An Open Letter From Internet Engineers to the Senate Judiciary Committee
1–10 of 16 posts
Re: An Open Letter From Internet Engineers to the Senate Judiciary Committee
#2Hey HN, please send an email to your senator regarding COICA:
https://secure.eff.org/site/Advocacy?cmd=display&page=Us...
Our government is looking to put its foot in the door while the Internet is young. If we sleep on these things, worse infringements will surely follow:
¶ Communications services that encrypt messages
must have a way to unscramble them.
¶ Foreign-based providers that do business inside the
United States must install a domestic office capable
of performing intercepts.
¶ Developers of software that enables peer-to-peer
communication must redesign their service to allow
interception.
Re: An Open Letter From Internet Engineers to the Senate Judiciary Committee
#3If only they were lobbyists.
Re: An Open Letter From Internet Engineers to the Senate Judiciary Committee
#4There will be more about this issue in the coming weeks. It's expected to pass in the SJC on Thursday but will get more scrutiny in the Senate. This caught a number of us by surprise but we are responding aggressively and quickly.
And yes, this bill would probably help my business, but I think it's still a terrible precedent to set and I am not interested in having the government induce ISPs or folks like me to block sites.
Re: An Open Letter From Internet Engineers to the Senate Judiciary Committee
#5[deleted]
Re: An Open Letter From Internet Engineers to the Senate Judiciary Committee
#6If only they were lobbyists.
This is lobbying.
Re: An Open Letter From Internet Engineers to the Senate Judiciary Committee
#7Re: An Open Letter From Internet Engineers to the Senate Judiciary Committee
#8Earlier quoted context omitted.
This is lobbying.
Writing a letter?
Notable industry figures likely weigh more heavily in this regard, but tens of thousands of emails from constituents is something a Senator could _at least_ use as a talking point, if nothing else.
Anyway, the EFF has a prefab letter to customize and send out. Shouldn't take anyone more than a minute.
Re: An Open Letter From Internet Engineers to the Senate Judiciary Committee
#9Earlier quoted context omitted.
This is lobbying.
Writing a letter?
Yes. Obviously these aren’t professional lobbyists (that’s the word for someone who is paid explicitly to write such letters). But they are lobbying. You can do it too, whenever you want. That’s (a big) part of the point of a representative system of government (one of the fundamental rights guaranteed by the first amendment, in the case of the US). http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Right_to_petition
Re: An Open Letter From Internet Engineers to the Senate Judiciary Committee
#10Earlier quoted context omitted.
Writing a letter?
Yes. Obviously these aren’t professional lobbyists (that’s the word for someone who is paid explicitly to write such letters). But they are lobbying. You can do it too, whenever you want. That’s (a big) part of the point of a representative system of government (one of the fundamental rights guaranteed by the first amendment, in the case of the US). http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Right_to_petition
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lobbying_Disclosure_Act_of_1995
"The term "lobbyist" means any individual who is employed or retained by a client for financial or other compensation for services that include more than one lobbying contact, other than an individual whose lobbying activities constitute less than 20 percent of the time engaged in the services provided by such individual to that client over a six month period."
87 guys signed one letter and sent it to a committee (not all 100 senators).
I know these 87 guys are awesome, but that is not how Senators are influenced. Now, if they took the Senators to lunch or dinner, flew them to exotic locales to play golf, and gave the senator's relatives cushy jobs in various tech companies, well, I would be more optimistic about the outcome and I would consider these 87 people lobbyists.