Submitted by PhantomGhost

Have you ever sent a letter to your congressman or congresswoman, especially to complain about the RIAA, and gotten a reply that doesn’t seem like the senator’s or representative’s office cared, or just seemed like a dumb response? Then you probably got a generic response letter.

Generic response letters have long been used in DC. When some candidates for office tell you, during their campaigns, that they’ll respond to all the mail they get, they really mean they’ll likely be sending you a generic letter. Now, not all letters are generic. Most are - but some are not.

Recently, thamuz submitted his letter from Representative Adam Smith’s office. I read the letter,
and I’m happy to say it looks like thamuz avoided getting a generic response by writing a letter that hit
the office directly. Because they had no general way to respond, they had to sit down and write a real letter.

For those of you who don't know, Congress has this big utility called the General Printing Office. It's underneath the Capitol complex in Washington D.C., guarded by Capitol police. There, thousands of generic documents and letters are churned out every day in response to constituents of all the congressmen and congresswomen. Letters are printed, packed into envelopes, stamped, addressed, and sent out to the back, where Post Office trucks pick them up, haul them to a distribution center and send them out across the U.S. for delivery.

The way to avoid getting a response via the GPO is to write a letter that catches the staff's eye and make it so specific, to the point and factual that they have to write you a response. You don't want them to be able to say: OK, Secretary, that'll be response 3B, paragraph 2 is form D-708 and paragraph 4 form D-707, paragraphs 1 and 4 standard D-100, address is now in constituent database, line 9789.

Writing to Congress? Write your own letter! Make them respond! It helps. It sounds like you really care. Too many carbon copies of a letter from the Internet mean a new form from the office staff. Then they just send all those people the exact same response letter. They don’t have the time to write everyone back. But if you want to
make them respond- catch their attention- maybe even forward it to the senator or representative themselves - write a real letter that captures what you feel. You can go to www.congress.org to find out the addresses of your politicians, but- write your own letter. Write your own letter. Do not use someone else’s. You stand a much better chance of getting through to them if you write yourself.

Even if you wrote to the RIAA - and I would actually write to the different labels - write your own letter. It will make them worry. If each person takes the time to say something different, they must care a lot, and that will worry the industry execs.

Here are the addresses for the labels:

Bertelsmann- 1540 Broadway, New York, NY 10036
EMI Group Plc- 27 Wrights Lane, London, W8 5SW
Universal Music Group- 2220 Colorado Avenue, Santa Monica, CA 90404 and also: 1755 Broadway, New York, NY 10019.
Warner Music Group- 75 Rockefeller Plaza, New York, NY 10019.
Sony Music Entertainment- 550 Madison Ave, New York, NY 10022-3211

Those are the addresses of each record label’s corporate HQ. Sure, they will probably toss your letter in the trash. But you can at least bother them. And remember, to bother the politicians, simply go to www.congress.org. I have below the address for Senator Orrin Hatch, in case you want to send him a letter complaining about his hacking law and abuse of consumer’s rights.

Orrin Hatch- 104 Hart Senate Office Building, Washington, D.C. 20510-4402

Once at www.congress.org, click on ELECTED OFFICIALS. Select your state and get the addresses of all your senators and representatives. Then you can write them. It is okay to send each of them the same letter - as long as you write it. Each of them has a separate office, so it won’t matter. Just make sure you include their name in the letter - not, Dear Representative, instead, Dear Senator Murray, foe example. Encourage them to act.

Say, 'I expect that you will keep the interests of your constituents first and foremost when you vote in Congress. I eagerly await to see what vote you will take on Senate Bill 0000-00 (insert a relevant bill number, for example).' Remind them that YOU are WATCHING them. Make the staff people feel guilty. They’ll pass the letter on up and remind the senator or representative to think, because a big ruckus might start up back home if the vote doesn’t satisfy the constituent. (Believe me; one person can easily spread the word about such a vote, and THEY know this).

So, what are you waiting for? Sit down and write the labels and your politicians. The more people who send letters, the greater the chance that our voice will be collectively heard, and the more fun we can have worrying the label executives out of their minds. They use the RIAA as their shield. Don’t write to the RIAA! Send five copies of your letter, with each label specifically mentioned on each one, to each label.

And always remember - don't swear at them, don't use capital letters - be polite. That way it's hard for them to put you down. Make your point as best you can, and be sure to complain about all the lawsuits and how you are BOYCOTTING them.

Best of luck! If you need any help, send me (PhantomGhost) a dmusic note and I'll help you as best I can.

Also use word or some other document software, for spelling and grammer.
And buy all means do write your own letter.

guud gramr iz very import ant.(really though your point comes acroos better with good verbiage well defined points all constructed in a NEAT package)

PhantomGhost- what can I say but,
EXCELLENT ARTICLE>. What you said is so true and I found the points to be really great and well focused,

Hmm..maybe I should quit writing in the TO section "Dear sir or madam or unidentified recipient"...LOL
~code

I've written my own individual letters to various artists and to various congressmen and I still haven't received any response. In fact, just this morning, I wrote a letter to Peter Gabriel and sent it via his personal assistant. Instead of getting a reply to the personal letter I wrote, I got a letter thanking me for entering the Peter Gabriel contest on his website hehehe. She said they didn't have time to read all the letters individually. I guess not. Not even when it has to do with Peter's support of the RIAA. I'm wondering if there's a way I could send it snail mail instead of e-mail....perhaps. Either way, I'm going to make sure my voice is heard.

I have sent out 27 emails on congress.org .since July haven't recievd one response. I guess the RIAA ate my cookies!

Haha cookies. I guess I have a reasonable excuse - I didn't vote in my elected officials. That'll change soon! (What I mean is I was not in the state I'm now in, AZ, nor elidgible (sp?) to vote at that time) But I do intend to send letters anyway. Thanks for the suggestoins, they'll prove useful.

here is another good link to write to congress and the senate with http://opengov.media.mit.edu/ *if it gets the at the end just delete it or copy and paste in your browser*
also, another thing to remember is at this point in time they are in session, so they are busy people listening to these debates and getting their wallets padded so 99.99% of the time their assistants are going to respond to your emails and letters, and they have to use form letters cause they can't put words in their mouths. i still suggest to all of you that are close to your reps home office to go in and try to set up an appointment about this cause this is more then a caseworker can handle, then when you get your apt, sit down with facts to tell them, not the spin that the RIAA wants to put on things, and dress nice, and be well spoken and knowlegable on the subject matter, we have some great resources here if you need help with that matter

great article and i agree 110%!

United WE Stand

I wrote letters to my senators again today - Feinstein and Boxer. Both support the entertainment industry. I can't wait to vote against them in the next election, if they don't change their stand on this issue.

IFeelFree - did you say that explicitly in the letter? That would get their attention.

Heh isp!

I used to work for a Congressman as a Legislative Correspondent, i.e. one of the staffers who wrote response letters to people. I can tell you that Phantom Ghost is right. Individualized letters make a big difference.

A Congressman usually does not see most letters. If the staffer knows his position, he will respond without even talking to him about each letter. If it is a common issue, they have a common canned letter. Since most get tens of thousands of letters each day, any other system would be impossible.

Usually we would read a letter to get the gist of the issue and whether the person was pro-or-con, then they would get a letter based on that. If the letter was on an unusual issue, some low-level staffer like I was would write a response, which would then be approved by either a senior staff member or the Congressman himself.

But even if you get a canned response, that doesn't mean the Congressman does not care. They usually keep close track of the number of letters on an issue. They are also more interested in letters that don't have canned language or are pre-printed post cards because they then know the writer has a significant interest in this issue and that there are probably many others like him who did not want to take the time to write a whole letter.

They also care whether or not you are a constituent. If you can't vote for them and are not a contributor, why should they care what you think? You letter may get tossed or forwarded to your Congressman. They may send a canned answer but won't really care about considering your letter.

The most important thing is to write an indiviualized letter, make sure they know you know what you are talking about. If you want a specific position on a specific bill, mention the bill's number. Also, make clear that you feel very strongly and that you vote may depend on how they vote on this issue.

I wouldn't bother to write any member unless I can vote for them. The key here is not to get an indiviualized response. Rather, we want them to realize there are a lot of people who feel strongly about this issue.

Thanks, codewarrior, and everyone else. I did a little research before I wrote this. I also have the pleasure of knowing how congressional mail works.

:-:~ PhantomGhost a.k.a. Andrew ~:-:

I think we can all take a cue from what Phantom says!
and..
Rattboy- man, thanks for speaking out.
Your experience in that arena is very valuable to all of us, in tailoring our communications to get the maximum effect, and I thank you for your insight!
~code

I've always been lax (read: apathetic) when it came to politics and voting and such. Not any more. I'm getting involved!

btw...got my boycott-riaa.com bumper sticker today!

Well guys, I sent about thirty e-mails to congress about it all, and got a couple of form letter responses, one actual response via e-mail, and an actual physical letter. The way I figure, there's more at stake here than just this whole MP3 b.s., the DCMA is constantly being abuse to prohibit free speech (see the Church of Scientology vs. google), limit technological innovations, DirecTV vs. anyone who has smartcard readers, etc. This travesty needs to be put to an end. Don't just point out your specific interests, let them know that this affects more than just P2P technology and that there's millions more Americans who might not use p2p and are still getting the short end of the stick because of it. It's their job to represent us, so give them more to represent than just "I hate the RIAA and this is why".

Don't forget to send letters to the people that advertise on movie theater slide shows before the movie, radio stations, the retailers of music, (Best Buy, Circuit City, Sam Goody, etc.) or the companies that advertise on Television.

Most of these guys are the ones that pay the biggest share of revenues to the music industry and the motion picture industry. they are interconnected and inter-dependent.

If you raise a big issue with companies that advertise on radio stations, television, or the movies that you watch...they will get the message, and often those companies have more leverage with the industry that even Congress!

If enough people were to tell Pepsi for an example that they wont buy thier products anymore as long as they run advertisements during shows by, or in support of, artists that are affiliated with the RIAA or MPAA...they would have to approach the RIAA and MPAA about it and tell them they are pulling thier ads. This would have a huge impact on the RIAA and MPAA and the companies they represent.

Big business can often times dictate to other businesses how they conduct themselves simply by using the oldest vote in the world...the same one we are using..."The vote of the pocket-book".

- Jolly Roger

- Nothing is more disgusting than a greedy industry...nor as satisfying to poke with a stick after it's death.

Hmmm. Extending the boycott to non-music related industries.

If you think about it, everything we talk about boycotting is something we could stop using and live just fine without. In fact, we'd all be a lot healthier and happier.

If we dumped the entertainment electronics, we'd get more exercise and perhaps spend a little more time talking to each other.

If we stopped drinking Pepsi(or any other soda), we'd all be healthier as well. And if we stopped buying music by the likes of Eminem, Madonna, et al, we'd stop supporting reprobate lifestyles.

And with all the money we'd be saving, we'd be better off financially.

What's that, you say? The other industries would collapse, and the economy would hit the skids?

No problem, we'll just blame it on the RIAA. After all, it would be their fault we're boycotting everything related to them. If they can blame p2p for all their woes, we can blame them for the collapse of the ecomony.

Works for me. Half tongue in cheek, and half serious. And I'm not trying to be sarcastic with anyone.

So which has more impact, email or physical letter?

Also (because I forgot), is there a list of relevant senate bills and their corresponding numbers somewhere? Given the daily grind, it's hard trying to hack through the whole pile to see exactly which ones WE should be watching. A list would prove useful, especially for letter writing references.