<div dir="ltr"><div class="gmail_extra"><div class="gmail_quote">On Wed, Nov 5, 2014 at 9:03 AM, Gary Buhrmaster <span dir="ltr"><<a href="mailto:gary.buhrmaster@gmail.com" target="_blank">gary.buhrmaster@gmail.com</a>></span> wrote:<br><blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="margin:0px 0px 0px 0.8ex;border-left:1px solid rgb(204,204,204);padding-left:1ex"><span class="">On Wed, Nov 5, 2014 at 4:25 PM, Simon Hobson <<a href="mailto:linux@thehobsons.co.uk">linux@thehobsons.co.uk</a>> wrote:<br>
> Thomas Mashos <<a href="mailto:thomas@mashos.com">thomas@mashos.com</a>> wrote:<br>
><br>
>> Anyone got a form letter we can send?<br>
><br>
> Much better to write your own - no matter how inarticulate you may feel.<br>
> If ${representative} gets a lot of identical letters, they often either disregard them or just count them all as just one.<br>
><br>
> That's on the basis that these days it's just so easy to organise a mass "letter" writing by providing a form letter and getting people to "just click to send". Thus if they gets lots of identical letters or emails, they are likely to assume it's a load of people just clicking without necessarily having considered what it is they are "writing" about. That's the downside of the ease of contacting them these days.<br>
<br>
</span>It is also why sending "real" letters (not email) is considered<br>
by most of your congress critters to be more significant than<br>
flooding in-boxes or posting to their pages.<br>
<br>
My personal problem with this "campaign" (other than it<br>
is really about corporate spin) is that I am not wedded to<br>
CableCARD as a technology (it works, I use it, nothing else<br>
is out there yet). I would rather see a FCC ruling that<br>
consumers have access to the content (at reasonable<br>
cost/availability) for *all* providers. That means Cable,<br>
Satellite, and Video over IP providers (and any other<br>
content providers). It should be noted that the Cable<br>
industry is moving to a pure IP delivery platform, so<br>
CableCARDs are on their way out for everything in the<br>
longer term anyway (we are mostly talking about when, not<br>
if) and the current CableCARD content rules do not apply<br>
to Video over IP providers (talk to the u-Verse subscribers,<br>
or the Google Fiber subscribers). So this should not be<br>
about preserving a CableCARD portfolio, but about insuring<br>
access. TiVo has already been working with Comcast for<br>
alternative delivery solutions (which do not include<br>
CableCARDs). That *might* be a way forward in the long<br>
term. The issue with most of the current solutions is<br>
that they tend to be focused first on protection of the<br>
content, and only secondly on accessibility (eliminating<br>
options that include open source, non-DRM implementing,<br>
platforms). Focus on what we want, not on how it is<br>
implemented. That is a much harder campaign to run,<br>
especially for those that want a 2 second sound bite<br>
(the 10 second sound bite is so last decade).<br>
<span class=""><font color="#888888"><br>
Gary</font></span><br></blockquote></div><br></div><div class="gmail_extra">Not sure if you were aware this is in the works: <a href="http://www.theverge.com/2014/10/28/7086201/internet-tv-rule-change-proposed-fcc">http://www.theverge.com/2014/10/28/7086201/internet-tv-rule-change-proposed-fcc</a><br><br></div><div class="gmail_extra">Karl<br></div></div>