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Make sure it's some reactionary puss hole, like Hatch or Gregg or Furst or Lott or Lugar. For a list go here. I can't wait til the 'real" RIAA form comes out.

HR 2885 was the Statistical Efficiency Act of 1999... so does anyone know if there really is a HR in the pipes for this and if so, what number it really is?

Diebold's SEC filings show their Chairman / President / CEO to be Mr. Walden W. O'Dell, who has donated $2000 this summer to Senator George V. Voinovich, Republican from Ohio (Diebold's home state). Diebold Inc.'s soft money donations also go to Republicans.

This does not demonstrate to me much evidence that Diebold is "after something other than money", it looks like routine political activity to me. But, while my quick research has neither managed to refute nor confirm your conspiracy theory, I'll pass it along anyway for whoever might be curious.

Technology needs to become more universal, but its expense in implementation costs makes that hard to do. If you, in the US, are having problems enough getting hold of this kind of thing, can you imagine how hard it is for someone in, say, Russia, Egypt, or Australia, to gain access? And yet there's no technical reason why they shouldn't, and there are people within those nations who can afford such equipment and see it as worth while. But we limit the marketing of technologies, slavishly obeying arbitrary national borders, because of the difficulties associated with expansion.

Expanding means creating new marketing networks and providing the means of transporting this equipment to other countries. This is expensive, though if done with a shared spirit of cooperation and determination, there's no reason why, say, an open distribution network shared by any number of vendors, might not make such things possible. Such a network is, for all intents and purposes, impossible, because it relies upon there already being a large enough momentum towards unfettered distribution to work.

This quagmire of national boundaries restricting the flow of goods and services will not disappear by itself. Unless people are prepared to actually act, not just talk about it on Slashdot, nothing will ever get done. Apathy is not an option.

You can help by getting off your rear and writing to your congressman or senator. Write also to Jack Valenti, the CEO and chair of the MPAA, whose address and telephone number can be found at the About the MPAA page. Write too to Bill Gates, Chief of Technologies and thus in overall charge of systems like Windows NT, at Microsoft. Tell them that technologies and spreading the good they do to everyone, not just those in the very largest first world countries, is important to you. Tell them that open, standardized, distribution networks would help open up the free export of technologies across the world, bettering mankind. Tell them that you appreciate the work being done by individual manufacturers and individual store chains to try and provide some of this functionality but that if the insistance of exclusivity and the lack of standardization in business practices are not dealt with you will be forced to use less and less secure and intelligently designed alternatives. Let them know that SMP may make or break whether you can efficiently deploy OpenBSD on your workstations and servers. Explain the concerns you have about freedom, openness, and choice, and how a lack of a free and open technology distribution network harms all three. Let your legislators know that this is an issue that effects YOU directly, that YOU vote, and that your vote will be influenced, indeed dependent, on their policies concerning the distribution of technologies to everyone.

You CAN make a difference. Don't treat voting as a right, treat it as a duty. Keep informed, keep your political representatives informed on how you feel. And, most importantly of all, vote.

But wouldn't a copyright violation be a criminal case? Maybe not.

In any event, doesn't there have to be some sort of stipulation of damages?

I have a relative who's a lawyer, and I remember having a discussion about related issues with her at one point in time. It wasn't about this, but rather about civil cases involving similar issues. I remember being very upset about it, and she was trying to reassure me that showing damages was very important in civil cases. She essentially said, "your ability to sue someone depends on your ability to make an argument for damages."

So it seems to me that there should be some limitation on fines due to the fact that a single filesharer really isn't causing that much damage. In any event, it seems that it would be extrordinarily difficult to prove in a well-adjudicated court of law.

But if you're really as mad as I am, I suggest you send a letter or email to my state senator, Norm Coleman, who is beginning a formal investigation of the RIAA for their activities. I really was unhappy about Norm being elected, especially after the death of Paul Wellstone, but I may have some recouped respect for him depending on how he handles this RIAA thing.

I heard a rumor that he was once a roadie for some band, and has some personal affection for the music vocation (note the comment about Bob Dylan on his home page).

• Hillary Clinton doesn't just stand idly by...she actively works to offshore American High-Tech!
• George Bush doesn't just stand idly by...he actively works to offshore American High-Tech!
• Accused terrorist Maher "Mike" Hawash earned $357K in 2000 and $184K in 2001 which is a fuckload more than you'll ever see now that American High-Tech is being shipped to India!

I don't know why there are people with a grudge against the Osprey. I did a quick google on it and found some Senator's opinion; I don't know how accurate it is, though. At one point, it says that the CH-46 (the helicopter being replaced by the Osprey) had 44 accidents in its first five years compared to just two in the Osprey's first five years.

Second of all, how long would this flapping-wing technology take to develope into a viable aircraft? It could take years and be very expensive. The Osprey might even finish development before ornithopters become a viable means of travel.

• Hillary Clinton doesn't just stand idly by...she actively works to offshore American High-Tech!
• George Bush doesn't just stand idly by...he actively works to offshore American High-Tech!
• Accused terrorist Maher "Mike" Hawash earned $357K in 2000 and $184K in 2001 which is a fuckload more than you'll ever see now that American High-Tech is being shipped to India!

• Hillary Clinton doesn't just stand idly by...she actively works to offshore American High-Tech!
• George Bush doesn't just stand idly by...he actively works to offshore American High-Tech!
• Accused terrorist Maher "Mike" Hawash earned $357K in 2000 and $184K in 2001 which is a fuckload more than you'll ever see now that American High-Tech is being shipped to India!

• Hillary Clinton doesn't just stand idly by...she actively works to offshore American High-Tech!
• George Bush doesn't just stand idly by...he actively works to offshore American High-Tech!
• Accused terrorist Maher "Mike" Hawash earned $357K in 2000 and $184K in 2001 which is a fuckload more than you'll ever see now that American High-Tech is being shipped to India!

I was shut down on 19 Aug by the DMCA as well. See this article .

I am really dismayed at the lack of debate my story has generated: No one replied to my call to action in the thread, and every one basically just said how America sucks and started flaming about the MIddle East :-)

Really, good for her for getting so widely covered! I have posted to many independent media sites including Rense.com, EFF, and the ACLU and still nothing. Maybe it is teh difference that my program empowered people? Hopefully people will respond to this thread :-)

Below is a copy of my letter to my senator, McCain, of Arizona. Feel free, indeed encouraged, to email your own senator (or even others!) and representatives. You can find their addresses at [Senate] and [House] .

===============

Dear Senators:

Some of you have reservations about the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) and the many ways in which it violates the guaranteed Constitutional rights of the populace. It affected me personally on 17-Aug 03. I am the main developer of one of the few person-to-person filetrading programs for UNIX (Linux, FreeBSD, etc) machines and MacOS X.

Apparently I was struck without warning by some DMCA clause for downloading 'copyrighted material.' In other parts of the law, you need habeus corpus, search warrants, judicial review, warning, etc. With the DMCA they merely terminate you, with no warning, with no appeal, with no representation, with no pretense of jurisdiction, based upon evidence that was 100% obtained outside the framework of any noticeable governmental or 3rd-party oversight.

In short, it is an apparently open fascist policy prone to rampant abuse, supporting the rights of the Establishment over the People.

My life revolves around the marvelous information transport technologies collectively referred to as the Internet. I attend a part-time university online (www.accis.edu), near 95% of my contact with my friends and family is online, 100% of my employment is online (via rentacoder.com), and my personal hobbies and political activitism are online.

In short, terminating my internet without warning has seriously halted my life. It is time we make the right to chat online a fundamental human right. The government should be allowed to restrict a person's movements (prohibit uploads, downloads, etc) by placing restrictions on the amount of data a 'criminal' should be able to send online in a given day or so (500KB should be sufficient for email, chat, etc). Such bandwidth caps are already implemented by teh vast majority of broadband suppliers throughout the nation adn would be just about as easy to implement and enforce as the current DMCA suspension of accounts.

I just wish there would be *some* judicial process involved in the DMCA. I should have my constitutional right to a fair trial. This is above and beyond the reasons why most people download movies. People overseas download movies and music because of artificial monopoly regulations that delay the international exportation of American media by weeks and even months.

People in America download media because they are either too poor to purchase the overpriced media (partly because the MPAA and RIAA use a lot of the profit in legal battles against P2P and political lobbying), and also primarily to see if a given media is of good enough intellecutal quality to warrant purchasing, due to the unequal consumer rights 'laws' which prohibit the returning of open media.

Generally, people download not out of nefarious intent, but because they lack real alternatives to verify the intellectual quality of any given electronic Media before purchasing.

Thus, more consumer rights laws, less 'illicit' copyright infringement.

Sincerely,
Theodore R. Smith

Georgy:
Boxer-briefs!

Other candidates seek campaign finances from other politicians. Georgy seems to prefer underwear from members of the Senate.

(This message brought to you by the Coalition of Underpants Gnomes in Support of Russell for Governor. 'The End Result is Always "Profit!"')

• Hillary Clinton doesn't just stand idly by...she actively works to offshore American High-Tech!
• George Bush doesn't just stand idly by...he actively works to offshore American High-Tech!
• Accused terrorist Maher "Mike" Hawash earned $357K in 2000 and $184K in 2001 which is a fuckload more than you'll ever see now that American High-Tech is being shipped to India!

During the last election in 2002, I was staying with some family. Almost everyday my uncle got calls from from the campaigns of Elizabeth Dole (the GOP candidate) and Erskine Bowles (the Democratic Candidate). By the end of the week, my uncle was pretty much annoyed by the calls. Until the election date, the calls did not stop.

Now, why do I call this SPAM? It all boils down to two reasons. My uncle did not want the calls and there was no way to opt-out from the calls. Unless campaigns who use email and/or phone solicitation provide a method to opt-out and stick to that opt-out policy, then I am sorry to say, extreme political speech is SPAM.

Isn't financial data required to be protected by something equivelent to HIPPA?

HIPAA (Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act) mostly revolves around (suprise) health related personal information. Financial organizations need to pay attention to it for their own employee's information, and for any health-related organizations they provide services for, but it's not the biggest IT driver for financial companies.

The Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act of 1999 is more closely targeted on financial organizations. Also, the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC) issues a lot of regulations that financial institutions need to pay close attention to. Insofar as Acxiom acts (acxts?) as a third-party vendor for financial institutions, they are also expected to meet those regulations when dealing with financial customer data.

If, as the first article states, "All of the information was encrypted," then they were probably not in violation of any of these rules or regulations. It sounds like all the guy did was pull encrypted files off a publicly accessible FTP dropoff point, probably after sniffing plaintext authentication credentials on the network. Stupid move by Acxiom, but not fatal; bad PR but no real impact.

• Hillary Clinton doesn't just stand idly by...she actively works to offshore American High-Tech!
• George Bush doesn't just stand idly by...he actively works to offshore American High-Tech!
• Accused terrorist Maher "Mike" Hawash earned $357K in 2000 and $184K in 2001 which is a fuckload more than you'll ever see now that American High-Tech is being shipped to India!

• Hillary Clinton doesn't just stand idly by...she actively works to offshore American High-Tech!
• George Bush doesn't just stand idly by...he actively works to offshore American High-Tech!
• Accused terrorist Maher "Mike" Hawash made $357K in 2000 and $184K in 2001 which is a fuckload more than you'll ever see now that American High-Tech is being shipped to India!

• Hillary Clinton doesn't just stand idly by...she actively works to offshore American High-Tech!
• George Bush doesn't just stand idly by...he actively works to offshore American High-Tech!
• Accused terrorist Maher "Mike" Hawash made $357K in 2000 and $184K in 2001 which is a fuckload more than you'll ever see now that American High-Tech is being shipped to India!

• Hillary Clinton doesn't just stand idly by...she actively works to offshore American High-Tech!
• George Bush doesn't just stand idly by...he actively works to offshore American High-Tech!
• Accused terrorist Maher "Mike" Hawash made $357K in 2000 and $184K in 2001 which is a fuckload more than you'll ever see now that American High-Tech is being shipped to India!

Visit the site that champions the Public Domain Enhancement Act (HR2601) and write your Congresspeople (House, Senate) to support this bill. If these games are no longer commercially exploitable, the proponents of this bill believe it is unlikely the copyright holders will file the form and pay the low tax to retain copyright on the work. Maybe these games will eventually enter the PD where we can all legally share and modify them so we can play them on MAME.

Here's a FAQ, previous /. discussion, and another /. discussion.

• Hillary Clinton doesn't just stand idly by...she actively works to offshore American High-Tech!
• George Bush doesn't just stand idly by...he actively works to offshore American High-Tech!
• Accused terrorist Maher "Mike" Hawash made $357K in 2000 and $184K in 2001!

• Hillary Clinton doesn't just stand idly by...she actively works to offshore American High-Tech!
• George Bush doesn't just stand idly by...he actively works to offshore American High-Tech!
• Accused terrorist Maher "Mike" Hawash made $357K in 2000 and $184K in 2001!

• Hillary Clinton doesn't just stand idly by...she actively works to offshore American High-Tech!
• George Bush doesn't just stand idly by...he actively works to offshore American High-Tech!
• Accused terrorist Maher "Mike" Hawash made $357K in 2000 and $184K in 2001!

• Hillary Clinton doesn't just stand idly by...she actively works to offshore American High-Tech!
• George Bush doesn't just stand idly by...he actively works to offshore American High-Tech!
• Accused terrorist Maher "Mike" Hawash made $357K in 2000 and $184K in 2001

• Hillary Clinton doesn't just stand idly by...she actively works to offshore American High-Tech!
• George Bush doesn't just stand idly by...he actively works to offshore American High-Tech!

• Hillary Clinton doesn't just stand idly by...she actively works to offshore American High-Tech!
• George Bush doesn't just stand idly by...he actively works to offshore American High-Tech!

• Hillary Clinton doesn't just stand idly by...she actively works to offshore American High-Tech!
• George Bush doesn't just stand idly by...he actively works to offshore American High-Tech!

DAILY REMINDER: Hillary Clinton doesn't just stand idly by...she actively works to offshore American High-Tech!

HATCH INTRODUCES DREAM ACT
"Development, Relief, and Education for Alien Minors Act" Aims to Make the American Dream a Reality for Many

Washington - Sen. Orrin G. Hatch (R-Utah), Chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, today introduced "The Development, Relief and Education for Alien Minors Act," or "The DREAM Act," to remove barriers to education for many young immigrants in the United States. Senator Richard Durbin (D-IL) is the Democratic cosponsor of this measure.

"Many youngsters find themselves caught in a catch-22 situation," stated Hatch. "As illegal immigrants, they cannot work legally. Moreover, they are effectively barred from developing academically beyond high school because of the high cost of pursuing higher education."

"In short, though these children have built their lives here, they have no possibility of achieving and living the American dream," continued Hatch. "What a tremendous loss to our society."

"I believe the DREAM Act will live up to its name," added Hatch. "It will allow these illegal immigrant children the opportunity to not only dream of the infinite possibilities that their futures may hold in the United States, but it will also afford them the opportunity to realize their dreams. With the passage of the DREAM Act, the United States stands to benefit enormously."

Provisions of the DREAM Act include:

Repealing the provision of federal law that prevents States from granting in-state tuition to undocumented aliens, leaving this issue at the discretion of the States.

Providing young men and women who immigrated to the United States prior to the age of sixteen, who have lived in this country at least five years, and who are of good moral character a chance to earn their conditional resident status upon acceptance by an institution of higher learning or upon graduation from high school. The DREAM Act also provides for certain alternatives like attending community college, trade school, serving in our armed forces, or performing community service.

DAILY REMINDER: Hillary Clinton doesn't just stand idly by...she actively works to offshore American High-Tech!

DAILY REMINDER: Hillary Clinton doesn't just stand idly by...she actively works to offshore American High-Tech!

DAILY REMINDER: Hillary Clinton doesn't just stand idly by...she actively works to offshore American High-Tech!

DAILY REMINDER: Hillary Clinton doesn't just stand by...she actively works to offshore American High-Tech!

Ah yeah, "majority" and "larger group of people to get hurt or angry". We "stopped" Chinese, Japanese and the rest of Asia-Pacific people from living in the Good Ol' USA. It wasn't until 1952 that they could become citizens and that was after 160 of being on the no-goodniks list.

I'd say everyone in this country is corrupt in some way or another. Luckily, I'm holier than thou. Excuse me while I go download some songs from Kazaa.

If you don't wish to send a hand-written letter (such will have more meaning to a senator versus email), send a quick message to Senator Coleman expressing support for his actions and ideas.

He can be contacted at Contact Sen. Coleman

My message follows as a model:

I fully support and encourage your enquiry into the recent acts of the RIAA with regards to unjust lawsuits.

I hope that not being a resident of your state will not detract from this message. It is good that someone is scrutinizing these questionable practices.

Thank you for your time,

Robert Tilley

You could also write to the other members of this committee and tell them that you support Sen. Coleman. Here is what I pulled from the subcommittee's site.

Carl Levin, Michigan
Richard J. Durbin, Illinois
Thomas R. Carper, Delaware
Mark Dayton, Minnesota
Frank Lautenberg, New Jersey
Mark Pryor, Arkansas
Ted Stevens, Alaska
George V. Voinovich, Ohio
Norm Coleman, Minnesota
Arlen Specter, Pennsylvania
Robert F. Bennett, Utah
Peter G. Fitzgerald, Illinois
John E. Sununu, New Hampshire
Richard C. Shelby, Alabama

DAILY REMINDER: Hillary Clinton doesn't just stand by...she actively works to offshore American High-Tech!

If everyone on /. would just spend 2 minutes we could get this passed.

1. Click here to go to senate.gov.
2. Pick your state from the list.
3. Click on both of your senator's e-mail contact links, each link opens a new window.
4. Fill out your name and address in the form, then paste the following:

   Senator [ senator's name],
   I am a citizen of [your state] who is concerned about my rights. A bill was proposed today by Mr. Wyden with the short title "CITIZENS' PROTECTION IN FEDERAL DATABASES ACT".
   The bill is simple and easy to understand. It improves our security and will improve our ability to fight terrorism, which you have stated is your goal.
   I urge you to SUPPORT this bill.
   [your name]

frob

Did you read the press release from his website?

Draw your own conclusion.....

I am looking at Senator Ron Wyden's website right now and I don't see anything mentioning this possible bill. Hmmmm. Does anyone have a link to a .gov version of this so called bill?

I really, really hope this is a joke...

Even senators thought this was a joke so you can be excused for thinking so. See the bold text from the rejected submission below - it's from the NY Times article.

Poindexter's Middle East Terror Bookie Scheme

2003-07-29 08:16:21 Poindexter's Middle East Terror Bookie Scheme The NY Times reports on DARPA's latest scheme: an options and futures trading market where you can bet on assassinations, toppling governments, instability and war in the Middle East (Google). The $8 million program is under the control of Admiral John Poindexter who brought us Total Information Awareness. The Policy Analysis Market starts taking registrants this week and betting/trading begins in October. Senator Byron L. Dorgan of North Dakota, said the idea seemed so preposterous that he had trouble persuading people it was not a hoax.

Nope, she's too busy heading over to California to worry about their governor. And here I thought she'd be busy playing Senator for New York, or attending Yankees games.

According to this press release from the RIAA (Recording Industry Artists of America), there will be some major crackdowns on music piracy on the Internet. The RIAA plans to launch a massive investigation on peer-to-peer networks. Peer-to-peer network is the term for the networks that power such software as BearShare, Limewire, Gnutella, Morpheous, and of course the now-defunct Napster. They will be targeting users that are sharing copyrighted files and collecting evidence. This evidence will be the basis of hundreds of lawsuits they have planned, which are scheduled to start as early as August.

Under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act, The River is required to assist the RIAA, MPAA, or anyone else with copyright concerns. We can be subpoenaed for information on our customer's full names, addresses and other information, should the copyright holder prove a valid suspicion that the account in question has been distributing copyrighted materials.

On a related note, a recent statement by the Chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee Orrin Hatch (R-Utah) espouses destroying computers suspected of illegal behavior remotely. You may read the AP article here.

As always, we will do our best to protect your privacy within the constraints of the law and keep you educated on what you need to know to stay safe.

Other Links:

EFF's response to RIAA lawsuits
The Slashdot discussion thread
Artists Against the RIAA

What? How does Flamebait like this get marked positive?

It's funny that the Democratic party is historically more pro-Slavery compared to the Republican party... but I guess that if you don't like history, you get the schools and mass media to revise it until "history" is in your party's favor...

And I agree, I'd love to ban soft money. Let's all bitch about the party of "big business"... So what if Democrats are more dependant on (unregulated) Soft Money contributions than Republicans (Democrats: 61% of their overall funds in soft money, up from 47 percent two years ago. Republicans: 43% of their funds in soft money, increase of 8%).

Since the start of our american congress in 1789, congress has always been paid for participating. You will also find that even the Ancient Democracies had salaries ... the example you are thinking of is the Carthaginian model, which was an oligarchy... the rich became senators, because only they could afford to serve for no pay, which shut out the poor from serving in government. Even Aristotle recognized the flaw in this method of governing. I would say then that paying our congressment is definitely the correct method in equalizing who can participate in government.

I would argue that it is not the money that is the problem in our governments, instead the problem is with (1) the philosophies and (2) the beaurocracies of those involved. I have a problem with people who have no regard for other people's money, and do not have the personal restraint when it comes to spending it. This philosophy of socialism has morphed our government into asset reallocation, something the creators of the system never approved of. On top of that, there is so much redundancy, waste, and unaccountability... but we know that already.

DAILY REMINDER: Hillary Clinton doesn't just stand by...she actively works to offshore American High-Tech!

If anyone thinks this is a remarkable change from the current standard, take a look at the list of contacting information for Senators on senate.gov. Very few of those actually give an email address, and instead send you to a webform.

I am currently working in a Senate office, and I would have to say that using a webform is inherently a good thing. Basically, when you submit a message through our webform, it all goes into a database which we can search, sort, and manage in a multitude of ways. Like any database, this has a number of advantages. Since no one has to actually go through each and every email to identify the topic/individual position/ect, it frees up staff time for actually responding to constituents. The office in which I work is unique in that we respond to all messages from constituents (even the hundreds of form messages we get every week). This also allows us to tie emails with other messages, whether they be faxes or via post. Another poster pointed this out too, but it also gives it a way for us to get an idea of the global outlook on what people are concerned with, while with standard email this would be difficult since the formatting of the information would not be standardized.

However, I don't agree with the complexity that has been built into the Whitehouse form (though I wasn't able to see it, I have a good idea of the difficulties) and I also think that asking whether you agree or disagree with the Whitehouse position is a rather blunt screening method with rather obvious potential for abuse.

Lastly, it was mentioned that such a database could be used for as a campaign tool, this runs exceedingly against ethics rules and would be severely punished. The separation of campaign activities and official business is very strict, and deviation from these rules brings harsh results. Remember when Clinton allegedly used phones in the Whitehouse for campaign related work? Even as interns, there was a great effort to make sure we understood the rules to the letter.

You can get a message to the president much more easily through them than if you try directly via e-mail. This is how representative democracy works.

If you are truly interested in contacting your congressman/woman or sentor, the best way is through fax. I called my senator's regional office, and the intern said that most faxes are actually read by the senators because someone took the effort to fax directly. Try http://www.senate.gov/ or http://www.house.gov/, and find a fax number if you really want to say something. But I have a feeling this is too much effort in our representative McDonalds/Wal-Mart/MTV democracy.

DAILY REMINDER: Hillary Clinton doesn't just stand by...she actively works to offshore American High-Tech!

DAILY REMINDER: Hillary Clinton doesn't just stand by...she actively works to offshore American High-Tech!

>You haven't shown a single lie.

You haven't been reading.

"False" has been changed to "Dubious" to be politically correct for the Cheney-Rumsfeld regime.

>He improved the country's reputation.

Here's an improved reputation

>So what if he got a bunch of hatemongers a little angrier.

You give little credit to our patriotic politicians

Very truly yours,
W00t

Get Your War On 19