So why not an online petition? Because if I sign something on the net, anyone who runs my name through Google finds this. I'm not sure I want this to be one of the first things someone potentially learns about me.

I do participate in the politics of IP, but I look back on my writings from ten years ago, and I wouldn't want them on the net now.

If there were a way to sign the petition online, but not have the name posted (stored in a database for congressional representatives), would anyone else sign it?

Following this news item I want 10,000 comments or 10,000 more signatures. Otherwise you just do not care and that is not acceptable.

What??? Greplaw doesn't even have 10,000 readers!

The plus side to that is that we don't have to worry about being tricked into hitting tubgirl and goatse.cx links. (damnit...it pisses me off when I fall for those)

I guess you put the burden of proof on the Greplaw crew, even though made the accusation.

It actually comes from the statistical analysis I've done on my website. If you want me to walk you through the statistics, I can. I'd estimate that Greplaw has about 1,000 daily readers, very roughly. That is, people who are going to see your call to sign the petition in the immediate future.

Heck, look at my blog entry Slashdot Reflect II [sethf.com] for a musing on such numbers.

That's "readers", not "page views" - I've generated a bunch of page views and site-hits from posting these comments, but I'm just one reader.

You also have to be careful in crunching numbers to throw out search-bots. When Google hits my site, it generated hundreds of hits, but that's not hundreds of readers.

Note I didn't mean, "Over a month, there aren't 10,000 people who will see at least one page from Greplaw" - heck, by that measure, my site might even qualify. I meant "There aren't even 10,000 people who are going to see your call to sign the petition in the near future, assuming just Greplaw" (if Slashdot picks it up, obviously this changes).

There are a thousand forms of subversion, but few can equal the convenience and immediacy of a cream pie. Noel Godin

How about something like:

The RIAA is lobbying to make your children stupid.

Without libraries online, all children lose. Period.

There are a few things I still cannot figure out about Lessig's proposal (although it is the best one that I have heard yet). The one I am the most concerned with, though, is how would taxes be collected without registration? If no one knows that the taxable item exists, how can taxes be collected?

Automatic copyright makes record keeping a nightmare. After 50 years, the nightmare is exponentially multiplied. It might not be known that a person existed, much less that he actually created anything. How would this be taxed? Without the author, who is to say when the work was created? Was it 50 years ago or only 30? What does a person that finds a document in an attic do? Will someone owe back taxes on that document if the author has not paid?