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Lobbying Against UCITA: A Practical Guide
Let's start with Virginia. There, UCITA has been passed by the Legislature and is awaiting signature by Governor Jim Gilmore. But all is not yet lost. Skip Lockwood of 4cite.org says, "It is very important that the Governor, the Speaker of the House and the President of the Senate all hear from dissatisfied consumers. Virginia has really put the 'horse before the cart' with the passage of this law. Call, e-mail and fax so that legislators know what a mistake they have made." And UCITA isn't scheduled to go into force in Virginia until next year, so there may be time to undo the damage. It's worth a try, certainly, even though UCITA is backed heavily both by Microsoft and Virginia's own "star" online business, AOL.
In Maryland, UCITA is is by no means a done deal. As House Bill #19 and Senate Bill #142, it is still being considered by legislative committees. This means UCITA could conceivably still be stopped in Maryland even before it came to a vote, although the forces working to push it through are both mighty and well-financed. One state senator told me this was the first time he'd ever seen actual lobbyists from Microsoft, in person, in Annapolis (Maryland's state capital). Many highly-paid "local" lobbyists are also cruising the legislative halls, busily telling the politicians why UCITA is a must-pass piece of legislation.
But apparently the lobbyists and their masters never told Maryland legislators exactly what UCITA was all about. I called the offices of all 13 members of the House of Delegates who are co-sponsoring Maryland UCITA, House Bill 19, and not one of them or any of their staff members to whom I spoke could tell me honestly that they had read the whole thing. All most of them seem to have read was this synopsis:
Adopting the Maryland Uniform Computer Information Transactions Act; establishing provisions of law applicable to agreements to create, modify, transfer, or distribute computer software, computer data and databases, Internet and online information, and computer information and products; establishing provisions of law applicable to licensing of computer information; etc.
But the bill goes just a little bit beyond this. If you have time (it's about 85 printed pages), here's the entire UCITA text.
Quite a difference, eh? If you actually read all the way through the document, you now know more than most of the Maryland legislators who are tasked with deciding whether or not it should be made into law.
The way things work here in Maryland - and in many other states - is that the heaviest political leaders call lesser politicians to whose campaigns they have donated or for whom they have done other favors and say, "I'm sending you a bill I want passed." If the lesser politician knows what's good for him or her, he or she salutes and follows orders, especially on somthing like UCITA, which is not an issue most ordinary citizens either understand or care about.
In my opinion, the single most politically powerful elected official in the State of Maryland is Casper R. Taylor, Jr., speaker of the House of Delegates. He consistently has one of the largest campaign fund "war chests" in the state and freely shares lucre from it with other legislators who support him. Mr. Taylor has personally assured me that the large sums of money he solicits - and gets - from assorted industry groups and other big donors do not influence his votes or buy his support. (I did not laugh out loud when he said this only because I am a professional journalist and have developed the ability to listen to almost any kind of outrageous statement without showing emotion. Please don't try this at home.)
Wherever you live in the U.S. (or almost anywhere else) there is a primary power broker like Taylor, and it is this person upon whom the Microsofts and AOLs and the Business Software Alliance and the rest of the big-money crowd will concentrate their efforts (and lavish funds). But don't think that people like Taylor are evil. They usually aren't, down deep inside, and if they get enough reasonable citizen input that opposes the lobbyists' desires, they can often be persuaded to do the right thing.
Guys like Casper Taylor actually like hearing from citizens; if they weren't basically gregarious and outgoing they wouldn't have gone into politics in the first place. If you don't believe me, give Casper a friendly call. His office phone number is 410-841-3800. If you don't live in Maryland, consider this a practice call for the UCITA fight that is likely to take place in your state sometime in the next year or two.
There are several things to bear in mind when calling a politician to express your opinion. The first is that yelling and acting nutsy gets you nowhere. Be sane and have *real reasons* handy for your opinion - and no, "because Richard Stallman doesn't like it" is not a good reason, because RMS is not widely-known in political circles. You need facts like the ones on this page. The second is to make sure you don't just say "UCITA." You need to refer to the correct bill number, in this case House Bill 19. Even if you speak to the lowest of Casper's underlings, and they only give you the chance to say, "I just want to ask Speaker Taylor to please withdraw his support for House Bill 19 because it is bad for consumers and will inhibit open source software development," you have done a good and valuable thing. A hundred brief calls can be worth more than $1000 in Microsoft lobbying money even if you feel like you haven't done much or that you were barely listened to.
Note that I mention phone calls, not e-mail. Politicians are generally more receptive to calls than to e-mails. They also like faxes (Taylor's fax number is 410-841-1138), but e-mail is still valid, as long as you only send one or two polite ones to each elected official you want to reach. (If you want to use Casper for a practice e-mail, send it to casper_taylor@house.state.md.us.)
So we've contacted the most powerful guy. Fine. But there are other leaders who should also hear from you. In Maryland, in this case, some of the most important are Governor Parris Glendening, Senate President Mike Miller (to whom you should mention Senate Bill 142, not House Bill 19), and Comptroller William Donald Schaefer. All of them have complete contact information on their Web pages, as do almost all public officials everywhere.
If you live in Maryland, besides these people, you'll want to contact the representatives from your district. Find them here. If you live in another state and want to find out if UCITA is about to become a burning issue there, check this page. And, no matter where you live in the U.S., here's a list of state and local government Web sites that can not only help you fight UCITA, but help you find out what your elected officials are up to in general, and who to contact if you have a beef or want to get something done.
Dealing with politics and politicians can often make you feel like you're pushing into a wall of warm fuzz, especially if you spend most of your time dealing with machine-style logic where each specific cause has a specific effect. And I don't know about you, but reading the lawyer jargon in which most proposed laws are written gives me a headache.
But if you and I and a bunch of other people don't take the trouble to go through this headache over UCITA and other legislative actions that directly affect our lives and livings, rest assured that Microsoft and the other companies and industry groups on "the other side" will keep slogging along, making sure their views get heard as loudly and strongly and often as possible.
And when your legislators hear from the industry groups and lobbyists over and over, and hear nothing from you, they will not only pass UCITA and other laws you don't like, but they'll be perfectly justified when they smugly say, afterwards, "Almost everyone I heard from about this matter was in favor of it!"
Let's face facts; money talks, and has it's way.
Remove the spamfreak to speak.
It the legislature unfortunately it comes down to who has the most money behind the lobbyists. The lobby for whatever side has the ear of the lawmakers, they contribute via PAC's and soft money and the payback is that the legislators listen. The other side to this is, at least at the federal level, one constituent hour equals something like 100 lobby hours. This is one of the strongest ways to get a message out. With the Open Source community, we just can't compete with the big dollar lobby groups and PAC's, so getting in front of the legislators is one of the best avenues we have. Take a look at the Linux Advocacy guide to get the right flavor and tone for either a meeting, a phone call or a mail. It is very important to note that the lawmakers DO NOT respond well to Spam, flames or mail bombing. Please be clear, polite and most important direct and to the point with any written or verbal correspondence. Grass roots efforts like this do have equal muscle with the legislature if they are done properly.
More race stuff in one place,
than any one place on the net.
Money most certainly does talk. Remember though that the amount of money owned by all a company'ss customers is substantially more than that owned by that company.
Its just a matter of making a united stand.
I personally _really_ hope this doesn't get implemented in any significant fashion - thankfully I'm in the UK, but if it does become law in the US, other countries may use it as a model for similarly silly laws...
I certainly hope not.
Money talks, and if you kill UCITA now, they'll just come up with another bill that's just as bad.
All lobbyists should be shot on sight and corruption should be punisheable by public flogging... ;-(
If you don't fight you will certainly lose out to the money. If you fight, you might still lose - but you might win, too.
The difference between slaves and free citizens is the willingness to fight. I am a free citizen, not a slave, so I will fight.
People who don't bother to vote and don't bother to make their voices known on important issues have no right to complain when the government does things they don't like.
- Robin 'roblimo' Miller
I mean, this whole UCITA deal. I'm too lazy to go through all that text, but it seems to me that this is all about commercial, closed-source software.
Could someone please explain, what this means for opensource? I know this takes away a lot of customer rights, but I only see this as a good thing. Eventually, people will get tired of being 'slaves' of big corporations and are willing to turn to free software.
When you smile, the world laughs at you.
Perhaps, then maybe not.
threadeds blog
well reasononed arguments here for using domocracy in a grown up way.
Focussed lobbying is the way to go, and we should be using these methods whereever necessary, not spamming poor suckers who cant cope with the bandwidth.
I disagree. The Roman Senator; Incitatus cetainly had horse sense!
threadeds blog
face it - there's the iron triangle of business/lobbyists/legislators to deal with - when push comes to shove over personal freedoms/rights vs business and jobs, bb wins everytime because people need jobs and the last thing a politician wants is hordes of the unemployed marching on their office. Maybe when folks were self sufficient farmers who could support themselves, then human rights and freedoms were at the forefront but now that the democratic masses all depend on some business/employer for daily bread, that's the squeeky wheel what gets the funding and protective 'incubator' legislation. These guys just want to create a friendly climate where bazillionair software moguls can setup shop in their tax district too!
try { do() || do_not(); } catch (JediException err) { yoda(err); }
If a state passes a law giving software companies big incentives, there will be a trend for those companies to move there. I don't know if this can be enforced in all cases, but most contracts specify a court where any legal disputes relating to that contract will be tried.
This means that UCITA is relevant to citizens of Mexico, or Denmark, or Angola, or anywhere there is a person likely to buy software.
Does anybody have an idea on how an out of state or a foreign citizen can bring pressure on those legislators?
Some slaves do fight back. Not that it got them very far.
threadeds blog
Gee, I just can't imagine a legislative body of government passing legislation that is counter-productive!!!
I have been writing code professionally for quite a few years now in the financial community, and the concept of a license agreement that basically say "if you install and something goes wrong, your just screwed" kills me. If my company attempted that, we would be out of business within two quarters.
The fact that most software vendors (not just Microsoft) have license agreements like they do is a testiment to the fact that the typical computer user is so close to brain dead that it is scary.
Shouldn't somebody tell the spokesman quoted here that this is the proper configuration?
carlos
--
As a matter of fact, I am a lawyer. But I play an actor on TV.
Does anybody have an idea on how an out of state or a foreign citizen can bring pressure on those legislators? Have any of them been to France recently and used a mobile 'phone?
threadeds blog
All these stories of basic rights being worn away are fascinating, truly. But can someone explain whether they affect the rest of the world now, or will laws have to be implemented in our countries first?
Being English, and having my government firmly lodged up America's arse, it's worrying. But no one has explained whether I'm paranoid, or will Jack Straw have to pass some more surreptitious laws before my free software gets me in trouble?
And then there's other countries not completely dependant on America. Though I can't think of many offhand... Cuba, I suppose. Will we all have to go there for freedom?
What the college-dorm slashdot crowd doesn't realize is that real business that have real needs would rather pay big bucks for an RS6000 and AIX, or an Alpha & OpenVMS, or whatnot, than anything running linux. Sorry, but for all the slashdot talk of linux' superiority, it still hasn't proven itself to support 10,000 users as well as the big boys.
The reason that money has such a loud voice in American politics is that by and large the citizens do not particpate. Money and those who hold it simply fill a void. If you actually take the time to write well thought out and crafted letters, those make a big difference. Heck you might even get invited to be part of the offical's policy advisory group. Granted my rep in hte house is a lot more progressive than most. The cynicism of the American citizen kinda dooms the whole process. A lot of us look at the state of affairs and take it as a given, thus losing the fight before the battle is even engaged.
You want to see an example of a successful grassroots campaign that did not have financial power? Look at the whole Christian politcal movement of the past two decades--Christian coalition etc... Love 'em or hate 'em you can't argue that they have been effective in pushing their policy. And, until the last half of the decade here, that haven't had all that much finanicial swing--and still don't compared to others. What they do is: 1) turn out to vote, and 2) communicate with their reps. And 3), they run for office. With or without money, the basic premise of American government, no matter which state you live in, is that the government is of the people, by the people and for the people. If the people don't participate, they don't get the government they want. So, look who's participating in government right now. Its the monied interests and the small organized groups with well defined objecttives. They're setting the policy the rest of us will live with.
Last week, I wouldn't have believed it, but now that Roblimo is using words like "lucre" I may have to change my mind.
You go, girl!
This kind of HOW-TO is what we need more of on /. (and on Technocrat, for that matter). We need to be informed on the issues, but we also need to be informed on how to act together to affect political/business decisions.
Thanks.
There, UCITA has been passed by the Legislature and is awaiting signature by Governor Jim Gilmore.
Only the Legislature has passed the bill. The Senate is still reviewing it. You can find bills and amendments at this site by searching for UCITA. The bill in the Senate has been referred to a committee which is to report back no later than December 1, 2000 (as of Valentine's Day). IANAL, but my understanding of Virginian law from reading the VA constitution is that both houses (the Legislature and the Senate) must pass the bill before it can become law, and they must always go through a committee before they can be voted on.
This doesn't change the need for calm activism against UCITA, but the situation is not as dire as it appears to be. Please, please, check your facts before posting a story.
Have you considered getting Ed Foster on here to answer questions/offer an opinion?
Mr. Foster has been fighting this battle over the UTICA for years. He can offer a unique presepctive on how to fight this.
If it was said on slashdot, it MUST be true!
Can people/organisations outside of the US have an impact on this? Are there organisations
in Latin America or the EU that are working on this? Seems to me that once again we've
got US political bodies attempting to control the rest of the world to the advantage of the US.
I called my reps this morning, and found out that each county has a receptionist for the entire county's delegation (Montgomery County in my case), and this person will take your comments to EACH delegate with just one phone call.
Delegate Cryor and Senator Roesser in particular have backgrounds in publishing/journalism and should be particularly receptive.
OK, I admit to not knowing everything involving the UCITA issue, but, from what I remember, sometime ago some politician/gov't employee mentioned that since most of the Internet passes through Fairfax, Virginia, they could press charges on anyone for violating Virginia law, even if he's in, say, Egypt.
My question is this: If the governor of Virginia signs UCITA into law, could that same law be used to prosecute non-Virginians?
btw, you have my permission to moderate this down for redundency if it is redundant.
What is Red Hat doing to raise awareness and fight this? VA Linux? Troll Tech? The Mozilla team? Anyone?
You would think that any company relying on or dealing with open source would have some sort of statement on this. They must oppose this or they wouldn't be in this business. They must realize that this is bad for them, too.
We should not only fight this by contacting our representatives [something I could not even do at the moment being a European citizen], but we should also ask or maybe demand from the major players in the community to take a stand. As user, customer *and* developer.
So go ahead and ask the distributor of your favourite software packages or distribution for their statement. I did, and am eagerly waiting a reply.
I've been thinking about this for a while. For a long time, there have been foreign aid groups to help protect the dignity and rights of people in countries ruled by oppressive governments (viz. Albania, Chechnia (sp?), et cetera). Generally, this aid has come from the US, which has been traditionally considered the "bastion of justice and freedom in the civilised world".
However, if this trend towards big-brotherism in the US (and other places) continues to reinforce itself, it may come to the point where people will need protection from the oppressive US government and corporations. Furthermore, I think the first group to feel this in their skins is the American hacker community - the thousands of very misunderstood, freedom-loving tech workers, CS researchers and independent programmers who live and work in the US. The way of life of these people is at high risk, and it may come to a point where the only way to protect them from the grip of Big Brother will be mass evacuation to a country without extradition treaties.
Considering this, I propose the creation of Hacker Aid, a not-for-profit, privately funded NGO dedicated to the protection of the hacker class worldwide, by any means necessary. If the situation in the US (or in any other country) comes to the point described in the above paragraph, the members of Hacker Aid in other countries will organise the mass relocation of the oppressed hackers to other places in the world where they will be able to live and work freely. This may mean paying for the refugees' air fare, providing shelter and food, and helping them find jobs. In the extreme case that the US goes postal and decides to officially, once and for all, become the One World Government, Hacker Aid will be charged with the task of stopping them; and then we shall see if the corporate Powers That Be can stand up to a legion of techies.
</rant>
Comments, criticism and suggestions are welcome, and can be sent to the email above.
(Notes: (1) I'm only half-joking, and will do my part if necessary; (2) as made painfully clear by my email address, I'm in Brazil.)
To the editors: your English is as bad as your Perl. Please go back to grade school.
When I saw that people on slashdot were saying the UCITA had passed in Virginia, I got scared, so I checked it out myself. I work here in VA, and of course such a bill would have direct impact on my job... By the way: UCITA HAS NOT PASSED IN VIRGINIA. It has only passed the State Senate, and not in the House of Reps. (in case you don't know...it must pass both before actually law) Several RESOLUTIONS were passed to further study the effects of what UCITA will be on this great Commonwealth, and to not pass the bill completely, but to give findings of the study by December 1st. So there is still time to fight this bill. If you live in VA please get in contact with your senator and delegate NOW! To actually see the bill and resolutions: Click Here.
With a concise email concerning my objections to UCITA and a lengthy list of articles and sites on the net explaining how it will adversely affect consumers. Hope it helps.
"We're sorry, but the website you're trying to reach has been disconnected."
At least, have the decency to wait a little bit longer between your messages, to keep it plausible.
Perhaps I'm wrong but:
Sourcecode isn't executable. You need to compile it. So, does this law only have effect on executables or also on sourcecode in particular? because if so, you can include in your source a popup screen that pops up when you start the compiled code and that is the actually shrinkwrap/clickwrap license overruler
opensource that is distributed as executables, like RedHat's linux, can be protected with a shrinkwrap license, that only is effective on the EXECUTABLES, not on the source. The source is then protected by the thing mentioned above.
Furthermore: perhaps it's a good thing for The US of A to think before they vote for a new president this year. As a European citizen I can only laugh how american's generally respond to open-door remarks by politicians. perhaps you all should do something about that too?
Never underestimate the relief of true separation of Religion and State.
The very fact that this bill is being seriously considered despite the fact that it will significantly hurt the freedoms of anyone who's a consumer in the computer area(which is pretty much everyone these days), is just one more big black mark against the US' founding principles.
The US prides itself on being many things, but at the top of anyones list would be Freedom, Justice, stuff like that. However, looking at the way things are going, Capitalism is by far the driving force here. Now capitalism isn't a horrible thing, infact, I think it works fairly well, but any state that would pass a set of laws like this is confused on how things should be.
This country was not formed because the founding fathers wanted to be capitalists, they wanted a government that truely had the populace's best interests in mind. Over time, "best interests" has become equated with money. I like money as much as the next person, but these laws are going to only help already rich companies become even richer, at the expense of the populace.
Fortunately, small pieces of this country's beginning still remain, we still have free speech and elected officials, so be sure to make your opinion heard.Enough voices may be able to lead our lawmakers out of the blinding storm of money and capitalism that corporations are attacking with.
One time I threw a brick at a duck.
This article is likely wrong on one point. As of last night, UCITA has not been passed by the Virginia Senate and insiders there give it very little chance of passage. It passed easily in the House of Delegates because they know it won't pass in the Senate and can look good to their corporate constituents by voting for it.
Members of the Senate and the Governor all recognize that the bill is flawed and likely wouldn't withstand a court challenge. So if you want to affect the passage, pester the senators, not the governor. It's not his problem yet.
Shut up and eat your vegetables!!!
I feel like the most important member of the /. community today. I wrote emails to my governor
and to my local representative stating that I feel that UCITA is wrong, and that they should review
it carefully before making it law. Why don't more of you go out and do the same?
I have already emailed my Va state senator about UCITA, and am encouraging others to do the same. Personally, I don't see much hope for us opponents. HOWEVER, in the long run, we should be okay. Let's presume for a sec that a challenge to the law once passed makes it to the US Supreme Court. The supreme court, as it stands now, is a very cautious body. They are not inclined to use their decisions to set sweeping precendents. Even better, they are not inclined to accept sweeping legislation that is challenged as unconstitutional. Rememeber they struck down the 1996 Telecommunications Act, and the Communications Decency Act as well (same thing?? memory foggy). So, when UCITA inevitably comes before the supreme court, If the Court keeps to the same path, UCITA doesn't stand a chance. This Court has been tough on first-amendment infringements and is conservative in the best sense of the word. The fear is of course that the next president will get to appoint up to five new Justices, which could change everything. UCITA must be fought now if we are to be successful later in striking it down. (Clearly, I'm pretty sure it's gonna become law. The remarks earlier about lobbyists (AOfxxinL)are right on the mark.
"AOL grants to you a non-exclusive, limited license to use the Software, pursuant to the terms hereof, to connect to the Service only, and you may not modify, reverse-engineer, decompile, or disassemble the Software."
2 03&cid=201 ]. It's a good thing that companies throughout the country will be contributing to the campaign funds of opposition legislators throughout the country, because that's the mandate of their shareholders [ http://slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=00/02/14/22212 03&cid=192 ].
"The laws of the Commonwealth of Virginia, excluding its conflicts-of-law rules, govern the Agreement and your registration, and you expressly agree that exclusive jurisdiction for any claim or dispute arising from the use of the Service or Software resides in the courts of the Commonwealth of Virginia."
Rob wrote that UCITA is supported by, and I quote, "Virginia's own "star" online business, AOL."
Thanks, Rob! I can't believe I didn't find out about this 'till now!
According to the AOL Instant Messenger page, "45 Million People Can't Be Wrong." Looks to me like 45 Million People Are About To Be Wronged, and AOL is *lying* to their legislators to do it.
Yep, you heard me. Lying. How much you wanna bet those lobbyists that AOL is paying all sorts of money to are mentioning any of the "pork"(the term isn't really applicable; pork refers to extra stuff slagged on, not the true intention of the bill masked in Happy E-Commerce Friendly Language) that this bill will implement?
Lemme tell you something. The moment that the company that's about to buy Time Warner, A.K.A. one of the biggest media conglomerates in the world, exposes a significant portion of the populaiton of this country to tremendous, unnegotiated, and unconscionable breach of contract liability, and doesn't mention this to the legislators they've communicated with, AOL's got a huge local problem.
Because lemme tell you something else: If UCITA passes in Virginia, I'm donating cash money to any party that promises to get it repealed. Remember Taxation without Representation? Pass a law without even going so far as to analyze the national implications of such a drastic overhaul of basic commerce law(which, incidentally, traces back long before the birth of this country), and this California geek is gonna Represent.
It's simple, really: If Virginia is going to expose me to tremendous risk from any Virginian software I use, I'm going to boycott Virginian software. And I'm gonna start with AOL, because they're doing their damndest to get this passed.
After all, why should I trust a company that's trying to make it illegal for me to complain about their service?
You best not say how many times AOL net service broke down on you; that's a prohibited unauthorized benchmark. You talk, you walk--to another ISP because your AOL has just been terminated...better hope you can get DSL, by the way, because the AOL Road Runner cable modem service you depend upon is being terminating. They'll be sending you a bill, by the way, for that early termination of your service. Incidentally, don't expect to find anyone else able to give you cable modem service--isn't that convenient, AOL has all their lobbyists working on UCITA, and just took everyone away from that "Open Access" push. So, if you can't get DSL, better enjoy going back to 56K. Complain about service, will ya?
You better not talk to anyone about privacy, or even look into it for that matter. If you start accessing a bunch of sports sites just to determine whether AOL is selling your browsing interests to outside companies to spam you...guess what, you're making an unauthorized attempt to reverse engineer propietary backend routing code, and your service is terminated and you're getting sued for breach of contract. I wonder what will cost more...your lawyers, or your flight to Virginia...
But don't worry, you have nothing to worry about in terms of security, because they've already chilled any speech or research that might cause you to be scared that your AOL Instant Messenger might pose a risk to your home, your work, or your data. "Accidental buffer overflows that let anyone on the Internet take over your computer" hidden within AOL's software will be unheard of, because the force of Virginia's Expressly Agreed To Laws will make it Expressly Illegal to exercise electronic self-defense by making sure there's no time bomb ticking within your computer or the computers of millions of others.
Heh, at least the next time Yahoo gets taken down, you can get the warm and fuzzy feeling that your box might have had something to do with it, but you don't have the right to find out.
Any Self-Defense is just another one of those stupid little Magna Carta era common law things we can throw away. You know, kind of like "The product you're being sold should do what it says it does.", which UCITA also removes. It's the Thousands, folks. Who needs those crufty consumer protection truth in advertising lemon law product liability rules anyway?
Boy, I'd really be worried about this UCITA thing if it didn't expose so many very large non-computer related corporations to so much financial risk, like the fact that they won't be able to get untainted evidence about which products to buy or even to pull their data out of a remotely disabled database(disabled, of course, because one of their employees breached dared breach the company's contract with the software supplier by stating that the present software solution was costing too much money for way too little speed)[ http://slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=00/02/14/2221
For once, companies are screwed just as much as the average citizen is going to be. [ http://slashdot.org/yro/00/02/01/211222.shtml#36 ] So really, I have no reason to be concerned.
Yours Truly,
Dan Kaminsky
DoxPara Research
http://www.doxpara.com
at infoworld
http://www.infoworld.com/ucita
Almost like that great upstate NY city Utica, but I don't think people are protesting against them.
There is actually another way to defeat UCITA, although it's probably best for a back-up plan. UCITA expressly states that any Federal law which contradicts UCITA shall have precedence. (It doesn't really need to state this, since UCITA is a state law, and that's true anyways.)
So if Congress passes something saying that the right to reverse engineer (for example) cannot be abrogated, then that bit of UCITA goes out the window.
The only problem is getting Congress to do such a thing...
Yeah, maybe you just better forget I mentioned this.
This idea, while grand would never work. This generation is a self-service generation. Look at the kevin-mitnick defense fund, or the DeCSS defense fund. Both had maybe 100bucks donated and that is it. Geeks, are loud and obnoxious about what we believe in but we dont do a damn thing. (NOTE: there are some that actually do and they will be CEO's/CIO's etc...) your fund idea will have probably $30.00 in it total with tens of thousands sounding a resounding "YES" online but are too damn lazy/cheap to send in 10 bucks.
Rally the troops - we'll sit at our monitors and eat our chips and bitch about it... but that's all we'll do.
Do not look at laser with remaining good eye.
Not that I'm in any way trying to take away from Maryland/Virginia's problems, but I'd like to know if anyone has any information about any other states aside from Maryland and Virginia. My biggest problem with opposing these bills is not the actual actions necessary to oppose them, but finding out when my state's bill is coming up. Any suggestions as to where this information would be for the other 48 states?
Whatever you do... don't read this.
Would someone please moderate this very informative comment up!
satire, n: 1) witty language used to convey insults or scorn; 2) a form of humor lost on most slashdot moderators.
Oh and windows has????
It's true, we use Windows NT here because the PIII pc's here were way too dang fast.. we had to slow them down somehow.
Do not look at laser with remaining good eye.
I'd like to formally urge you to oppose the passage of
House Bill 19, Entitled: Maryland Uniform Computer
Information Transactions Act, casually known as UCITA.
First and foremost, the bill is entirely unnecessary. The
overwhelming majority of the protections offerred by this
bill are already covered sufficiently under current
copyright law.
This bill serves no purpose but to make it harder for
software consumers to seek retribution and due compensation
from the purveyors of sub-standard software. Specifically,
the explicit enforcability of "shrink-wrap" use licenses,
whose restrictions are not even known until software is
purchased, taken home, and the box opened. These licenses
are usually printed in extremely small type, and are full
of legal verbage the average consumer would have difficulty
understanding. Assuming the consumer would take the time
to read the license in the first place. Typically their
content can be summed up in the sentence, "I waive all
privileges of fair use of the software if I break the
seal on the disc." Copyright law sufficiently protects
the publisher of such works from piracy. There is no need
to add the enforcability of such restrictions to the law.
Also, the prohibitions on reverse-engineering are an
affront to the entire computer industry. The burgeoning
software empires today would never have existed had not
Compaq engineers had the ability and legal right to
reverse engineer the details of the original IBM PC.
By being allowed the means to make similar machines for
the purposes of interoperability, and doing so at a
cheaper price, the "home PC" has turned into a real market.
Many other consumer oriented groups, intellectual property
lawyers, and media publishers have expressed disapproval of
this bill. I can't come close to reproducing the totality
of the complaints against this bill. However, I urge you
to take a few minutes and scan some of the specific letters
of disapproval from them, archived at the following address:
http://www.nwu.org/pic/uccorgs.htm
As a summary, the bill has obtained rejections by such
diverse orgainizations as: 50 intellectual property law
professors, Consumer Project on Technology Ralph Nader,
Consumers Union, Motion Picture Association of America,
National Cable Television Association, National Writers
Union, Newspaper Association of America, Recording
Industry Association of America, and the Software
Engineering Institute hard copy letter on file.
Sincerely,
How's my programming? Call 1-800-DEV-NULL
Suppose that, of the two or more candidates avaliable to you, the only one who is against UCITA is also against your beliefs regarding abortion, or gun control, or whatever else you feel strongly about.
What will your vote be?
That's why the "Christian" political movements are so successful. They stand with the issues about which people feel most strongly.
I think it's time to reform democracy; this "representation" system became obsolete in the internet age.
How about this: a representative has as many votes as were cast in his or her district in the election. The representative must cast all these votes in the same side on each issue voted in the assembly. But any voting citizen may go in person and cast a vote on any issue. Each vote cast by an individual citizen will be deducted from the total votes cast by the representative elected by that district.
In that way, for example, if you are anti-UCITA, pro-abortion, and anti-gun control you can go and vote in exactly that way on each issue, even if your elected representative is anti-UCITA, anti-abortion, and pro-gun control. If you don't care too much about an issue, just let your representative vote for you, exactly as it is now.
IANAL, I couldn't decipher all that legal text, and RMS's speech is down. All I can find about this is wild accusations and no real explanations of EXACTLY what this bill is. I propose two things:
1) Somebody explain this CLEARLY so I can understand it.
2) somebody get it moderated to the top so people will read it and make posts that sound more grounded in reality.
My state senator's office responded to my email concerning UCITA as follows:
"SB 372, as amended, passed the Senate today. If you have not seen the amendments, you can access them via http://leg1.state.va.us"
The bill is not law yet. Both the state house and senate have to agree on a final form and study is continuing. It is not too late to halt this in Virginia. I plan on shifting to telephone and snail mail myself as it seems to make more of an impression **sigh**
One question I have is this and I hope someone knows the answer: I was under the impression that UCITA was presented to the state legislatures where it was to be voted on, but could not be amended. Now it appears that the state senate has amended it. Does this mean that the state is modifying UCITA or that each state is determining how their courts are to interpret it?
We have met the enemy and he is us - Pogo (Walt Kelly)
... The difference with the Christian Coalition is that they've replaced monetarily purchased advertising with the efforts of the religious. Unfortunately, hordes of well-meaning religious leaders have gone along with them, advancing their platforms and making it a de facto sin (in the minds of many) to not vote for them. Many churches today mention "hot-button" issues in sermons and post or pass out candidate lists at the behest of this group. The weaker-minded among the faithful don't give it a second thought and honestly believe that God wants them to vote for Candidate Jones.
Please don't get me wrong - I am not trying to be anti-religious here. Rather, I think religion can be a very good thing - a positive force in the lives of many. It's just that it saddens me greatly to see it perverted like this for political power. My more cycical side wants to say that maybe Karl Marx was right... I dearly hope it's wrong, but I guess we'll just have to wait and see.
bp
woxy.com - Bam! The Future of Rock and Roll
1) Real nice. And any question I asked was answered.
2) I expressed; please do not allow this bill to pass because as a consumer the bill is not protecting me, I needed a lawyer when I go to Best Buy or CompUSA for software and that is not realistic.
3)I should follow any e-mail with a regular mail (USPS-snail) as that is important.
4) That sending the e-mail/regular mail letter to all sponsors and the chair is a good thing to do.
I have been working on two kinds of letters, one is a consumer style and one is more tech. The consumer level letter I think is the best for e-mail/mail and the tech points letter (long) should be hand delivered. Tricky for me but I will try.
I have some MD info at; RTF and TXT HB19 & SB142 and others. I am also indexing HB19 so the paragraphs are somewhat easier to find.
-d
Okay, none of the above were really slaves in the most literal sense, but it shows that sometimes fighting back does work. Especially if you can make it look like the oppressors ARE oppressors.
IANAL, and I don't know this stuff too well, but from what I've heard, isn't it that something that was produced in another state than the one purchased in, covered only by interstate trade laws, and state laws don't apply? I don't know for sure at all, but does anyone else know anything about this?
Go aghead and moderate this down, moderators, I need to friggin rant. I've submitted several stories lately that were absolutely letter-perfect for Slashdots pages and all were rejected. I submitted one about a company working out a deal so that open source programmers could get free hardware from people and companies that wanted to provide it. And 2 days ago I submitted the story about the UCITA a couple hours after it passed in Virginia... I also submitted the story about the AMD Athlon 1.1GHz that was demoed and it was rejected.... 2 days later, Slashdot posts it from someone else. What the hell is this? So they wait around until one of their favorites submits a story before they'll even consider it?
Esperandi
I don't know much about the Senate bill, but the sponsors of House Bill 19 are the members of the House leadership. Few of them know much about the bill yet. There are a few exceptions: Delegate Sandy Rosenberg and Delegate Nancy Kopp are both members of the House leadership who did not sign on to the bill -- they apparently have some vague idea of some disconcerting going on.
Bob Kopp
(Yes, I am related to one of the above.)
That does not appear to be the case. You can follow the progress of Senate Bill No. 372, the UCITA, here.
It has passed the Virginia Senate by a vote of 39-Y 0-N.
But the story is correct, it has not yet been signed into law by Governor Gilmore. You can reach him at:
Sorry about that
http://leg1.s tate.va.us/cgi-bin/legp504.exe?ses=001&typ=bil&val =sb372
If you don't stand up and be heard, you can't complain....YOU LET IT HAPPEN!
I don't want to hear the crap that you can't make a difference, and you can't fight big business. I have been fighting Mattel. Mattel gave in and paid over $140k, but they still try to shut me up! I an not going to, I will fight. Resistance is not futil.
Fight Spammers!
http://www.hackernews.com contributed by White Vampire Yesterday HNN incorrectly reported that the Virginia Legislature passed into law the Uniform Uniform Computer Information Transactions Act. They did pass joint resolutions HJ277 and SJ239 which will create a joint subcommittee to study the UCITA and its language.
Eve Fairbanks says I drive a hybrid!LOL
Just a thought, has anyone tried organizing a protest against UCITA? Perhaps one large enough, and in an important enough place to get noticed by the media? (Not ALL the media is owned by the software companies...)
-- Dr. Eldarion --
Does anyone know exactly what this means? In particular, how strong is the "will not"?
-y
150 Opening BINARY mode data connection for slashdot.sig (129323052 bytes).
During prohibition, people still sought out alcohol and other people happily provided it at the speakeasys.
In the 1960s, a black woman violated the laws of the time by not giving up her seat to a white person on a bus.
The MPAA and DVD consorium are trying to suppress the free flow of information. Netters are **successfully** flouting new laws and DeCSS is now spread farther and wideer than if MPAA had done nothing.
The moral is, it's okay to break the laws when they're wrong. And history backs this up.
Does anyone know exactly what the bill number is for the UCITA in Virginia? I'm having a bit of trouble finding that information on their website. It would appear that this bill still needs to pass the Virginia state senate as well as get signed by the governor, so there is still time to do something. Check http://senate.state.va.us/s1.htm , find your state senator and write or call.
Very unfortunately, what you said is true. So what about this - we put up an online enrollment form, with a bunch of checkboxes, so that each geek will only have to do what he feels like doing to contribute to the cause. ("Are you willing to allow a refugee hacker from another country to sleep on your couch for an undetermined length of time? _ Yes _ No", "Are you willing to participate in a stealth mission to the tyrannical United States of America to rescue the subversive Richard Stallman from prison? _ Yes _ No", and so on.)
To the editors: your English is as bad as your Perl. Please go back to grade school.
Singapore.
Brazil.
Hong Kong (China).
Russia.
Add more!
My local state senator is probably one of the most likely to be receptive to our concerns (this is just a guess -- he is, however, the most progressive member of the legislature and I have contributed cash to his campaign in the past)....
Madness takes its toll. Exact change please.
Please keep up with this type of coverage. For those of us that don't lobby full-time (because we aren't paid to) having a single resource (or at least pointers to them) for contacts and information is a great boon.
--
+&x
It is just me, or does it seem like SlashDot is becoming more and more a place to inform us about the need to fight for our rights? With all this stuff about UCITA, the DeCSS case, etc... It kinda seems like we're almost a 'resistance' of sorts...
Allright, I'll shut up now.
-- Dr. Eldarion --
However, try this: Test their web pages and mail system. For instance, www.mdarchives.state.md.us (the archives of the state of Maryland) uses Apache. Ask them to ask their web gurus how much it would cost to switch WindowsNT/IIS in terms of labor cost and stuff. Tell them that over half of the web sites out there and over half of the email systems out there use open source products -- products that would have to be discontinued if this bill passes due to liability to the developers. Then tell them that the next time they open a product from a computer store -- something with a shrink-wrap license on it -- that it could be an empty box and they wouldn't have any legal recourse against the company.
Use those scenarios, they will understand much better. They understand half of the companies in the US being inconvienience, they understand being able to be ripped off. They don't understand development models.
-- Erich
Slashdot reader since 1997
I'm a member of the Virginia Piedmont Technology Council, a group of tech business owners interested in making an impact on law and business methods in Central Virginia and Virginia as a whole. There's something like half a dozen other tech councils in the state.
/.) But that's politics.
You'd think that an organization like the VPTC would be all about fighting a law like UCITA. Lots of small companies, like mine, have no reason to be for UCITA. And the VPTC is made up primarily of small companies.
But, nope. The VPTC has made no moves to oppose UCITA and, in fact, I've been told that the tech council is in favour of it. But no official stance has been made.
Naturally, the other tech councils, from northern Virginia, are all for UCITA. (Their members include AOL & such.)
So, why isn't VPTC yelling like crazy? Because it's a social game. Why would VPTC oppose a law that, in their (our?) eyes, will almost certainly pass? Then they'd alienate the other tech councils, and be looked down upon by them. Also, VA's Secretary of Technology (the only position like it in the US) is all for UCITA, naturally, because he probably gets political donations for his party (read as: kickbacks), which primarily come from big companies like UUNet and AOL.
So, yeah, it'll pass. Because only the consumers are willing to make a big deal about this. But the people that we have to make a big deal at just aren't interested in hearing about it.
Yep, it's lame. And I intend to let the VPTC know about how I feel. (I'd be surprised if anybody on the board reads
Ugly, huh?
Cem Kaner has a site providing loads of info on UCITA: www.badsoftware.com.
Someone commented a few days ago that people are taking information sources for granted... PLEASE take time to confirm your facts.
According to the Virginia government website at http://leg1.state.va.us/lis.htm, UCITA has been passed by the house, but after that was sent to the state senate where it is in committee as of 2/16/00.
Status from http://leg1.state.va.us/cgi -bin/legp504.exe?001+sum+HB561
02/15/00 House: VOTE: PASSAGE (95-Y 2-N 1-A)
02/15/00 House: Communicated to Senate
02/16/00 Senate: Received
02/16/00 Senate: Constitutional reading dispensed
02/16/00 Senate: Referred to Committee on General Laws
Corresponding official sources for MD UCITA (House Bill 19, Senate Bill 142) are http://mlis.state.md.us/2000rs/bil lfile/HB0019.htm and http://mlis.state.md.us/2000rs/bil lfile/sb0142.htm
How does UCITA affect active components in web pages?
Consider, a Java or JavaScript program is downloaded to your computer, may be cached several times on your hard-drive, is loaded and executed. Furthermore, it may be stored and redistributed by proxies and web caches.
So presumably such programs are considered public domain. Does UCITA create license conditions for public domain software? Does it force a warrenty on such software? If so, then you could be liable for a bug in your java applet, unless you want to claim that the fault was with the VM security.
Plugins and ActiveX are even more problematic. I believe IE will download these automatically (but I haven't tried this), in which cases there is no opertunity to agree to a license.
What about interpreted languages? Who is liable, the author of the interpreter or the author of the interpreted code?
What about programs which use libraries?
Despite not being a US citizen (and only rarely paying US taxes) I have relicensed all my scientific software so that its use is illegal if the `No Warrenty' clause is invalidated by local legislation. I've contacted MA and VA officials with this information.
This law better not pass, allowing backdoors in software is just not acceptable. Nor is legaly allowing a company to revoke a users licence to software they paid for. This is like Nazism, even worse. If this bill passes into law anyone loading the next version of windows into there computer will be forever owned by Bill Gates, and will lose the right to speak up about it. I cannot even believe in a Country were freedom is valued A law like this would even be considered. I am going to have to re-thing my opinion of the US goverment now.....
Does anyone know when UCITA is going to hit California. I seriously plan to do somthing about this and was wondering if anyone had any info about it in California (i.e. when it will be introduced and what its title and numer will be) Thanks
After reading through a bunch of posts I figured out what this topic is about. I read Slashdot regularly, and I've heard about this issue but did not recognize it as 'UCITA'.
I can't believe you don't even touch upon what it is until the 5th paragraph. I didn't make it that far. I jumped to the posts, after having no idea what you were talking about after the 3rd paragraph.
Nah. Cuba is still oppressive. But Russia, on the other hand, since the fall of the Soviet Union has been so free, it's freaking anarchy.
This is why Sun, RSA, etc. is doinf all their crypto development over there. And then distributing it from there to the rest of the world. Why not to move LiViD and other DVD related software projects there too?
We need a computer user's Bill Of Rights that specifically enumberates a list of things we can do with copyrighted/patended items and which further bars other companies from excluding these rights in their EULA licenses.
Here is the info on it for the House. HB-561
Here is a link to the COMPUTER SERVICES AND USES section of the website.
James
I'm just now starting to follow this topic but from what I see we might be going about this the wrong way. People seem to be trying to stop the bill from being passed in all states. That is a enormous task and bound to fail. One state is going to pass it and it will become law there and in the states that is doesn't pass it can be reintroduced next session with a precience that it has passed.
What I think needs to be done is let the bill pass in one or more states. Then attack the bill after it has became law before it's enforced on consititutional grounds. If the law can be ruled unconstutitional on the federal level it is dead in all states. Also if the bill can be killed in a state court then other states are most likely going to not bother with it.
Also if the law is deemed unconstitutional there is not much of a chance of a law with simular wording getting to the state floor much less getting passed. I cite the CDA as an example of this. Law makers simply lose intrest in it. They passed it once and the courts struck it down, no use in bothering with it again.
Having it ruled unconstitutional kills it once and for all. Dead.
I read at +2. If your post doesn't reach that level I will not see or respond to it.
Surely, they recognize the long-term importance of maintaining a thriving open source community. A statement from RedHat or VALinux would give our efforts a great deal of validity to the public and politicians. If the distributors abandon their roots, they will eventually wither and die.
When will the hacker (re: "Open Source") community learn to take responsibility for their programs? First they want to claim that they can make better software because of the supposed benefits that Open Source gives them, but then their self-proclaimed spokesman, Richard Stallman, turns around and says:
"We generally believe that big companies ought to be held to a strict standard of liability to their customers, because they can afford it and because it will keep them honest. On the other hand, individuals, amateurs, and good samaritans should be treated more favorably."
Software is software, no matter who writes it. Trying to judge the status of the programmer as a determinant of liability is absurd ("Let's see. He is self trained, but he didn't charge very much for the software. So I guess he isn't liable. Oh, but he has a business license! But he's the only employee. Does that make him and individual or a company?").
The Open Source community needs to grow up and stop living in the world of perpetual beta. If you're writing software, you better make damn sure you're not screwing up someone in the process. You are liable, even when you do things for free. The road to Hell is paved with good intentions.
Hopefully this legislation will pass and the Open Source community will have to face up to the real world of developing software, not the fantasy land they currently live in.
The Maryland delegates and senators all have toll-free numbers: for Caspar Taylor, the number is 1-800-492-7122, ext. 3800. Other extensions can be found listed under the particular delegate.
We must have a damn good system in place. We can't even figure out whether a bill has actually been passed or not. There seems to be a lot of conflicting information. Why does one say it's been referred to a committee and another say it goes into effect months before the committee is due to report back?
It's not enough to bash in heads, you've got to bash in minds. - Captain Hammer
I don't buy it. I can't see them passing this thing unanimously. I can see them referring it to a subcommitte unanimously though. It just seems to be the more likely story. Someone said that the bill that the senate passed had an "E" tacked onto the end of its number and that they added language to refer it to committee until December 1, 2000. Then someone else said that it was supposed to go into effect July 1, 2000. I'm not sure who's getting what information from where.
It's not enough to bash in heads, you've got to bash in minds. - Captain Hammer
If I were an English teacher (my fiancee is!), I'd return this thing with a huge "F" scrawled on it, and red marks all over! Moral issues aside, the wording is entirely unclear. They should write this document in English before asking a bunch of legislators to pass it.
All I could find in this nonsense (yes, I read it!) is the bit about how the licensor could reach into a non-conforming licensee's PC and twiddle some bits to break the software. That's bad enough.
But where's all this stuff about prohibiting reverse engineering? I think giving M-soft the ability to prevent someone from figuring out and plugging into their brain-dead protocols would be tragic. But where's this language in the bill? Somebody quote it for me!
Seriously, though. I don't give _my_ legislators credit for being able to make head or tail of this carefully crafted monstrosity. They'll just vote it in unless I call them and yell loudly enough. Someone tell me when Texas will be looking at this thing, and someone give me more ammo than "somewhere in there is a comment about reverse engineering," and let's stike a blow for common sense!
unDees
"I call a baby goat a 'goatse.'" -- my non-Internet-savvy 6-year-old stepdaughter
How many of us here have any control over policy at our organisations? It would be a nice way to protest if we had an official, publicised policy change ready to go the instant this is made into law anywhere, saying that we will not authorise the purchase or use of any software from Virginia...
Is that a halfway decent/feasable idea?
"The biggest problem with communication is the illusion that it has taken place."
Effectively lobbying politicians [against UCITA] may work (but only temporarily) IMHO. The economic incentives to Microsoft, AOL, Adobe, et al for getting UCITA passed are simply too compelling. (I suspect what these companies really want from UCITA is the ability to charge an annual licensing fee. If you don't pay the extortion, they'll [legally] reach into your machine and disable the software.) If Gates & Crew get UCITA passed in all 50 states in essentially its present form, and they do start demanding an annual licensing fee; this will add [at least] another $100 billion to Bill's net worth. (Not to mention keeping his shareholders eternally happy.) In short, I have a feeling these companies will never give up on UCITA. Like the 10-headed monster, they'll just keep coming back. The courts may intervene and clip their wings some, but the most effective way to fight UCITA (I believe) is a form of guerilla [economic] warfare: Simply stop buying their products. Also, make it clear to their resellers, (especially ones you do business with), that you will not buy from them - or continue to buy from them - if they choose to support UCITA. As an example, I have bought [at least] 50-100 books from Amazon.Com in the past 2 years. (I must be a "good customer," as they usually send me a free coffee mug - or some other trinket - around Christmas time.) I sent an email to Jeff "I Really Care About My Customers" Bezos stating my opposition to UCITA and asking him what Amazon.Com's position is on UCITA. I also hinted (not too subtly) that if I discover Amazon.Com supports UCITA, that will cause me to reevaluate my entire business relationship with Amazon.Com. A very nice lady from "feedback@Amazon.Com" informed me that my inquiry had been "forwarded to Mr. Bezos's office." That was three weeks ago. In the interim, I have suspended all my book buying from Amazon until I hear from Mr. Bezos. Some of you will surely think that this is tilting at windmills, but Bill Gates is like a mule when it comes to money: The only way to get his attention (and modify his behaviour) is to smack him between the eyeballs with an [economic] 2-by-4.
Also, please do not send flames, mailbombs, angry letters, etc. You may think its funny, but in the end you're screwing yourself over as well as everyone else.
Together, we can win this.
There are strange things done, under the midnight sun by the men who moil for gold - Robert Service
I thought that "Mostly Harmless" stopped being funny around the time of "So Long and Thanks For All The Fish."
Cheers~
Richard Stallman's article remarks that under UCITA, programmers will be retroactively liable for all software they have released in the past -- whether they create licenses in the future or not. I haven't read the entire law myself yet, so if I'm perpetuating a misconception, then smack me for it. However: "No bill of attainder or ex post facto Law shall be passed." -- Article 1, Section 9, U.S. Constitution Technically speaking, there *might* be a loophole in that UCITA isn't defining any new crimes, just establishing new liability -- but that's a very gray area. Tangentially, I think it could well be argued that UCITA's passage would spawn a slew of nuisance lawsuits that would definitely fall squarely under the definition of ex post facto action. Ex post facto legislation has actually gone through relatively unscathed before (c.f. Clinton's first tax increase, which was backdated), but that doesn't mean that a challenge would fail. I don't doubt that major software manufacturers would then try to sponsor a similar bill with tighter language to avoid the ex post facto concerns, but at least it'd shoot down this attempt.
Cem Kaner would also be a good person to bring in. He's a developer and a lawyer. He has web pages at http://www.kaner.com and http://www.badsoftware.com; the latter starts off with anti-UCITA information.
1: They are not modelled completely after anime robots, or Japan will be able to defeat them :)
2: They are all different so the US has to change strategy for each one (i.e. 1 voltron type, 1 EVA type, etc)Another thing we could do is to form a "Hacker's Guild", which would be somewhat like a "Mage's Guild". It would be able to train, house, and utilize the off-beat and brilliant people of the world to (mainly) protect themselves. IMHO, wizards/mages of legend are much like hackers of today. Both are primarily self taught, though often learn from a great master. Both are employed by those rich enough to do so (Kings&Corps). Both are rather misunderstood by the public in general. The list goes on, but I'm sure you see my point. Well, actually I have no point but I wanted to use that analogy.
-Elendale (And also, there are those dedicated to furthering mankind, and those dedicated to ruling the world... I'll let you choose who fits where)IANAT (I Am Not A Troll)
mail them and tell them exactly what you think
don't hold back
don't be like a "politician", get on to them
prove to them that they are right to do it
For those of us who haven't had our state governments introduced to this one and have no pending decision at the moment, should we go to them in advance?
On the one hand prevention might keep them from even listening to lobbyists for the bill when it Does come around to the state, but on the other hand if they think it's a good idea despite our evidence to the contrary, we might have just made a sympathetic ear when UCITA lobbyists come calling.
So which is the better idea? Go now, before anyone gets to them, or wait until it's an issue and then try to stop it?
Dreamweaver
"If a man hasn't discovered something he will die for, he isn't fit to live" -- MLK, Jr.
"It is better to die standing than to live on your knees."
I can't remember who said that, but whoever they are, they kicked a lot of ass.
I have been involved in legislative education (we don't do lobbying) for many years. A favoured tactic by legislators toward 'good' legislation (what the people want) but that is opposed by lobbyists (business interests) is to create a commission to study the matter. This makes legislators happy because they can then tell both sides that they are interested in the issue and working on it.
If necessary, we may have to adopt this tactic. Point out how involved and complicated this legislation is. Ask if the financial ramifications to the voters has been fully examined. This includes things such as increasing the load on an already overburdened (in most places) judicial system or that the new-found powers will allow software companies to systematically gouge (more so than now) the poor, humble consumer.
Hmm, on second thought, perhaps we should encourage UCITA! Droves of M$ drones would be driven to open sourced software - including Linux.
The fundamental difference between Democrats and Republicans is their opinion on who should oppress the American people:
Democracy Liberation Army, fighting the forces of fascism so that we may have a democratic government that respects the rights and freedoms of it's citizens. ph33r The Man
You know with version 5.0 EXPLODING in their faces they might not want their losers to know the ramifications of UCITA.. oops can I say that, has the bill been past? Who is that knocking, hey you can't just come in here, take your hands off meheelpp......
Si vis pacem, para bellum! For evil to succeed good men need only do nothing!
People constantly bemoan the fact that their one vote can't possibly compete with the millions of dollars available to a PAC.
What I see, though, is a whole bunch of new wealthy, under 35, disaffected geeks with serious stock options. Typically, they don't vote, because they believe its a waste of time.
So hell, why don't we all kick in a couple grand of our millions to our own private slush/bribe fund? Screw voting.. can't we just pay off our representatives directly? How much could a "NO" vote possibly cost?
Admit it, who here would pass up a chance to bribe their local politician on the side of good?
Computer owner's Bill of Right's
1. You own your computer. You paid for it, it is in your homeor business, and it is your property.
2. Your computer is composed of hardware, firmware, and software.
3. If any part of your computer is defective you have the right to have that part repaired or replaced free of charge within a reasonable time after purchase.
4. You have the right to know about any real or potential defect in your computer, whether it is hardware, firmware, or software. Any attempt to conceal these defects or to prevent you from obtaining information about these defects should be punishable by law.
5. You should have the same rights to any media on your computer that you do to any other media in your home or business. "Digital" media deserves the same copyright protection as any other media, no more, no less.
6. Any provision of any license, contract, or sales agreement which patently violates your rights is void from the outset.
7. You have the right to privacy in your own home or in the conduct of your business. You have the right to be aware of and approve or deny any communication to or from your home or business. Any product which initiates any communication or action on your computer without your knowledge, approval, or control violates your rights and security. Distribution of such a product constitutes dissemination of a virus.
8. Any product which you purchase for your computer which interferes with the functionality of another product is defective. If the interference is by design it constitutes a criminal act on the part of the distributor.
9. You have the right to use any and all means to examine, dissasemble, and analyze any product on your computer to determine if it introduces any security or incompatibility issues and the right (responsibilty?)to report your findings to others.
10. You have the right to disable or remove any "feature" or component of any product on your computer which you find undesirable for any reason and to communicate to others the means for doing so.
Am I a nut case or does any of this sound reasonable?
-Fact Number 2
-Fact Number 3
They have merely resolved to form a subcommittee to investigate it. And of course they would unanimously agree that this sort of law needs more research into its effects.
In the last article someone had already pointed this out. Slashdotters aren't idiots. They don't take some article's word for it, they find out for yourself at the source! Media isn't always right, I hate to say this- no matter how painfully obvious -but simply linking to a news site who says something does not mean it is true.
I certainly do not expect the Slashdot authors to research every story, but atleast read score 4 or lower comments on an article before posting a follow-up.
On another issue, Eastern states are generally more protective of its citizens than any other. Colonial states tend to be more fearful of government control; it is something that has stuck with us since the Revolutionary War's battle grounds stare us in the face everyday. For instance, in Virginia we have Magistrates who's sole purpose is to decide whether the police arrested you fairly and how much bail shall be. Magistrates are not even lawyers or policemen, they are ordinary citizens with "intellectual backgrounds". In California, their version is a policman who works for the police department. So you have the police checking the police...
Of course, I'm not saying Virginia is perfect, nor is it close.
Another good point to mention when writing letters is not to copy a "template" letter (I've seen a few letters posted on sites about this issue) but just use it as an idea on how to compose yours to different people. I wrote 9 or so letters today, all personally addressed relating to this issue and I think that if they were all the same as what other people sent in, they would be less influencial on the idiots who support the act.
Ever need an online dictionary?
I am trying to start an orginized movement against the UCITA in Utah. Unfortunately I have ZERO experience with dealing with politicians and I don't speak legalese.
Basically I need some help here finding out where we are at in our state. According to 4cite.org, Utah is considering something called UETA, Uniform Eletronic Transactions Act (SB 125). I can't make heads of tails of it, it's all in legalese and doesn't even resemble UCITA, but does deal with the same subject matter.
If anyone can point me in the right direction, or provide me with specific information about Utah and the UCITA, I would be extremely grateful.
I've already compiled some information about the UCITA on my web page, but these needs to go further. If you can help me out here please e-mail me at bloodr@aros.net
I have checked into the details of absentee voting. It's simple. Really simple. Just call your local County Clerk or Registrar of Voters, preferably the Registrar, and say "I need an absentee ballot", and they'll help get the ball rolling. The local political machine actually sent one to me because they thought I'd voted absentee once, and might like to do so again. There is a form to fill out, and you've got to put a reason, but I'm sure "Too busy to drive to polling place" is OK.
You may have to supply a stamp for the envelope.
I just wanted to share the responses I got when I expressed my opinions on UCITA to my Virginia state senator and Governor Gilmore:
First, the email I got from the Governor's office:
Thank you for taking the time to express your opinion regarding legislation
facing the 2000 General Assembly.
I commend your efforts to positively influence the legislative process in
our great Commonwealth. Your exercise of citizenship affords me the
privilege to hear your views about issues affecting individuals and families
across Virginia.
In the event that members of the Virginia Senate and the Virginia House of
Delegates enact this legislation, I will carefully consider your thoughtful
comments in any action I may take. Thank you again for sharing your
interests and concerns.
Very truly yours,
James S. Gilmore III
Governor of Virginia
Pretty generic, but a nice gesture.
Now, an excerpt from the letter I got from my state senator:
Dear Eric,
Thank you for contacting my office with your interest in the Uniform Computer Information Transactions Act. We have passed a compromise bill that hopefully will address some of your concerns. Senate Bill 372 passed 39-0 and is now before the House for consideration and Senate Joint Resolution 239 passed the Senate in substitute from a 39 to 0 vote.
[contact info snipped]
Sincerely,
Emmett W. Hanger, Jr.
VA State Senate, 24th District
I'm not sure what "passed in substitute" means but it at least sounds like the bill did not pass unamended. But 39-0? Ouch! We really need to get the opposing viewpoint out there, and loudly!