By now you've probably read about the results of the House hearings on "Ensuring Content Protection in the Digital Age" scheduled for Thursday, April 25. I have word from Rep. Anna Eshoo's staff that she is opposed to the Hollings bill on the House side, and she's on the committee that will be holding the hearings. Get in touch with your Representative's staff today to make sure he or she won't sponsor a House version of the Hollings bill. Pick up the phone; a Legislative Assistant will talk with you if you're (1) from the district, (2) persistent and (3) polite. You also can get a real working e-mail address for future contacts. (Yes, the public addresses on Congress sites are worthless; get a staff member's real working address and don't abuse it.)

Who in South Carolina is organizing Linux users to beat Senator Hollings? He had a close call last election, so the Republicans will be loaded for bear (well, okay, mouse) this time. As long as they don't shoot themselves in the foot in the primary and run a total ass (as political parties everywhere have been known to do), they're golden. So step one, South Carolina freedom lovers, is to get involved in the Republican party now so you can figure out who's the real fair-use-friendly Hollings-beater and support that person from day one.

And no excuses about not being a "big Linux state" either, South Carolina folks. South Carolina has an adjusted Linux/Web Quotient of 13.0, (14.7 before you -Hollings to count out all the SSSCA/CBDTPA pages)--9th in the nation. (The Linux/Web Quotient is the number of results for +linux+state_name on Google, divided by the number of thousands of results for state_name.)

(Thanks to Karsten Self for researching that info on www.opensecrets.org.)

If you're up for the politics but just can't remember the initials CBDTPA, just think "Consume, But Don't Try Programming Anything." Thanks to Steven Cherry and the EFF for the mnemonic magic.

--Excerpt from April 25, 2002 issue of Don Marti's bimonthly newsletter, Aspire to Crudeness. Don is the technical editor of Linux Journal, and you can sign up for his newsletter.