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Fight PIPA, SOPA's Senate cousin, with this Senate scorecard - Boing Boing
by Decius at 2:00 pm EST, Jan 10, 2012 |
If we want Protect-IP to die in the Senate, we need to step it up. SopaOpera.org has a list of people who are for, against, and undecided on PIPA. If your representative is undecided, contact them immediately! All of them are potential allies. Tell them about the damage PIPA could do to free speech, and to the American economy. Even the ones in favor of PIPA are worth contacting. If they think that enough people will vote against them in the next election, they might just change their minds.
Both of my senators have signed on as cosponsors of PIPA. I sent them both emails today using the web forms on their respective sites, and asked them to reconsider their support for this approach. I also contacted my Congressman, who is on the House judiciary committee, but doesn't seem to have taken a position on SOPA. |
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RE: Fight PIPA, SOPA's Senate cousin, with this Senate scorecard - Boing Boing
by Hijexx at 5:22 pm EST, Jan 10, 2012 |
Decius wrote: If we want Protect-IP to die in the Senate, we need to step it up. SopaOpera.org has a list of people who are for, against, and undecided on PIPA. If your representative is undecided, contact them immediately! All of them are potential allies. Tell them about the damage PIPA could do to free speech, and to the American economy. Even the ones in favor of PIPA are worth contacting. If they think that enough people will vote against them in the next election, they might just change their minds.
Both of my senators have signed on as cosponsors of PIPA. I sent them both emails today using the web forms on their respective sites, and asked them to reconsider their support for this approach. I also contacted my Congressman, who is on the House judiciary committee, but doesn't seem to have taken a position on SOPA.
If you're cool with it would you mind sharing the verbiage you used? I've been making my way through SOPA with a highlighter when I have time, making notes, trying to form my thoughts before I write. I don't know what standard protocol is in these types of letters though. 5 paragraphs or less? |
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RE: Fight PIPA, SOPA's Senate cousin, with this Senate scorecard - Boing Boing
by Decius at 6:02 pm EST, Jan 10, 2012 |
Hijexx wrote:
If you're cool with it would you mind sharing the verbiage you used? I've been making my way through SOPA with a highlighter when I have time, making notes, trying to form my thoughts before I write. I don't know what standard protocol is in these types of letters though. 5 paragraphs or less?
I didn't save it - I was extremely brief. These guys get tons of email, much of it from wackos. You've got to establish that they represent you, that you are credible, and get your point across briefly. I explained that I was a computer security professional and that I live in their district/state. I explained that I thought that SOPA/PIPA was the wrong way to approach protecting IP rights. I explained that these laws call for the creation of a central censorship mechanism in the Internet similar to the one that China uses, and that the passage of these laws would funnel millions of dollars into the development of censorship technologies that would find application all over the world in repressive regimes. I told them that this undermined our nation's stance on freedom of expression and presented a moral problem for many people who've worked to build the Internet and want it to be a platform for free expression. I wanted to make it clear why the opposition to this is so loud. Its not about a technical argument. This law is a moral issue - They represent me and I don't want this law to pass because it conflicts with some pretty important values that Americans share. But thats my POV - you've got to express yours. Anything that looks like a form letter is going straight in the trash bin. |
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