The US House (hr.2975 PATRIOT) and US Senate (s.1510 USA) have
introduced bills that will cost ISPs a lot of money -- potentially tens
of thousands of dollars -- even for small ISPs.
Unlike CALEA, there is no requirement that ISPs be reimbursed.
This happened because the legislators are clueless about technical
requirements. It is up to you to educate them!
With the bombing started, it is thought that the bills will be pushed
through this week, without going through the normal committee review.
Each and every one of you MUST call your legislators, where you work and
again where you live. Call your Senator, and then call your
Representative. Do not send email, it won't get read soon enough!
Since Monday is a legal holiday of sorts, you may have to wait until
Tuesday morning, but try on Monday anyway.
In addition, i'd like to add that after calling your congresscritters,
you do also send them a letter, either by fax or USPS (fax would be
better). Some congress folks tend to take letters a little more seriously
than calls, it seems.
Probably best to not refer to them as congresscritters when you call, and to
understand the legal definitions of words where they are different than
"our" definitions of them.
Slightly OT, but to carry that point home a bit, since the average
person on here may not be familiar with writing prose to officials.
Be CLEAR, reference the HR/S bill #, state your position.
Be CONCISE, 1 page is perfect.
Be FACTUAL, avoid rhetoric, or emotional arguments.
Be COURTEOUS, being nice doesn't mean being soft.
Demonstrate expertise, personal experience/knowledge of the issue.
Explain adverse consequences, suggest better solutions.
Be sure to write YOUR representative
If writing to another representative, explain how this will
impede/affect actions that would have otherwise benefited their
area.
Ask for a reply (you should get one if you send snail mail).
Use Dear Senator, or Dear Congress[wo]man
- bri, not wanting any more stupid laws, and omitting
some insanely obvious stuff here like, typing the letter.
Also, OT, but useful in this regard: if you write such a letter, be sure
that you are registered to vote. For some strange reason, members of
congress take letters from registered voters a little more seriously. I
can't imagine why
You may also want to include a phone number - if you are a technical expert
on the subject matter of the bill (and in this case, some letter writers
will be), you may receive a call from a staffer, with specific questions.
I guess it never occurs to them that the Internet is a peer-to-peer
network... Their email has no need to pass through an ISP, it can be
directly transferred via many different methods... I guess now we will have
to record every packet that traverses our network at the full dump level...
I guess we should all buy stock in storage media companies now...
