If clarity, concision, and long-hand are integral to writing effective letters to politicians, here are two Twitter-sized communiqués (yep, 140 characters each), that you can copy out and snail-mail to speak out against a Canadian DMCA-type copyright bill, and/or ACTA. They’re convenient, replicating them can help send a strong, unequivocal message, and they’ll even fit on a postcard. (Remember, no stamp needed to mail them to MPs c/o House of Commons, Ottawa, ON, K1A 0A6.)
I oppose any IP bill that includes strong digital lock provisions, excludes flexible fair dealing protections, & ignores public consultation
I oppose Canada’s secretive and undemocratic participation in the Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement (ACTA), and I also oppose ACTA itself.
Sure, you can tweet them too. But you can’t tweet them directly to the ministers responsible for the expected copyright bill, Hon. James Moore (Minister of Canadian Heritage and Official Languages) and Hon. Tony Clement (Minister of Industry) … tellingly, they neither follow anyone nor have any followers. Okay, they may follow and have followers, but looking for them during the “Twitter follow bug” made for a convenient reminder that their IP “reforms” don’t follow public opinion.
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As a Canadian, I feel deep shame that our government is imposing ACTA on us and providing a terrible example for the world.
Dr. Strangelove
University of Ottawa
Author of Watching YouTube: Extraordinary Videos by Ordinary People (University of Toronto Press, 2010)
The Canadian Government is poised to ignore the input of thousands of consumers who participated in recent public consultations on copyright and proceed with anti-consumer copyright legislation, a Canadian DMCA. Speak out now. Send a letter to your MP and the Prime Minister in less than 2min using this online letter wizard from the Canadian Coalition for Electronic RIghts.
http://www.ccer.ca/speakout
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If we can’t send them tweets directly, what’s the point of the article?
Tony C, you make a good point. I just didn’t consider coding a direct tweet function — if it’s ridiculously easy, though, I’m all ears.
But part of what I’ve learned here is the importance of personalizing and customizing correspondence with politicians. Hence the emphasis on handwriting. (Anyone else remember handwriting?)
Thanks to all for your comments and reposts.
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