9 ms·
My Call to Senator Schumer’s Office on PIPA: It’s So Much Worse Than I Thought
- wavephorm 15y agoWe're going to need a new DNS system, plain and simple. A complete replacement for ICANN and one that bypasses the United States. The walls are going up around this regime and like the other authoritarian bills passed (Patriot Act, DHS etc) these bills will eventually pass. So planning needs to start now.
- suneilp 15y agoI'm all for circumventing the government and stiffing big brother. Will that actually work? Whats to stop the evil America Empire from shutting it down or forcing compliance with the courts. Even if you put the root servers in other countries friendly to our cause, how long before they bow down to pressure?
- baggachipz 15y agoI've been participating in this project: https://github.com/cjdelisle/cjdns https://github.com/cjdelisle/cjdns It's a peer-to-peer DNS system based on IPv6. The proof of concept is in place, and I've used it and it works. Now it needs to scale and hit critical mass. I encourage anyone interested in fixing DNS to participate.
- pyre 15y agoHow does this p2p dns system prevent dns poisoning?
- uptown 15y agoWhy not record a few of the calls and post them online. NY law says you can record your calls as long as one of the parties on the call is aware it's being recorded (i.e. you). http://www.rcfp.org/can-we-tape/new-york http://www.rcfp.org/can-we-tape/new-york It'd be interesting to have a politician's office on the record stating they're in favor of censoring the internet.
- sdizdar 15y agoThere is a cool application for iPhone which does this - it is called Call Recording Pro: http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/call-recording-pro/id439516456?mt=8 http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/call-recording-pro/id43951645... After record is done, the app will save recording to their servers and generate a link which then you can share.
- phillmv 15y agoIs there an equivalent app that doesn't send my call to server? I'd love to record my phone calls all the time.
- kylemaxwell 15y agoI keep thinking this has to be a troll... surely no staff would say those things? Somebody wake me up.
- inmygarage 15y agoThat is what I thought, except that I was one on the other end of the phone. I asked each question twice. He repeated the answers twice: -in favor of "censoring" illegal content on the internet -has talked to zero constituents in favor of the bill, and he's the one answering the phones Wish I had taken down a name.
- scrod 15y agoYou need to go to the press with this conversation ASAP.
- weaksauce 15y agoIs it legal to record phone calls in new york without informing the other party? This would be an excellent sound bite for the national news if so.
- cypherpunks01 15y agoIt seems that New York is a "one party consent" state, so it is legal to record phone calls without informing the other party. Someone should do this! http://www.aapsonline.org/judicial/telephone.htm http://www.aapsonline.org/judicial/telephone.htm etc.
- Udo 15y agoIf the past months are any indication, no news organization is interested in reporting anything remotely relating to SOPA (except maybe as a short piece to promote it as "the legislation that will stop piracy for good" and that anyone who opposes this is a criminal). SOPA did not get any media coverage, and I'd be surprised if flippant comments made by an anonymous staffer changed that.
- asolove 15y agoKeep in mind, the people who answer your calls are (likely unpaid) high school or college interns, not "staffers." They are not the people who research or discuss policy issues, they likely are not very aware of the candidate's legislative positions except on issues that generate lots of angry calls from constituents with time on their hands, like Medicare benefits for seniors. They are not making official statements.
- bermanoid 15y agoYup - my take on this is that the guy on the phone is probably personally opposed to the bill, and is tired of having to talk to people angry about it all day, and just doesn't care enough to sugar-coat it and give any sort of official response. He's putting it the way he sees it from his perspective, no more, no less. Of course, he's probably going to be fired if they figure out who he is, just like any phone-support person would be fired for saying things so far outside what the officially stated company position is. But on the other hand, he probably doesn't care too much - he'll get a few thousand karma on Reddit, "I got fired from Senator Schumer's Office for calling him out on supporting censorship, AMA", and he only took this job anyways because his rich uncle pulled too many strings to set it up for him to say no (even though he'd never asked in the first place, that was his mom). Shit, he doesn't care about politics anyways, he's going to be a musician, his parents just won't accept that because he hasn't gotten a record deal yet...
- inmygarage 15y agoCool, I will update the piece with your point.
- sequoia 15y agoI don't understand the significance of this point. If I called and heard such things and they said "well that's just a flunkie who knows nothing, not the voice of the senator" I'd reply "How is this my problem? I call your office, this is who you chose to have answer: this person is speaking for you." Excuses like the one above only reflect even more poorly on the subject, "I have no idea what my staffers are saying to people, I'm unable to communicate effectively with my constituents, etc." None of these points reflect well on the senator. When I called my reps (repeatedly) their staffers/phone-answerers would say absolutely nothing about SOPA to me. One (I forget which) said "he supports net neutrality," but beyond that it was "he's issued no statement, I don't know his stance, what was the name of the bill again?" I'm disgusted with all my legislators on this... each office (besides Brown, I think) agreed to follow up with me via email or phone when they find out more, none have. I live in western MA. I am so tired of this sort of shit. Communicating your stance on an issue to your constituents is part of your job, legislators. If I call and you can't tell me your stance on a major issue like this, you are not doing your job, just like a dishwasher who throws plates in the trash. Raah.
- jqueryin 15y agoThis article ends with direct lines to call both DC and NYC offices of Senator Schumer and Senator Gillibrand. She also lists a sample script. Someone, if they have the resources and money (for paying for calls), could easily create an automated Twilio script to auto-dial this number with a pre-formatted script and insert some dynamic text for a name and phone number. You could then create a website for people to voice their concerns and auto-dial with an automated message on their behalf. Thoughts?
- doorty 15y agoThat's a great idea... until you end up with the automated menu when you call the Senator as the author mentioned.
- ktsmith 15y agoYou can automate dialing through the menu so long as the tree is always the same. Twilio provides the ability to send key presses and is quite easy to use.
- phuff 15y agoI think that's a pretty bad idea. The benefit of calling in person is that it shows that you really care enough to have an actual conversation with a person. If you're just getting 100 robo-calls it's going to seem like astro-turfing (which it kind of will be).
- sunchild 15y agoJust pick up the phone and call. If you can't be bothered to do that, you don't care enough.
- ErrantX 15y agoI'm unsurprised people aren't calling in support; after all they don't need to campaign... I also think people, i.e. the masses, aren't really aware yet. Most I am sure will be opposed when they figure it out, but there will be a proportion in favour. I have seen people on Facebook posting in support.
- deleted 15y ago[deleted]
- dhimes 15y agoMost I am sure will be opposed when they figure it out I hope you are correct, but I fear you are not. Most of them think what they are told to think by their favorite news/infotainment provider. So unless great pains are taken to educate them they will support it.
- joshuahedlund 15y agoEveryone, keep calling. This is evidence that Senators are getting lots of calls opposing PIPA. Even if it seems like they are not affecting anything, they are still (presumably) recording the number of opposition calls they get, and most of these Senators (presumably) still care about re-election. I still believe in tipping points. I have to... But thanks for this information as well. The tipping points do not seem to be on our horizon, and information about the responses from senator offices, if it goes viral, can hopefully have a much-needed amplifying effect...
- rgarcia 15y agoStartup idea: a weekly email newsletter containing a list of bills your representatives in congress voted on (or introduced/co-sponsored), along with some "like" and "dislike" buttons. Home page maintains a prominent list of representatives most "disliked" by their constituents. This whole SOPA debacle has convinced me more than ever that the feedback loop between constituents and representatives is absolutely terrible. This would be an attempt to solve the problem (via public humiliation).
- ryanwaggoner 15y agoThis is really interesting. This is at least the first half of that: http://www.congress.org/congressorg/megavote/ http://www.congress.org/congressorg/megavote/
- ecocentrik 15y agoI was going to sign up for Megavote but it only lets you track 5 issues from a list of talking points including "Civil Rights"? edit: I didn't mean to be insensitive. minority rights including gay marriage and women's rights are defiantly important and heavily debated civil rights issues. The blanket term "Civil Rights" just dosen't seem to be used to describe those issues very often these days.
- rabble 15y agoThe deadline for filing for the NY Senate Democratic Primary is May 21st. That means there is real time to find an anti-SOPA candidate to primary Schumer. I also think somebody should think seriously about launching a PAC/SuperPAC around this. Calls help, but in washington money talks louder. Launch an 'internet pac' or 'innovation pac' with promises to put money in to Primarying or defeating pro-SOPA/PIPA politicians, and they'll start to listen. They know that the tech world has a lot of money, and can organize. We just need to do it.
- cyrus_ 15y agoThis is the way to get things done. Calls are all well and good but Schumer likely dismisses them as a small but vocal minority. When there is serious money being spent against him, he'll pay attention.
- BrianHV 15y agoUnfortunately, Schumer just got reelected. He won't be up for election again until 2016.
- ww520 15y agoSo politicians can be bought, I meant lobbied, but won't answer to constituency? Time for tech lobbying groups to fund and put their candidates on the ballots. The Swedish Pirate Party has the right idea. Politic is the game of deciding whose money are "redistributed" to whom. If we don't band together, we will be in the receiving end of these time and again.
- rglover 15y agoI just spoke with two offices for representatives in Michigan and the basic response you'll receive is: "we'll take note of your opposition and pass it along to the representative." I asked for a meeting and was told that I could either show up at the representative's office or leave a note. It takes 5 minutes to do this, so please take a moment and call.
- rmason 15y agoThey say money is the Mother's milk of politics. I think someone should organize a political action committee to defend the Internet. It's important to keep it apolitical and target only those trying to censor or impede the net. In Sen. Schumer's case the solution is to primary him.
- jrockway 15y agoThey really need to split out the "censor counterfeit products" from the "censor the Internet" part. Everyone is fine with the first, nobody is fine with the second. Let's meet in the middle.
- swalsh 15y ago"we are past the point where the internet should be considered a stand-alone industry." I agree.. but it should be more than an industry. I spend more time on the internet than I do with my girlfriend. The internet is beyond a place where I work. It is a nation in a new dimension of space. As such it needs it's own regulation isolated from any individual land based nation-state.
- angersock 15y agoSo, this is a great example of the system failing us. Idea: 1. Run for official office (senator, rep., pres., whatever). 2. Put up website with list of issues, allow people to vote if they add a comment per vote. 3. Put up link to opencongress or whatever to track your record on the bill. 4. Vote in office according to the trends on the website. If you vote against prevailing opinion, you are trivially found out. 5. On banner of website, post the number of votes you did following the polls on the site versus the number of times you dissented. 6. Enjoy making history. ~ This seems to me to be a great way of matching the existing system interface without actually giving up a democracy.
- president 15y agoWhy don't we just replace elected officials with the website? Then people could vote for issues rather than officials who we don't care about anyway.
- angersock 15y agoEh, we can't make major changes to government without a lot of red tape. We can, however, match the existing interface. This is classic hacking of legacy code.
- ChuckMcM 15y ago"So, this is a great example of the system failing us." I think you have that backwards, it is an example of us failing the system. From Amanda's comment: "Today I called a Senator’s office for the first time." What that says for the first time Amanda is engaged in the question of who best represents her views with respect to how we are governed. This is a great news. As other folks have pointed out this guy has been in office since 1975. So many US citizens walk into a voting booth with a sort of half-baked, maybe completely unbaked, idea about what they are doing there. Worse, anywhere from 20 to 85 percent of the people who registered to vote don't even bother walking in and voting! The people who walk in with no prep at all are the most malleable by advertising of the "me good! him bad!" type. They form a sort of Gaussian foam distribution of votes where the investment in advertisements can push the median slightly over to one candidate resulting in elections which are won with 1 - 5% of the votes cast. The "system" that was set up was designed for people to actually invest time and effort into identifying the best candidate out of the available choices, and if unhappy with those choices providing a new candidate the next time which was a better choice. But when people don't vote or vote randomly, they fail that system. You can proactively improve the system with a simple algorithm, 1) Vote - this is required since the system only responds to votes cast, not blog postings or public outrage. 2) If you like the way this office is working, vote the incumbent, if you don't vote anyone else. As the algorithm takes effect, the only successful response of the system is to act in a way such that the voters 'vote incumbent'. The amazing power of this algorithm was demonstrated in Russian elections where the media suggests it took large, overt, and fraudulent activities to overcome all of the votes for someone other than Putin. Had those people just 'not voted' it would have not had the effect it had. So if you want better politicians, vote. If you want to magnify your impact, get as many friends as you can to vote. If you don't have time to research candidates and talk to them to converge quickly on a solution, then use the above algorithm to evolve better representation. The common theme though is this participate.
- crikli 15y agoI called my Senator's office yesterday and my conversation was very different. While the Senator has not decided his position yet, the young lady (god that makes me sound old) told me that they have taken many calls opposing SOPA. I once had an aide from my Senator's office call me to ask for more clarification on an email I'd sent them about aviation usage fees. I was probably on the phone with the aide for 30 minutes as he took notes and clarified points. It wasn't a fluff call; he was legitimately gathering information to present to the Senator. Not all is lost; there are still Senators out there, like mine who care about their constituents and listen. Keep the pressure up.
- ComputerGuru 15y agoWhich senator, or at least what state?
- crikli 15y agoJeff Fortenberry, R-Nebraska. Thank you for asking.
- daniel-cussen 15y agoDoes anyone else think we should only consider actually getting DMCA repealed as a victory?