Dear [name of your senator]

I am a constituent and I'm very concerned about the proposed Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement (ACTA) that is currently being negotiated by the Office of the United States Trade Representative.  As an avid supporter of technology and the Internet, I'm concerned about reports that the trade agreement being negotiated  behind closed doors may contain provisions that could harm my civil liberties and privacy rights, and damage the environment for innovation and technological development within the United States.

I am particularly disturbed that such a wide-reaching treaty is being rushed through negotiations by the end of this year, with no Congressional debate or oversight and no opportunity for meaningful public consultation.

I urge you to:

(1)    request more information about the content of ACTA from the Office of the United States Trade Representative and colleagues on the United States Senate Committees on Finance; on Foreign Relations; and on the Judiciary,  
(2)    furnish your constituents with more information as soon as possible, and 
(3)    call for Senate hearings on this matter before negotiation of the  agreement is finalized by the United States Trade Representative 

Thank you for your consideration.

Sincerely,
 [Your Name]
 [Your Address]
 [City, State ZIP]

Dear <Your member of parliament>
Member for <Your riding>

Copyright law, and the changes proposed in Bill C-60 from the last parliament, are of concern to me.  While Bill C-60 died on the order paper when the election was called, we are worried that similar provisions will be contained in a future bill. While copyright is most often described as a balance between the interests of creators and the interests of the general public, the debate has been dominated by special interest industry lobby groups representing intermediaries (people who are neither creators nor the general public).

Bill C-60 may have been supported by these industry intermediaries, but was highly controversial with creators, and not supported by users. Industry lobby groups such as the Canadian Recording Industry Association (CRIA) can no more legitimately claim to politically represent the interests of creators than the owners of the major banks can claim to politically represent the interests of people who have bank accounts.

One of the many controversial aspects involved the legal protection of technical measures used by copyright holders.  It may be appropriate to protect technical measures applied by copyright holders to their own content.  What cannot be allowed is the legal protection of technical measures that affect devices that they do not own (e.g. my home computer).

The Sony-BMG case, which infected hundreds of thousands of networks of computers with a "RootKit" and "SpyWare", resulted in many lawsuits against Sony-BMG.  Speaking to a group of copyright holders about this issue, Stewart Baker, Department of Homeland Security's assistant secretary for policy, said, "It's very important to remember that it's your intellectual property -- it's not your computer. And in the pursuit of protection of intellectual property, it's important not to defeat or undermine the security measures that people need to adopt in these days."

Not only should we not be protecting this abuse of technical measures, but we should be passing laws which clearly make it illegal to apply a technical measure to something without the informed consent of the owner.

Thousands of Canadians, including hundreds of people who are in creative or innovation industries, have signed the "Petition for Users' Rights" which articulates a more balanced vision. Creators support this balance as they realize that creativity builds on the past, and that the protection of Creators' Rights includes the protection of Users' Rights.  In order for there to be a future generation of creators we must limit the control of past creator or non-creator copyright holders.


English Petition text http://www.digital-copyright.ca/petition/petition_en.pdf

French Petition text http://www.digital-copyright.ca/petition/petition_fr.pdf

More information on the petition http://www.digital-copyright.ca/petition/

Do you support this balanced vision?

Would you be willing to meet with me and/or members of our community to discuss these issues?

Sincerely,

<yourname>
<youraddress>
<your postal code>

Constituent of <Your riding>