A Letter From My Congressman

I completely forgot about this, but I sent a letter to Congressman Loebsack asking him to vote against some ridiculous attempt by Congress to control the internet because big corporation/Hollywood/record companies want them too. It's worth noting that this is the same bill Google is vociferously campaigning against right now- and although I have my own concerns about Google, I think just this once, they're on the side of the angels.

Government control of the internet should be a non-starter for anyone who cares about freedom in this country. If they can control the web, they can control a lot of other things (including indefinately detaining Americans, just because they can.)

Yes, kids, we've got troops in Afghanistan and Iraq, millions of Americans out of work an out of control debt situation and Congress wants to be Hollywood's bitch.

Anyway, here is the good Congressman's response:

November 30, 2011

Dear Friend,
Thank you for contacting me. I'm honored to represent you. Your opinion is very important to me and my priority is to provide Iowa's Second District with the best representation possible.

The Stop Online Piracy Act, H.R. 3261, was introduced in the House of Representatives on October 26, 2011 by Representative Lamar Smith. The bill would authorize the Attorney General to seek a court order against a foreign internet site committing or facilitating online piracy such as trafficking counterfeit or pirated goods. The court order would require these web sites to cease and desist activities that constitute intellectual property offenses. The bill also expands the offense of criminal copyright infringement to include public performances of copyrighted work obtained by digital transmission of work such as movies or musical performances intended for commercial dissemination.

As your Representative, I believe access to free flowing information over the internet is critical to competing in today's diverse global economy, but we must also ensure intellectual property remains protected. We can and should achieve both of the goals. Please be assured that if H.R. 3261, or similar legislation comes before the full House of Representatives, I will keep your concerns in mind.

Thank you again for contacting me about this important issue. My office is here to assist you with any and all concerns you have, so please do not hesitate to contact me whenever you feel that I can be of assistance. I encourage you to visit my website at www.loebsack.house.gov and sign up for my e-newsletters to stay informed of the work I'm doing for you. I am proud to serve the Second District, and I am committed to working hard for Iowans.

Sincerely,
Dave Loebsack

In other words, fuck internet freedom. Corporations sign my paycheck.

Wikipedia has a pretty good summary of what's what- basically, this bill aims to cripple the Internet as we know it so that outmoded industrial dinosaurs can protect their crumbling status quo. Congress is part of that crumbling status quo, so I suppose I shouldn't have expected anything less from Good Congressman Loebsack.

But here's the catch: while intellectual property is important, where does it go in our current system? Corporations. You're seeing that start of models running against the so-called 'gatekeepers' of the creative class in music and publishing- models that let the creators of music and authors profit directly from their endeavors without a corporation taking a hefty cut out of the middle. The internet threatens the very existence of these gatekeepers- hence the bill designed to cripple the power of people challenging the status quo.

So Our Congressman is a corporate lackey in other words, with the intellectual backbone of a jellyfish who (like a lot of other Democrats) fights for the unsustainable status quo of the crumbling post-War progressive oonsensus to the detriment of several promising threads emerging in the struggle for a post-industrial capitalist model.

Didn't vote for him last time and I don't expect to start next time.