Ok, you've convinced me. Now what? I have time and money, so give me a call to action dammit.
"I'm a voter in Congressman Rush's district, and I'm calling to ask the Congressman to vote against SOPA, HR. 3261. As the owner of an internet business in Chicago, I fear that I'll be forced to close shop if SOPA passes. SOPA would make it easy for anyone to have my websites shut down, without having to prove that we've violated any law. Our only recourse would be an expensive legal process that we simply can't afford. Thus, if SOPA passes, my company and others like it will be out of business, and many people will be out of work."
Also, EFF makes it dead-simple to email the right politicians based on your address. They even have a template email for you. You can be done in under a minute:
https://wfc2.wiredforchange.com/o/9042/p/dia/action/public/?...
BTW, if you're afraid to call in because you think you'll sound silly/scripted/unimportant, don't be! The people who answer phones at political offices get lots of calls, and they're used to hearing all kinds of weird stuff. Believe me, even if you read your script in a Ben Stein monotone, you'll still sound twice as smart and engaging as a lot of what they hear. So don't be afraid to call your politicians.
Seriously, there is nothing more powerful than a switchboard full of angry constituents.
https://market.android.com/details?id=com.politicall.android
And the sad reality is that there are not nearly enough of us angry about this to fill the switchboard.
--EDIT--
I depressed myself and wanted to add something constructive:
Lobbyists exist because groups often want more political clout than their members could achieve simply by voting.
With lobbying it is possible for a small group to achieve an out-sized influence on politics. I think the most effective thing we can do is organize a lobby group.
The first thing I would look for is how do industry lobbying groups form. Is there another industry which was threatened by government action and organized to defend itself? How did competitors come to agree on shared goals to lobby for? What was the first step?
Why are there some industries where one lobbying body represents all very effectively, and other industries where, even on shared goals, individual companies have more lobbying power than an industry wide lobby? Here I'm specifically thinking of the EFF vs Google and Microsoft and IBM and some others.
There already is one, http://publicknowledge.org
- if you have money, donate to the organizations opposing it: EFF, Public Knowledge, etc.
- if you have time, call your Representative. get your friends to call their representatives.
- in any case, help get the word out: share links on social networks and email, vote stories up, bring it up with your family over Thanksgiving, tell people about EFF's action alert at https://wfc2.wiredforchange.com/o/9042/p/dia/action/public/?... and other feedback mechanisms
The problem isn't just free speech issues, but rather due process issues, since the takedown orders can occur without any adversarial hearings. In other words, the prosecutor goes to the judge, presents evidence, and the judge, without hearing from the defence, decides to issue the order.
The 5th Amendment to the US Constitution states in part that no person shall be deprived of life, liberty, or property without due process of law. This seems to fly in the face of that. How fast can you say "Star Chamber?"
I would certainly hope that should this pass the first time a prosecutor goes to a judge with a request for this, the prosecutor strikes down this provision of the law on these grounds. I would certainly hope that such a ruling would be upheld on appeal.
and there is some precedent for this. The Third Circuit recently had a magistrate judge refuse to sign a subpoena for cell site location data holding that the request might constitute a 4th Amendment search and as such a warrant was required instead. When appealed, the 3rd Circuit sided with the magistrate, much to Prof. Orin Kerr's surprise (on whose blog I followed this story).
I wonder how feasible it would be for private citizens to wire up an alternative U.S.-wide internet out of above-ground fibre and ethernet.
I bet we could get Cambridge/Somerville MA pretty well hooked together, at least. Comms to the Bay Area may involve flying backpacks of DVDs back and forth, though. Get ready for some latency.
Supplemented, perhaps, with low-baud HF links.
Something in the line of recently mentioned darknet maybe http://arstechnica.com/open-source/news/2011/11/the-darknet-...
2) Mail it to your elected pimp
3) Beg for freedom of speech
2) Send your opinion in
3) Share and repeat
No, they won't.
Be smart, be motivated, and figure out how things actually work. Then apply the maximum amount of force to the place it can do the most good.
I'm not sure that place is actually phone calls, but there's a reason phone calls are suggested so often. They do work. You might be able to find something better though and if you do let us know.
Edit: Well that was dumb. I replied from memory without reading the thread again. I totally agree about email.
News of this law makes me ill, yet I see nothing I can do to help.
https://wfc2.wiredforchange.com/o/9042/p/dia/action/public/?...;
But you are, apparently, not really convinced. Otherwise you'd see what's at stake here and a ten-second google search wouldn't stop you from donating, to say the least.