Tips about 'writing your congressman'From: Daniel Orr <dorr@asc.upenn.edu> I feel privileged to get email from you, as I am a long time admirer
of your work. Congrats on a well deserved EFF Pioneer Award. I'd keep the letter to about two pages, any longer and they're going
to stop reading. As Kennedy is on the Judiciary Committee, I would recommend
calling his DC office and asking "Who is the legislative aide who
handles Judiciary Credentials will help particularly in the letter addressed to the LA.
Keep in mind though, a staff of forty of so has to cover every imaginable
issue that comes up from encryption policy to dairy subsidies. The DMCA
is a very important issue, but it is still a niche issue. Congressional
staff are overworked and poorly paid, this results in high turnover and
aides who don't necessarily understand the issues they are assigned to
as well as they should. Don't be offended if your credentials don't mean
as much to them as they do to the members of this list. The second letter will be received by the mail director who will assign
it to the Legislative Correspondent who responds to letters on related
issues. You may get a form letter back, it may be a more detailed response.
It depends on how familiar the office is with the DMCA. The two letters are important because one will be read by the LA who
advises the Senator directly on the issue and may choose to write a personal
response. The second will go in the office's correspondence management
database and will be included in tallies of future letters on that issue.
So when Sen. Kennedy asks his staff "What have we been getting a
lot of mail on?" the legislative correspondent can respond "the
DMCA" and cite your letter. Hope this is helpful. Dan
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