Ask Slashdot: What can we do about UCITA?

Posted by Cliff on Tuesday August 10, 1999 @11:49AM from the fighting-the-draconian-laws dept.

Ben Woodard asks: "I've read several articles describing the evils of the UCITA and the fact that it has passed (and this article from LinuxTicker), but not one of them has said anything about what we can do about it. Since it is now only a suggested law and has to be adopted by each states isn't there time to do something? What can we do? Who should we contact? Is anyone organizing a lobby against it? Have the Open Source companies taken a stand regarding it? Is it time for the Open Source community to band together and hire lobbyists to represent our issues to the government?" The UCITA isn't law yet, but you can bet folks are going to try to push it through. Sounds like its high time to go on the defensive.

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Write your state legislator! by Zippy+the+Pinhead · 1999-08-10 10:02 · Score: 4

The ACM has a page on the UCITA and other copyright concerns. There are links to several other good sites. Also, check the Consumer Project on Technology's Protest Page for excellent links to articles and sample letters.
At this point, it's up to the 50 states to individually ratify the UCITA into state law. So write your state legislator. Snail-mail counts most, short letters with useful arguments are easier for staffers to handle. Basically, (I think) you want to have 'em amend or strike UCC Article 2B. The remote-deactivation provisions will be the most odious and easiest to fight. You can even cite the fact that it will be bad for the commercial software indistry 'cos it'll pressure s/w-dependent businesses to switch to free and homegrown s/w just so they don't have to fear pissing off their s/w vendor.
To find your state legislator: Project Vote-Smart or the Democracy Network.