Senator Dick Durbin [D-IL] responds to my anti-Protect IP petition
pastebin.comThe problem is that Senator Dick really does believe that this law will be narrowly and judiciously applied to solve just the specific problem of pirated movies/music and neatly solve a big problem for an even bigger campaign contributor.
There is just no practical way for a domain expert to make the potential for unintended consequences of this stuff fit in his mind.
It's narrow "single purpose" legislation that seems to cause the most long-term problems.
It's funny. I just got a response from Diane Feinstein a couple of days ago too. Apparently, whoever wrote their replies decided to do a batch job? In any case, here's her response to me: http://pastebin.com/LzCB2KMs
Wow, that is strikingly similar. I notice how neither commented on the technical ramifications of this, and gave a generic "this will protect us from evil pirates" response.
I also received a very similar response from Jeff Sessions [R-AL].
It's likely this response was written by the same RIAA/MPAA lawyers who wrote the bill and underwrote his campaign. We have no voice.
You've got to see it differently - that means a bill costs about $500K/senator. (http://www.opensecrets.org/politicians/industries.php?cycle=... for Dick Durbins money influx.)
I wonder if it's possible to buy bills via Kickstarter...
I wonder if it's possible to buy bills via Kickstarter...
Is that legal? Would a PAC or Super PAC be needed first?
Well, you would need to construct a legal fiction to maintain the pretense that this is above-board. So yes, some PAC-y things will be needed.
And of course you don't buy a bill, you just strongly suggest (with the implied promise of continued donations)
I believe it's called lobbying, but nobody has tried it via crowd-sourcing yet. I should get a patent ;)
I'm wondering what the legal ramifications would be to have a a Kickstarter project that explicitly calls for funds to bribe politicians in order to counter other bribes to politicians.
Kickstarter itself may not even allow (I bet their TOS forbids illegal activity) but the PR might be good to call attention to the problem of lobbyist influence.
Uh, no. While I like to joke about this, I continue to believe that we can fix problems without illegal activity. Call me a hopeless optimist.
I believe it's called lobbying, but nobody has tried it via crowd-sourcing yet. I should get a patent ;)
Talk to Lodsys.
> We have no voice.
Not true.
Support these:
Contact your representatives, do something.
>Contact your representatives, do something.
I think his point was that OP did exactly that, and found that the 'AAs already have his legislator firmly in their pocket. It's like that scene at the end of Invasion of the Body Snatchers, where the chick is all relieved to see someone she knows and trusts, only to realize too late that he has already been converted.
I also absolutely hate the phrase, "Do something!" or "Get involved!" in regards to politics or causes in general. It's absolutely useless. People already know that they want to do something, they want to know what they can do that will actually have an effect on the outcome, preferably with tutorials, lessons learned, etc. Harassing already-bought politicians does not fall into that category.
> Harassing already-bought politicians does not fall into that category.
True indeed. The only thing to do with them is send them packing on the next off ramp. That's the idea behind a web app I'm developing: http://repwatch.us
You've got to be able to keep track of who needs to go and why.
I'm relatively sure that if there's enough public outrage and media coverage, some of the bought politicians might reconsider. I mean, COICA didn't pass after all, right?
Well, the PROTECT IP Act is like a rehashed version of COICA. They're just going to keep renaming the same type of bill until it gets passed. Plus, most of the public doesn't care because they don't know what's going on and the major news media doesn't care much to inform them. They get more ratings off of celebrity scandals anyways.
COICA was reincarnated as PROTECTIP. The problem with trying to build public outrage over *AA actions is that the media companies control the only communication channels that most people use to form their opinions.
A lot us did contact our representatives through the EFF. I sent an objection letter and just got the same exact response from Senator Durbin. It seems like our concerns were ignored.