Do you have any specific information on the California House delegation? I'll be paying personal visits to anybody with offices located in Los Angeles or Orange County.

The Intellectual Property Protection Act.

http://news.com.com/Congress+readies+new +digital+copyright+bill/2100-1028_3-6064 016.html?tag=nefd.top

This thing's a doozy.

Among other things, it allows the seizure of servers and server logs in copyright investigations, with a threshold of merely attempting to commit a violation.

Yup.  Makes you wonder how long before websites are getting shutdown because maybe one user uploaded something they shouldn't have,

And, to help the government waste even more money, it permits use of law enforcement resources to enforce non-registered copyrights.  

Yeah, because non-statutory copyright cases are soooo easy and soooo fun to enforce.

And a true gem:

"Says copyright holders can impound "records documenting the manufacture, sale or receipt of items involved in" infringements."

Yup.  You can now pretty much shutdown a competititor's entire company by claiming a copyright violation.

Yeah, that ought to help the already free and fair inkjet cartridge business.

Looks like the GOP is lining up to fuck up the entire internet before they leave office.

The first great legislative handjob of comms deregulation and allied corporate welfare in the modern era came with the 1996 Telecoms Act, of course. Almost all MCs, Dem and GOP voted for it.

A Common Cause paper (PDF) on the results of the Act has a useful table on p4 showing the split of contributions from major beneficiaries of the Act to both Dems and GOP in the years 1997-2004.

It shows that, in those years, during which the presidency was held three years Dem, four years GOP, and Congress entirely GOP apart from those 18 months in the 107th Senate, Dems snaffled a whole 40% of the total contributions.

As Mr Dooley never quite said, the Congress follows the FEC returns.

There are a range of MCs with less of a corporate bent. In the net neutrality fight, there are deep pockets on the side of the good guys.

Most important of all, this is a fight in the backyard of the political net that's a test of its real level of influence in the process.

The end game of the current campaign is, no doubt, to manoeuver a House/Senate stymie and run down the clock in the 109th. The balance of the money would suggest it will be a job and a half.

Here's hoping...

The danger of moving towards the mainstream media model is in the potential to usurp the consensus view of the readership that the blogosphere offers something different and more importantly, something more. The backbone of the blogosphere is clearly supported by these serious and thoughtful readers who have been able to find the substance they crave in light of the vacuum that is the media establishment. If we simply become an extension of that establishment, not only will bloggers be devoured by huge news organizations, we will have forsaken our enablers.

Ultimately, the blogosphere is an opportunity to participate in the exponential advancement of communications. Each day our world grows smaller as those connecting on the blogosphere grow closer. Keeping this new frontier chastened is a daunting task but the potential benefits make the effort essential. In the rush for a segment of the audience, we mustn't pollute the soil from which this cabal of cable germinated...wherein...ever nourished by the pursuit of truth and its application to the events that impact each of us, we sit glaring into our computer screens...ever hopeful that those looking back are similarly motivated. Without question, the stakes are enormous.

read more observations here:

www.thoughttheater.com

Here's my favorite part -

"Both republican and democrat congressmen ..."

Thus. I am an independent. Every major issue of importance, both parties are essentially equivalent: completely controlled by special interests.

One good way to battle this thing is to write a letter to your local congressman,  nay - email him.
Good thing to do it now.

The fight to keep the internet free is essentially a libertarian struggle.

Please know this: you do not have any rules. If they decide to try to shut you down, make your own rules.

Other ways to battle them.

*Request, and maintain your own real internet address.

• Do not accept any firewall services - get your own firewall.
  
• Keep control of spam yourself - don't let them try to control spam for you. No one should ever try to control spam for you, its your business.
  
• Counter attack the spammers yourself, in your own spare time.

Do we really want this administration and this Congress to regulate the internet?