Polite emails (and/or snail-mailed letters, as they carry the most weight) simply stating your support for these bills will suffice.

I'm an american. I'm a male. I'm 20 years old. There is a bill being considered to enact something very much like the draft (it's actually more scary than the old draft.) If we go to war the military is going to try to send me to war. War has ruined the lives of thousands of veterans (including two I have met personally.) I do not want my life destoryed, much less ended, so that some rich asshole can make more money (After all that's what this war is about.) Gee why does war with Iraq concern me more than my ability to download music and use software as I please?

If you must know I'm protesting against more than just war (it is possible to stand for more than one thing.) I have written my representatives about the war, the patriot act, the extension of the patriot act, INS profiling, big business, corruption in the government, etc, etc. As well as signed multiple petitions protesting Palladium.

I suggest you do the same.

www.congress.org
(Quick and dirty way to write your representatives)

www.votetoimpeach.com
(Bush probably won't be impeached, but this'll be a good way to show congress Bush is not liked by MANY people.)

I'm assuming that the majority of Slashdot folk are in favor of keeping the Internet tax-free -- at least for the time being. (IMO, new regulations forced on the internet sector for online sales and Internet access would have a horrible affect on an already hard-hit portion of our economy... but then again, I'm biased... but aren't we all.)

As mentioned in the article, legislation has been introduced in both the House and the Senate that will extend the current moratorium on new taxes for Internet access and e-commerce activity.

Contact your members of Congress and voice your support for House Bill H.R. 49 and Senate Bill S.52

Contact Congress concerning H.R.49 Here
Contact Congress concerning S.52 Here

Polite emails (and/or snail-mailed letters, as they carry the most weight) simply stating your support for these bills will suffice.

I'm assuming that the majority of Slashdot folk are in favor of keeping the Internet tax-free -- at least for the time being. (IMO, new regulations forced on the internet sector for online sales and Internet access would have a horrible affect on an already hard-hit portion of our economy... but then again, I'm biased... but aren't we all.)

As mentioned in the article, legislation has been introduced in both the House and the Senate that will extend the current moratorium on new taxes for Internet access and e-commerce activity.

Contact your members of Congress and voice your support for House Bill H.R. 49 and Senate Bill S.52

Contact Congress concerning H.R.49 Here
Contact Congress concerning S.52 Here

Polite emails (and/or snail-mailed letters, as they carry the most weight) simply stating your support for these bills will suffice.

Actually, my point was slightly different -- I don't know whether a lot of people realize that we have a lot more rights than the Constitution grants us, because we added them. So what Congress giveth, it can legally take away. The slippery slope argument is usually a canard because often we have to find a balance between purpose X (e.g., "privacy") and purpose Y (e.g., "law enforcement") rather than discard one or the other. So saying "slippery slope" warns of a risk but does not point to a solution.

Here, Congress giveth, preempting a court test of the plan for suspicionless spying on citizens. I suppose many perceived that the ridiculousness of the proposal would have been a deal-killer, provoking a fight that would have taken down the entire Act, so maybe we're a shade worse off this way. Right now the folks proposing this stuff generally believe they're doing the right and popular thing, and the polls back them up. There's actually a broad if not deep public support for stuff like letting the government read email and otherwise limiting civil liberties, far more than before 9/11 challenged their complacency.

I do feel a part of my country rather than its opponent and take responsibility for what it does. I don't control it and can't change it (probably for the best!) but I did waste my time writing real, paper letters to the President, our Senators, and our Representative, something I've never done before. They're on the desk, and they're not specifically about this misdirected antiterrorism initiative, though it does come up. There's another more pressing policy initiative that bothers me more than Patriotgate.

Never take anything for granted: Write your friendly elected representative. Some staffer really reads all of the mail (not just to look for threats) and tallies the sentiment. Selected letters are forwarded to someone in charge. At least, I hope I'm doing more than provide filler for my FBI file. :)

We need to spend real money, and NOT just to fund Boeing/Lockheed-Martin. We need to build a real fleet of ships that do what we need them to do. Small passenger craft.

I posted this elsewhere when talking about the Columbia disaster, but it's worth repeating. CONTACT YOUR SENATORS AND REPRESENTATIVES!!

www.congress.org has all the info, just enter your zip code. And please, don't email them - write them a letter, mail it and fax it. Every senator and representative has local offices - look at their website, find the fax number for their local office and you can even save yourself the expense of a long distance fax.

There's enough questioning being done about the shuttle program now that we truly have a chance to see some great changes made.

I would also urge you to contact the members of the Senate Commerce, Science and Transportation Committee (link) as well as the Subcommittee on Science, Technology and Space (link).

The House has a similar committee, the Science Committee (link) and the Space and Aeronautics Subcommittee (link).

Please, if you can take the time to post to Slashdot about this, you can take the time to contact your senators and representatives about this and truly make a difference. Urge them to push for a new fleet, urge them to supply the money NASA needs to do so. Just please take the time to get in touch with them.

We need to spend real money, and NOT just to fund Boeing/Lockheed-Martin. We need to build a real fleet of ships that do what we need them to do. Small passenger craft.

I posted this elsewhere when talking about the Columbia disaster, but it's worth repeating. CONTACT YOUR SENATORS AND REPRESENTATIVES!!

www.congress.org has all the info, just enter your zip code. And please, don't email them - write them a letter, mail it and fax it. Every senator and representative has local offices - look at their website, find the fax number for their local office and you can even save yourself the expense of a long distance fax.

There's enough questioning being done about the shuttle program now that we truly have a chance to see some great changes made.

I would also urge you to contact the members of the Senate Commerce, Science and Transportation Committee (link) as well as the Subcommittee on Science, Technology and Space (link).

The House has a similar committee, the Science Committee (link) and the Space and Aeronautics Subcommittee (link).

Please, if you can take the time to post to Slashdot about this, you can take the time to contact your senators and representatives about this and truly make a difference. Urge them to push for a new fleet, urge them to supply the money NASA needs to do so. Just please take the time to get in touch with them.

We need to spend real money, and NOT just to fund Boeing/Lockheed-Martin. We need to build a real fleet of ships that do what we need them to do. Small passenger craft.

I posted this elsewhere when talking about the Columbia disaster, but it's worth repeating. CONTACT YOUR SENATORS AND REPRESENTATIVES!!

www.congress.org has all the info, just enter your zip code. And please, don't email them - write them a letter, mail it and fax it. Every senator and representative has local offices - look at their website, find the fax number for their local office and you can even save yourself the expense of a long distance fax.

There's enough questioning being done about the shuttle program now that we truly have a chance to see some great changes made.

I would also urge you to contact the members of the Senate Commerce, Science and Transportation Committee (link) as well as the Subcommittee on Science, Technology and Space (link).

The House has a similar committee, the Science Committee (link) and the Space and Aeronautics Subcommittee (link).

Please, if you can take the time to post to Slashdot about this, you can take the time to contact your senators and representatives about this and truly make a difference. Urge them to push for a new fleet, urge them to supply the money NASA needs to do so. Just please take the time to get in touch with them.

We need to spend real money, and NOT just to fund Boeing/Lockheed-Martin. We need to build a real fleet of ships that do what we need them to do. Small passenger craft.

I posted this elsewhere when talking about the Columbia disaster, but it's worth repeating. CONTACT YOUR SENATORS AND REPRESENTATIVES!!

www.congress.org has all the info, just enter your zip code. And please, don't email them - write them a letter, mail it and fax it. Every senator and representative has local offices - look at their website, find the fax number for their local office and you can even save yourself the expense of a long distance fax.

There's enough questioning being done about the shuttle program now that we truly have a chance to see some great changes made.

I would also urge you to contact the members of the Senate Commerce, Science and Transportation Committee (link) as well as the Subcommittee on Science, Technology and Space (link).

The House has a similar committee, the Science Committee (link) and the Space and Aeronautics Subcommittee (link).

Please, if you can take the time to post to Slashdot about this, you can take the time to contact your senators and representatives about this and truly make a difference. Urge them to push for a new fleet, urge them to supply the money NASA needs to do so. Just please take the time to get in touch with them.

I'd suggest a site that's set up, and able to fax letters to congress, a site similar to digitalconsumer.org for example. And tell everyone you know, your mother, grandmother, E-V-E-R-Y-O-N-E you know to go there, get the info, and do their part. I can get at least 10-15 people off the top of my head who'd be happy to do this.

The big problem is, who is going to educate the politicians?

I can't believe this is being asked!

Who? YOU ARE!

Politicians by their very nature do not have an education in every single subject in the world. They are there to do what they can to serve the interests of their constituents, and got elected on that basis.

Most likely, they are not technically savvy.

It is the responsibility of their constituents to ensure that they are educated about every piece of legislation or issue of the week. If you think that perhaps your representative might not have a firm grasp on a given subject, or might be making decisions based solely on the education they are receiving from a party that has an ulterior motive (e.g. RIAA, MPAA, .gov), you really need to step up and provide them with the missing facts.

For many representatives, it can take less time to e-mail them than it does for you to post a comment to Slashdot. Or you can take a few minutes more and write them a real letter (addresses are available at that same link).

Stop whining about how your representatives are uneducated about a specific knowledge area. Educate them!

A lot of people seem to think that it is unamerican to even think about removing the "under god" bit from the Pledge, which to me is the best example of why it _should_ be removed.

Re: the article you're quoting, the ACLJ made a pretty serious error there. The court didn't say that "school children who want to recite the Pledge of Allegiance can no longer do so because it violates the constitution." The court just said that schools requiring children to recite it is unconsitutional. A child can, on their own, exercising their right to free speach, swear allegiance to the flag, god, christ, allah, yahweh, satan, zeus, odin, or whoever or whatever else they please.

So get out there and make those calls / write those letters / send those faxes!

If you don't know who your senators and congressman are, or don't know how to reach them, you can lookup by zip code at:

congress.org

Contribute to the EFF [eff.org]

Write the Politicians [congress.org]

If a decent percent of the hundreds of thousands of people who read slashdot acutally did these things, we might actually make a difference.

Contribute to the EFF

Write the Politions

If a decent percent of the hundreds of thousands of people who read slashdot acutally did these things, we might actually make a different.

"US prepares to invade your hard drive"

a letter to FL Sen Bill Nelson

All easily found courtesy of google (probably the better place to ask this question, anyway.)

-XDG

I know it's been posted before, but there's no harm in doing it again...

You can locate your legislators at www.congress.org. If you choose to contact them, keep these things in mind:

• DO NOT send e-mail. It will be ignored.
• Only send a fax as a last resort.
• Letters and phone calls are best.
• Don't use prewritten letters unless you absolutely have to. No, don't even use them then. They won't be taken as seriously as a letter you compose yourself.
• If you decide to call, you're going to get a staffer. Prepare for them to be relatively clueless on this issue, at least at first. Have your facts in front of you so you'll be able to answer any questions they may have.
• Know your facts. Know the bill number, the bill name, all the sponsors, and where the bill is in terms of passage. If you can't get all of this information, at least get the bill number and make sure it's correct because the person you speak to may want to find a copy of the legislation, and they'll need that number to do it.
• If you call, it's not a bad idea to follow up with a letter.
• In your written or verbal conversations, be polite, but make sure the person on the other end knows that this is something you care about and that will influence your vote in the next election.

And if this is going to work, spread the word to other organizations and people who can help oppose it. Do you subscribe to a magazine that would be interested in this? Send a letter to the editor. Does Consumer Reports print letters to the editor? If they do, send one their way. Lots of people read that magazine, people who may not otherwise find out about this.

Talk radio may be another useful outlet. If your local station has a show that has open discussions about any subject of interest to listeners, call in. Calling in to CNET Radio would be a good place to start. The CNET site says you can tune in at 910 AM in the Bay Area, at 890 AM in Boston, and on XM Satellite Radio, channel 130. Most every city has at least one talk station, so there are many places to call in.

There are other things you can do. Write a letter to the editor of your local paper. If you get it published, great. Even if you don't, someone there has to read it, so at least the newspsper people will be educated, so they'll be more sensitized to the issue when they see it again.

Whatever you do, think of it in terms of getting information to the right people. With Congress, it's getting lots of people to contact them. With the public, it's getting as many people as possible familiar with the issue. It's a numbers game. Just don't forget that most people don't get their information primarily through the Internet. They log on to get their daily fix of the large Web sites and then log off. They may care about this, but you're going to have to reach them offline. Be creative. Think of it as a way to beat the big media companies at their own game. These guys most likely think they can get this garbage passed without the public ever knowing. Let's prove them wrong.

As a matter of fact, CNET Radio just reported on this thing. It was the last item in their newscast, and the whole report lasted about 20 seconds. That needs to get changed, and only our action can change it.

http://www.congress.org/

So much better than the mail.

Boucher voted yea on the Tauzin-Dingell bill (deregulates broadband and can kill off many DSL providers) and nay on the Bipartisan Campaign Reform Act (Campaign Finance Reform). I'm not quite sure that he is as big of an advocate for consumer rights as you think.

Boucher voted yea on the Tauzin-Dingell bill (deregulates broadband and can kill off many DSL providers) and nay on the Bipartisan Campaign Reform Act (Campaign Finance Reform). I'm not quite sure that he is as big of an advocate for consumer rights as you think.

Right .... actually congress.ORG is a valid and extreamly usefull site. You can monitor current congresional activity. Send letters to representitives. Watch for upcoming issues and see how people vote. I currently am subscribed to a free service there that emails me with a weekly summary of congressional activity, upcoming items and how my representitives voted. I would highly recomend congress.org to anyone who cares what our government and their representitives are up to on a daily basis.

I know I just replied to a troll but hey, it was a good oportunity for me to get my opinion of congress.org out there. :-)

I encourage you all to go to Boucher's congress.org page and write him with your support for these issues. He seems to be a big advocate for consumer rights and fair use policies. I for one am also writing my state representatives with a link to the Wired story and encouragement to support Boucher on this issue. We really need to get the SlashDot community to use their numbers, opinions and large voice. When you see issues like this jump on the web or sit down with a good old pen and paper and write your state reps. The only way we are ever going to see a change that we like is to push for it!

I have been searching congress.org and all over the web for a bill number or such for this whole SSSCA deal. Writing letters to your senators & congressman will help but they will help even more if you have researched the topic and are citing a reference that they can easily look up and address. I would recommend that ALL OF YOU go to congress.org and write a letter. Read a few others that people have sent for ideas and basis if need be. We have such a large user base here at Slashdot. I really think it's time we organize our ranting against bills like this and big corporations that are trying to get legislation that only puts money in their pocket. To be effective everyone must participate. The letters must be eloquent, to the point and have good support! I encourage all of you to write to the people who are representing you and express your opinion!

http://congress.org/congressorg/issuesaction/lette rs/

Luckily, one of my Senators is on the Commerce committee. I urge you to write now.

http://congress.org/congressorg/issuesaction/lette rs/

Luckily, one of my Senators is on the Commerce committee. I urge you to write now.

If everyone would go to www.congress.org and write their senators and representatives I guarantee you it would have an impact.

Here is what I wrote - feel free to copy/edit:

-------------
I have written to you before on this topic but I thought I would remind you that the Security Systems Standards and Certification Act (SSSCA) is a horrible idea for America, and there is a hearing about it tomorrow morning.

This is a bill that Senator Fritz Hollings from South Carolina is advocating on behalf of the Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA). It seeks to severely limit the freedoms of Americans by imbedding Digital Rights Management (DRM) hardware - into every single electronic device.

Not only does this bill limit the freedoms of Americans but it is going to be a nightmare to enforce - which means it is going to end up costing ME, the person who has his rights stripped away, money in the form of tax dollars.

Please do not allow this atrocious bill to ever make it to the Senate floor. I am a VOTING American and you can bet that my next vote will be riding on topics such as this.

Here is a news article on this bill: http://www.wired.com/news/politics/0,1283,50702,00 .html
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A better place than the crappy house.gov site is this one, with easier to navigate menus, better alerts and indexing: www.congress.org.

Copyright © 2001 Michael D. Crawford. Permission is granted to reproduce this document provided it is copied verbatim, in its entirety and that this copyright statement is preserved.

I just feel the need to write right now. Something has gone terribly wrong with the country I was raised to love. The good things that America stands for are being trampled into the dirt by those charged with the burden of protecting them.

I was raised to be a patriotic American. I grew up a military brat - my father was a proud officer of the United States Navy, who served in the Vietnam War. When I was young, I was always told that my father was fighting to preserve the freedoms that were guaranteed us by the United States Constitution.

In the first grade, I attended a school run by the U.S. Navy in Gaeta, Italy, where my father was stationed aboard the U.S.S. Springfield. Each day when we started school we sang patriotic songs and said the Pledge of Allegiance. We were told that America stood for freedom and democracy and justice.

I loved America for what it stood for.

I was told that things like political persecution, detainment without trial, and beating of prisoners were things that happened in other countries, that they would never happen in America. I was told that we fought the American Revolution and wrote the Constitution specifically to ensure such things would never again happen in America.

But today I see the ugly face of repression rising in America. And it is brought to you by the United States Government.

I am not proud to be an American today. I understand well why people in many other countries hate America. I love America, but I despise what it is rapidly becoming.

Something must be done about this.

There are many things that move me to write this, but what moved to me write this right now is that a member of a registered political party was singled out for harassment, first by American Airlines and then by the United States National Guard because of the opinions she holds.

Nancy Oden, one of the U.S. Green Party's top officials, was traveling to a Green Party national meeting from her hometown airport in Bangor, Maine. She had published a statement that calls for Universal Health Care, limitations on free trade, and a stop to the bombing of Afghanistan.

When she got to the American Airlines ticket counter she was told that there was a record in AA's computer indicating that she should be searched anytime she tried to fly.

During the search, she tried to help the security agent with a stuck zipper. The agent grabbed her arm and she pulled it away. The National Guard instructed the airline not to let her fly. The airline told all the other airlines not to let her fly. She was unable to attend the Green Party meeting.

So an official of a registered political party in the supposedly democratic United States was prevented from participating in the political process because her name had been recorded in a computer as someone who should be treated with suspicion.

I fear what America has become.

Also upsetting to me is the recent decision of the U.S. Bureau of Prisons to allow eavesdropping on attorney-client conversations as well as opening of their mail. Read the ACLU press release opposing this.

From the Washington Post article U.S. Will Monitor Calls to Lawyers:

Attorney General John D. Ashcroft approved the eavesdropping rule on an emergency basis last week, without the usual waiting period for public comment. It went into effect immediately, permitting the government to monitor conversations and intercept mail between people in custody and their attorneys for up to a year at a time.

The right to a vigorous legal defense is one of the cornerstones of our democracy. It is one of the bulwarks that comes between official repression and those who are repressed, underprivileged, despised, outcast, or working for legitimate political change. You can read about the guarantee of legal representation in our Constitution:

Amendment VI

In all criminal prosecutions, the accused shall enjoy the right to a speedy and public trial, by an impartial jury of the state and district wherein the crime shall have been committed, which district shall have been previously ascertained by law, and to be informed of the nature and cause of the accusation; to be confronted with the witnesses against him; to have compulsory process for obtaining witnesses in his favor, and to have the assistance of counsel for his defense.

I don't have a URL to link you to ( mail me one), but I read that among the hundreds of "suspects" and "material witnesses" rounded up in the days after September 11, many were held without charge and some were beaten by their jailers. Also some were held without being given access to attorneys or their families. I thought that could not happen here...

The recently signed USA PATRIOT act is an assault on our civil liberties the likes of which have not been seen in decades.

Read the Electronic Frontier Foundation's Analysis of USA PATRIOT Act, which largely discusses the law's impact on online activities - did you know that the government can now spy on the key words you search for at search engines like Google and AltaVista? Because computer cracking is now considered terrorism, searching for exploitz can result in your lengthy imprisonment.

The truth is the first victim of war.

Shortly after the September 11th attacks, President Bush said something to the effect that the reason the U.S. was attacked was because the terrorists hated our freedom, and that we must fight the terrorists in order to preserve it.

But Osama bin Laden does not care either way about our freedom. He has made it very clear why he hates the U.S., and none of this has been acknowledged by any official statements that I have heard. What bin Laden objects to are the stationing of U.S. troops in Saudi Arabia, the land of the holy city of Mecca, U.S. support for Israel's repression of the Palestinians, and the continued U.S. bombing of Iraq. More than anything, he feels that the presence of U.S. troops in the Islamic Holy Land is a sacrilege.

Whatever your position is on bin Laden's objections to the U.S., you must agree that it is wrong for our President to lie to us. Get informed, and work to understand the complexities behind the enmity between the Islamic and Western world. It's not as simple as our government would have us believe.

You might be interested to know what the Pentagon is doing to improve the United States' image in the Islamic world. Well, I'll tell you. It has taken out a $400,000 contract with Madison Avenue public relations firm The Rendon Group in an effort to help it "orient to the challenge of communication to a wide range of groups around the world". In addition, former advertising executive Charlotte Beers has been apointed to the post of Undersecretary of State for Public Diplomacy, a position she qualifies for because of her previous work promoting such products as Head & Shoulders shampoo.

Read about it in Propaganda Wars.

Well, its comforting to know that we'll be winning friends in Central Asia by showing professionally produced TV commercials depicting friendly Americans in between the news reports of mutilated and starving Afghani children.

If you, like myself, feel that something is wrong with America these days, or with whatever country you find yourself in, speak out about it.

In this troubled times, speaking openly to inform others of injustice or to protest may result in a backlash against you from government officials or others. Please read this speech on the importance of speaking your mind. Have courage - it is only by having the courage to speak and to work against injustice that we can prevent it from getting a lot worse.

Among the ways you can speak out

• Participate in online communities
• Send email to people you know
• Write web pages like this one and post the URL around
• Write letters to the editors of your local newspapers
• Staple leaflets to bulletin boards in your community
• Pass out leaflets in public places
• Call in to talk radio shows

Secondly, participate in what we have left of the democratic process. Our government has at least the appearance of having been elected, and the easiest way to make a change is to vote out the ones who have brought this upon us.

• Volunteer for political candidates you believe in
• Get a bunch of voter registration cards and stand in a public place to register voters
• Donate money to political candidates and parties who respect civil liberties
• Vote
• Write letters to your elected representatives. While you can send email, Congress gets so much spam that they pretty much ignore email these days. Instead, you can find your Congressperson's postal address at www.congress.org - write them a paper letter.

Use encryption to protect your privacy. Please read my page Why You Should Use Encryption as well as my letter Protect Your Rights with Encryption.

You can get encryption software for free - you can use either Pretty Good Privacy or The GNU Privacy Guard. Both offer excellent, military strength protection of your data, and the source code to each is freely available so that programmers are able to inspect it for security defects and back doors.

Teach the people you correspond with to use encryption.

Teach people who work for political change to use encryption. If you don't think political candidates and their staff need to use encryption, you're too young to remember Nixon's Plumbers getting caught breaking into the Watergate Hotel to wiretap the Democratic National Committe.

Join organizations that work to protect civil liberties. Among these are:

• The American Civil Liberties Union - Join Here
• The Electronic Frontier Foundation - Join Here - the EFF works to protect our civil liberties in the online world, including working to ensure that the work of computer programmers is protected as free speech under the First Amendment, thereby ensuring you access to software that guards your security and privacy.
• The Center for Democracy and Technology - Get Involved - working "to promote democratic values and constitutional liberties in the digital age"
• The Electronic Privacy Information Center - Donate Here - "established in 1994 to focus public attention on emerging civil liberties issues and to protect privacy, the First Amendment, and constitutional values.

One might think, and one certainly hopes, that the ultimate safeguard against these threats to our civil liberties lies with the Supreme Court of the United States. But I am not so certain myself. The Supreme Court has ruled against the dictates of law and the Constitution during other troubled periods in our nation's history.

And we should remember that the current President received a minority of the popular vote and was only declared to have a majority of the Electoral Vote after an obviously politically motivated ruling by the Supreme Court, a decision that has few pretenses of being based on the rule of law. Even had all the ballots been counted, enough Black Florida citizens were prevented from going to the polls that the election would clearly have gone for Gore had they been allowed to exercise their right to vote.

As said in the dissenting opinion by Justices Stevens, Ginsberg and Breyer in Bush v. Gore (note - this is an Adobe Acrobat document):

What must underlie petitioners' (nb. - George W. Bush') entire federal assault on the Florida election procedures is an unstated lack of confidence in the impartiality and capacity of the state judges who would make critical decisions if the vote count were to proceed. Otherwise, their position is wholly without merit. The endorsement of that position by the majority of this Court can only lend credence to the most cynical appraisal of the work of judges throughout the land. It is confidence in the men and women who administer the judicial system that is the true backbone of the rule of law. Time will one day heal the wound to that confidence that will be inflicted by today's decision. One thing, however, is certain. Although we may never know with complete certainty the identity of the winner of this year's Presidential election, the identity of the loser is perfectly clear. It is the Nation's confidence in the judge as an impartial guardian of the rule of law.

We must work together to restore the rule of law in our country - or we shall surely suffer for it. If you do not agree that Fascism can arise in the United States, take heed of the fact that Adolf Hitler was elected as the leader of his country too.

November 12, 2001

We need to act, not react. If we want to change the laws, we as constituents need to act. First we really do have the write or speak to our Congressmen, most of them even have email addresses to send things to. If you are unlucky enough to not even know who your representatives are, Congress.org is a great site - you just input your zip code, and the site provides the representatives for your state and district. Not to mention their webpages, mailing addresses, and email addresses.

And if you write them, and you feel that your representatives aren't listening, then do the thing you probably should have done in the first place - VOTE THEM OUT.

If we don't act in a rational manner, then we have no right to complain. Because silence, in this case, really does mean assent.

How about we find the "Copy Proof" Cd's that can not be played in a computer and send one to each of our respective senators and congresspersons.

Also Include a DVD from a region other than the United States(US is region 1, correct?).

Included In the envelope, fedex package or hand delivery a "voucher" from their district for a $50K "contribution" with the stipulation they only get said contribution provided the do not run afowl of the law by playing both disks on a computer of their choosing.

And if you really wanted to be cruel, provide the documentation electronically as an "e-book" that only allows *one* viewing and no printing.

It has been stated here on /. repeatedly that most of the people representing (I use the term loosely in some cases) us do not understand the implications of the laws the are passing.

This can only help, I think, to make it perfectly clear the kind of frustrating, draconian, unconstitutional and consumer unfriendly path we are headed down with this kind of nonsense.

If you really think about it, how long *before* the corporations buying this legislation start doing something similar?
Vendor lock-in is one thing, "legislative career lock-in to a corporation" is another.

The Senate did not pass the extention because they want to setup a method to tax internet based sales while still banning internet access taxes.

They are changing the rules because many states want a cut of the money that the few successful on-line businesses make.

If on-line businesses must pay sales tax on every sale, then mail-order companies should have to do the same. But I agree that there should be no new internet taxes of any kind. No taxes on sales or Internet access. It is too soon.

Contact your congressperson at Congress.org or via the site of your choice.