• Locational Privacy and Wholesale Surveillance via Photo Services (Friday, July 16th, 11:00AM EDT in the Lovelace Room)
• Why You Should Be an Amateur (Saturday, July 17th, 6:00PM EDT in the Bell Room)

Talk slide decks should be posted up here and at Mayhemic Labs after the talks.

Hope to see you there!

My comments on FCC Docket 10-62

Now… This bill has caused a bit of a hoopla on the local amateur radio discussion lists I follow. After the house passed the bill, there was some questions and people were concerned regarding how it applied to Amateur Radio. Then, after the ARRL Eastern MA State Government Liason posted his analysis (Very timely! 2-3 days after the bill passed the House! Thanks for keeping us ahead of things!) people started posting e-mails that they were sending to their senator. The e-mails all consisted, more or less, of the message suggested by the SGL, which while a nice skeleton, left much to be desired. That, combined with the fact that everyone is sending e-mail, made me cringe. So, let me stand on my soapbox for a moment…

Ben’s Guide to Harrassing Lobbying Your Elected Official

For some reason, I like to put my two cents in when a topic that matters to me comes up on a state or federal level. I blame my Dad for being so active in elections when I was a kid. Since I seem to do it on a semi-regular basis, I seem to have developed a knack for it. So, let me attempt to offer some tips on lobbying (that’s right, you’re your own personal lobbyist) your elected official.

For the love of God, don’t e-mail if you have another way of making contact -  e-Mail is great. It’s quick, easy, and simple to send. This makes it a horrible medium for lobbying. Since so many folks do it, your message will likely be lost within the noise of all the other messages. The best way to contact your elected official is good old snail mail, it’s harder to ignore. When I brought this up on one of my mailing lists one of the curmudgeons replied “nah, they go through the shredder just fine…” While he is 100% correct, what’s easier to ignore? 100 e-mails in your Inbox or 100 letters being delivered by USPS?

Now, this is my personal opinion, but I feel the next best way to contact your elected official is via Fax. Fax edges out a phone call ever so slightly because there is a physical object delivered. While I’m sure that no receptionist would ever not write down your message, I think that a piece of paper showing up is just a bit more “real”

Be Informed – K3HI hit on this in his message. You’re speaking for all of us fighting to change the bill. If you look dumb, we all look dumb and you hurt our cause. Don’t berate, yell, or annoy. You’re not helping anyone.You attract more flies with honey then vinegar.

Be Brief – Don’t write a 20 page dissertation on the subject. Keep it to one page maximum. Say who you are and why you’re writing, list any credentials you may have on the subject, go into detail on your position, and close with what you would like your elected official to do.

Let me toot my own horn and show off my letter.

First off, I started with my name and address, and my senator’s name and address. This is a formal letter, so follow all those rules you learned in 7th grade English class (Mrs. McGuinness would be so proud of me!). Also, including your address will give the official a chance to respond.

Dear Senator Montigny:

Hello. As a constituent, I am writing you to ask you to oppose House 4475 in its current state. The definitions in this bill are vague enough that it could unfairly include amateur radio operators in its ban.

I started off with the fact that I’m a constituent. People write other people’s elected officials all the time because of the fact that they’re on some committee or just want to spam the entire legislative branch with their lobbying. By stating that I vote for him, I give myself a little more attention. I also state why I’m writing.

Now, I go into detail as to what I’m writing about. Lay it on thick. Tell a fun story. Why should your official see it your way? While this is 100% anecdotal evidence, but it is also 100% fact:

I am a FCC licensed Amateur (“Ham”) Radio operator. I have been since 1995. In order to reach my current license level (“Extra”), I’ve had to pass three separate exams. In these exams, safe operation radio operation is covered. I know that operating a radio while driving needs to be done with the utmost care, and shouldn’t be done in certain situations. Because of this, I also know that the same applies to mobile telephones. My wife often pokes fun at me because I don’t answer my mobile phone if I don’t feel the situation is safe enough. Amateur Radio operators have been operating in their cars for years, and we have never had issues with legislative action trying to ban us from operating. We only seem to be caught up in vaguely worded cell phone bans.

As much as I wonder how useful such services are, I decided to toe the party line and wave the bloody shirt of public service too…

Amateur Radio provides a valuable public service for the community at large. This past Wednesday during the snow storm, SKYWARN, an amateur radio weather observation group, passed information to the National Weather Service and MEMA regarding storm and road conditions. If this ban takes effect, this information will be limited to amateurs operating in fixed locations, which will limit the timeliness and accuracy of information.

I now wrap up by restating what I would like him to do. Note that I didn’t specifically ask for an exemption of Amateur Radio. I asked for an exemption of any FCC licensed radio operator. No sense in splitting hairs.

I am asking you to please oppose House 4475 in its current state. Alternatively, if you would like to support it, please amend the bill to include a exemption for federally licensed radio operators like myself operating radio equipment.

Finally, I always close with my contact information, on the off chance the official wants to talk further. I will be shocked if this ever happens, but I feel that it shows that I don’t mind having a dialogue. I also thank the official for his or her time. Always be polite!

If you would like to discuss this further, please do not hesitate to call me at <my telephone-o-rono>, or e-mail me at <my e-mail address>.

Thank you for your time.

There you have it. This fit onto one page with 11 point font and it was put in the mail today. I hope it will arrive on Beacon Hill by Tuesday and that it will start a revolution regarding exemptions for two-way radios in any future cell phone bill.

Hope this might have given you some good ideas about writing and may have inspired you to start lobbying yourself. It’s hard to complain about the system when you don’t participate.

For those of you who not be familiar regarding this case, a Boston University student, Joel Tenenbaum, was caught by one of our favorite four-letter associations, the RIAA, sharing about 30 songs on his P2P client Kazaa. Joel was served and the RIAA began legal proceedings against him giving him the option to settle or go to court. The twist of fate came when Charles Nesson, a legal professor from Harvard University, offered to represent Joel pro bono and fight the case in court. Joel decided to spin the wheel o’ justice and take his chances with a jury.

This is where everything goes crazy. A few weeks before the trial, Tenenbaum, Nesson, and his legal team, apparently after a long night of sipping the “information needs to be free” Kool Aid (that I presume was sent to them straight from RMS‘s secret stash) decided to admit he was sharing the files, make the claim that file sharing was completely legal and that US copyright law was wrong.

Needless to say, this flew like a balloon fabricated a two inch thick plate of steel.

The trial was covered fairly well in various media outlets and various expert witnesses were called to aid Joel’s defense. Long story short, Joel lost, has to pay $675,000 worth of damages, and what could have been a giant step forward for the legal rights of file sharers turned into another reaming of a defendant by the RIAA. I can’t say I was following the trial as much as other folks, but I was keeping an eye on things as it was just such an interesting Hail Mary play. However, as I was watching throughout and after the trial, the statements released by the defense on their website and the in-courtroom drama left me scratching my head. I kept looking at what the defense team was doing and as an armchair lawyer I was often wondering “What are they trying to do? Defend their client to the best of their ability or push for the slight chance that they’ll win and set a legal precendent that torpedos copyright law?” Today it looks like we have our answer.

In her footnote, Judge Gertner said that she was ready to accept a wide array of legal defenses that would have greatly expanded the legal definition of “fair use” and allowed Joel to skate:

“As it made clear previously, the Court was prepared to consider a more expansive fair use argument than other courts have credited — perhaps one supported by facts specific to this individual and this unique period of rapid technological change. For example, file sharing for the purposes of sampling music prior to purchase or space-shifting to store purchased music more efficiently might offer a compelling case for fair use. Likewise, a defendant who used the new file-sharing networks in the technological interregnum before digital media could be purchased legally, but who later shifted to paid outlets, might also be able to rely on the defense.”

Yup, you read that right, Judge Gertner just said that she would have not only been OK with downloading music before Joel bought it or ripping CDs for storage, but she would have granted Joel a tabula rasa if he made an effort later move on to a legal way of downloading music. But, for reasons unknown, Tenenbaum, Nesson, and the legal team that apparently needs to go back to law school decided to make claims so overreaching that a Judge /sympathetic to their cause/ had no choice but to dismiss them.

Rather than tailoring his fair use defense to suggest a modest exception to copyright protections, Tenenbaum mounted a broadside attack that would excuse all file sharing for private enjoyment. It is a version of fair use so broad that it would swallow the copyright protections that Congress created, defying both statute and precedent… In his view, a defendant just needs to show that he did not make money from the files he downloaded or distributed — i.e., that his use was “non-commercial” — in order to put his fair use defense before a jury. And every non-commercial use, to him, is presumptively fair. Beyond that threshold, the matter belongs entirely to the jury, which is entitled to consider any and all factors touching on its innate sense of fairness — nothing more and nothing less… Defendant’s version of fair use is, all in all, completely elastic, utterly standardless, and wholly without support.

To add insult to injury, in a footnote to her memo Gertner makes mention that Nesson “repeatedly missed deadlines, ignored rules, engaged in litigation over conduct that was plainly illegal…” Wow. This guy is a first string Harvard attorney? Remind me if I am taking on an organization that has vast armies of lawyers, the law on their side, and out for blood if I choose a lawyer who’s slightly crazy, it will be one that won’t piss off the Judge. That, or one that will do so in a slightly jovial and entertaining manner with a bevy of snappy one liners like Denny Crane or Alan Shore.

Some have pointed out that this defense may work in other cases. They’re 100% right. However, thanks to Joel blowing it, how many more people are going to take a shot at tripling the money they own for the slight chance that they may get to skate? Also, what are the chances that the case will get another sympathetic judge? I’d say slim. This was, what I would consider to be a fairly rare “perfect storm” of events and I wouldn’t venture to guess if or when it may happen again.

Thanks Joel, I’m sure you’re angry that you pissed away a great opportunity to possibly being able to get off scott free and instead have to pay over just over 13 years of my salary for 30 some odd songs. But just remember, thanks to your legal antics, we’re all pissed that you looked a gift horse in the mouth a blew a great chance to shoring up the rights of millions to use the music they bought legally.

I had a few requirements:

1. It had to be cheap
2. It had to be easy to set up and break down
3. It had to be simple
4. It had to not require a tuner

Since then, times have changed a bit: I have a tuner now, and I wanted to operate more bands. However, the cheap, simple, and easy to set up and break down requirements stayed the same. My mounting situation has more or less stayed the same. I use a tree that is outside my office to hang my antenna up and then when I’m done I take it off. It’s not the best situation and the “half wavelength above the ground” rule is definitely flaunted:

Click For Larger

You can see my radio room from the outside in shot. Also visible is my 2M on-the-ground-plane. This is permanently left outside and is connected to my IC-27H.

Again, click for Larger

With the original 20M elements and the 10M elements I added a few months ago, I think it looks like a giant spider when it’s hung in the tree. Thankfully it breaks down in about 5 minutes of work and is a rolls up into a nice manageable size. I use Velcro cable ties on the end to keep the elements wrapped up and neat.

Guess what? Click For Larger

I love my antenna, as it’s the first “homebrew” project I ever did. It also works quite well, I’ve worked as far as the Ukraine on it with 100W. Sure, it’s a pain to shuffle out at night and take it down and I can’t wait until I get a house in which I can simply have an antenna that I can leave up all the time, but in my current situation, it gets the job done.

I, like any other red-blooded netizen, posted comments on the post and the YouTube page saying in no uncertain terms on how I thought his thoughts bore a striking resemblence to a large pile of edible offal from the stomachs of various domestic animals (“a load of tripe”). I don’t think Morse is the cat’s meow, but I do know it (despite being one of the dumb no-code hams) The bile flowed from my fingertips and my circle of Hams on twitter was abuzz at the video, most of the talk being negative.

Then it was gone…

Steve, K9ZW tweeted that he couldn’t get to the video via the weblog post. Sure enough, the video had been removed. I forwarded him the YouTube link, which he replied he also couldn’t get too. Looks like someone had second thoughts. Finally, the title and all the comments were deleted from the post and all further comments needed to be moderated. All that was left was a non-functional little nubbin of a post that previously had about six people’s comments. I assumed that it was over and that the creator of the video retreated. I would have preferred some kind of discussion or an apology, but it’s his call.

Flash forward to Friday morning, where I see that the video has been reposted. I was glad I can now link to it to talk about it some more, but it did ruffle my feathers that the creator, rjkd732, essentially tossed all the previous discussion down the memory hole. About ten people commented on the various postings and he has seen fit to flush it all down the tubes. I posted my comments regarding this and reposted my original comment regarding offal. This time, he did reply saying that he took down the video because (para-phrasing here) I was being rude and calling other people names.

He then took it down again…

Then this little gem showed up in my Youtube INBOX:

those who passed code ARE BETTER! stick that in your pipe, whiner.

Hahahaha!

Oh wait… You’re serious…

Let me laugh even louder….

HAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!!!!

OK. So I’m not a saint. What?

The Internet is a great place for meeting people that say things that make your blood boil and pray for the ability to punch people via TCP/IP. I seem to have a silly habit of tilting at windmills and trying to engage them and talk. What annoys me is when people do the electronic equivalent of “taking their marbles and going home” by deleting threads and comments. Although he’s well within his rights to do these things, it sets off a giant flashing red light that says he’s not interested in hearing an alternate viewpoint.

Maybe at some point I’ll add some content…