I read a recent article about the Senate hearings on the broadcast flag (Wikipedia, EFF). It seems that a connection was made for one of the Senators who had been given and iPod and was enjoying the functionality. When it was pointed out that he was in support of legislation that would cripple his new toy it gave him pause. Read up!

The events at the broadcast flag hearing prompted iPAC to start a campaign to educate Congress by sending them all iPods.

I’m interested in helping to educate. An email I sent iPAC:

To: info [at] ipaction.org
Subject: iPod donataion for specific Senator

All,

I love the idea to send all the Senators iPods. Education is key! I would love
to educate my senator, Hatch, from UT. He seems to be particularly uneducated.
Is there anyway to earmark my money towards his iPod?

Clark

Please join me by going to iPAC and pledging your monetary support!

Update! 2002.02.06 - 10:08 AM

From: Ren Bucholz
To: Clark Burbidge
Cc: info [at] ipaction.org
Subject: Re: iPod donataion for specific Senator

Hi Clark,

Thanks for the complements! We’d love to help, but naming a specific
Senator triggers certain campaign finance laws that are a pain to deal
with. For example, we’d have to disburse the loaded, engraved iPod
within ten days of receiving the first contribution towards it. That’s
a really tight turnaround and a good deal more bookkeeping. So we have
to keep the recipient of each iPod a secret until we’ve raised enough
money to send it off.

However, you’re welcome to buy Hatch an iPod on your own, then load it
with the contents of the ones we’re assembling. We’re planning to make
a tarball of that file available via BitTorrent.

Hope that helps!

Best,

Ren

I’m pretty sure I don’t want to buy Hatch a whole iPod. But would if I had some help! Anyone for a backhanded campaign contribution? :)