Just as a side note, Vince Snowbarger (D-KS) hasn't been a representative for 3 years. That's not so much of my problem as, if you're noting him, are you overlooking Dennis Moore, the current rep. from my district?

Yep, and Spencer Abraham hasn't been our Senator for two years now (he's now the Secretary of a department that he once wanted to abolish, but I digress)... and of course, Sonny Bono's been gone longer than that.

This list is a great idea that needs a little refining. I suggest that people who are no longer in office should either be dropped from the list or simply indicated with an asterisk. (Maybe you want to hold off until after the results of Tuesday's election.)

Hope you don't mind a little constructive criticism. As I say, this list is a great idea.

Great list. But can you clarify who the campaign contributors are to each of these members of Congress? Are these totals from entertainment sector? Any comparisons to their takings from the computer/Internet sector?

Great list, but I completely agree that many of the members are no longer in Congress and so should be noted in some format.

Other former members
Bill Paxon
Bob Franks
John Kasich
James Exon
Jon Christensen
Christopher Bond
Linda Smith
Michael Pappas
Thomas Manton
Gerald Solomon
Rick Lazio
Sonny Bono

How about some clarification about which of these sorry creations are currently the law of the land, and which are just bad ideas?

Interesting. I'd certainly like to see a breakdown of what organizations contributed to whom, and what they had to gain from the bills sponsered or supported by the legislators in question.

One note: Christopher Bond is not a former member of Congress, he is still one of our Missouri senators (and by far my favorite of the two, but that's beside the point).

My freedom of speech is more important than anyone's copyright.

I hope someone takes this and runs, making a Geek Voter Guide, at least for the national-level candidates. I have been looking for pro-con votes on the DMCA and coming up empty. I tried emailing my congressman, but that didn't work. There's the Information Technology Industry Council, but that's an industry-based lobbying outfit, which has much different positions than an engineer- or user-centered geek organization.

I'm curious as to what the numbers are supposed to mean. And I'm also curious as to whether we're talking "voted for" or "sponsored" when we talk about "1 bill" above. That's a significant difference -- a sponsor is someone who believes in a bill and has pushed for it's passing, while someone who voted for a bill thought it was good public policy at the time. Legislatively, that's a big difference which should yield a big difference in geek lobbying techniques.

I asked the EFF why there's no EFF Voter Guide, and got no response. There should be one.

Yes, the list really should distinguish between passed laws and proposed laws.

To answer Dave Jacoby's question: the EFF can't make a voter guide, since it is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit, which "may not attempt to influence legislation as a substantial part of its activities and it may not participate at all in campaign activity for or against political candidates." (per IRS)

As I mentioned to Dave in email and on my weblog, the EFF can't really do a "Voter Guide" under our non-profit 501(c)(3) status.

Don't forget Mayor Hicks of Dallas, TX now running for the Senate against Cornyn. Hicks chaired a committee that recommended a national tax on Internet sales.

Er, that's former Dallas Mayor "Ron Kirk" running against John Cornyn for Senate in Texas.

Slade Gorton (WA) also lost the election in 2000. He was replaced by Maria Cantwell who was an exec for Real Networks.

I think you're missing NET (No Electronic Theft) and CTEA (Copyright Term Extension Act) both signed in 1998 by Clinton.

You are sooooo getting Slashdotted. So long, wieners!

Add Slade Gorton to the no-longer-in-office list. Also Jesse Helms is in office but is not seeking reelection. (That may fall under a post-election cleanup though...)

Dave Jacoby mentioned "I tried emailing my congressman, but that didn't work." Try snail mail or faxing instead. I've sent four faxes on various issues, and I've received a reply every time. The latest reply was three pages long and actually contained a lot of useful information.

If you want to contact your congresscritter and you want a reply, I suggest you use something other than email.

Maybe he was thinking of Tom Hicks, who may someday be mayor of Dallas (God help us all).

To the person asking to "email" your senator/congressman. At this stage of the game with the ease of email and the lack of thought put into most emails, politicians listen to letters, and often reply to each of them (though sometimes its a form letter, but at least they read them).

Email is very low on the priority list to answer, and is not often taken seriously because "j00 suX0Rs" doesn't impress a house representative or senator.

What about Orrin Hatch? Why the hell isn't he at the top of the list? He's the one that SPONSORED the DMCA and then cried crocodile tears about how he was "fooled" and "tricked" by the industry.

Minor nit: You used the expression "These lawmakers in Congress and the Senate..." Congress is the collection of both the House of Representatives and the Senate. You should say, "These lawmakers in the House of Representatives and the Senate..."

Unfortunately, we are all used to calling our representative "Congressman so and so" which further adds to the confusion.

Sad truth is John Conyers D-MI is otherwise a good man. This leads me to believe we must really hold the hands of our representatives and senators as they can be easily deceived about these things. Us tech savvy folk must keep the letters flowing!

Note that the DMCA is not *ALL* bad. Yes, the anti-circumvention clause is a total crock - however, note that the DMCA *also* gave ISPs the joy of receiving 17 USC 512 takedown orders. Now, before you start whining about how much the takedown orders suck, consider this:

Before the DMCA, the *ISP* was liable as well. 17 USC 512 meant that an ISP did *NOT* have to invest large amounts of resources monitoring its servers looking for copyright-infringing materials and hope they found it and removed it before they got sued.

Consider that most ISPs are currently drowning just in spam filtering - and that deciding "Is this e-mail one of a fairly short list of spams" is a *lot* cheaper resource-wise than "Is the attachment on this e-mail a copy of any of the songs ever released by any RIAA artist?"

You missed the NET act.

It's the House and Senate; Congress is both as a whole unit of our government.

From now on I'm voting Libertarian and nothing else.

Ralph M. Hall is not the gentleman from Ohio as you have listed. You've confused the congressman representing the 4th district of Texas with Tony P. Hall, the Ohio 3rd district congressman.

Way to go.

And the grand total is: 18,269,719.

You missed the RAVE act that extends the crackhouse laws to club owners. Now the owners can be held liable if any club goers have drugs, glowsticks, or if the club has a cooldown room.

How about also listing politicans that work AGAINST these moronic laws? This way people can now not only who NOT to vote for, but also who to vore for instead!

Anyone notice how the number of Republicans on the list HEAVILY outweigh (74-19) the number of Democrats? Guess the Republicans need to protect those corporations.

sometimes i hate our government.

98% of politicians should be pshychologically evaluated at least 3 times prior to their considering taking an office, and then bi-weekly after that. it only makes sense. what would the world be if engineers and programmers were REQUIRED BY LAW to go to the music/entertainment industry before they could begin anything? it would destroy technoligical advancement as we now know it.

pish posh.

Maybe one day if i can make enough money i might be able to fight these bastards. question, did anybody notice what Disney's latest project is?.....that's right, it's another money making movie based on a classic story(in the public domain of course)with the focus on making money. treasure planet(island) is the next domino in a long line of Disney-Quality Censorship. A censorship of our rights is happening and we don't know it.

(i apologize for the preaching nature of my comments, i haven't slept in two days)
SyntheticSanity

You left out the COPPA (2 P's)

We just corrected "Congress" to "House of Representatives." Thanks for the edits, everybody.

Incredible wake-up call I would think...

I noticed this site/essay on the slashdot page which I read daily when not hourly... I'm a dutchman myself and am continuously amazed at how US government agencies consistently don't get the big picture of what democracy is all about...

Two other slashdot articles from the past seven days come to mind... One on how the US voting system is flawed (mathematically speaking) which was actually a great relief to me, because that meant the US citizens were probably smarter than their electional results would indicate.

The other was about about freedom of the press, where the US finished 17th when indexed according to certain standards... Enough said I would say.

The world gets to see a lot of the US. Free countries get to see almost everything the US has to sell. Countries like The Netherlands get it undubbed but with subtitles... We like a lot, but there's still a big lot not worth liking...

If any of you haven't seen it, I would recommend looking up the voting theory site referenced on slashdot. Making sure the US government represents the US residents interests would hopefully be a good start to getting things the way they should be...

Anyway, this listing is a great initiative, and I wish it all the best of luck, but more importantly I wist it a significant impact on it's readers/viewers...

Elizabeth Furse is another Rep who's not been in Congress for some time...

What annoys me so much that US policy is effectively world policy. US law makers need to consider impacts on not just US citizens, but the rest of the world's citizens too.

I take objection to the term "East Coast Code"... First off, I note that only one rep from either CT or MA voted - and for one bill each. The rest of the states in New England (Maine, New Hampshire, Vermont, Rhode Island) no reps voted for any of the bills. Many votes came out of NY and FL - not too suprising considering the hold that media magnates have there...

I see a whole bunch of votes from CA reps, a few from WA, and a bunch from TX. I'd say one should look in their own back yard before resorting to regional tarrings. The fact that DC is on the East Coast has little to nothing to do with how these bills were legislated; Look where the lobbiests come from - NY, FL and CA - the media hotspots. Plus a good sprinkling from the mid-west, where country is king!

Oh yeah, I forgot, the west coast is where all innovation happens, at least until the bean counters and jackdaws out on the east coast get ahold of it.... ;-)

How does this organisation work then? Is it voluntary, based on donations? BTW - did you notice the story on slashdot about this?

How interesting to see my old buddy Dave Jacoby posting here! Hi, Dave!

On the other hand, how interesting to see my former representative Asa Hutchinson on the list, but neither Dingell nor Tauzin (biting the hand that feeds me, I am).

This is too little, too late for 2002, and not useful for 2004. (It's particularly galling that a clean shot at one of the authors of Dingell-Tauzin was passed up this year, as Dingell was in a competitive primary against another incumbent, thanks to partisan redistricting.) I'm even going to go so far as to be annoyed that there are six laws listed, not eight as advertised.

Gilion expresses the views of non-US slashdotters very well...

I come from Australia, I am a proffessional developer and avid slashdot reader. The view from down here is that Oz may aswell be the 51st ( or is that 53rd ) state of the USA. The local lawmakers quite often simply pick up what the US is doing and copy it. Sadly Australia to some extent works on industry lobby groups like the US. This is a great idea and I would love to see it take off in as many countries as possible. Also, the net should be uncensored, the UN should be democratized and we need to clean up the planet a bit.

Human nature is such that we all shoot at the messengers, lets put that instict to good use and shout down psuedo-democratic lawmaking.

I count six laws not eight. What am I missing?

To Porter:

You claim that only two Congresspeople from New England voted for any of the bills. Two may be on the list, but the list is far from complete.

For example, the DMCA passed in the Senate by a 97-0 vote. Even if all three abstainers were from NE that is still 9 votes from New England right there.

Thanks for a great compilation. Just the sort of thing I've been wishing I had going into tomorrow's election. Interestingly enough I will be seeing Mr. Bilarakis's (#46) name on my ballot tomorrow.

I took the contents of this blog and created this page that allows you to filter the representatives of your particular state. Making it easy to take with you to the polls and stick it to your states representatives.

How did Orrin Hatch, the senator from Utah who is generally credited with being the prime moover on the DCMA manage to get completely left off this list?

Anyone who thinks ANY politician will do something for YOU is only kidding themselves. They all claim they're doing something to benefit you, but in the end they all are the slaves of the major shareholders of multinational corporations.

Power corrupts, at any level. Just tear it down and help create a new society without such powerful far reaching governments.

Nice list, maybe all the people who think these laws/rights blow (however many millions) should band together to fight these things and the makers of them. Clinton are you listening??? Whatever. I may have 56k, but I will continue to download music and full versions of software without much thought. Because if a game company makes a great game, I'll be sure to buy it even if I already downloaded it, because not supporting them would be stupid.

Porter,

You misunderstand "East Coast Code". Lessig used the term in his books (Code And Other Laws of Cyberspace and The Future of Ideas) simply to indicate one sort of code that influences the net and technology generally, LEGAL CODE, which in this country is made in the East, since Washington D.C. is both our capital and on the east coast. So, ANY law, not just bad ones were referred to as "East Coast Code" in his books. "West Coast Code" simply meant COMPUTER CODE, since Silicon Valley is recognized as the "capital" of the tech industry, while obviously everyone recognizes that not every line of computer code created comes from the west coast. The terms may not be perfect, but they were simply a device to distinguish between two types of "code" that influence technology. No insult was intended to East Coast residents. Lessig spent a lot of time at Harvard after all, so I imagine he's fond of New England in particular.

Posted by: on November 5, 2002 05:12 AM

2 more for the list of *ex*-congressmen on this list: J. C. Watts and Steve Largent (both of Oklahoma). Watts is retiring and Largent is running for Governor (ick).

Both of them were hit solely for supporting COPA. I think their replacements won't be nearly as reactionary, but I seriously doubt *any* elected representative from this state could resist voting for a "Child Online Protection Act" were it to come up again. It would just be too good of fodder for a sound-bite attack ad.

I find it interesting that the VAST majority of the lawmakers pushing these things forward are republicans. Remember during Clinton's reign how technology boomed and took off? And as soon as Bush gets into office techno and economic hell takes over.

Another name to denote as no longer being a member: Jon D. Fox (R, PA-13). He got voted out of office back in '98.

you're out of your mind. the tech crash happened during Clinton's presidency. you fucking idiot democrats have no memory at all

Would be great to know what the $ figure represents. Without that, this page is merely a curiousity.

-Sy

The key is that you aren't electioneering! You start out with a list of issues, or more specifically, a list of bills. You then state your position on those bills, and you say which congresscritter voted which way. No explicit or implied endorsement, just stating that these are the votes we consider important, and this is how your legislator voted on them.

Right now, the geek community has about the same political power and influence as left-handed jugglers, and the above list shows that. You fight bad legislation in the courts and you're just playing catch-up. You complain about bad law and bad lawmakers 4 years after a vote and you're playing catch-up. Voting guides will help us get in front. It isn't the only thing, but it is a start.

The tech crash wasn't political in nature. It had more to do with out-of-control speculation, and companies run by starry-eyed 20-year-olds with lots of venture capital and no business plan. This is the kind of wash-out that happens in *any* industry. A good example is the car industry in the early 1900's -- there were once *dozens* of car companies, but most of them didn't make it. The same thing happened with railroads in the 1800's.

The democrats may have "no memory at all" but at least their language is above yours. You need to get a much better vocabulary.
All of you need to check the club membership lists because Repubs & Dems BOTH are all the same lists. It doesn't matter which party is "running" the show; "the person on the street" gets the shaft. Libertarians don't practice what they preach either just look at their founder.

The Consumer Broadband and Digital Television Promotion Act is not a laq yet is it?