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[Bohandas]

Congress is trying to pass yet another web-monitoring bill. Here's what Avaaz.org has to say about it:

"Right now, the US Congress is sneaking in a new law that gives them big brother spy powers over the entire web -- and they're hoping the world won't notice. We helped stop their Net attack last time, let's do it again.

Over 100 Members of Congress are backing a bill (CISPA) that would give private companies and the US government the right to spy on any of us at any time for as long as they want without a warrant. This is the third time the US Congress has tried to attack our Internet freedom. But we helped beat SOPA, and PIPA -- and now we can beat this new Big Brother law.

Our global outcry has played a leading role in protecting the Internet from governments eager to monitor and control what we do online. Let's stand together once again -- and beat this law for good."

Please sign their petition to oppose CISPA

If you have some extra time after that, consider signing some other anti-CISPA petitions on Change.org

(and while you're at it, why not sign some anti-ACTA petitions as well)

 

[Darvi]

Signed ages ago.

[Theoboldi]

Signed already. And as I said already, this whole thing is getting cartoonish now. The people who want these laws are almost like Wile E Coyote by now. Is censoring the internet their personal Moby Dick? How often can someone not realise that their ideas are not wanted by the general public? I can't believe how stubborn those guys are.

[MetalSlimeHunt]

I realize that the internet is a global thing and ideally this shouldn't matter, but the number of non-American signatories is probably going to make this lose weight as opposition to a proposed US law, which is very bad as petitions have little weight to begin with.

[Lord Dullard]

Well, I signed, of course.

Really, though, I wish somebody would just get around to creating a global ad-hoc wireless network that would render the existing DNS system obsolete.

[Sowelu]

Oh boy, an internet petition!  That's almost as useful as fighting breast cancer by putting a pink ribbon on your car.  No wait, there's a chance that when you bought the pink ribbon, a couple cents went to support your cause.

[Flying Dice]

Signed already. And as I said already, this whole thing is getting cartoonish now. The people who want these laws are almost like Wile E Coyote by now. Is censoring the internet their personal Moby Dick? How often can someone not realise that their ideas are not wanted by the general public? I can't believe how stubborn those guys are.

They know that the internet threatens their stranglehold on the entertainment industry and will contniue to fight it, just as they fought the VCR.

[Theoboldi]

Oh boy, an internet petition!  That's almost as useful as fighting breast cancer by putting a pink ribbon on your car.  No wait, there's a chance that when you bought the pink ribbon, a couple cents went to support your cause.

So what else are we supposed to do? I can't vote against this bill, and many other people this bill will influence can't either. If you have any better ideas as to what to do about this, could you please tell me? It would be pretty helpful.

They know that the internet threatens their stranglehold on the entertainment industry and will contniue to fight it, just as they fought the VCR.

I know. It's just that it's really getting annoying by now.

[Sowelu]

Stupid as it may sound, write your congressman.  Write an actual letter, not an email.  Write about how this would affect you personally, and how it would impact the way you interact with the economy, how it would impact your rights, you personally.  Instead of preaching to the choir online, put some of that persuasive writing skill that you certainly learned in school to use.

Also, instead of fighting against every single one of these things that comes up, try to fight FOR an enumeration of rights.  It may look funny that they just keep trying, but unless specific legislation goes the OTHER direction from what they are asking, they will just keep working 'til they get what they are after.

Seriously.  You can draft a letter in thirty minutes, spend five minutes printing it + finding your congressman's address + getting an envelope and a stamp, then feel like you've actually done your part...instead of just grousing about it online for the perpetual future.  Do one big thing and be done with it.

[MetalSlimeHunt]

Technically, it would be better to send a deluge of letters on the same subject but with different wording and under different names from different addresses all within the Congressman's constituency. They'll probably never read a single one of them, but their staffers will report the sudden "public interest" in this subject to them and they'll consider that in their voting for when reelection comes around.

[Theoboldi]

Problem is, I'm not in the US. I can't write Jack to any congressman. So this is pretty much all I have.

[Sowelu]

So throw a fit at your own government, silly.  Try and get them to tweak their trade agreements.

[MetalSlimeHunt]

Hold on now, let's not go causing the global economic collapse to happen any sooner than it has to.

[Theoboldi]

Easier said than done. 

I'm already trying to do that. I vote for people who oppose this kind of stuff. But I'm not exactly the most politically savy person, so I probably don't know half the stuff I could do. Still, thanks for the advice. Too bad most I can do right now is signing this petition.

[Sowelu]

Naw, there's always more.

You vote for politicians who oppose this kind of stuff, but do they know why you vote for them?

If an issue is important to you, go to the people who support it and say "I voted for you because of this.  Keep up the good work."  Then, go to the people who oppose it and say "I didn't vote for you because of this.  Change, and I might reconsider."

You never know.  Most of them might have very fuzzy, weak opinions on the subject.  If they are expecting a close election, and they think this might be a swing issue for some voters, you could change some minds.