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A bill in Congress legalizes cell phone unlocking and fixes the DMCA

fixthedmca.org

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Re: A bill in Congress legalizes cell phone unlocking and fixes the DMCA

#81
post #4

If you want this to pass, don't sign the petition, and don't email or write your congresscritter. Call them . Interact with a human being in their office. Anecdotally, that has a much greater impact. (Source: my cousin and his wife were congressional staffers for several years.)

The reason this is, BTW, is that calling isn't scalable. Any idiot can fire off emails or print petitions or print and mail letters (albeit with a budget). Fielding calls is a huge pain in the ass and can be linked - via area code+prefix, among others - to a specific district.

It never hurts to make a small campaign contribution along with voicing your concern, or mention a past donation. Forming your own local donation pool or interest group, even if it's small, is another way to do it. I'm pretty sure if the average HN member formed a small group with local co-workers and agreed to donate just 1 hours worth of wages, it would be taken seriously.

Unless things have changed a lot since I was there, the real advantage of calling a congressional office is that you're entered in a database faster with your associated issue. It's not like your congressperson answers the phones. That's what the interns and staff assistants do, who hold zero influence.

Be patient with the person taking your call. Many people who call don't even do it right. They contact someone who isn't their senator or representative, which gets ignored. They just say "Don't vote for X!" and hang up without providing contact information.

Also, if you don't vote, many representatives have a database from their board of elections saying which registered voters actually showed up to vote. You're put on the bottom of the stack.

Re: A bill in Congress legalizes cell phone unlocking and fixes the DMCA

#82
post #50

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> More seriously though, I have definite plans to build a click-to-call tool in the next couple of weeks I'm not sure how you do this on Android, but for the iPhone it couldn't be much simpler[1]. Also, most mobile devices will detect and enable any phone number they find on the page, so just putting it there and easy to find is often enough. [1] http://developer.apple.com/library/ios/#featuredarticles/iPh...

I wonder how much demand there is in the tech community for both an iOS and Android app that receives push notifications that drop you right into the UX to make the call when a campaign of calls is necessary due to pending legislation.

Crowdshout are doing something similar to this. Generally, push notifications are a great idea, though convincing people to download the app is trickier.

Re: A bill in Congress legalizes cell phone unlocking and fixes the DMCA

#83
post #47

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'll actually throw a link up to this on the post-email modal so that people can call if they want to.

FWIW, it is a little confusing getting dumped into a CISPA page after looking at a DMCA page, especially with the sample conversation. I realize this was a quick-turnaround project, so please take it in the constructive way it is meant.

Yeah, totally agree on that. Maybe best to take it off.

Re: A bill in Congress legalizes cell phone unlocking and fixes the DMCA

#84
History has taught us if you want to change something within Congress, you need a lot of lobbying cash to buy off as many key votes as possible. While it makes sense to allow cell phone unlocking (here in Australia it's legal) I have a feeling those who benefit off of locking you in will be spending some of their lobby change as well. That's not to say the bill won't pass though, there is still a chance if enough people make enough noise and ask questions, flood the airway.

Re: A bill in Congress legalizes cell phone unlocking and fixes the DMCA

#85
This is very dangerous. Just from the first paragraph of the page, it is stated that the bill will allow all types of software modification.

A bill like this will have a very hard time passing. This was originally suppose to be only about unlocking cell phones for use with other carriers. Now conditions have been added that make the bill very arguable. It is asking for more than we can take. Companies like Apple and Sony will be very likely against this.

Every part of me wants this to pass, but this bill is sadly unlikely to. ... sadface

Re: A bill in Congress legalizes cell phone unlocking and fixes the DMCA

#86
post #4

If you want this to pass, don't sign the petition, and don't email or write your congresscritter. Call them . Interact with a human being in their office. Anecdotally, that has a much greater impact. (Source: my cousin and his wife were congressional staffers for several years.)

I'm an introvert and a shy one at that. What do I expect when I call? What should I say? I feel like a fish out of water even thinking about it.

Re: A bill in Congress legalizes cell phone unlocking and fixes the DMCA

#87
post #40

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I want to know this too. When I see thing like "This fixes the DMCA", it makes me question the intentions of the advocating website. It sounds too good to be true.

Hey, I'm the FixtheDMCA founder. I set the whole thing up, and really I don't have any ulterior motives. When I was in college (2003-2006), I wrote and sold software to unlock Motorola phones (back when the RAZR was big). It was my first startup, and was a lot of fun to build. But about a year in I was sent a cease and desist by Motorola for violating the DMCA, even though there was no copyright infringement involved…

> some decent, reasoned arguments why the DMCA shouldn't be fixed

I doubt there can be any decent arguments, since DRM itself is by definition indecent, and DMCA 1201 is DRM derivative.

Re: A bill in Congress legalizes cell phone unlocking and fixes the DMCA

#88
post #4

If you want this to pass, don't sign the petition, and don't email or write your congresscritter. Call them . Interact with a human being in their office. Anecdotally, that has a much greater impact. (Source: my cousin and his wife were congressional staffers for several years.)

Or better yet, get some like minded people together and go down to your Congress person's office and at least try and create the impression that there are actual votes at stake on this issue instead of just impotent e-rage.

Re: A bill in Congress legalizes cell phone unlocking and fixes the DMCA

#89
post #15

This legislation doesn't entirely fix the DMCA. It fixes some problems but more remain. Copyright is some seriously fucked up shit right now. It has been dominated by big money interests for the last 50 years.

Forward progress is still forward progress.

Those of us in the UK who voted for AV+ because we saw it as a step toward proportional representation thought that too. Then the notion that it was a half-baked solution was used as a weapon by the "No" campaign, and now voting reform is off the table entirely for the foreseeable future.

Re: A bill in Congress legalizes cell phone unlocking and fixes the DMCA

#90
post #28

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't see that anyone asked him a question...

>> It has a morass of serious issues untouched by these modifications. > Such as..?

Err, that's not what begging the question means. It means you are avoiding a question. I didn't realize he was using it in the colliqual way since it was kind of a strange way of using it there too (it's usually in the form "that begs the question: X?").
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