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It's all well and good complaining when the RIAA start doing things like this, and it's great to inform your friends, to donate to the EFF or contact your Representative (or MP), but if we still buy music from RIAA members, we are in danger of sending mixed signals.

There is a world of great music out there that is NOT published by RIAA members, including many independent labels that really support artists and treat them with more respect than industry heavy-hitters who - despite their protests to the contrary - really only care about their bottom-line.

Compare, for example, independent music retailers, such as bleep who allow unlimited backups (for your own personal use, of course) of their non-DRM MP3 files with today's announcement from on high by the RIAA to see that there really IS a viable alternative to the dominance of the RIAA/BPI and similar organisations - but it will only ever become a true success if we put our money where our mouths are and stop supporting the RIAA.

In the UK, it appears that, having had the government's draconian ID card plans rejected (for the time being), they're planning to start the biometric-isation process early, by adding compulsory fingerprints to our passports. However, it also appears that this doesn't need democratic consent - they can just do it whenever they feel like. Oh, and bury it halfway through a busy election campaign too.

These fingerprints will, you guessed it, be stored on a gigantic database that the police can consult whenever they feel like.

May I suggest that anyone in the UK who finds these plans... disturbing... lets someone know about it.

What really blows me away is the public acceptance, or at least apathy, of companies like MS because it's more practical to look the other way.

Well, you could always Fax your MP

I just hope it's not tony Blair or he may take you for a terrorist threat and prevent you from posting on /.

I also faxed my 10 regional (Scotland) MEP's. I had meaningful replies from 3. It does seem that the MEP's are just following the party line without applying any critical thought.

I also emailed Diana Wallis just before the JURI considerations as she seemed to be most likely to be able to influence proceedings. I have had several positive replies from her office.

I have also previously faxed my Westminster MP (Sir Robert Smith BT) who passes my letters on to the Minister concerned, from whom I get the usual bland reply. My MP doesn't seem inclined to do any more than act as a conduit.

My conclusion, some of our representatives are actually inclined to engage with their constituents. They might even be willing to listen.

TV wise, it is not for watching the BBC, but for owning the TV. I've not RTFA, so cant comment on the current PC-lience stuff. I should, and then make use of the faxyourmp site.

Here is fax your mp = get a question asked about this in Parliament = it will destroy the British software Industry.
http://www.faxyourmp.com/
And Contact details for your MP's phone and address.
http://www.theyworkforyou.com/
C'mon lets /. for democracy and all our coding futures.

I have found that many MPs when questioned on anything related to technology simply say that "it is a complex issue", which to me isn't good enough when such huge amounts of money and significant impact on people's lives is involved.

There is a huge contract that'll be up for grabbs soon - EDS are preparing themselves to manage the UK national identity database and identity card scheme. This is one we could lobby our representatives on to ensure they do it right..

Where to have the debate where it might be read by those who mater:
Free service to fax your MP

Boris
Richard Allan
Tom Watson
Shaun Woodward
Citing the recent and ongoing failures such as that cited in the article, and the UK Child support agency's computer failure. as well as the NHS computer system UK

There have been lots of email campains, but time it now up. If there's anything else bugging you you should still contact you MP or MEP, you never knowm, they may listen, it's quite close to a UK election and I don't think that there party will shuffle them around to a less safe seat if they break ranks a bit.

Anyhow...

If you want to contact your ME go here(what's an MEP?)
UK

If you want to fax your mp go here

Sorry, the whole MEP thing's a bit crap, and it looks like lists are regional.

The vast majority of our politicians in thrusting go-ahead 21st century Britain do not read emails. That's why we have FaxYourMp site which is marginally less ignored. You can always write to your MP but this too is often ignored. Finally, you can try to get to your MP's surgery and make your point personally. Usually, though, these are for local problems and a complicated discussion on software patents or GM food will not be entertained.

My own MP, Oona King has studiously ignored every communication I have sent, not even an acknowledgement have I received. So I write to the relevant ministers or MPs known to have an interest (Tam Dalyell is good for technical stuff although he retires at the next election unfortunately).

It isn't
Just don't preach to the converted and get down to www.faxyourmp.com instead.
Tell our MP's both the civil libities AND technical reasons why this is bad. Most MP's havent a clue about electronic security. Tell them why biometrics are not the solution, why its a bad idea to have all your eggs (data) in one basket (or card), why this wont prevent "terrorists and pediatricians"(!) and why this is just a BAD idea.

Dont sit on your arse. Get faxing!

Visit the site, write a letter then Fax your MP.

Brits can find the name of their MP from the Common's list of members by constituency, or can use faxyourmp.com. They can find names and contact details for their MEPs from the UK Office of the European Parliament. I'm sure similar sites exist for other countries.

Can't change the weather though... That one you're stuck with- nature of where you are and all.

Ah, but you can use sunglasses or an umbrella, just to muddy up any metaphors that might be in play.

Apathy is certainly an issue, but people with a little online savvy in the UK have the advantage of sites such as STAND to keep them informed and services like Fax Your MP to encourage them to participate. It's never been easier to keep yourself informed and active; you still need the motivation and some sense of hope, of course. Where you'd look for those, I have no idea...

Me and a few friends (around 15-20) are going to email our local MP to get him to bring up questions on constituant's behalf...

Try faxyourmp.com. I think you can also send an email to their name @parliament.uk, but I'm not sure of the format.

I faxed all 10 London MEPs a few weeks back. I've had half the responses back (I was sure to ask a direct question or two). One or two MEPs are suprisingly switched on to the issues involved. Of course, there's also the quintessential MEP who gets his PA to respond, and says very little so as not to infer an opinion either way.

Either way, faxing my 10 MEPs took me about an hour (from starting to write the letter (not pinching someone else's), printing it 10 times and faxing it to the 10 different numbers). It's dead easy, and you should definitely do it.

The list of MEPs can be found via http://www.europarl.org.uk/uk_meps/ and should you be even slightly interested, my experiences with them are at http://www.coofercat.com (search for "european"). You might also like http://www.faxyourmp.com

And it depends on the content as well as the medium. My fax was original, business-like, and carefully-argued, though partly based on stuff available online. I suspect that originality, literacy, clarity, conciseness, and focus all count well, just as obvious copying, rambling, pointless emotion, length, and lack of focus will make a communication less likely to be read or acted upon. You need to state carefully but briefly the problem, the cause, what you're asking your representative to do, and why; if you do that politely, it'd be an inconsiderate person who didn't at least reply, whatever the medium.

I suspect that the reason online petitions often don't seem to count is less that they're online, and more that they're petitions; without a direct, personal request for action, any communication will have less weight.

FaxYourMP.com

Let your MP know what you think without leaving your computer...

Seriously, don't content yourself with ranting here, exercise your political opinion where it counts, and Fax Your MP about this blatant abuse of our political system.

We all know that Open Source raises the bar for the rest of the industry, encourages competition rather than extinguishes it; make sure your MP does too, and that if he or she doesn't present your view, you may be more chosy with your vote next time round.

The article Slashdot your representative has been reposted from floating atoll ; please see the site for updates, responses, etc.

The p2p networks are considering a possible move agianst the RIAA in response to this by using recently enacted anti-spam laws."
(more)

One advantage of not being totally decentralized is that you have influence, legally. Now the Internet community can actively use the laws it's helped pass. There needs to be more of this kind of thing; it just takes a few more votes. Participate!

I propose a modification to Slashdot, such that users who have logged in and provided a name, address, and 9-digit zip code (in the united states) or a 6-digit post code (in the united kingdom) are shown a new link with articles: Contact your representative.

Now the Slashdot effect serves to enable millions of hits a day with the chance to vote. The last figure I remember was hearing was 30,000 unique visitors a day; imagine if ten percent of them each send one fax to their representative. Suddenly they're hearing the voices of three thousand Slashdot users, clearly, once a day.

Now do it more often. For every article. And support the United Kingom efforts, too. Other countries, too; perhaps a distributed network of Slashdot users with modems.

Obligatory reference to FaxYourMP.com. I wonder why nobody in the US has managed to replicate this incredibly useful service. Web form -> paper fax. I've got three replies from two faxes sent! A 150% success rate aint bad...

...I thought the Right Honourable member for Scunthorpe was just being rude.

Seriously though, I used:

FaxYourMP.com

when I wanted to complain about the entitlement/ID cards scheme. I got a reply from my MP (a copy of a letter sent to our Incompetent Home Secretary), on House of Commons headed notepaper in the post 3 days later. For once I feel slightly included in the political process...

"The Home Office's consultation on its ID (aka Entitlement) Card proposals closes today, amidst complaints from privacy campaigners that the government has broken its own rules in canvassing opinions on its controversial plans. Human rights group Privacy International has lodged a complaint on the consultation process with the Parliamentary Ombudsman, due to several alleged breaches of the Government's own code of practice. "

As the head of a non-profit group based in NY (can't say which, legal reasons), it is tremendously easy to provide a boilerplate to people concerned about issues rather than make them write an individual letter.

As a volunteer for a non-profit site in the UK that does its best to encourage democracy, I can say that form (boilerplate) letters are a major threat to the effectiveness of our service and thus we block them whenever possible.

I have ranted elsewhere about this in this /. thread: see here.

The time and money resources that editors and politicians devote to reading communications is finite. I beg you to think about the individually-crafted letters written by authors without your publicity machines (organisational or mechanical) that you are blocking with your spam.

-- Yoz

I'm a volunteer for a UK site that enables citizens to fax/email their Member of Parliament. We are a non-profit organisation that exists because (a) we think being able to contact one's elected representative through the net is important and (b) Parliament, being the technophobic fools that they are, still haven't got around to implementing a real equivalent.

Boilerplate form letters are a major threat to our service. Part of our FAQ pleads with users on the topic:

If you're a pressure group, please think about what you're doing. If you encourage all your members to write to the same MP, you will not show that MP the depth of support for your issue. You'll simply have used up a few sheets of tax-funded fax paper, and irritated an underpaid secretary or researcher. And if you encourage them all to send the same rote letter, MPs will just assume you have a nasty little man with a photocopier blasting them out from your office, and ignore you even more than they did before.

We consider the use of form letters to be an abuse of our service. Not only does it have the problems outlined above, but the effectiveness of our service depends on MPs' willingness to read messages sent from us - we are not an officially sanctioned communication method. If they consider us a source of pointless spam, then legitimate messages will be ignored too.

As a result, when we're made aware of form letters going through our system, we add code to block them.

Thus, I find it quite mystifying when I see party politicians espousing the benefits of boilerplate activism. Either they haven't thought about what'll happen when they start being spammed by supposedly-legitimate communications from their constituents, or they're ignoring their constituents anyway.

-- Yoz

...the reforms sought, is higher fees for the initial processing fee, higher fees for more than 20 claims, higher fees for the more work the examiners have to due[sic]...

These 'reforms' further raise the barriers to entry for the small guy and compound the existing systemic faults in patents. That they are presented as 'reforms', perhaps gives a clue, that patent-opposition is _not_ a forlorn hope even in the US. US Geeks keep the pressure up.

Also we Europeans cannot sit on our laurels, the European Patent Office are still trying to force the introduce of software patent (http://europa.eu.int/comm/internal_market/en/indp rop/comp/index.htm) through the back door of EU treaty obligations and legislation. The proposals are not dead or without critics. A final push could see victory, (at least for a time). This could be forced given the major issues on table at the moment. So we ALL need to stand up for our rights and complain to our various National and EU representatives.

If you are in the UK, don't forget Fax Your MP remember keep it short, simple and professional. Don't be afraid to play up to the political position of the party in power, always claim past support & link future support to this issue, some points to use:

- Negative competitive pressure on Software sector.
- Negative economic impact overall.
- Anti-Competitive.
- Anti-Freedom.
- Anti-Democratic, process is at odds with consultation process results.

I'd also like to propose this Google Bomb, pointing the works Software Patents to the http://swpat.ffii.org/ home.

I have just emailed my Member of Parliament suggesting that our government encourage universities here to do the same at MIT.

To be effective the universities should be given credit that leads to increases in funding.

I hope others will contact their MP's too. A good way is Fax Your MP

Mail bombing politicians does not work. Especially 71 year old politicians "Who don't know how to turn on a computer".

Old fashioned letters work, as do faxes, there is something about the tangible quality of paper that sends the message home, especially when you see a large pile of it, all devoted to telling you politely you are wrong.

Here in the UK, there is an easy to use system with no agenda (i.e. you can use the site to fax your MP about anything) that allows you to send a fax to the politician quickly and easily.

UK only

One assumes there is a similar site for Senators - I found one here but they seem to want you to only use the site if you share their agenda.

No doubt there are others, if not, why not ? There's enough talent on /. to set up and run such a site.

Always be polite and offer a well argued case. If all you want to write is You suck, you a55h01e, i hope u r forced to suck satan's cock forever MOFO then spend the time downloading some more p0rn instead. Every message like that, negates 20 intelligent letters.

You can make a difference - The UK government recently backed down over the extension to the RIP act partly due to the sheer volume of mail they received from the public making it clear they were not going to tolerate such infringement of privacy.

Geeks force government climbdown

If every US /. poster contacted the senate before the vote, it would make a difference. Senators want votes even more than they want bribes.

1. Get story mentioned in NTK.
2. Start campaign at stand.org.uk.
3. Back up with faxyourmp.
4. Light blue touchpaper and retire to a safe distance.

You can also use this link to fax your MP - I did and am happy that this bill has been kicked into touch.

Here is the letter which I sent to my MP on Thursday. Feel free to use it for ideas for your own letters/faxes/emails but please, please do not just copy and paste significant portions of the letter into your one. This does more harm than good since then the MPs will just ignore both of them and think that you don't care about the issue enought to write your own letter.

Mr Tony Worthington
MP for Clydebank & Milngavie
House of Commons
London
SW1A 0AA

Dear Mr Worthington,

I am writing to you to raise my concerns about the Regulation of Investigatory Powers (Communications Data: Additional Public Authorities) Order 2002 --- due to be debated in Parliament on Tuesday 18th June --- which permits additional agencies to obtain certain, otherwise confidential, information under the Regulation of Investigatory Powers Act 2000 (RIPA).

As with many other people I was concerned by the introduction of the RIPA, due to the extreme powers it granted law enforcement agencies, in particular sections 21--25 which permits the Police, Customs & Excise and the intelligence services to obtain "Communications Data". Importantly, to exercise these powers a warrant is not required and their use is not subject to judicial oversight. While these powers may be understandable for the purposes of serious crime prevention, the amendment will greatly extend the number organisations which are be permitted the same power. Would the original RIPA act have been passed if the organisations proposed by the amendment were present in the bill?

"Communications Data," as defined in the order, is more conventionally called Traffic Data. This includes the address and other data which is used by the communications system to transmit the message to the recipient. For example such information would include the list of telephone numbers called, from both mobile and ordinary telephones, the list of websites visited and goods purchased over the Internet, and the addresses of any email sent. In aggregation this information alone provides great power in tracking the behaviour of a person. Worryingly the same law also permits the location of anyone carrying a mobile phone, regardless of whether it is in use or not, to be identified to the precision of a few meters. This is due to the fact that mobile phone networks must monitor the location of handsets to allow a telephone connection to be made.

Since no judicial oversight exists and other safeguards are almost non-existent, the opportunity for these powers to be abused is significant. Perhaps for this reason, the original act limited organisations to the Police, Customs & Excise and the intelligence services. However the order proposed will permit many more organisations to obtain this information. A list is included below, however it includes local authorities (including fire authorities), the NHS, the Food Standards Agency and even Consignia/The Royal Mail as it is a "Universal Service Provider". What legitimate reason have organisations like these to the information described above? Were a criminal act suspected then the Police should be consulted, who already have the power to obtain such information under RIPA and other acts.

As previously mentioned no warrant is required, only the request of a sufficiently senior member of staff. The reasons by which this information can be requested are wide-ranging and include preventing/detecting any crime (regardless of how minor) or preventing public disorder, even "in the interests of the economic well-being of the United Kingdom". This is particularly of concerning since Consignia/The Royal Mail --- a commercial organisation --- is given access to information which extremely valuable and in many cases unavailable to other companies. The "economic well-being of the United Kingdom" would seem to permit commercial exploitation of this data.

Since the powers provided by RIPA are already available to all organisations though the law enforcement agencies as part of a criminal investigation, there is no advantage to the public for this order to be passed. In fact the introduction of the amendment would be a significant infringement of civil rights and an unnecessary intrusion of privacy. Furthermore, the protections provided to personal data stored by local government and the other organisations mentioned in the amendment will almost certainly be less robust than those provided by law enforcement agencies. This raises the possibility that traffic data obtained through the amended RIPA could be accessed by unauthorised users, by exploiting flaws in security mechanisms implemented by organisations not well enough equipped to maintain a high level of security. This situation is plausible and could facilitate crimes such as identity theft, or in extreme (but still plausible) cases result in a threat to national security.

I would urge you to prevent this order from being passed and further, to encourage a review of the existing RIPA to ensure that the use of the powers it provides is well regulated and monitored. To prevent abuse, the spying on of citizens should be limited to only those organisations who can demonstrate that the information is essential cannot be obtained through other means. Also monitoring of electronic communication, even traffic data, should be subject to same authorising structure as is in place for covert human intelligence such as stakeouts and wiretaps, and hence require judicial approval.

I would greatly appreciate a reply which addresses my concerns over this urgent matter, and states your opinion on the order currently being proposed.

Yours sincerely

Steven Murdoch.

Additional relevant public authorities for the purposes of section 25(1) of the Regulation of Investigatory Powers Act 2000

Government departments

1. The Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs.
2. The Department of Health.
3. The Home Office.
4. The Department of Trade and Industry.
5. The Department for Transport, Local Government and the Regions.
6. The Department for Work and Pensions.
7. The Department of Enterprise, Trade and Investment for Northern Ireland.


Local authorities

8. Any local authority within the meaning of section 1 of the Local Government Act 1999.
9. Any fire authority as defined in the Local Government (Best Value) Performance Indicators Order 2000.
10. A council constituted under section 2 of the Local Government etc. (Scotland) Act 1994.
11. A district council within the meaning of the Local Government Act (Northern Ireland) 1972.


NHS bodies in Scotland and Northern Ireland

12. The Common Services Agency of the Scottish Health Service.
13. The Northern Ireland Central Services Agency for the Health and Social Services.


Other bodies

14. The Environment Agency.
15. The Financial Services Authority.
16. The Food Standards Agency.
17. The Health and Safety Executive.
18. The Information Commissioner.
19. The Office of Fair Trading.
20. The Postal Services Commission.
21. The Scottish Drug Enforcement Agency.
22. The Scottish Environment Protection Agency.
23. The United Kingdom Atomic Energy Authority Constabulary.
24. A Universal Service Provider within the meaning of the Postal Services Act 2000.

Just a small clarification -- this amendment only applies to so-called 'traffic data', essentially the envelope of a communication, but not the content.

So the Food Standards Agency would be able to find out who I've been calling/emailing, and where I was when I made those calls from my cellphone, but not the content of those calls/emails. Although I'm sure they could get those too if they asked the police nicely...

The Food Standards Agency, leading from the front in the War Against Terror!

Of course none of this detracts from the horror and stupidity of this change. RIPA, even in the watered-down form that was eventually passed, is bad enough, but this is just madness.

I'll say it again: Everyone in the UK, fax your MP today!

And if you're using www.faxyourmp.com please see what they say about not sending form letters.

And if you're using www.faxyourmp.com please see what they say about not sending form letters.

That's what I did when this unholy bill was first announced asking why any of the listed groups could have access to emails, mobile phone and ISP logs without so much as a warrant. Read that list - it's beyond belief what they're trying to get away with. The only one I can see a justification for is the Home Office as they deal with crime and internal security.

Within two days I received a reply signed by the man himself which suggested that he agreed that there were privacy concerns here and he has forwarded my concerns to the home secretary. So I await Blunkett's justification for all this with baited breath.

It's nice to see that they have delayed the debate but the House of Commons is so stuffed with New Labour drones that they will be able to whip whatever fascist legislation they want through there. Still if this proposed legislation does concern you write to your MP and let your views be known. Who knows maybe even New Labour will deign to listen to the electorate if enough people kick up a fuss.

Nevermind the fact that more government departments are going to be added to the list (The Post Office and Food Standards Agency among them) how about the fact that it is going to massively increase the power of the people in these departments, are they are going to be vetted before the deparment is added to the approve list ? (i suspect not)

Also consider the legacy of Stephen Byers former minister for transport who was caught out emailing about the political slant of activists caught up in the Paddington rail crash, with the increased range of departments able to get at our electronic history / demand PGP keys etc what kind of requests will the government be making next time about people that are speaking against them ?

Use faxyourmp.com and do something about it

Also http://www.faxyourmp.com/, which does what it says on the box.

By all means use mocktor's excellent letter as a starting point for your own. But using your own words is so much more effective.

By all means use mocktor's excellent letter as a starting point for your own. But using your own words is so much more effective.

It's very important that everyone in the UK who is concerned about this actually do something about it by writing to their MP. When the RIP was going through I'd an exchange of letters with my MP where I registered my concern. In fairness, my comments probably had little effect but I was informed of amemdments and at least there's one more piece of paper expressing concern in the files.

It's important to note that only comments in writing will be noticed. That's the way the system works. Also, by writing to your MP you're going to get attention - it's part of their office to reply - even sending out form letters creates notice. The easy way for us to make comments is by faxing your MP.

Go and do it now.

This draft is already at quite a late stage: best bet is to fax or mail your MP directly. For the lazy there's a form letter here - and FaxYourMP.com is your friend.

No, don't do this! Why? Simple, it doesn't work. MPs, as a general rule of thumb, are very busy and therefore pay more attention to messages from their electorate when more effort has been put in. An email, in the mind of an MP, requires zero effort. And they are right. A fax requires a bit more. A letter is the gold standard. Preferably hand written (as long as your writing is neat). Don't simply bash out a 5 minute email, write your MP a letter! It'll have more effect.

Fax is tempting, but last time I sent a fax to my MP I never got a reply :( This time, I'll write on paper with my hands. They'll pay more attention, and let's face it, the extra effort is worthwhile.

It may (and should) outrage all Europeans, but within a year, Dmitry's actions are going to be made illegal in Europe too. Yes, that's right - they've put together a DMCA in Europe called the European Union Copyright Directive. It bans circumventing encryption in the same way. In a year's time, all governments in Europe are obliged to enact it as law.

We can still stop this! Check out here and if you're in Britain, write a letter to your MP. You can and should make a difference.

How long will it take for Bugtraq and similar full disclosure lists to be prosecute under the DMCA ?

Last year I posted a simple exploit to Bugtraq which allowed remote access to a users file. That after all is a way of gaining an unauthorized copy of a file by circumventing copy-protection methods (i.e operating system defences). Would this now be a violation of the DMCA ?

How long before buffer overflow exploits get regarded as methoods to circumvent copyprotection methods ?

How long until legal action is taken against SecurityFocus ?

If you're in the UK write to the foreign office and try and get them to change the "LOCAL LAWS AND CUSTOMS" section in their USA travel advice to include a warning to anyone who is either a computer developer or taking any computer software/hardware abroad that they could be arrested if they or any of their possesions violate the DMCA.

While your at it don't forget to have a look at the Free Sklyarov UK protest site and Fax your MP abput the issues that matter to you.

I have been in correspondance about this with both the Inland Revenue, my MP and the Cabinet Office. (gov. dept. responsible for gov. IT, amongst other things).

The gist of it is that the whole digital certificates thing will be extended to none M$ browsers at some (unspecified) point in the future. You cannot currently get into *ANY* part of the site with a non-M$ browser.

My opinion is that this site is very important for a whole load of reasons, and it is important that it must work properly (we are not talking a $10 paperback from Amazon here, we are talking about personal and business taxes, amongst other things). Since they have taken the arguably short sighted step of using an M$ server solution, the fact that the first browser to be "certified" is Explorer is not surprising. This is of course a bit stupid - half the point of the public-key infrastructure is to make it all work without having to check every browser with every server.

U.K. slashdotters: please pester your MP about this, and suggest they pass on your comments to Ian McCartney, Minister of State at the Cabinet Office. You can do this here.

http://www.davidflanagan.com/FaxSenate/fax.html

to fax your senator (which i assume is the thing to do).

If you live in the UK try the "Fax your MP" page at

http://www.faxyourmp.com/

to find YOUR MP and then type out what you would like and it will be faxed by their text to fax gateway. IT WORKS! I contacted my MP this way regarding that awful awful RIP bill, and got a reply within a few weeks with the guy's handwriting on.

Honestly, if enought people do this a difference will be made, I can feel another letter coming on about Mr. straw's evil DNA plans.

Believe it, it now really is as easy as bitching on slashdot (except maybe you have to be coherent).