Stop American Censorship
Internet censorship is going to a vote in the Senate on January 24th (known as PIPA in the Senate and SOPA in the House). While Senators are in their home states for the January recess, we need to flood their public meetings and offices with our concerns about the bill. Learn More
Tennessee for Internet Freedom: Meeting with Senator Alexander's staff in Nashville on 1/20, at 2 PM
Top Priority for TN: Set up Meetings
Meeting with Senator Alexander's staff in Nashville on 1/20 at 2:00 PM!
Meeting with Senator Alexander's staff in Nashville on 1/20 at 2:00 PM!
Meanwhile, please continue to try to schedule more meetings elsewhere in the state. Here's what you need to do:
- Email the scheduler at Shirley_Pond@corker.senate.gov to meet with Senator Corker, a co-sponsor of PIPA.
- Email tnscheduling@alexander.senate.gov or fax (615) 269-4803 to meet with Senator Alexander, also a co-sponsor of PIPA.
Be polite and professional, and request a meeting on behalf of Tennessee for Internet Freedom (the folks in this forum) to discuss the PROTECT IP Act and SOPA. Make it clear that you want to meet with the Senator during the January recess, and that you'll be bringing others from your group. Have your calendar open when you call, so you can pick a time that works for you. When finished, post a report-back.
For example: "Hi, my name is ________, I'm with Tennessee for Internet freedom, and I'm calling to request a meeting with Senator _______ during the January recess. The PROTECT IP vote is happening on January 24th, and I wanted the Senator to understand my concerns before the vote happens."
IMPORTANT: If you do get a meeting, post another message. That way others can join you in your meeting. If there's any other specific information we should include in this post, message us and we can add it.
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Comments
p.s - one of us is from Nashville too! He lives in MA though.
"Thank you for your request to meet with Senator Alexander concerning the Protect IP vote. Unfortunately, the Senator’s schedule for the January has been set for some time. We do not have any available time due to previous scheduling commitments. I will forward your request to our Middle Tennessee Field Representative, Michael Schulz. Michael will contact you and schedule a time that is mutually convenient.
Best wishes,
Faye Head
State Scheduler and Office Manager
Office of United States Senator Lamar Alexander
3322 West End Avenue, Suite 120
Nashville, TN 37203"
I'll post anything else that is relevant to the discussion. Has anyone else received a response?
I would like
to request one thing from everyone. If this passes please vote accordingly. Please
forget party loyalty and help me rotate these jerks out of office. I think this
is the only way we can take Washington back from Big Business.
I wish I was
a little more internet savvy knew how to drive a Rotate Washington campaign. <?xml:namespace prefix = o ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:office" />
Awesome! A meeting is being set up!
Here is the reply i received:
"Good Morning,
Due to the amount of people who have expressed their concerns and want to discuss Protect IP, I have secured a conference room to host an opportunity for you to express your concerns in person. I have invited a representative from Sen. Corker’s staff to join the meeting as well, hopefully she will be able to participate if her schedule allows it.
The information for the meeting is as follows:
Location: 3322 West End Ave. 1st floor conference room
Date: Friday, Jan. 20, 2012
Time: 2:00 – 3:00 pm
I realize that some of you may not live in the Nashville area and reside in another part of the state. I’ve received all emails in which an office service area could not be identified. If your case is this, we have offices located in Memphis, Jackson, Chattanooga, Knoxville and Tri-Cities. I have a counterpart in each of those locations who would be more than happy to schedule appointments with you.
If you have any questions please don’t hesitate to call or email.
Thank you,
___________________________________
Michael SchulzField Representative
Office of U.S. Senator Lamar Alexander
3322 West End Ave., Ste. 120
Nashville, TN 37203
Office: 615-736-5129"
I really would like people to attend with me (in a professional manner, of course) because I have no idea really what to say or present. I can come up with some things, but we have got to work together!
Noah
> Thanks Danielle for your email. I need to know what part of the state you life in.
No lie, that is the exact response I got. I weep.
@StopSOPA-HQ
You mentioned that you will help find people to go with me? I could certainly use the help. I'm not sure what information to present or how. I'm a biologist and I'm out of my element with this. Does anyone have any prepared materials that I can present to illustrate the shortcomings of SOPA/PIPA?
This thread looks like the discussion as slowed down a bit.
-Noah
Good Morning,
Due to the amount of people who have expressed their concerns and want to discuss Protect IP, I have secured a conference room to host an opportunity for you to express your concerns in person. I have invited a representative from Sen. Corker’s staff to join the meeting as well, hopefully she will be able to participate if her schedule allows it.
The information for the meeting is as follows:
Location: 3322 West End Ave. 1st floor conference room
Date: Friday, Jan. 20, 2012
Time: 2:00 – 3:00 pm
I realize that some of you may not live in the Nashville area and reside in another part of the state. I’ve received all emails in which an office service area could not be identified. If your case is this, we have offices located in Memphis, Jackson, Chattanooga, Knoxville and Tri-Cities. I have a counterpart in each of those locations who would be more than happy to schedule appointments with you.
If you have any questions please don’t hesitate to call or email.
Thank you,
___________________________________
Michael Schulz
Field Representative
Office of U.S. Senator Lamar Alexander
3322 West End Ave., Ste. 120
Nashville, TN 37203
Office: 615-736-5129
In the meantime, did y'all see the sidebar to the right RE: meeting materials and a briefing call that takes place tomorrow?
As for what to present, do take a look at our repository of materials:
https://fightfortheftr.wordpress.com/flyers-info-sheets-badges-infographics-for-meeting-with-your-senator/
Also, here's a very up-to-date article that explains why even the "best" and most recent version of PIPA is still terrible: http://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/news/2012/01/even-without-dns-provisions-sopa-and-pipa-remain-fatally-flawed.ars
@BertMcMahan @Barilla @MushMouth - Please confirm that you can go to this meeting, and recruit others who might be interested in going! People from the tech/business communities might prove particularly helpful, but pretty much anyone who cares strongly about this issue is a voice that the Senators need to hear.
Great job everyone - keep it up!
A great one-page summary of SOPA - it's not PIPA, but the ideas are the same:
https://www.eff.org/sites/default/files/One-Page-SOPA_0.pdf
A good run-through of both bills by a system administrator:
http://blog.reddit.com/2012/01/technical-examination-of-sopa-and.html
Good description of why DNS-based filtering is a bad idea:
http://dyn.com/sopa-breaking-dns-parasite-stop-online-piracy/
Make sure you cover at least these three points:
1. Reducing piracy is a noble effort, but passing PIPA and legislation like it will not effectively reduce piracy. Find another way - using web experts!
- The pirating websites and the pirates themselves are much more nimble than the ISPs. As such, they WILL be able to continue pirating relatively unhindered under this legislation - in fact, they do just fine right now in the Middle-eastern and East Asian countries that have more draconian legislation like this in place. In fact making things difficult might very well make piracy worse when legitimate websites are hindered (see next point). If you're going to pass anti-piracy legislation, bring in experts who know how the web works.
2. PIPA will actively hinder websites that legitimately host material, and will bankrupt legitimate web-based businesses and non-profits.
Most of the useful web nowadays hosts user content. This is called Web 2.0, and is the foundation of innovation on the web today. But if legislation like PIPA passes, compliance for many websites will become an overwhelming burden. The resources needed to scrub every single link from a website in order to comply with PIPA-suggested takedowns is absurd and simply not possible in some cases. This is one of the biggest reasons why Wikipedia went dark - they want to make it known that the unintended consequences of this bill will be astronomical.
3. PIPA (and legislation like it) will disregard due process for potential offenders, an essential part of freedom, justice, and our country's founding principles.
The government has the ability to take down websites that are hosting pirated content now, under DMCA and similar legislation. This is why MegaUpload came down yesterday - because the government followed the due process laid out by the law (nevermind whether or not it should have been taken down, at least it went through decent enough channels). PIPA will take down those barriers, and suspicion alone will be enough to take down a website (hidden under the guise of "due diligence"). This is not just or fair.
A list of companies expressing concern with SOPA/PIPA. 316 groups (but still far from complete), it includes web-based businesses, cybersecurity companies, engineers, think tanks, human rights groups, etc:
https://www.cdt.org/report/list-organizations-and-individuals-opposing-sopa
Dear Name Removed,
Thank
you for taking the time to contact my office regarding S.968, the 'Preventing Real Online Threats to
Economics Creativity and Theft of Intellectual Property Act of 2011,' or PROTECT IP Act. Your input is
important to me and I appreciate the time you took to share your thoughts.
The
consequences from an inability to protect intellectual property are substantial and far reaching. Piracy
of intellectual property discourages creative thought and prevents innovative ideas from coming to fruition
and being an important source of economic strength to our country.
As
you may know, the vote to bring this legislation to the Senate floor has been delayed. I think this decision is
appropriate at this point as it is clear that greater consensus is needed before anti-piracy legislation
can become law. However, I remain committed to passing legislation that will combat foreign websites
dedicated to stealing the intellectual
property of Americans,
while also protecting free speech and fostering Internet commerce and innovation.
I
will certainly take your thoughts into consideration should any legislation addressing intellectual property
theft on the Internet come before the full Senate, and I thank you for your input.
Thank
you again for your letter. I hope you will continue to share your thoughts with me.
Sincerely,
Bob Corker
United States Senator
Not acceptable... But I am not sure how to reply. Any help would be appreciated. Thank you!