No subject

yet. That you got help from experts who know more than you about a subject
isn't a bad thing *if you aren't expected to know as much as the experts.*

Different with the Gov't. No direct boycott. You can't play good cop / bad
cop with cops. And the gov't won't want to admit that outsiders know more
than/ can advise them about the law.

With Adobe, our protest = geeks persuading geeks. Adobe's programmers
probably read Slashdot, etc., knew what was up, and could sympathize with
Dmitri. With the gov't there'll be much less common ground. The FBI/DoJ acts
suspicious at best about clever programming and hacks.

With the Gov't, they won't want the appearance of responding to protesters.
Especially as to them "protester" = a mix of "riot, Seattle,
tree-sitters..." = people you never deal with. Adobe looked out the window
to see "unhappy customer base" = people you can't ignore.

With the confirmation hearing- these are the people who voted for the DMCA.
Their gut reaction might be "Do I want that an innocent man was arrested by
the law I made? Easiest solution is to think of him as a guilty man." Ever
watch prosecutors / officials talking about actually innocent people who've
been sent to jail and now released? They'll go to contorted lengths to avoid
admitting the people are in fact innocent.... "well, they're *procedurally*
innocent, but they still must've done *something*" The Gov't will really
want to find something wrong w/ Dmitri.  We'll have to be careful not to
trigger their defensiveness.

food for thought.
Kathryn Myronuk