Re: COICA

[Carl Malamud <xxxx@media.org>]

Well, that's a pretty awful bill!

We have a special kind of iron wall up on no lobbying to keep us clean with the 
courts ... can't tell the senate what to do directly on specific legislation. 
Basically trying clear our position of "I am not a lobbyist" (subtext: not just 
some average DC interest group). 

But, if you publish a petition, I can certainly tweet that I think it is a good 
idea.

have you talked to free press? Seems like a natural for them. Same with Campus 
Progress (David Halperin). New America Foundation of course, and I would think 
Wonderlich and Schumann at Sunlight would be on this as well.

On Sep 26, 2010, at 8:26 PM, Aaron Swartz wrote:

> Hi, Carl. Congrats on the Google grant -- they definitely picked the
> right recipient!
> 
> Perhaps Becky mentioned it to you, but I'm trying to rope together
> people to speak out against this COICA bill and TimBL suggested I
> contact you. I don't know if you've been following it, but basically
> Hollywood is trying to rush through a bill (it was introduced less
> than a week ago and the vote is scheduled for Thursday) that would
> have the Attorney General create a blacklist of domain names that US
> ISPs would be prohibited from resolving DNS for. It'd bypass DMCA
> safe-harbor provisions and let the government take down any domain
> where copyright or trademark infringement was "central to the
> activity" of the site.
> 
> Would you be willing to have your name attached to a petition like this?
> 
> PETITION TO THE SENATE: Censoring the Internet is something we'd
> expect from China or Iran, not the U.S. Senate. You need to stop this
> Internet blacklist in its tracks and oppose S. 3804.
> 
> Let me know soon -- I want to get the word out tomorrow.
> 
> Thanks -- and all the best,
> -- Aaron
>