Michigan for Internet Freedom: meetings with Senator Levin on 1/17 and 1/19 in Grand Rapids!

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  • heyandy889heyandy889
    Hi, everyone. Very happy to see the interest accumulated this weekend. My name is Nate Shiff, and I helped schedule the Thurs 1/19 meeting. I'd love to have a couple of guests, so please get in touch with me if you want to attend. If you have contacted me or @joshf about attending, please note that we will pass through security. Paul Troost, the West Michigan representative to Sen. Levin, requested that we leave cell phones in the car.

    Please get in touch with me if you want to attend this Thursday, Jan. 19th in Grand Rapids.
    Call or text (269)-815-8444 (Google Voice, so I don't feel weird posting the phone number in public. :-P)
    heyandy889@gmail.com
  • joshfjoshf
    If anyone is planning on attending the meeting in Grand Rapids tomorrow with Sen. Levin's staff, please message me on here and I'll send you my phone number.  I'd like to meet up beforehand and go in as a group.
  • heyandy889heyandy889
    Meeting scheduled with Mary Judnich(?), regional manager to Senator Debbie Stabenow. Meeting is 10am this Thursday, January 19 in Grand Rapids. Mary mentioned that their office can accommodate 6 of us, so I'd like to respect her request. To that end, could you please call, text, message, or email me if you'd like to attend?

    Nate
    Call or text (269)-815-8444
    heyandy889@gmail.com

    edit: @StopSOPA-HQ
  • joshfjoshf
    Here's the breakdown from the meeting today with Paul Troost at Sen. Levin's Grand Rapids office:
    - Sen. Levin has not committed to a position on PIPA
    - Two of us appeared, the meeting was about 30 minutes
    - Paul definitely seemed to take the time to understand my concerns, he asked a couple questions and said that he would look over the material more and pass some of it along to Washington.

    I brought the following supporting materials:

    Letter from Sen.s Wyden, et al. to Majority and Minority leaders indicating their intent to object:
    http://blog.servint.net/wp-content/uploads/2011/11/ProtectIPObjection1.pdf

    Center For Democracy and Technology: SOPA: Summary, Problems and Implications
    http://cdt.org/files/pdfs/SOPA 2-pager final.pdf

    Open Letter from Internet Engineers to Congress:
    https://www.eff.org/sites/default/files/Internet-Engineers-Letter.pdf

    Lawrence Tribe's paper, "SOPA Violates the First Amendment"
    http://www.net-coalition.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/08/tribe-legis-memo-on-SOPA-12-6-11-1.pdf

    This was all to support my position that PIPA is legally dangerous and technologically unsound.

    Michigan Executive Summary of TechAmerica Foundation's annual Cyberstates report for 2010
    http://www.techamericafoundation.org/cyberstates2011-michigan

    Booz & Co: The Impact of US Internet Copyright Regulations on Early-Stage Investment
    http://www.booz.com/media/uploads/BoozCo-Impact-US-Internet-Copyright-Regulations-Early-Stage-Investment.pdf

    These were to support my position that PIPA is bad for Michigan; specifically, that its passage would drastically reduce investment in tech startups by angel investors and VCs. According to the TechAmerica study, Michigan's job growth in the tech sector was higher than any other state in 2010. Ergo, PIPA = fewer jobs for Michiganders.

    Here's the notes I used for my presentation:
    I.  PIPA remedies are overly broad
       A.  Domain names and scope
       B.  Service provider examples
          1.  Host
          2.  Aggregator
          3.  Search engine
          4.  Ad services
    II.  PIPA presents a massive compliance burden
       A.  Self-policing by service providers
       B.  DMCA safe harbor threatened
    III.  PIPA is bad for Michigan
       A.  Tech sector is a major job creator: 900+ jobs in internet software alone; 2,700 across industry
       B.  Burdens disproportionately affect small businesses
    IV.  PIPA remedies are ineffective
       A.  DNS overview
       B.  Simple, universal circumvention technique demonstration
    V.  Recent news
       A.  Alternative presented: OPEN Act
       B.  Lehey statements re: PIPA DNS provisions
       C.  Smith statements re: SOPA DNS provisions
       D.  Presidential statement of support

    If anyone wants me to expand on any of that, just holler.
  • heyandy889heyandy889
    @joshf Way to go, dude! You really did your homework! Two questions from me. What did he ask? And, was he in the dark about PIPA? Or was he already knowledgeable about our worries?
  • joshfjoshf
    I don't remember his specific questions; they were for clarification of what I was saying, though, which I took to be a positive indicator that he was paying attention and following along and not just smiling and nodding.

    He was largely in the dark about PIPA.  He said that he'd done some reading over the last couple hours before we met, presumably in preparation for the meeting.  He's familiar with the "party line", that is, all the histrionic propaganda about how SOPA is going to destroy the internet and turn us into China.  These arguments, predictably, didn't seem to convince him.

    His ears definitely seemed to perk up when I started talking about jobs, Michigan's tech sector and the cost to startups of the legislation.
  • joshfjoshf
    A point of order that seems relevant that FFTF has done a very good job obfuscating:  They're not voting to pass PIPA on January 24th.  What they're voting on is whether to call the bill to the floor for debate.  I really wish I'd read this before going into that meeting today:

    http://www.publicknowledge.org/blog/pipa’s-january-24th-vote-and-how-filibuster-w

  • heyandy889heyandy889
    Ha. Well, FFTF has their own motivations, I assume. It's good politics, right? But yes, it's sort of a pre-vote thing. 

    Right on. Thanks for the feedback, bro. Enjoy the black-out!
  • censored_censored_
    SOPA/PIPA cheat sheet, useful as reference or to pass on to the uninformed on Jan 18th.
    - 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
  • StopSOPA-HQStopSOPA-HQ
    @joshf, @heyandy889: We're not trying to obfuscate the nature of the vote on the 24th at all - we just want to make it clear how significant that vote really is. The problem is that because of the way the Senate has come to operate in recent years (ie, under constant threat of a filibuster), cloture is typically only reached when 60+ Senators have firmly aligned themselves with a particular POSITION on a given bill. Given recent political trends, Senators who genuinely disapprove of a bill would have little incentive to vote for cloture on the bill, since getting cloture allows the bill to be voted up or down by a simple majority, which makes it harder to defeat than it is in the pre-cloture phase, when it can be permanently blocked by only 40% of the Senate. Again, this isn't the way the Senate is supposed to work, but it is how the Senate has come to work in recent years.
    As a result of all this, those 30 hours of post-cloture "debate" have become little more than a political "show," allowing Senators to publicly express their reasons for supporting or opposing the legislation under consideration, but doing very little to change other Senators' minds.
  • mdr3dmdr3d
    The plan: 
    https://www.facebook.com/pages/World-against-SOPA/304313362953003?sk=info 

    first step:

    1._ No subscriber to this group will ever buy a under copyright item
    2._ No subscriber to this group will ever go to a cinema
    3._ No subscriber to this group will ever buy film on pay tv
    4._ No subscriber to this group will ever buy a book (paper or e-book)
    5._ No subscriber to this group will ever buy a news paper
    6._ No subscriber to this group will ever buy a magazine of any kind
    7._ No subscriber to this group will ever buy a CD
    8._ No subscriber to this group will ever buy a DVD
  • heyandy889heyandy889
    StopSOPA-HQ, definitely. Thanks for the clarification. I will mull over your explanation in the coming days. 

    Excited for meeting with Mary Judnich and Paul Troost tomorrow in Grand Rapids! :D Should have an easier time that joshf, now that the blackout happened. 

  • heyandy889heyandy889
    Meeting w Mary Judnich, West Michigan regional manager for Senator Debbie Stabenow
    40 minutes. Mary says Senator Stabenow has no public position on the bill, but is evaluating constituent concerns. We went over a lot of material and Mary took a lot of notes. Hopefully, she will pick out some meaningful tidbits and pass along to Sen. Stabenow.

    Meeting w Paul Troost, West Michigan regional representative for Senator Carl Levin
    20 minutes. Paul says that Senator Levin has no public position on PIPA. Levin is waiting to read manager's amendments, or something. Something about waiting for revisions. I'm pretty sure that Paul understands @joshf's and my concerns with PIPA -- censors the web, bad for startups, won't prevent piracy.

  • joshfjoshf
    Nice work dude!  Seems like the tide is turning in our favor.
  • StopSOPA-HQStopSOPA-HQ
    @heyandy889 @joshf - Truly excellent work all around. THANK YOU for your initiative and dedication - it's really starting to make a difference.
    Everyone else: let's keep those emails, phone calls, and drop-in meeting requests coming, to help both Senators realize just how strong and widespread the opposition to PIPA really is!
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