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
Washington for Internet Freedom
Top Priority for WA: Set up Meetings
Any users in Seattle should check out http://www.seattleagainstsopa.com/ for info about protests across Seattle on Jan. 18th!
There aren't any public events yet, so the most important thing is to get meetings with Senators. Here's what you need to do:
- Email state_scheduling@cantwell.senate.gov to meet with Senator Cantwell, a strong opponent of PIPA and also committed to filibustering the bill.
- Email Erin at stateschedule@murray.senate.gov to meet with Senator Murray.
Be polite and professional, and request a meeting on behalf of Washington 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 Washington 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
Submitted request, will advise on response!
If anybody would like to meet Sen. Murray's rep with me, please let me know!
Hello, my name is Brent Bartlett, and I am a constituent from Bellevue. I'm with Washington for Internet Freedom, and I am writing to request a meeting during the January recess. A very important vote is coming up on the 24th for the Protect IP Act, which could have very serious ramifications on civil liberties, especially internet freedom and Freedom of Speech. Please write me back and let me know when would be a good time and place to meet. You can also call me at any time at
"Thank you very much for taking the time to write to the Senator about the Protect IP Act.
We would like to give you the opportunity to speak with a senior level advisor on the Senator’s staff who works directly with this issue. We are planning to schedule a conference call for this coming Friday in the early afternoon.
Unfortunately, there are a limited number of lines so please let me know if you are able to join us for the call. I will send the conference call information to those from whom I receive an RSVP."
I'll post the conference call information as soon as I get it.
I'm nervous, because writing is my strong suit---not speaking. If a lot of people are backing down on this, then I will join, but I know my skills and feel that others would make a stronger delivery than myself.
Here's what she said:
Thank you very much for taking the time to write to the Senator about the Protect IP Act.
We would like to give you the opportunity to speak with a senior level advisor on the Senator’s staff who works directly with this issue. We are planning to schedule a conference call for this coming Friday in the early afternoon.
Unfortunately, there are a limited number of lines so please let me know if you are able to join us for the call. I will send the conference call information to those from whom I receive an RSVP.
Best,
Erin Vincent
State Scheduler & Outreach Representative
U.S. Senator Patty Murray
The call will be this afternoon at 2:00 PM PST with Jason Park.
The call in information is as follows:
Call-in Information: 202 228 2663
ID: 4592757
Best,
Erin
Dear Senators, Maria Cantwell and Patty Murray,
Dear Representatives of our state,
My name is Alex and I oppose SOPA and PIPA.
I ask you please to reconsider your position on those
measures and meet with your constituents before January 24th, 2012. Please keep
the Net Neutrality alive. Do not smear your hands.
YOU HAVE SEEN THE FACEBOOK REVOLUTION. You have seen what
the internet can do for people's rights and freedoms. You have witnessed
internet destroying totalitarian and dictatorship regimes in North Africa and Middle East. Egypt
and Libya
would not be possible with out internet neutrality, without people being able
to freely communicate, express, report, expose and destroy evil.
Russia
is still yet to set itself free with the help of internet social media.
December revolts were just the offshoots after 20, TWENTY YEARS, of silenced brutalized
destroyed opposition. It would not be possible to fight the ruling party
without this internet framework. And how the ruling party keeps the masses in
check is by control of the media, control of access to news, control of access
to internet.
Please do not align yourself with regimes like China and Russia where step by step voices
are silenced and lights are turned off. Please do not get yourself on the
slippery slope of limiting information, denying people access and protecting
internet rights. Freedom and information must march on. You know that if you
turn the lights off on the infants of humanity you are just as much signing off
condemning them to blindness, you are just as much creating the doorsteps of
Dark Ages, you are just as much. Do you remember what Rupert Murdoch said about
the capability of information against totalitarian regimes in 1993? Do you
remember the response of China
to his words? Do you remember the contradicting steps Rupert Murdoch took with
the START network in 1994? Please do not repeat this example.
It was not accidental that in 620 BC there was a cry of
warning about this, it was in Aesop's tale about blind men and an elephant.
People's perception of reality, of what is right and what is just, and what is
freedom can only formulate in a free society. If the information they receive
is dictated by the information controlling regimes, their perception of reality
is distorted. You surely have seen the effects of this in Belarus where
dictator Lukashenko distorted perception of reality by similar steps. And Kazakhstan? And
Ukraine?
And former USSR
republics who were not able to shake off their dictators? Or is the example in
Venezuella is far erased from our memories? Or is Cuba less of burning wound? Or Haiti? Or Burma? Or North Korea? Or
Iran?
Or Syria?
Please stop and ask yourself, why would companies like
Google (who's motto is 'to do no evil'), Twitter, Facebook, Wikipedia, Yahoo
and craigslist be opposed to the passage of this bill? Why would Human Rights
Watch be opposed to it? Why would Nancy Pelosi be opposed to it?
Are you courting the ones like Walmart? VISA? Mastercard?
Nike? News Corporation? Why and Why again? Are you proud of their track records
at home and abroad of these companies? Does their reputation speak for who they
are?
Please consider why were books like Orwell's 1984 and
Bradbury's Fahrenheit 451 were written.
I picked up a great
book few months ago, The Laws That Shaped America Fifteen Acts of Congress and
their Lasting Impact by Dennis W. Johnson. No law is a separate, removed from
reality, an explicit thing of itself. An Act is born out of a situation,
brought up by either a few or many. You have witnessed why the Act in Arizona discriminating
against Latino population was only able to pass in this economic times. You
have witnessed in our state why initiative 1183 was passed and the chosen time
for its passage. You can see why passage of this bill is beneficial to the
likes who stand to profit, who have spent to buy votes. But is conscience
really for sale?
Erich Maria Remarque
saw the unfolding of the oppressive regime that distorted reality of its
constituents, and CHOSE not the offered luxurious life at the height of the
regime but rather a conscientious decision to live in exiled far from his heim.
He did far more with a pen and paper for his people that those who stood to
limit information.
Sincerely,
Alex
2:14 am, January 15th, 2012.
Yes, I am in support for WA internet freedom there is so many thing wrong with this bill not just on its function, to pass a bill that would take away freedom on something that no one person can own, would be to say you can take away the air and tax us to breath or water to drink...
I use water because I remember a court room proceeding on a town who did not like the water company taking there natrole water supply, and the companys defeants againts the people was this... Being no one man or woman owns the water, there shall be no laws that prohibit use of it..
So I ask you all this, if you can deny the people of the USA freedom on the net.. Then would you not have to deny the companys who ruin this land and our parks?
We need to stop having one sides debates and stay consistent on what we say or do, could any of you stand in front of our fourfathers and not be seen as demastic terrist, they did everything to make sure you all had a home to grow up in and a place to where you can be safe from opression, and yet you dishoner there memory by making something that would take away our rights, its getting to the point where my family and I are to scared to live in the USA in fear that one day our borders our citys and our HOMES will be shut down, did we only leave the Queen to have her children run back to her?
Emails to/from Jay Inslee:
Thank you for the reply. I will agree with you that the copyright owners have a
right to get money from them. However, it is the way this law would allow them
to do so and the fact that there would be no way to defend oneself from the
allegations.
I'm in my 40's so I grew up listening to stories about how
bad it was in Soviet Russia, with camera's on the streets to make sure everyone
was doing the bidding of the government officials. This law allows private
companies to spy on people's private use of the internet and gives them the
right to remove their right to access the net. This is different times from the
late 70's and early 80's of my childhood; now people talk and discuss things on
the internet. Should that right be taken away because somebody thinks it might
lower their bottom line? What if I had bought a cd/DVD and didn't like it and
posted that thought online? The company that put it out could cut off my ability
to say what I thought, and how would I appeal it? How many citizens wouldn't
have the millions of dollars to fight it in court? I wouldn't.
The law
also goes after the software that people MIGHT use to download illegal copies of
songs and movies... I have used bit torrents in the past and will agree that
there is a lot of pirated movies and music to be found. There is also a lot more
on the file sharing networks that is legal, such as what I use it for. I do a
lot of programming (It's a hobby) and I use it to get Linux programs and
updates. (Speaking of which, since Linux is a worldwide user
supported/made/updated operating system, it will never add the spyware that will
be required of windows to make this law actually work, how long will it be until
I get cut off the net because I use it? After all, that will fall under the part
of the law that states "used to engage in such activities". Or did I miss a part
of the law that protects people from using software that might or might not be
used for pirating/trading?)
Please, I urge you to look at why so many
tech companies are against this law, like Google, Facebook, Craigslist, and so
many others. It takes so many rights and freedoms away from the people you are
sworn to protect to protect the profits of a few.
-**************
PS. Hope you are in the other Washington right now. I've got almost a
*****@gmail.com<mailto:plasspec@gmail.com>foot of snow outside right now, and a lot more supposed to be on the way. And I
have to try to drive to work tomorrow. Yippee......
From: Congressman
Jay Inslee<mailto:NoReply.WA01@mail.house.gov>
Sent: Tuesday, January
17, 2012 8:53 AM
To: a rel="nofollow" href="mailto:*****@gmail.com
Subject: From Congressman Jay Inslee
January 17, 2012
Dear Mr. *****:
Thank you for contacting me regarding
your concerns about H.R. 3261 and S. 968, bills intended to deter and prevent
intellectual property. I appreciate hearing from you.
As new
technologies are developed, we must work diligently to strike a balance between
preserving fair use principles for consumers and reasonably protecting
intellectual property. As you may know, H.R. 3261 and S.968 would authorize
civil prosecution against an "Internet sites dedicated to infringing
activities." Such a site is defined as one that (1) has no significant use other
than engaging in or facilitating copyright infringement, circumventing
technology controlling access to copyrighted works, or selling or promoting
counterfeit goods or services; or (2) is designed, operated, or marketed and
used to engage in such activities. As a member of the House of Representatives I
will be sure to keep your thoughts in mind should I have the opportunity to
consider either bill for a vote.
I believe it is crucial to give the
power of choice to consumers by requiring broadband providers to keep the
gateways of information flowing freely. As such, I have consistently voted to
keep the Internet free from interference, including becoming an original
cosponsor of H.R. 3458, the Internet Freedom Preservation Act of 2009. This
legislation would require the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) and other
agencies to guard against unreasonable discriminatory favoritism for, or
degradation of, content by the operators of the networks that make up the
Internet based upon that content's source, ownership, or destination. I will
continue to fight to protect the diverse range of online services and content
that consumers enjoy today.
Again, thank you for taking the time to
contact me about such an important issue. For news on current federal
legislative issues, please visit my website at
www.house.gov/inslee<http://www.house.gov/inslee>, where you can also sign
up to receive my e-newsletter. My office is here to serve you, so please feel
free to contact us in Shoreline at 206-361-0233 or in Washington, D.C. at
202-225-6311 for assistance
Very truly yours,
JAY INSLEE
Member of Congress
If legislator has issue with some of the language of a bill, that bill should die on the floor. This is yet another episode of big business using our government to fund their dirty work. The Feds data mining programs can gather any information they think they want on us. This is all about some corporations being able to charge us for what has been free. There has never been a time in history like this one! So many things to learn free for anyone. Babblefish has lowered language barriers,and knowledge is echanged globally at a rate never before possible. When a girl is murdered in Teheran, the whole world can know and be outraged in half an hour. Keep this precious tool away from corporate corruption!
Feel free to share your opinion with me.
Jasv_sf5(at)rocketmail.com.
- Originally posted to AKFIF, but contact info for Alaska politicians has been removed.
http://pastebin.com/mSkB62Fz
Included are
* links to limited, but informative coverage in the media
* links to written coverage of SOPA & PIPA (two may be offline today)
* key points highlighting threats and collateral damage that SOPA & PIPA present
Greetings, my name is Van Huebner, and I'm contacting you on behalf of my fellow citizens of Washington whom support Internet freedom, and I'm emailing to make this statement during to you you directly during this January recess. The PROTECT IP vote which was scheduled for January 24th (but is now delayed), and I wanted the Senator to understand my concerns before the vote happens.
In 2010, the Supreme Court chose by it's decision in Citizens United to foster unlimited corporate funding of campaigns for Federal offices, ignoring stare decisis in favor of citing the protection of "free speech". Very soon,the congress will seek to approve or not of acts which will jeopardize the free speech of its citizens in the name of corporate "intellectual property rights" and profit, etc.. It would appear that corporate gain in both cases is the determining factor and that "rights" are only relevant when they apply to corporations. Why does it appear that money trumps justice? Do you have an opinion on this?
I must say that if Protect IP and SOPA pass, it will look to the citizens that no longer does the government represent the majority of the public's individual privacy and freedoms, but rather a very small minority of powerful campaign financing "special interest groups". I ask you: do not support this further evidence of unconstitutional, ethical disparity!