FC: Politech readers reply to "Geeks should write code, not laws"

[Declan McCullagh <declan () well com>]

I received lots of replies, most negative, about my column that appeared on 
Monday: http://www.politechbot.com/p-03880.html

A sampling follows. (Slashdot also picked up the column.)

A brief response: The piece was designed to get folks to think about the 
real-world effects of online activism. Do I believe that we should give up 
on all non-coding activism? Of course not. But what has been missing is a 
careful appreciation of the costs and the benefits of online activism. 
Would you rather see Ian Clarke start a certain-to-be-ignored postcard 
campaign instead of inventing such a beautifully disruptive technology as 
Freenet?

-Declan

---

To: declan () well com
Subject: Re: FC: Geeks in government? A bad idea: Geeks should write code, 
not laws
From: [a washingtonian]
Date: Mon, 12 Aug 2002 16:21:14 -0400

Declan -

Agree substantially with your perspective, but think it's slightly 
overstated.  As a former congressional staffer (now lobbying for industry), 
I do think that letters and e-mail -- particularly if they're not 
mass-produced -- can serve the purpose of forcing the staff of a Member to 
become somewhat familiar with the issue at hand and sometimes formulate a 
position for the Member.  This is particularly true if the Member is 
someone that is not normally involved with tech-related issues, which means 
most Members.  Not that the correspondence will necessarily be 
determinative of the position the Member takes, but it will often generate 
some research and education on the issue in the office, which is always a 
useful prophylactic for the Hollywood line of BS.

But I also agree that a favorable policy solution -- at least in the near 
term -- is probably not likely.

[deleted] (withhold name/identity if you redistribute)

---

Date: Mon, 12 Aug 2002 14:41:42 -0400
From: Nick Bretagna <onemug () gdn net>
To: declan () well com
Subject: Re: FC: Geeks in government? A bad idea: Geeks should write code, not
 laws

Declan McCullagh wrote:

> http://news.com.com/2010-1071-949275.html?tag=politech
>
>    Geeks in government: A good idea?
>

A good piece, in general. I think geeks should write laws, too, but not at
the expense of writing code which makes idiotic laws moot.

The problem with the code method is that you destroy Rule of Law. The Law,
ideally, should be codified general ethics, so people have no real reason to
ignore them or circumvent them.

Our problem results from the fact that our political process is now pretty
much in the hands of a small group of less-than-scrupulous types who use it
to manipulate things from start to end. This means it no longer represents
the generalized, universally agreed upon collection of rules for behavior we
call ethics, but instead says exactly what those-in-charge want it to say.
Any connection to ethics is inadvertent.

So people ignore The Law. What you wind up with is a chaos wherein you are
subject to arrest at any time, at the whim of any government figure, since
you are almost certainly violating The Law somehow, just in the course of
daily life. Note how this gives power to that group-in-charge, of course,
which is why they like it that way.
--
------- --------- ------- -------- ------- ------- -------
Nicholas Bretagna II
mailto:afn41391 () afn org

---

Date: Mon, 12 Aug 2002 21:13:49 +0200 (MEST)
From: Mikael Pawlo <mikael () pawlo com>
To: declan () well com
Subject: Geeks in government
Message-ID: <Pine.SOL.4.10.10208122112380.25582-100000@kairos>

Another perspective on the same issue.

In my opinion, the geeks should get themselves a professional lobbyist.

In Pursuit of Mr Smith:
http://articles.pawlo.com/newsf06.html

"The Free Software Foundation should fund a lobbyist. No one will
represent the free software users and developers in Washington D.C. on a
day-to-day basis. We may get a little help from Intel and Apple, when they
fight for their own technical freedom from the big five record companies
and Disney with allies from Hollywood. Still, someone must explain
implications of DRM, the effect of public procurement policies that
mandate proprietary software, dangers of lemon laws for software and so
forth. Software is politics."

Regards

Mikael

_________________________________________________________________________

  ICQ:35638414                                mailto:mikael () pawlo com
  +46-70 421 58 25                            http://www.pawlo.com/

---

Date: Mon, 12 Aug 2002 17:49:28 +0100 (BST)
From: Kieran <kieran () esperi demon co uk>
To: Declan McCullagh <declan () well com>
Subject: Re: FC: Geeks in government? A bad idea: Geeks should write code,
 not laws

Hi Declan,

I read this article, and I think it's incredibly short-sighted.

Make no mistake, there are massed political forces within the copyright
and government industries which mean to crush any challenge.  And the
internet threatens them in the same way the Tea Party threatened King
George.  The "native internauts" of the geek culture are inhabiting the
Great Plains of the New World of Cyberspace.  They need to be cleared.

While writing code is nice, and writing code is fun, and writing code is
where the geek kudos is, Washington is where the future of the "right to
write code" will be decided.

I wasn't aware that the Senate passed the DMCA unanimously.  This fact
terrifies me.  It tells me that there is no point dealing with
Washington.  Geeks are emissaries from a different, future culture.
Pow-wows with bent, bought and past-it politicians will be exactly
as productive as those of the last century between native american and
settlers.

We have a choice: we can assemble our minutemen, and meet each move in
a timely and effective manner, or we can return to our screens for as
long as we're allowed.

Frankly, the fact that Washington is bought and paid for merely makes
the challenge bigger.  The fact that political discourse has been dumbed
down so that discussion of issues never goes beyond polling, pork-barrel
and sound-bite means that we don't appreciate the scale of the
challenge.

So let me ring a bell like Paul Revere: the armies of the copyright
industry are marching.  They've realised that commerce and tax revenue
in the future will come from the New World of the Internet.  They've
invented the barbed wire of the world of ideas, and are about to make it
compulsory.  Sleep well, and wake up in a reservation...

Regards

Kieran

---

Date: Mon, 12 Aug 2002 12:11:50 -0700
To: declan () well com
From: "A.Lizard" <alizard () ecis com>
Subject: Re: FC: Geeks in government? A bad idea: Geeks should write
  code, not laws

At 12:30 PM 8/12/02 -0400, you wrote:

Well intentioned, but dead wrong.

Legislation in progress essentially mandates *advance* approval for new 
technology from Hollywood. The idea that bands of underground technologists 
can "smash tHe sTaTE" with fantastic new technologies the Feds can't cope 
with is romantic BS and you as a experienced political journalist should 
know it.

These technologies will never reach the masses if their possession and 
distribution becomes illegal and the only people who know of them and how 
to get them is the 'elite' h4xx0r. PGP isn't exactly common on people's 
desktops despite being completely legal *and* given that it had corporate 
marketing and support.

You are right about the online petition sites, etc. being a waste of time, 
but the solution is ... snailmail with real large checks in it requesting 
that our opinions be considered. Not throwing in the towel.

The *only* way for "geeks" to win is to create a NRA/AARP style 
single-issue political advocacy group with a combined mass action / 
lobbying / fundraising presence and get support the same way they do. Given 
that we are of comparable size and even now have a higher average income 
than NRA/AARP members, there is absolutely no reason why we can't raise 
*more* money than Hollywood can with or without high-tech corporate 
support. However, a viable political organization should have no more 
difficulty raising corporate money than the NRA does in raising money from 
gun manufacturers.

You say this doesn't work? Check out how many dollars are spent on the 
retired vs how much is spent on children. Note that guns are still legal 
for private possession and ownership despite the fact that the media and a 
major political party has been putting out the "guns are EVIL" message for 
generations.

Hollywood can only deliver money. A "geek" mass-action organization will be 
able to deliver money, *votes*, and campaign workers. Hollywood can't 
compete with that.

If we can't put such an organization together despite the fact that we as a 
group are better educated and have higher income than groups of comparable 
size which are considered major players on the US political scene, we don't 
*deserve* to have our opinions considered in the lawmaking process.

Our options are:
1) band together, open our wallets, donate our own time to make sure our 
friends get elected and our enemies get retired. One $100 contribution to a 
Congresscritter can be ignored. 100,000 such contributions aggregated by a 
"geek" organization means that when the Department of Commerce sets up a 
DRM conference, our people will be invited VIP guests.

2) watch corporate high-tech R&D move to places where Hollywood doesn't 0wn 
the government to escape the drastically increased costs of compliance and 
slower development cycles with the legislation passed or in progress will 
mandate.

The individual geek option in this case is to move out of the US when this 
happens to wherever the most interesting companies are going or learn how 
to love flipping burgers.

3) bet on every government in the world adopting the same shackles on its 
own high-tech that the entertainment industry wants. I think this a sucker bet.

A.Lizard

---

Date: Mon, 12 Aug 2002 11:53:40 -0600
From: "Ralph S. Hoefelmeyer" <ralph.hoefelmeyer () wcom com>
Subject: RE: Geeks in government? A bad idea: Geeks should write code, not laws
To: declan () well com

Declan,
This is one of the best articles I have read regarding where engineers
should spend their time to work for meaningful change in the world.  It
rings a strong chord ... I am forwarding this to my acquaintances as a
clarion call on how we can bring about positive change.
Ralph

---

Subject: Re: FC: Geeks in government? A bad idea: Geeks should write code, 
not laws
Date: Mon, 12 Aug 2002 13:34:05 -0400
From: Joel Smith <joel () m3web com>
To: <declan () well com>

>   Here's the bitter truth: These efforts are mostly a waste of time.
>   Sure, they may make you feel better, but they're not the way to win.

I agree that the letter writing campaigns are not effective. But I can't
see where pulling back from the political process altogether is a good
idea either. True, writing better code to make the politicians
irrevelevant is important. But pulling back completely means the
technology sector isn't represented, and that's bad. That's why we are
where we are.

Why wouldn't it be a good idea to form a new technology party, or at
least a decentralized aggregate of concern? It wouldn't have to conform
to the old standards of political parties, but it could be used as a
stick to keep the current crop of technophobes in check until nature runs
it's course for them. Geeks have the power and the money, just no current
effective means of exerting the pressure those resources afford. Imagine
the impact on the US economy if we, qua geeks, decided to all take a
vaction next month.

Ignorance doesn't go away on it's own, and we can't just leave it behind.
The politicians make bad decisions because they get bad information and
don't understand the implications of their choices, at least where
technology is concerned. This is a digital divide issue. True, the power
structure isn't poor, the usual measurement for the digital divide. But
digital divide issues generally aren't related to wealth, or lack
thereof, but rather a mindset that fails to recognize digital techology
as a valuable tool for personal empowerment. Politicians have to become
stakeholders before they will stop making bad decisions and bad laws.

Geeks should be working to get elected, working to pressure local party
apparatus to put up technofriendly candidates, working to subvert the
status quo from the inside. I do agree that we need to make as many
strides in new technology as possible, so keep programming. And until
politicians "get it", they'll keep swatting at promising new technology.
I think we need some means of becoming a positive, active, factor in the
political equation.

Joel Smith
m3 Consulting & Services
joel () m3web com
(252) 523-7053


---

Date: Mon, 12 Aug 2002 10:09:03 -0700 (PDT)
From: A Kol <akol321 () yahoo com>
Subject: Your article: "Geeks in govenment: a good idea?"
To: declan () well com

I strongly disagree with you and think you're sending
a dangerous, irresponsible message.

When Intel Exec VP Leslie Vadasz got up before
Congress and stood up to Fritz Hollings at the
copyright hearing in March he was alone - completely
alone. Nobody from the geek side backed him up. Don't
think it didn't have an effect. It did. Hollings and
his ilk proceeded to roll over him.

And just read what Rick Boucher said about how the
DMCA was passed. He attributes it to the lack of
citizen and activist involvement. Only the library
organizations took an interest and they were poorly
organized. I don't have the link offhand, but it's
there.

And how do you think Wi-Fi came into being? Because of
activists. The FCC created Part 15 (the creation of an
unlicensed band) in response to petitions by activists
like Dave Hughes, amateur radio geeks, and certain
computer companies. Ditto low power radio (even though
the NAB managed to dilute it).

And as to your point,
"Put another way, who made a bigger difference: Yet
another letter-scribbling activist ...Or the veterans
of the Internet Engineering Task Force, which oversees
the fundamental protocols of the Internet?"

Wrong, wrong, wrong.

For your info, one of the Internet veterans who
actually wrote key elements of Internet protocols,
David Reed, is now in Washington at his own time and
expense trying to convince the FCC to use Part 15 as a
model for practically the entire spectrum. This is
profound. And guess what? The FCC is coming around. I
emailed you about this recently.

When you get a chance I urge you to listen to the
RealAudio of last Friday's FCC meeting featuring Reed
and Steve Stroh (a ham radio/wireless activist,
writer, speaker) facing off with Michael Powell's
darling, Thomas Hazlett.

Reed & company blew Hazlett away and Powell gave a
speech at the start of that meeting saying that these
geeks may be right afterall.

So much for your musings that geeks should stay out of
government and stick to coding.

-A. Kol

---

References: <20020812123030.A17360 () cluebot com>
Date: Mon, 12 Aug 2002 13:46:11 -0400
To: declan () well com
From: "R. A. Hettinga" <rah () shipwright com>
Subject: Re: FC: Geeks in government? A bad idea: Geeks should write code,
 not laws

At 12:30 PM -0400 on 8/12/02, Declan McCullagh wrote:


>    Geeks in government: A good idea?

If I may be permitted to retread an old chestnut...


Q. What do you call a geek who joins the government?

A. The government.

:-).

Cheers,
RAH


--
-----------------
R. A. Hettinga <mailto: rah () ibuc com>
The Internet Bearer Underwriting Corporation <http://www.ibuc.com/>
44 Farquhar Street, Boston, MA 02131 USA
"... however it may deserve respect for its usefulness and antiquity,
[predicting the end of the world] has not been found agreeable to
experience." -- Edward Gibbon, 'Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire'





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