

SOPA/Protect IP ACT: How to make a difference - twunde

I've seen a number of threads on Hacker News organizing resistance to these bills...it's a good first try.  But Senators and House Reps deal with organizations like the NRA, the Tea Party and others which literally run campaigns for and against bills millions of times and have perfected it.<p>First, a point of clarification.
SOPA, or the Stop Online Privacy Act is the House of Representatives bill, H.R. 3261. 
PROTECT IP ACT is the Senate bill, S. 968. 
Your senator has no influence over SOPA and your House Representative can't influence the PROTECT IP ACT. 
EVERY time you contact your senator or representative mention the BILL NUMBER! Think of them as users for your website/app/product.  If they don't know what exactly they are supposed to do you lose them.  In this case maybe you get a response back about an old net neutrality bill or something equally bizarre.  The BILL NUMBER is how they keep track of interest in a bill. If they don't have it, it may not be tracked and counted.<p>Contacting your senator or House Rep by email, while useful is the least meaningful way to get their attention.  
If x=the amount of influence your contacting them has this is how it would turn out:
Phone: 10000x,  Letter: 100x, Email: 1x
By law, the representatives have to respond to mail.  They don't to email, so if your email gets caught in the spam filter, you're out of luck.<p>Contacting your local representatives is most effective if the outreach comes in waves.  If you can organize a call-in and fill up all the office lines that will get their attention.  Another effective strategy is to ask your officemates to sign their own copy of a petition and say that you will collect signed copies the next day and mail them out (each person should print and sign 3, one for each senator and the House Rep).  This comes with the benefit that all the letters arrive on the same day, forcing at least one aide to open 20-50 copies of the same letter one right after another. Repition is your friend<p>More info including the list of cosponsors, where the bills are in Congress and links to the full-text document are below:
http://www.govtrack.us/congress/bill.xpd?bill=h112-3261
http://www.govtrack.us/congress/bill.xpd?bill=s112-968<p>Also for New Yorkers. BOTH SENATORS ARE COSPONSORS OF PROTECT IP ACT!
California: You have 8 House Reps co-sponsoring SOPA!
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Pie21
I live in Australia, but am equally offended with the SOPA legislation. I
don't have any congresspeople to contact, but am eager to spread the word. Is
there any 'official' anti-SOPA protest banners I could put on my website?

