Slashdot Mirror
Protesting DMCA
It began in David Niemi's head early this year.
Niemi is a Washington D.C. system administrator who decided he didn't want the restrictions embodied in last year's Digitial Millennium Copyright Act to sweep into effect unnoticed, and organized a protest demonstration that took place this morning outside the U.S. Capitol building. Speaking a few days before today's event, he explained that the idea took hold of him "[a]bout two months ago. It started when I had just read the DMCA, and realized what exactly the problems were, and gave a short talk to DC LUG and later to NovaLUG, after which I enjoined people to take a day off of work and help protest. If we have even half of those people [who said they would come], it'll be great."
The chance to show up in person to show dissatisfction with the law and start spreading the news of its dangers ended up attracting an interesting cross section of the software community -- between 20 and 25 people -- and one observer for the Copyright Control Association. Members of the DC, Virginia and Maryland LUGs which helped publicize the event, and others who heard about the event (here on Slashdot, or through mailing lists and forums which were forwarded the information) showed up to create and hold signs with messages like "Restore Fair Use -- Repair the copyright law" and a banner reading "The Digital Millennium Copyright Act Promotes Digital Monopolies." Most of the demonstrators were professional programmers or sysadmins, students, or both.
Why spend so much time and energy fighting a law that was passed last year? In part, because not all of the provisions of the law have yet been enacted, and their implementation can still be altered. And, as Niemi points out, "[t]he DMCA is actually fairly readable -- it's quite easy to see why it's unreasonable. UCITA is quite a bit harder [to understand], especially as amended by Virginia, which was done as edits to a long piece of code." Efforts to curtail DMCA's effects will be good practice in fighting the other laws which no doubt will follow, starting with UCITA and stretching into the forseeable future.
University of Maryland researcher and some-time instructor Peter Teuben was the only representative today from the University of Marlyand's LUG. "Probably because the others have classes to go to," said Teuben with a smile. "I just took off because I didn't have to teach. The software that I write is open source, so I have been been an active participant for at least 15 years in the whole idea of open source. I come from an academic background where that's normal." But there is another reason he was in Washington today "This is near to my heart. The simplest reason is the fact that I bought a DVD player, and now that I've bought it, suddenly I 've learned that I can't play the DVDs that I buy in Holland. I was totally shocked -- I didn't know that. It makes no it makes no sense to me, because it's digital, just like CDs -- even the same size." Something as simple as watching a movie purchased or shipped from abroad is made complicated by the restrictions the DVD license holders have attached to the medium. "The funny thing is that software allows you to do that [switch region settings] five times, but that's still limited. There's ways around that, but they're illegal."
Economist Doug Galbi also took time off work to show up on the street west of the Capitol building. Galbi said his interest was mostly philosophical. "I don't do that much programming, but I have a sense that this [isuue] is huge." Galbi said that for consumers, "The fear is that reasonable, common-sense fair use would be outlawed ... that their actions would be vulnerable as a felony act under the law. What if I'm going down the street singing a Beatles song, are they going to arrest me because I don't have the rights to it?"
Marsha Wilbur, studying at Connecticut's Three Rivers College and about to continue her computer science studies at Arizona State, hopped on a train when she heard about the demonstration on a mailing list from the Open Law project at Harvard's Berkman Center. "I said 'Oh, I'm there!' Also, there's a guy in Connecticut who's being sued, and they're using this -- " She gestured at a copy of the law -- "to harrass him. That's my feeling. And I don't think it's right. That's why I'm here."
Because seniors at his school graduate in 3 1/2 years instead of four, Lenny Grover spent the morning in Washington, while he waits for responses to both job and college applications. "I'm always interested in things that affect the technological community. And I think the provision that products with, I believe it says, limited commercial potential which circumvent copy protection, would also have prevented the VCR. And that turned into billions of dollars a year! These people are so shortsighted -- they don't even see the benefit it could bring." Pointing out that programs like Napster/Wrapster and Gnutella are essentially content-neutral distributed file systems, Grover said, "The question is, where do you draw the line between innovation and breaking copyright?"
Discussions among the participants about the nature of software and the best ways to balance individual, public and corporate rights simmered throughout the protest, which ended at noon with a walk that took us from the Capitol past the Supreme Court. During the hike network engineer Rama Kant voiced a thought about the perceived lack of tolerance among copyright holders for what has traditionally been called fair use: "I feel that it impinges on your ability to watch or listen to what you paid for. I sort of disagree with that. If I buy a CD, I want to be able to listen to it at whatever time I want, whatever conditions I want." Kant, who does contract work for various organizations in the area, heard about the event through his membership in NoVaLUG. "I've been a Linux user for a while, and that's how I got into this. I use Linux, and Unix also. I use a lot of Linux boxes in my work."
Perhaps the least-expected person to show up this morning was Penny Kozakos, an employee of public relations firm Burson-Marsteller who came to observe and collect literature from the protesters. Kozakos seemed puzzled by the demonstration, and listened curiously to an explanation of what computer operating systems have to do with watching the movies her agency's client keeps encrypted, and why the DCMA was poised to drastically change the scope of what consumers and computer scientists could do legally and without asking industry permission. "This is all new to me," she said, explaining that she was merely doing a favor for the Los Angeles branch of the company by showing up to make a report. "This isn't what I deal with normally at all."
Was today's demonstration a success? Perhaps not in any spectacular way; fewer people showed up than Niemi initially hoped for. However, the flyers and DMCA summaries handed out today were mostly to passers-by who expressed no knowledge of the DMCA at all, and most of whom seemed shocked by its brazen assertion of control over purchased entertainment media. Cultivating public knowledge that there even is such a thing as the DMCA seems like a minor success to me. And if more than 20 Linux users can collect themselves at short notice for three hours on a Washington weekday, it bodes well for similar actions in the future.
See pictures of the event taken by Sally Lynch, by Peter Teuben, and by Declan McCullagh.
While I am personally against the DMCA and all that it stands for, what we need is real constructive action here. Going on protests like this is all very well for "geek pride" but in the end it is likely to acheive nothing beyond a fleeting interest in the tech-savvy news.
What /.ers and other members of the computing community don't seem to realise is that we need to fight this kind of law from the inside. Until we as a community enter into the political process our voices will be limited to the small subset of people who already agree with us, which is pointless. We need lobbyists to fight for our causes, not ineffectual protests which do little but make us feel good.
"He [Mark Litvack, the MPAA's legal director for worldwide antipiracy] added that there are authorized Linux-based DVD players on the market." Is this accurate? Can anyone provide a link to a commercial or non-commercial Linux player authorized by the DVD-CCA? ------ I do not believe this one is "Authorized" But i do not believe it is illegal. Opensource.soundblaster.com
I use this in linux, but you need the now hard to find Creative Labs Dxr2 decoder board, which has CSS on-chip.
It was not long ago that Blacks were lynched by the light of a burning cross.
I don't have a problem with them burning a cross (unless they do it on someone's property without permission). I do have a problem with lynching people though.
That Jews were gassed and starved under the swastika.
Swastikas arn't illegal are they?
Seems to me that flag-burning isn't hate speech, but political speech. They aren't expressing their hatred of a particular person or group of people. They're expressing their opinion that the US government is full of lying, cheating assholes, some of whom went out of their way to avoid serving in the military (*cough* Clinton *cough* GDubya). Ok, maybe not that opinion necessarily, but they're expressing their opinion about our government and its actions. As political speech, flag-burning should be protected.
If you start lowering the standard of what qualifies as hate speech, then some group somewhere will be able to label just about anything as hate speech. That's a bad thing.
It's not enough to bash in heads, you've got to bash in minds. - Captain Hammer
A poster earlier said that Sigma Designs is working on a player, but that it's not available yet. I don't know of any others.
The whole thing makes me wish I lived in DC.. err.. maybe just within driving distance. :)
I'm curious though. How does one "make material relevant to the legislative process?" How do you figure out what the individuals' interests, sympathies, etc are?
It's not enough to bash in heads, you've got to bash in minds. - Captain Hammer
Face it, protests like rarely accomplish anything substantive. People have to look at things objectively. A combination of clueless judges and corporation with large legal budgets stack the odds heavily in their favor.
Barring some unexpected stroke of luck for the ACLU and EFF, I think that they will lose. So, what can a nerd do?
Let's come to grips with the fact that in the courtroom, the decks are stacked against us. The only reasonable chance of defeating DMCA and UCITA is by repealing them.
Legislation is enacted and repealed for only two reasons: either an overwhelming majority of the American population want it, or a selected few American businesses lobby heavily for it (enactment or repealment, either way).
Expecting a groundswell of public opposition to DMCA and UCITA is a bit naive. 95% of the people have no idea what it is, despite the press coverage, or what it's all about.
So, that leaves big business. Big business has to realize that the DMCA and UCITA will hurt them. So, how to tell big business that?
Well, I only know of one way. Big business needs as many nerds as they can find, to run their big honking server boxes, where they keep the company jewels. And there aren't enough nerds to go around.
Personally, I will refuse employment or consulting work for any company that's headquartered in any state that so far has passed UCITA, or any company that actively supported or prosecuted under the DMCA. That may seem to be silly, but I'm a silly guy. I'll do that as long as I possibly can. Thankfully, so far, there isn't exactly much of a shortage of nerd jobs. And I'm still sufficiently naive to believe that if enough people did that, something might happen.
--
I think you will find many people here offended at being compared to "Cee Bee Radio Trailer-Trash" though.
Perhaps I was not clear, what I was trying to say is that the current CB enthusiasts are the same type that were involved before the big CB boom. The hobbiests and technical enthusiasts.
With the net, we'll never be able to go back to that point.
LK
"Hi. This is my friend, Jack Shit, and you don't know him." - Lord Kano
We're experiencing an influx of clueless idiots. They don't understand and they don't care about the medium of the internet.
They don't understand our culturee, they don't understand the technology, and they don't understand what's at stake.
Like CB radio back in the 1970s, the CB subculture was underground and slowly growing. But as soon as people thought it was "cool" there was an explosion of morons. On every channel you had numb skulls talking about "Smokey" and "Good Buddy". There were also the assholes who would illegally amplify their signal for no good reason.
All of a sudden, everybody realized how lame it was and they stopped using the CB. Now it's just the same crowd using CB who was there before.
The internet is a different situation. Instead of voice only, like CB. Any kind of information can be sent out. Megacorporations see untold dollars to be made so they're going to make sure that every moron on the planet is going to be online.
Unless we stick together on certain issues (Like DMCA and UCITA) and put our differences aside on issues like Napster and porno, we're going to LOSE BIGTIME.
It may be worse than talking to a rock, but someone has to let these newbies understand what they could lose.
LK
"Hi. This is my friend, Jack Shit, and you don't know him." - Lord Kano
Well, it seems like a lot of people took my post as a point about flag-burning. It wasn't. I've never done it, and I certainly don't plan to, and I can definitely empathize with veterans who think otherwise, but I think it should remain a constitutionally-protected right. (Of course, it would be nice if the liberal wankers so in favor of maintaining the right to burn the U.S. flag would get a reality check and get some consistency and quit stomping all over our other rights. E.g., racial/gender issues, politically correct censorship, the right to bear arms, etc.)
The point of my post was a comment upon the original poster presenting his group of people looking for DVD access rights as wonderful defenders of freedom while taking a gratuitous swipe at a group of people who have actually put their own lives on the line to defend their country.
Cheers,
ZicoKnows@hotmail.com
Trouble is, I haven't heard it on CNN's cable channel. Reports like these which are only on the Internet reduce visibility and prevent everyone from knowing about it.
If any newspapers got hold of that article that would be a step closer.
US businesses that currently accept chip and PIN/signature
Most of your friends of family might be brainwashed and think that the nice company is right (might be better if you find some with a DVD player/disks). If so, try these phrases:
* "If you go overseas you can't legally play DVD's you buy there and return to the USA without hacking the DVD player"
* "The law treats even legit customers as possible 'criminals'"
* "It removes trust in the consumer."
Reply if there's stuff I forgot to put in.
US businesses that currently accept chip and PIN/signature
I live in Washington, and would have gone to the event if I didn't have class during that time. Had there been more time to prepare, I would have helped organize it, and even would have tried to speak to my professor about missing class, in order to come to the protest.
If there is another protest in Washington anytime soon, I will do anything I can to attend, and help organize/promote it as well.
Ryan
But if a tree falls on the Internet, and there's no members of Congress there to hear it, does it make a sound?
Well, if there are some gnu around that see the falling tree and stampede, and some zebras see the gnu and start to run, and some Thompson's gazelles join the crowd, pretty soon there'll be a thundering herd. And the thundering herd sound is one that congresscritters tend to hear well (not as well as the sound of money dropping into their coffers, of course, but still well).
Kaa
Kaa
Kaa's Law: In any sufficiently large group of people most are idiots.
I think because they were trying to affect the more traditional culture -- the culture which reacts to things like protests. And they got to inform some "ordinary" people, who probably would have never heard about the DMCA otherwise.
It would be neat to do a more distributed protest system -- maybe on a certain day LUGs all over the country protest at their individual cities/colleges/whatever. It seems that might have more of an effect on the general population than one protest in DC. Especially if local news picks up the story.
"Save the whales, feed the hungry, free the mallocs" -- author unknown
Actually all memebers of the Legislative branch and the Chief Executive (Billy Boy) are required by law to be aware of the corispondence sent by their constituants. Usually they have a junior staff memeber (21 year old intern?) Opening mail and they see a sheet of paper each morning with percentages and issues.
I have been email the President, my Senators and Congresspeople about this for the past several weeks. You get a form letter back but you know you've been counted!
Predestination was doomed from the start.
You mislepped 'HURD'. Hope this helps.
Oh, and HURD doesn't thunder. It moves very slowly towards a point which recedes infinitely towards the HURD release event horizon.
I'm old enough to remember when discussions on Slashdot were well informed.
Tom Swiss | the infamous tms | my blog
You cannot wash away blood with blood
I suppose "Linux-based DVD player" doesn't necessarily have to refer to a program that runs under Linux; could there be hardware DVD players that use Linux as part of the embedded software??? Bizarre.
--Bruce Fields
It was on the Slashdot front page then it was gone
The MPAA must have put the presure on.
Thanks, though my question would be, is there a software dvd player that does not required a sigma designs board. Requiring you to alter your Linux box to play DVD's prob. won't pass the smell test for a reporter. And - was there a player available, or even scheduled to be available when the comments were made - a "planned" introduction is not enough.
As far as interests and sympathies - that's something a presence in DC gives you - part 2 of a good lobby, a small group of people who focus on the hill, who know the people, and who understand what motivates them.
Making material relevant: There is a principal in DC - if it can't be said in one page - it's not worth doing. This doesn't mean you won't have 500 pages of supporting material, but a one page, bullets summary - that hits all the important points - will get you in the door. Many government haters can ridicule this, but there's a pretty good track record of distilling important ideas, like the bill of rights, down to their essence.
Also, be accurate, one obviously biased assertion or misleading statement will banish you to the second tier at best. Don't attack your opponents, state your own case (unless their lying - then you can point it out, but understand gray areas - if they're blatantly lying, prove it with hard, indisputable facts, if they're being misleading, make certain that your own argument is not similarly misleading to your end. Provide notes (links) for additional information. Finally, suggest solutions that follow from the original problem and your argument, 1+2 does not equal 5, no matter how much you might want it to be so.
I think I will write some more on this at a later date, with more time, more organization, and a little more thought, but that's an answer off the top of my head.
THE YEAR WAS 2081, and everybody was finally equal...
--
Time is Nature's way of keeping everything from happening at once... the bitch.
--
Time is Nature's way of keeping everything from happening at once... the bitch.
Flag burning is about expressing contempt for some part of what it represents. I think it is worthwhile to express contempt for people whose view of America is inseparable from their view of the sitting government, and especially for politicians who try to pull the same stunt that these veterans are pulling. Thus the new .sig.
--
Time is Nature's way of keeping everything from happening at once... the bitch.
Is there a short document on the web available that lists all the things that are wrong with the DMCA? I want something that I can print out and hand to people who want to know about the DMCA.
And the men who hold high places must be the ones who start
To mold a new reality... closer to the heart
As a group we all need to be active in getting information about the DMCA out, not just bitching about it here (Don't get me wrong I get a lot of good arguments from postings here). But we also need to be explaining this to non-technical people (I got in a long discussion with my Uncle, he was absolutely horrified).
Spread the word people,it's our most powerful weapon!
Funny thing. I'm not a very idolotris person - never cared much about crosses, stars, flags or anything else except as pretty patterns. I used to ride my bike home past a buisiness out in the country where the owner flew the absolutely huge all weather flag. Never thought anything of it - until the Supreme Court struck down an anti-flag burning law as unconstitutional. That was the only day that I felt something when I rode by that flag and was moved to give it a salute. It meant something for a symbol to stand for something more important than itself.
True story. Only time a flag meant anything to me without being draped over a coffin.
-Kahuna Burger
...will work for Chick tracts...
It doesn't take a whole lot of effort to write an email. I suspect most legislators therefore probably give a physical letter snail-mailed more consideration than email. Physically getting up and going to protest requires even more effort, implying how important the issue is for those voters doing the protesting. Hence it should, in ideality, carry even more weight in the minds of those whom the protestors are trying to influence.
My uncle is in the U.S. House of Representatives for my region (parts of western indiana), and serves on the house transportation and judiciary committees (I still need to bug him about letting the DCMA slide through the judiciary committee - I never got a chance to ask him if he voted for or against it, though I usually find that he votes the way I would have). Anyways, back to your statement.
You are entirely correct. The standard, in congress, for email, is to have a secretary read them, and tally up statistics based on voter opinions. Almost never will the politician read email themselves. Snail mail is different; while most snail mail won't get read by the politician, some will; and, statistics compiled from snail mail are generally considered more than from email. I find this a shame, as it weighs the opinions of the computer illiterate more than those of the computer literate... but its how things are done.
Just my 2 cents.
- Rei
Pinkypants -- my favorite!
I'll admit that I'm not familiar with the Act, but this is something that I've wondered about in the past and I post it FWIW Your browser caches pages as you view them. Your ISP may well have a caching proxy that caches pages as you view them. I'm wondering whether this strictly legal? Taking it one step further, is Virtual Memory legal? Certainly in the MacOS implementation, your physical RAM is copied to your HD and required data gets swapped from RAM to HD. Most software licences only allow one installation to be made but using VM you've effectively got two copies of the s/w on your HD.
I don't have the URL.... But Creative Labs DVD
Dx2. However it is TV output last I saw.. I have seen others in the makeing. And one trend I see for the Linux DVD market. The decodder is hardware based. In alot of ways I feal its a smarter role. Orginaly DVD was not going to allow software based decoders at all. I have also seen a few companys who are WORKING on decoders for linux... Every company so far has shown off some sort of PCI card...
Another reason I think the group was soo small, 1 alot of us work full time and can not do such a protest on a weekday.. *Sigh* and ton of us don't live in that area....
-Sid
I'd love to see that too, but let's face it, we're fighting a traditional, legacy culture: the US Legislature. We all know how clued in to the digital age they are, don't we? Using distributed tactics to influence the thoughts and opinions of that segment of the population wouldn't be very effective.
It doesn't take a whole lot of effort to write an email. I suspect most legislators therefore probably give a physical letter snail-mailed more consideration than email. Physically getting up and going to protest requires even more effort, implying how important the issue is for those voters doing the protesting. Hence it should, in ideality, carry even more weight in the minds of those whom the protestors are trying to influence.
Sadly, I don't think we'll see our distributed culture being able to use native methods of communication to make their presence felt in our Republic for quite some time. Hence, we probably won't be a noticable factor in the political landscape until at least another ten years has gone by. Just look how long after World War II it took for a member of the post-WWII generation, aka the "baby boom" generation to become elected to President.
To the media, the protest was a bit lame, and probably not newsworthy enough for inclusion on the evening news. With a bit of planning, though, you can MAKE your protest newsworthy.
What do the media consider newsworthy? The media want sensationalism! They want IMPACT. They want to improve their ratings, sell more newspapers and the like. And what is best? Something that grabs the attention of someone so they watch this channel, or buy that newspaper.
So you need a bit of planning. A peaceful protest with 10,000 people is often good enough to make the news, especially if traffic is blocked, or other peaceful disruption occurs. But if you've only got 25 or 50 people, the protest alone will not be enough to grab the attention of the media.
So you need something that grabs the attention. You need a media stunt.
What constitutes a good media stunt? Look at what Greenpeace does. They sail their boats between whaling ships and factory ships. They climb tall buildings and display huge banners. You need something attention-getting like this.
Often, the attention-getting stunt might involve something like trespassing to display that banner, and it is inevitable that some people might get arrested, so you need a group fund to cover bail if people are arrested. And in fact, getting arrested increases the sensationalism factor, so you might want to get arrested on purpose.
The best stunt in the world won't do anything though if the media isn't there to see it. Don't post stuff on the web and hope the media find it. The media isn't going to come to you. You have to go to the media. Call the news lines of all the major media outlets in the city, and a few others elsewhere for good measure. Tell them what you intend to do, the itinerary if any, and what the protest is about. Aim to have as many television and photographic cameras there as possible.
Once you have the cameras there, the protest is underway, the stunts have been performed and the like, the media want to know why you're doing this. They might interview people at random, so it's best that everyone is coached on what to say. Have everyone issued with flyers as well.
Remember, too, that the television news media operate in "sound bites", five to ten seconds of someone saying something that they can include as a segment on the news. You need to provide that sound bite. At some point in the interview, you need to summarise what your protest is about, in 25 words or less. This is usable as a sound bite, and the television media may then choose to use it.
Above all, treat the news media that show up with great respect. It's often hard work lugging that camera around, because they often meet unco-operative subjects in their day-to-day work. Co-operate with them, and if they want to stand on the roof of your car with the camera for a better shot, let them. This protest is probably not the only one you stage, and if you treat them with respect, they will return the favour.
One last thing. You need to form an organisation. Call yourselves something like "People against DMCA" and always use that name when calling the media to tell them about upcoming protests. If you then organise a series of protests, use of that name will give your protests continuity, and will help your cause. Whatever you do, don't be a disorganised rabble.
These methods are used frequently by the environmental movement when they try to get their message across. And they have succeeded, because you've heard of Greenpeace, and environmentalism is now taught in schools. Follow their methods, and you will succeed.
--
The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing. - Edmund Burke
========
<sig>Guvf vf abg n frperg zrffntr
I think that live protests such as this can only have a positive effect. Look for instance at the discussions currently on the previous news article of the WAVE program. There is huge sentiment that such a program should not be misused, but how are we going to make that known? Spam and hate mail to the organisers?
A live demonstrations shows a real commitment to an issue - even if it involves only a few people. It's also likely to be taken more seriously than a bunch of "Fsck you" and "Hot grits" emails which will probably only be skimmed and binned by a secretary anyway.
A little planning goes a long way...
I find it interesting that a distributed culture is trying to protest using traditional methods. One which requires the culture to come together.
Why don't we use distributed tactics: Email writing and the like?
Predestination was doomed from the start.
It's already been reported on CNN. Check this link. Why not organize this demo every once in a while, as long as DMCA is in effect in the US?
The right to offend is far more important than the right not to be offended. (Rowan Atkinson)
[MODS - please don't moderate this up, it is mostly a repost of my comment from the initial thread which is still relevant here.]
[Also - I'd really like some feedback on this - both the RIAA and MPAA have alleged that there is a licensed DVD player for Linux - is this true? (and no "yeah, windows" jokes). If it isn't, AND you are absolutely certain of this fact, the reporters who wrote the stories that included those quotes would be very interested to hear this. There's nothing reporters hate more than being lied to. If the information is presented well, it may even result in a favorable follow-up story)
As long as you are taking the time to come out and do some Rah Rah (the term of art for a group of people 10-10,000 rallying on the Capitol grounds,) Why don't you actually schedule time to come in a see the congressional staff - the people who wrote the DMCA in the first place. [someone had mentioned that they didn't have much luck with this - usually the only people who don't get a meeting are clear crackpots ("the UN is building the staging point for a US invasion at the local community college") - if you could not get a meeting with a staff member, and you were a constituent, I would take a close look at your approach] One poster had mentioned hitting representatives at town halls in their districts and states. While this should not be discouraged, the end result will be the member going back to their staff, asking "have you heard many complaints about the DMCA" and when the answer is no, filing you away as a crackpot. Yes, the MPAA and RIAA are here, so is the Patent Bar lobby, but none of them are grassroots organizations, they represent business interests, and they are treated as such (for better and worse). [What this means is, the staff will take their (voluminous) information on an issue, and may take time to meet with them, but usually only if they a representing a constituent interest or company]
AIPAC (the America-Israel Public Affairs Committee) is often ranked as the most effective lobby in Washington by other lobbyists and legislative staff. Every year they bring 3-4000 members to Washington for a 3 day conference. This includes a "Hill Day" when members "storm the hill", groups going to the office of their own Congressmen and Senators. Offices will never say no to meeting constituents in DC. The AIPACers sit down with staff and push their legislative agenda for the year. Backing up these visits is the other end of AIPAC is a very intelligent, thoughtful group of academics who can supply supporting material for any pro-Israel argument a member or hill staffer would like to make. This small group is located in DC, they understand how to make material relevant to the legislative process, and they know how to target the individual members [interests, sympathies, security].
The point of this is, I know the tech crowd has some roots in the ex-hippies of the 70s and early 80s, and barricading the doors of congress (as suggested by one post) seems like a effective idea. [I find it interesting that the first poster regarded these as "conventional" tactics] Most techs are very intelligent, if not eloquent, individuals. The web is the single most effective tool for political organization we've ever known, and it's your domain. Organize and communicate. [Develop concise, informative materials that a congressional staffer can use to advocate your side of the issue] When you come to DC or NOVA, make time to meet with the staff of your Senator or Congressman. Maintain lists of members, rank their votes on issues - know who your friends are, stay in touch with the staff. Once you have the business card of a congressional LA, you can call or e-mail that person at will (or at least until you make a nuisance of yourself - be professional). Stop whining that Congress won't take a personal interest in you, take a personal interest in Congress.
If you truly believe that the government is out of your reach and it doesn't matter what you say, why bother to even come and protest? You should be hiding from the black helicopters by now. If you want to get something done, get involved, grok the system, and work it.
THE YEAR WAS 2081, and everybody was finally equal...
Most people do not have a clue as to what is going on with the DMCA, and similar laws.
These laws can change the way we use and work with our computers, for the worse. They allow the Microsofts of the world to become private dictators.
We have to first become politically active. Register to vote, and let your elected reps know how you feel. And then vote against them if and when they screw up.
Next we have to educate. The news media is not reporting this stuff. Maybe because its not sexy. Maybe because CNN is owned by a company that is also in the movie and music business.
So educate your friends, neighbors, family, etc.
Because it takes no effort to send an e-mail. It makes much more of an impression if someone cares about an issue enough to actually take the time to travel and physically show up somewhere to protest.
No matter how wired we get, I know I'd be more impressed by someone using up a whole day to travel somewhere than spending 10 seconds cutting/pasting an e-mail that they probably don't even know why they're doing it.
Not to mention that e-mails can be forged extremely easily. How do I know as a representative that 1,000 e-mails aren't coming from the same person?
--
First, I want to thank everyone who showed up. Tim and Declean are right, fewer people did show up than hoped- but we raised awareness and that's what counts.
The original posts about how small the protest was and how pointless it is to have a small protest only futher emphasize that it's up to you, the invididual to show up to these kinds of events. If more people would have showed up, then we wouldn't be getting this "no one showed up" feedback. If you care about the issue, go out and make yourself heard.
For most of the event, I handed out flyers with two or three people holding signs. Some people were interested in what I had to say, others not. But I was able to gain attention with only three people. If everyone contributes and makes thier presence known to another event of this nature, then it will be more difficult to ignore us.
I hope to be putting up a web page on the event as a whole by the day's end (I'm collecting media coverage and images and whatnot), so if anyone has any which haven't been mentioned yet, send them along to me.
Thank you all again for your support,
- Serge Wroclawski
It sounds like you aren't a veteran yourself, so you can't speak for us.
As a member of the U.S. military, I was asked to support and defend against all enemies, foreign and domestic. That means I was defending our country's interests, be they political, or economic.
Do you really think that as I hauled my dead friends out of the water after their helicopter went down that I was thinking about "Gee this sucks. Screw these Iraqui bastards, we just want the oil." I was thinking, "What did politicians get me into now?" Many of us risked our lives for what you call opressive or futile purposes. We didn't have a choice. We swore an oath.
I swore an oath, and I followed up on it. It's a hard thing to do. Try it yourself sometime. I swore that oath on the U.S. flag. That flag is a symbol of my oath to support my country. Tell me what's wrong with doing that. So, the flag means a LOT to me, and to people like me.
Maybe it's unconstitutional to burn the flag. Fine. We have EVERY right in the world to try to protect it from people who don't know or care what that means to us. Think of anything that means a lot to you. Do you go to church? Would you permit me to waltz in and scream obcenities at the altar to "express my feelings?" I doubt it. How about art? Maybe I don't like the art you created. So I burn it. I'm just expressing my feelings, right? I have the right to do that, right?
I don't have to like your opinion of flagburning any more than you like mine. That's the beauty of the U.S. Everybody gets an opinion. And, in the represenative DEMOCRACY that we live in, if enough people feel that a certain way, well then a LAW gets passed. That's what these veterans are trying to do. You don't have to agree. We want people to know what's happening.
But don't you EVER belittle our sacrifices as the judgement of the military. Try asking your civilian congressman or your president what they were thinking.
Maybe you should ask another veteran or two how and why we feel the way we do about the flag. See if they give you a different answer.
"We apologize for the inconvenience."
Go to this web site for an up-to-date database of congressional contact information.
- tokengeekgrrl
"The spirit of resistance to government is so valuable on certain occasions
A while ago, I belive in an article about UTICA, there was an comment about what made politicians the most interrested in lobbyists, protests were near the bottom. If there was a protest, news coverage, letter writing, visits to congress-people, pressure from State congress-people (who are easier to get time with), and bad press for the RIAA and the MPAA, and all the "AA"s out there, this might be a sucessful campain.
Best of Luck!
My email is real.
This would have made a lot more impact if:
* They stayed there for a longer period
* Newspapers and other media were there
* More people showed up
We need a supplemental protest NOW. People will quickly lose interest unless those three conditions are met. Anyone in Southern CA willing to help set up a protest?
Protests aren't the only thing we need to do. We also need to set up a site kind of like the @dopt an MP site at www.stand.org.uk where you can fax and email your senator or representative.
US businesses that currently accept chip and PIN/signature
I don't want to get into veteran-bashing, because I do generally respect the sacrfices these people made. But because they risked their lives (in many cases, involuntarily) for our freedom that gives them the right to curtail it?
You have to be careful about assuming that veterans risked anything "for your freedom". Many US veterans risked their lives to suppress the freedoms of other people (Vietnam), or to keep oil prices low (Iraq). There are no Civil War veterans left alive, but were you able to ask I'm sure you'd get at least two different viewpoints on who was fighting for what.
--
E_NOSIG
There were a few logistical problems caused by, well, the fact that this was the first such protest the organizers had done. We had some difficulty coelescing at the outset and I heard some complaints about lack of proper notice -- particularly more might have come a long distance to the protest if given sufficient warning.
Still, these were niggling issues and I consider the protest a success. We had a lot of curious folk approach us and ask of the DMCA and why it was a Bad Thing. Maybe it's just wishful thinking on my behalf, but most seemed to come away better educated and rightfully concerned -- kudos should go to the articulate spokesmen who clearly explained what the DMCA was and its associated problems.
There was casual discussion of another protest. If one should materialize, you can count me in again.
On another note, the hordes of veterans seen swarming the Capitol yesterday were there to lend their support for the anti-American Flag desecration Constitutional amendment. Kinda ironic considering we were defending freedom,and they were there to, in a way, curtail it.
Cheers!
Mark
MAC | A polar bear is a cartesian bear after a coordinate transform.
I talked to Rich Taylor, the VO of PR for the MPAA (say that fast!), and he said that there is a "correctly" licensed DVD player for Linux from Sigma.
He seemed unsure about availability, though, and promised to send me more information. He forwarded to me a press release, which can be found on the Web at:
It says, in part:Sigma Designs, Inc. (Nasdaq: SIGM), a recognized leader in digital video solutions, announced today that it will
add Linux support to its new REALmagicâ NetStreamÔ 2000 card and EM8400 progressive MPEG-2/DVD decoder chip."
The Sigma Website, however, still says such support is coming "soon."
The company, and their plans to release a Linux DVD player, have been discussed here on slashdot before.
jrnl: http://tinyurl.com/c2l8yr / foes: http://tinyurl.com/ckjno5
Your "blind reader" comment got me thinking of another analogy.
Consider a device that scans a book and outputs braille, either on paper or electronically. If these things are expensive, our clever blind hacker might decide to make his own.
If this worked the same was as the deCSS case, then that person would be legally prevented by the publisher from using his home-made device to translate into braille the books he's bought!
In one case, the translation is decryption. In the other case, it's a 'known' translation method. It doesn't matter! Fundamentally, you are translating the contents from an unreadable form to a readable one. That's it!
Let's see that addressed by the RIAA and company.
"People who do stupid things with hazardous materials often die." -- Jim Davidson on alt.folklore.urban