The Worst Coders In Washington

spooky writes "The American Open Technology Consortium, 'a nonprofit organization of technologists who have joined together to educate lawmakers and regulators about technology -- especially in regards to The Internet' has compiled a list of the lawmakers responsible for eight bad internet laws. They say, 'These bad coders and their backers have done more damage to computing, the Internet and freedom than all the virus authors, spammers and crackers combined', Do you agree? Did they miss anyone?"

Comments

stevens

[Maskirovka]

For the record, senator Ted Stevens (who co-sponsored the CBDPA if up for re-election tomorrow. He doesn't have any serious opposition though...

VOTE AGAINST THE BUMS ON TUESDAY !!!

[Anonymous Coward]

Vote against these guys if they voted for DMCA or P2P bill or overzealous H1B expansions or whatever.
Throw the bums out !!! They do not get it. They only understand bribes. They must be thrown out! Vote "no" on your local incumbent.

Re:What about the good ones?

[Meat Blaster]

You might want to change the people you listen to. Not only would the good senator turn the Internet into a fancy interactive Bible (with ads) given half a chance, he also backed most of the crap listed on the site, including the DMCA.

This crap will keep right on going down...

[alizard]

If we don't like the idea of legislators making laws that threaten not only our right to do as we please with our computers and the Internet connections we pay for, our options are to keep bleating about it or:

• Build an effective PAC with real money on behalf of the high-tech user community. Startup funding for that in the $500K-$1M range. Without the startup funding, you wind up with GeekPAC. Remember them? If nobody with the money thinks this is worth doing, kiss your freedom and the US economy good-bye, and if you want to participate in new technology, figure out which non-US country you want to relocate to.
• Persuade the high-tech vendors to use their industry PACS to defend their right to exist and our jobs. Since they think they can still do business with the content providers and other enemies of high-tech industry, they can be expected to continue this non-strategy until their legal people tell them that new law and regulations (e.g. Broadcast Working Group-based FCC regs) mean that they can move R&D/production out of the USA or close their doors. By then, it'll be too late to do anything about this. Appeasement always seems more cost-effective than fighting.

Personally, I expect that the US high-tech community strategy is going to be to keep on bleating while it's still possible to do so and watch the leading edge of technological innovation depart for locations all over the world. I include in the bleating community the entrepreneurs who made it big before the bottom fell out of dot.com . When they realize they can't do business here, they'll simply relocate to somewhere where they can. Or retire.

If the US loses high technology, this will be simply due to the lack of leadership in the political wars. As I see it, we've got an army ready to march and no general staff and no reasonable prospect of finding one.

Re:What about the good ones?

[andcal]

It's nice that you know what Hatch would do if he could. Can you also tell what I am thinking?

Hatch supposedly has changed his mind about IP law, as he sees the media companies as being way too greedy about the whole thing.

http://www.cluebot.com/articles/00/10/12/2055227.s html

So there they are

[loconet]

Oh, so these are the clowns who got payed $1,400,777 to cripple technology.

1. Rep. Charles (Chip) Pickering (R-MS 3rd district) 3 bills $230,900
DMCA, COPA, CIPA
4. Rep. Bill Paxon (R-NY 27th district) 2 bills $200,938
DMCA, COPA
5. Rep. Howard L. Berman (D-CA 26th district) 2 bills $212,991
DMCA, P2P Piracy Prevention Bill
7. Rep. Howard Coble (R-NC 6th district) 2 bills $114,747
DMCA, P2P Piracy Prevention Bill
16. Rep. Henry J. Hyde (R-IL 6th district) 1 bill $83,500
DMCA
31. Rep. Mary Bono (R-CA 44th district) 1 bill $76,604
DMCA
41. Rep. Barney Frank (D-MA 4th district) 1 bill $55,500
DMCA
65. Rep. John Jr. Conyers (D-MI 14th district) 1 bill $99,110
DMCA
75. Rep. Bill McCollum (R-FL 8th district) 1 bill $326,487
DMCA
91. Rep. Sonny Bono (R-CA 44th district) 1 bill $0
DMCA

Not so fast

[nexex]

Hmm,

Representative Howard Berman's (D-Cal.) P2P Bill

This virulent Trojan Horse, written by Senator Ernest "Fritz" Hollings (D-NC)

President Clinton signed into law a new "sequel" to the unconstitutional Communications Decency Act.

DMCA co-sponsored by Mr. CONYERS(D-IN), and Mr. FRANK (D-Mass)

If anything, Democrats and liberals are just as much a part....

Out of date list

[Skjellifetti]

Rep. John R. Kasich (R-OH 12th district) left the House in 2000 after running for President. One of his former aides (Pat Tiberi IIRC) now holds the seat.

Re:problem can be easily solved

[nuckin futs]

So you think I'm a moron because you thought I was serious. You are brilliant.
BTW, his exact words were:

During my service in the United States Congress, I took the initiative in creating the internet

check out CNN

Prez CAN'T veto a bill passed by voice vote

[yerricde]

Who signed DMCA into law again?

President Clinton could not have prevented the Sonny Bono Copyright Term Extension Act or the Digital Millennium Copyright Act from becoming federal law in the United States. Both bills passed the House and Senate by "unanimous consent", which means that there wasn't even enough opposition to force a roll call vote (at least 20 percent), and each house voted on the bills by voice (AYE, NO, the ayes have it). Such a voice vote implies at least 81 percent support in each house.

If the President vetoes a bill, it goes back to the House and Senate for a roll-call vote, and if each house has 67 percent support for a bill, the bill passes over the President's veto. Thus, whether or not Clinton signed either of the bills has no bearing on anything important.

We don't vote people into office; we vote them out

[semios]

This is an excellent page, the only problem is if you want to print the page and take it with you to the polls it's over 5 pages long.

So I took the contents of the blog and created this page that allows you to filter the representatives of your particular state. Making it easy to take with you to the polls and stick it to your states representatives.