RIAA

Sadly, President Bush has allowed himself and the Department of Justice to be manipulated by the RIAA and MPAA. On October 13th, he signed the PRO-IP bill into law, ignoring calls to veto it and pretty clear indications that the bill was promoted using completely fabricated statistics.

Any law described as "music to the ears" by the head of the RIAA is going to be trouble. But just because the bill has passed doesn't mean this issue is dead.

First, we should thank the representatives who stood up against the corrupting influence of the media companies and voted against the bill. Public Knowledge has provided an easy way to do this. Please edit the letter text there to remove the term "intellectual property" before you send it -- accepting that as the category for debate is accepting framing that is designed to obscure the issues and serve the interests of those behind bills like this one.

Second, we should keep the reps who voted for the bill on the hook. Let them know that we are on to them and will be continually exposing their corrupt votes. So, if your representative voted for the bill, look up what contributions they received from the entertainment industry and confront them with this information.

Third, the vote in the Senate was unanimous. Let your senators know that you are very disappointed in their position and expect an explanation.

You can contact your representative at https://forms.house.gov/wyr/welcome.shtml, and your senators at http://www.senate.gov/general/contact_information/senators_cfm.cfm.

To those who supported the bill, you might say something like:

President Bush has now signed the misleadingly named PRO-IP bill into law. I'm extremely disappointed in the position you took in voting for this bill. I'm aware of the campaign contributions that you, your colleagues and your party receive from the entertainment industry, and it's very clear that this bill was written and passed to please the contributors. If you aren't going to represent me on important issues like this, I'm not going to vote for you. I hope you've read about the fabricated evidence used to support this bill (http://arstechnica.com/articles/culture/dodgy-digits-behind-the-war-on-piracy.ars), and have started thinking about what you can do to reverse this decision and begin representing the public's interests in sharing, knowledge, and culture when you are considering copyright legislation (http://www.gnu.org/philosophy/misinterpreting-copyright.html). In addition, I would like an explanation for your vote that responds to these concerns.

Over the weekend, Congress in a shameful act of service to the campaign contributions of the entertainment industry passed "PRO-IP" legislation that requires our government to work directly on the industry's behalf against the public interest. Under the deceptive banner of "intellectual property", the bill as passed has several unacceptable provisions.

Besides over $23 million in congressional campaign contributions, the industry used scare tactics to get it passed, trying to draw a connection between copyright infringement and...terrorism. The bill expresses the "Sense of Congress" as agreeing that "terrorists and organized crime utilize piracy, counterfeiting, and infringement to fund some of their activities;" and that stopping copyright infringement should be among the highest priorities of government. This attitude sets us up for a future world of Digital Restrictions Management (DRM) and large-scale seizure of computer equipment the industry accuses of being involved in filesharing.

We have one more chance to stop this bill from becoming law. Bush has yet to sign it. Given the fact that his Department of Justice publicly objected to it earlier, Bush may veto it. But we can't count on that -- your calls and e-mails to the White House could make the difference.

Take Action

Help get the word out so more people know that now is a critical time. Pass this around to your friends and family, and:

Vote for it on digg

Vote for it on reddit

Call the White House at +1 202-456-1111 to leave your comment; then follow up with an e-mail to comments@whitehouse.gov. Please CC us at info@defectivebydesign.org.

When you call, you might say something like:

I'm very disappointed that Congress has put the PRO-IP / Enforcement of Intellectual Property bill on the President's desk. It's clearly a gift to the entertainment industry special interest groups in return for their massive congressional campaign contributions. The bill unconstitutionally attempts to specify how the executive branch should enforce copyright and trademark laws, and attempts to dictate the overall priorities of the Department of Justice. You should reject this and any other bill that describes itself as addressing "intellectual property" -- that term is always an indication that someone is trying to confuse the issue toward a particular agenda, since legal areas like patents, trademarks and copyright are all very distinct. I urge you to veto this bill, sending a clear signal to Congress that the MPAA and the RIAA will not dictate the behavior of our law enforcement agencies, and that you do not support this kind of attack on the public interest. Copyright in particular exists to promote the public interest in advancing science and the arts -- not hoarding and prosecution. The property seizure and other provisions in this bill just go too far.