[olug] OT: Help Stop the Induce Act: Call Congress Tomorrow

[Daniel Linder]

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<quote who="bwiese at cotse.com">
> Please call if possible, and if you cannot (say if you're in Norway or
> something) please send your Congressional reps an email or letter from
> www.congress.org!

Well, I can say that I did call.  I was 'assigned' to call  the following
senators:
Senator Patrick Leahy (202-224-4242)
Congressperson John Dingell (202-225-4071)
Congressperson James Sensenbrenner (202-225-5101)

My first call was to Sen. Sensenbrenners office.  The receptionist
transferred to the House Judiciary Cmte and spoke with a Mr. Joe Keeley
(spl?).  He informed me that this was still in comittee and had not been
aproved to move to the house for a vote.  I asked if he knew how Sen.
Sensenbrenner would vote, and Mr. Keeley replied that Mr. Sensenbrenner
would not be able to look at the bill until it was definately time to vote
on it (they get over 5000 bills a year to vote on) -- hence he could not
give an official response to the question.

My second call was to Sen. Dingells office.  Here I was transferred to the
Commerce Comitte "Opinoin Line", but that voice mail was full.  Thankfully
a "*0" took me out to another receptionist who tried to transfer me to a
"Pete Schuller" or a "David (somebody)".  I got into a third persons voice
mail but I did catch that they were on the commerce comitte so I left a
brief message stating my name, phone number, and requesting a call back to
discus the comittees recomendation on the "INDUCE" act.

Finally I called Sen. Leahys office.  The first person I spoke with was
quite articulate on the INDUCE act that Sen. Leahy introduced.  She
assured me that this would not impact things such as the iPod and othe
gadgets, only an attempt to stop piracy and enfoce copyright restrictions.
 (I know I wasn't speaking to the highest power in the office, but I
continued...)  I told her that were the INDUCE introduced and passed in
the early 1980's simple things such as a telephone answering machine, VHS
and DVD players, etc would have been bogged down in such red-tape they
would have never come to pass.  I also reminded her that the vast majority
of "pirated" material that is sold around the world is manufactured in
foreign countries -- well out of the US legal system.  At that point she
quickly but politely said she would note my disproval of the bill.  I
guess we were done then... :)

I don't know how people get it into their mind that the technology will be
able to stop only the bad guys but let the good guys do what they expect
to do (fair use).  It's a never ending arms race...  They invent a
technology road-block that stops only the good-guys (grandmothers,
parents, 'average Americans') and is only a minor speed-bump to the bad
guys who will hire electronics experts to bypass the enforcment technology
anyway.

Where's the "reset button" on the US Government?  I want to reload it from
a fresh install! :)

Dan

- - - - -
"I do not fear computer,
I fear the lack of them."
 -- Isaac Asimov

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