>>>>> "tack" == tack <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> writes:
tack> My letter from this morning, as an example should you want
tack> to craft your own.
And my own, for those who want to use it as a LaTeX template. Except
for a few embellishments (like Alan Cox advising programmers not to
travel to the US) it is a verbatim ripoff from the EFF site. This
link will give mailing addresses to all members of the house, should
you need it:
http://clerkweb.house.gov/107/mbrcmtee/mailinglists/ASCIImemberlabels.txt
I've been meaning to write a script that takes the body and zipcode as
params, parses some web registry like the clerk of the congress to get
the mailing addresses, and returns latex letters for your congressman
and senators. So much to do, so little time.
\documentclass[12pt]{letter}
\name{John D.\ Hunter, Ph.D.}
\address{
John D.\ Hunter, Ph.D.\\
803 E. Green\\
Urbana, IL 61802
}
\begin{document}
\begin{letter}{
The Honorable Timothy V. Johnson\\
1541 Longworth HOB\\
Washington, DC 20515-1315
}
\opening{To The Honorable Timothy V. Johnson}
As a research scientist who uses and develops medical open source
software on a daily basis as part of a team at the University of
Chicago Epilepsy Surgery team, I am writing to to express my grave
concern about the draft Hollings/Stevens copyright legislation,
"Security Systems Standards and Certification Act" (SSSCA),
principally authored by the Walt Disney corporation. This bill,
would force virtually all consumer electronics to include mandatory
"digital rights management" (DRM) copy-prevention and use- control
mechanisms to "protect" all digital content (whether copyrighted or
not), and essentially destroy completely the public's already
endangered fair use rights, first sale doctrine, and public domain
rights. I urge you to oppose this legislation.
Congress and the courts have always struck a careful balance between
preserving incentives for authors while ensuring public access to
our cultural heritage. The SSSCA represents an outright assault
against this balanced view of copyright. Under the SSSCA, Congress
would abdicate its responsibility to protect the public's interest
in copyright, leaving content owners to dictate terms to technology
companies behind closed doors. The public would be left with no
voice in this process, and with crippled technologies that permit
only the uses that Hollywood has the unilateral ability to control.
Under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA), University
professors and visiting foreign programmers are already being
legally threatened by the music industry and even criminally
prosecuted at the behest of software companies for what always have
been and should be legal activities such as research and making
proprietary formats more accessible. The DMCA was a major step
backwards for both the public side of the copyright bargain and the
rights of scientists and researchers to study and report on computer
security. An extremely influential software developer who was
integral in work on the linux operating system, Alan Cox, advises
foreign software programmers not to visit the United States because
of the DMCA.
Hollywood forces are now hoping that this "DMCA 2" will reach even
further, creating a direct federal mandate that DRM systems be
included in every technology that interacts with digital content.
Please do not let this happen. I urge you to vote AGAINST SSSCA
when introduced. The pendulum has already swung too far away from
the public interest.
\closing{Sincerely,}
\end{letter}
\end{document}
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