[wordup] M$ Scam ... Write to your congress critter!

[Adam Shand]

Gene has kindly supplied a letter as a starting point if others would like
to complain about what Microsoft is doing.  He's right that this is
blatent fraud and should be more then ignored, it should be prosecuted.
As Gene says it's better if you write your own letter then cut and paste
someone elses (has more impact that way) but please feel free to use his
letter as a starting point if you need one.

If you live in the USA you can submit a letter online and find out who
your local representitive is at this URL:

	http://www.house.gov/writerep/

Adam.

By: Gene Merrill <gene at spack.org>

> if you write a letter send it to me and i'll mail it out to wordup as a
> template for others to use if they so wish. :)

For reasons that the article explains better than I can, I don't think
people should use templates, but rather collect their ideas (perhaps jot a
few notes on the highlights of what they want to communicate) and write a
letter in their own voice.

But here's what I wrote, feel free to cut and paste into your own if you
wish.

===

The honorable David Wu:

I have recently read this article:
  http://www.latimes.com/business/la-082301micro.story

and would like to urge you to apply any pressure in your power to
encourage Utah Atty. Gen. Mark Shurtleff and perhaps the US Atty. General
to prosecute Microsoft for this fraud. The tactics that corporations are
willing to use in order to protect their intrests frightens and angers me.

In case you don't have time to visit the link, Microsoft has hired
lobbyists who are sending fake letters of support to representives in
government, some from people who have died but are still on the voter
rolls. The letters are very sophisticated, appearing in different
typefaces and stationary.

I base my voting nearly solely on the issues of Corporate Abuse of Power
and Campaign Finance Reform. With your background as an IP attorney you
are well suited to combat the former, and as an elected official you have
power to help the latter's cause as well. Please endevour in your daily
tasks as our elected official to keep corporate dollars and influence out
of an arena reserved for citizens, and you will earn my vote every
election year.

Thanks for bearing with me,

Gene Merrill
gene at personaltelco.net