Tech-Conscious Congressmen? 53
Political Geek asks: "Many times we have seen clueless U.S. Senators and Congressmen supporting technology related bills that hurt consumers and developers when they are passed (for example, the 1998 DMCA, and Senator Hollings SSSCA/CBDTPA) However, there may be some hope for a few of our elected leaders. I have been asked by a staff member of a US Congressman to submit a list of issues that are the most important to individuals active in the tech sector. Therefore, instead of screwing-up this opportunity by replying to this request on my own, I am passing this request on to the Slashdot community: What issues/problems are most important to you and what is necessary to resolve them?" I'm going to keep posting questions like this in the hopes that, when a reader can bend the ear of their representative, that these issues can be heard.
Wireless (Score:1, Interesting)
Re:Offtopic my arse (Score:1)
Why is this offtopic?
badly formed maybe, offtopic no.
Yeah, Open Spectrum and all that (Score:2)
Re:Wireless (Score:1)
Re:Wireless (Score:2)
Is this who I think it is? (Score:3, Flamebait)
Re:Is this who I think it is? (Score:2)
I hope there is someone else in Congress emerging a clue out there. I would not be suprised to find out that Rick has
Re:Is this who I think it is? (Score:2)
How comfortably did Boucher win by?
Re:Is this who I think it is? (Score:1)
Important Issues in a down tech job market (Score:5, Insightful)
Too many H1B Visas. They need to be reduced or eliminated. The Asian Indiana workers are willing to work for half of what US citizens are making, therefore, drive down wages. They also fill spots that can be filled by unemployed American workers instead.
Politicians clamoring to regulate high tech and ruin it like other businesses got ruined. An example is the auto industry.
Solutions and ideas:
Keep high tech unregulated which encourages it to flourish. That means saying no to Senator Fritz "Disney" Hollings and the MPAA/RIAA. Also saying no to Jack "Fist Pounding" Valenti.
Tax incentives to companies that offer for flex time and telecommuting to their workers. Those are being taken away in the current tight job market.
Tax incentives to companies that buy high tech equipment and software such as more generous depreciation schedules. This would encourage them to stay updated.
Eliminate H1B Visas.
Repeal the DMCA especially the onerous provisions that stifle research.
Tax incentives to telecomm companies that put out high speed connections such as DSL to areas that don't have high internet speed service such as rural areas.
Re:Important Issues in a down tech job market (Score:2)
Of course the whole reason foreigners are so popular is that it is a modern form of slavery. They work long hours for low wages. And you always have the whip of the immigration authorities to slap them with if they complain (being fired usually boils down to being put on the plane back home). Take away that 'advantage' and it suddenly becomes worthwhile to hire locals (provided there are well educated natives available, it's mostly the uneducated ones that get fired). Of course in the long term, IT shops will emigrate towards India. Labor cost is the driving cost in IT and its about 1/10th in e.g. India.
Re:Important Issues in a down tech job market (Score:1)
If my salary is driven down by competition from H1-Bs, I should at least reap the benefits of lower labor costs through the rest of the workforce.
Re:Important Issues in a down tech job market (Score:2)
I presume you believe in "open source" right? Does it say somewhere that no company in the US shall be able to accomplish anything without foreign help? How about that computer you just used to make your post to this forum, it was made by foreigners for an US company, right? How about this; throw away everything you own that was sold as an US brand, that was made, assembled, or has component parts that do not meet the standards you have for programming.
You have just thrown away just about everything you own. We are a member of a global society, and it is time we stop acting the spoiled little fucking brats we are.
Other places can do it cheaper for many many reasons. Cost of living, taxes/duties, social rights etc etc.
That is the world you live in. You need to adapt.
Re:Important Issues in a down tech job market (Score:2)
Maybe the requirements of the job (bandwidth etc) can only be met in the US. Maybe your time is not worth what you think (think dot-com bubble bursting). Companies can't waste resources like they could in 1999. They have adapted, you, however...
Re:Important Issues in a down tech job market (Score:2)
and your BigMac analogy is ridiculous. i never once mentioned buying something specific that is brand 'A' from brand 'B'.
pay attention you fucking moron.
Obviously you don't understand the above.
Re:Important Issues in a down tech job market (Score:2)
As for foreign labor in the US, there are a few issues. These people are willing to come here, work on the cheap for long hours, just to get out of India or wherever it is they come from. They are unhappy in their homeland, and are willing to give up almost everything to go to a better place. That better place, at the moment, is the US. Nearly every industry has this problem, not just the programmer. That is why unions exist, in theory. To protect the worker. We know that is not the only goal, but it is the most touted one. Giving power back to the worker.
In the case of programmers, I am of the opinion that only a few in the US actually make the money that they are worth. Some are even underpaid, but on average, I would have to comment that as a group programmers get paid more than they are worth.
I know this insults people, but the truth hurts. There are very few vocations in which the failure rates of programmers are accepted. Most people are held to the standard of "get it right or I take my business elsewhere."
I have had bad experiences with all manner of bad programming from the custom professional level (databases in particular), to standard professional tools (nealry anything Microsoft for example), to homegrown spare time stuff (RPM for one).
If this kind of failure rate existed in the automotive industry...
More and more companies are coming to realise that computers and the programs they run are vital tools. Emphasis on tool. Companies that provide a service or a product can only reasonably expect to charge what the market determines that service or product is worth. The associated 'voodoo' of years gone past is lessening day by day. Just because your product or service is computer related does not mean you can charge an arm and a leg for it any longer.
So companies start thinking, "how can we do this for less?" Perks go first. Then extraneous personnel. Then overpaid personnel (think of batch of current CEO's losing jobs on Wall Street). Then benefits start shrinking (no more free insurance, 4 paid wks vacation etc). Then outsourcing starts to become an issue; "what do we not really _have_ to do ourselves?" Sometimes, they find near outsource prices, locally. The visa's are not the problem. The problem was the irresponsible actions of the market in the mid to late 1990's. Those unreal expectations, and associated actions, led to the situation most companies are in now. Sink or swim. No more, "we have this idea, and we think you should give us USD 20 million to figure it out."
Maybe the solution could be the formation of a union. Problem is, who do you accept as members? Only US citizens? What about people with visa's? If that US citizen works for a company that also utilizes foreign labor, is he/she exempt? Who runs the union? What are the dues? Will programmers pay dues to keep their jobs? What behavior gets people blacklisted from the union? Is there a whitelist of members? Why? Why not? Is the union international (ie US citizens working abroad)? Will the employers accept the formation of unions?
There are many other industries/niches that are dealing with the same problems programmers are. For example, nearly all medical transcription is done in India! My aunt happens to run a medical transcription business in the US, and her method of business is far different than 5 or 10 years ago.
Good stuff (Score:1)
Seriously though, getting this sort of thing out in the open to garner a wider opinion is a good idea(TM).
Being an NZ resident I can't really comment though, we have enough problems with our own government's ass-backward approach to IT.
Three issues are: (Score:5, Insightful)
2. The Homeland Security Act (or whatever the official name is). This has gone past security into just plain scary. A national database of every monetary transaction that takes place in the US? Absolute freedom for wiretapping (of all flavors)? Our rights are swirling down the drain, and in this case, technology is making it a bit easier to do it. Let's see some legislation protecting the American citizen for a change.
3. Sort of related to 1. Media and software companies should NOT have the right to do ANYTHING to a person's computer, regardless of what EULAs you agree to. Legislation needs to be put into place regulating the access that any company has to an individual's computer. We have to stop allowing the entertainment industry to dictate legislation here.
4. Campaign finance reform - related to 1 and 3. We all know politicians are slithy toves who are as fickle as the wind. It is their nature. We need campaign finance reform to STOP large companies of all types being able to make large donations (cough cough Microsoft cough cough RIAA). I personally think political donations should ONLY be able to be made by individuals, and should be capped at a level that most people could afford.
5. the h1b visa thing (Score:1)
Several come to mind (Score:5, Interesting)
1. Hiring practices in the IT industry (age discrimination, H1B, etc.) Here [ucdavis.edu] is a good place to read more.
2. Software licensing practices, UCITA etc.
3. Copyright and Patent issues, especially related to the corporate "land grab" mentality towards ideas and code. This has the most drastic long term effects, while the previous two are easier (I think) issues for Congress to address.
A more direct solution than posting to slashdot (Score:1)
They could host a page that accepts suggestions and a way of voting to rank the issues by importance.
Since perceived importance of the issue seems to be the key to motivating politicians to support the issue.
To prevent bot scripts from manipulating the scale perhaps a "Type in the letters from this graphic" security scheme could be used in the voting booth.
The main concept here is to provide a place where any interested politician can go to see what the hot issues are without relying on their intern who may or may not be on the ball.
International Implications (Score:5, Interesting)
1) Finding it very difficult to watch encrypted DVDs on non-proprietary operating systems such as Linux due to laws such as the DMCA. Although there are projects that exist outside the US that let me do this (for example the excellent VLC [videolan.org] project), many Linux distributions do not come readily set up to be able to play encrypted DVDs.
2) Attempts to apply laws such as the DMCA outside the US (such as the case of Dmitry Sklyarov [theregister.co.uk]).
3) Proposals to pass laws requiring computer equipment to include DRM (digital rights management) hardware, such as that used in Microsoft's Palladium project. This has severe implications for both freedom of information, privacy, and free/open source operating systems and software. If the US were to pass such a law the rest of the world would be very likely to end up using the same technology, even though no such law may exist elsewhere in the world.
Essentially, the main problems I see are about freedom -- the rights of the individual, to use their computer hardware and software in ways they want to, must be protected as a form of free speech.
Yes, copyright theft is illegal, but just because I can break the law doesn't mean I will break the law. By electronically limiting the things people can do, huge power could be handed over to large corporations who themselves have very poor legal records (such as Microsoft).
In my opinion, if freedom is taken away from computer users we will be limited to viewing BigCorporation's approved content. Technological innovation in the US will be stunted and the US will slip behind other countries with more liberal technology laws. This will affect not only the US economy, but those of other developed countries.
Ethical Laundry List (Score:5, Insightful)
The DMCA was passed in the House of Representatives by a "voice vote", where no record of individual votes is available. The lack of accountability created by this practice is reason enough to discontinue it. If I get screwed, I at least want to know by whom.
Consumer Broadband and Digital Television don't need Protection. Furthermore, the two are completely unreleated and have no reason to be mentioned together in the same bill. The entertainment industry wants to kill the Internet as we know and replace it with a glorified cable TV system. The Internet is not cable TV. I for one prefer it to stay that way.
Gee (Score:2, Insightful)
How important is it to actually do something?
Apparently not very, right now at 09:35 this article has 15 comments, the mouse-human hybrid story has 150.
When an article pops up in a month or two saying that Washington has pushed through some new zany legislation, remember you had a chance to contribute here.
Re:Gee (Score:1)
Apparently not very, right now at 09:35 this article has 15 comments, the mouse-human hybrid story has 150.
When an article pops up in a month or two saying that Washington has pushed through some new zany legislation, remember you had a chance to contribute here.
Wrongo. The mouse-human hybrid story is on the front page. This story isn't. It's a matter of exposure, not interest.
-Waldo Jaquith
Re:Gee (Score:2)
1. Give the other coasts a chance to wake up.
2. Timing: many are leaving for Thanksgiving trips in the US, and are AFK. I'm sure many will be hitting their heads if they see this a week later when they get back to work.
3. "Me too" is discouraged on
4. Like interview questioins, moderation is probably a powerful factor in this discussion (wish I had some moderation points, but I've posted twice here so they wouldn't do me any good now).
Start by removing the DMCA (Score:3, Insightful)
After that we need laws that make it illegal for companies to restrict our rights to use content.
Fair use needs to be officially put on the books, not just be out there as a concept.
Unrestricted CD's made the smae way they always have been...
DVD's that can be played on any operating system.
Tivo's that we are allowed to copy the content off of and do what we want with it. (and don't force us to watch commercials)
Computers that don't restrict our rights to do what we want with them.
Ok thats what I can come up with off the top of my head.
RIAA (Score:1)
Re:RIAA (Score:2)
I think the problem is really the Justice Department, which seems to be far too friendly towards big corporations.
Just one law we need ... (Score:3, Insightful)
Really. That's it. That would solve 99% of the problems Slashdotters (including myself) bitch about.
Detailed reports on your congressmen (Score:2)
You might need to be at a university terminal to get access to it, or may need access to a university through a VPN account.
spam tops my list (Score:3, Interesting)
Here's a Spam Primer [spamprimer.com]. The Coalition Against Unsolicited E-mail [cauce.org] offers plenty of information as well.
Re:constitutional amendment (Score:1)
Issues (Score:4, Insightful)
Patents should protect "inventions", which have to be truly novel and non-obvious. The PTO has repeatedly been granting patents to things which do not deserve patent protection. An undeserved patent stifles innovation and creativity. Business process patents, software patents, and patents for computerizing otherwise ordinary activities are all stifling innovation.
Copyright
Congress is fundamentally off track. I can only echo Justice O'Connor from the Eldred oral argument: "If the overall purpose of the Copyright Clause is to encourage creative work,
- Copyright is way too long. The Constitution authorizes Congress to protect "authors", not their children and grandchildren. Repeal the Sonny Bono Copyright Extension.
- DMCA. It puts a locked safe around fair use, destroys first sale (which is NOT just the right to resell, but the beginning of full property rights for the purchaser), and creates a very nasty chilling affect for white-hat security research. When applied to software it violates the first amendment. Section 1201 is not a valid exercise of any enumerated Congressional power. Repeal the anti-circumvention provisions now.
- Digital Restrictions Management (DRM) This does not need legislative assistence. NO!
- Clickwrap/Shrinkwrap EULAs: these are not valid contracts, and any attempts to make them so using state law should be preempted by the Federal Copyright Act if the terms seek to unilaterily deny consumers the benefits of the Copyright Act, such as fair use, first sale rights, etc. In particular, reverse engineering clauses should NEVER be enforcable.
Privacy
- Pass comprehensive spam legislation immediately
- Stop companies from sharing data about me unless I explicitly "opt-in". This is especially important with phone records and financial records. This is a commerce power question, not a free speech question. Consumers have a right not to speak. The government can speak for it's citizens to say that they do not want to "opt in" by default. If they can "opt in" manually, there is no free speech issue. Outlaw pricing differently based on the choice.
Spyware (Score:2)
OK, here's mine. (Score:3, Insightful)
2) Software liability issues. Programmers who release software sources with few or no restrictions (public domain or BSD license) should not be in the same legal position as those who create more restricted software (such as GPL) or vendors of proprietary software. Vendors of closed-source, copyrighted software should be held legally responsible for egregious flaws in their products, like any other manufacturer is.
3) Spam. Spammers should be internationally traced and prosecuted. If we can kidnap and try the leader of a sovereign nation (remember Noriega?) we can certainly crack down on spammers.
Visa issues don't matter to me. I am willing to compete for employment in a global market based on my knowledge and abilities.
Re:OK, here's mine. (Score:2)
Yup, same here, I use mastercard
tech issues? (Score:3)
--OK, here's my #1 biggee-How about gutting the constitution, especially the 4th amendment, using tax payer ripped off money to turn around and spy on the tax payers, follow their every moves, create massive interconnected databases? What gives congress any "right" to do this, what gives this president any right to sign this into bogus law? What gives them any right besides force of lethal threat of arms to create massive domestic spy agencies using any and all available high technology to create some heinous big brother spy state? And ask this congress "person" if they actually read the homeland security bill in total, and perhaps the model states health bill if they voted for it.
--giving high tech pharmco/biology corporations basically a get-out-of-jail free card with regards to the looming threat of forced vaccinations with who knows what in the syringe. And I mean who knows what with their past track record of lying. Might it be because of all the high level connections with these firms and the current administration? We are supposed to believe that coincidence after coincidence is really a coincidence?
--allowing the incredibly stupid move of recombinant gene mixed species GM crops to be released into the wild, including injecting aids material inside corn, and etc. Allowing "roundup ready" plants to be released that are air pollinated and may infect others similar crops, rendering them useless. What's up with this stuff? Just go ahead and do it, who cares what it might cause down the pike? who cares how many family farmers and organic farmers are put out of business as long as a small handful of international companies gain eventual total control over peoples food. who's getting paid off with that? Where's the fda and usda besides golfing and drinking with a handful if international food and drug monopolists and profiteers? The US people are supposed to just not notice how medicine and food is in fewer and fewer hands, that for some reason this is a good thing? and just yesterday vaccine records sealed by orders of some US "court" to protect these vaccine manufacturers to be responsible for their products? hey, throw it right back at them like they are dojg now with the 'war on terrorism". What ya got to hide big government and big corporate guys, what ya hiding that's so bad the records have to be sealed? Where's congressional oversight on this one, where's the tech oversight, out to lunch, gone fishing? Who's getting paid off?
--transfer of high tech developed in the united states to heinous regimes like china. Show me any difference between red china and iraq. Besides red china being much bigger and much more dangerous that is. Why is it "different" for china? And to give high tech US industries tax breaks to do this? This is supposed to be a good idea? Despite our own goivernments intel agency analysis that red china is our #1 enemy and threat? Export jobs, export tech advances, help fund them? Talk about asleep at the switch or actually selling out for money alone, no thought for the future, just short term "profits" for some "investors" and higher ups in international corporations who happen to have their main offices inside the US.
More technology transfers, why is it again we transferred nuclear reactors to north korea? Because they promised to turn into nice guys? Isn't this rather naieve and a waste of tax payer money, does there not exist enough evidence to prove to most anyone that north korea is *never* going to be lead by any *nice guys*, that they are about as nasty a set of chronic liars and despots as you could imagine?
There's more but that's enough for now
Monopolies of course (Score:1)