IPac was formed to fight for a more balanced intellectual property
policy, but we also hoped to shed some light on the often mysterious
legislative process. We wanted to investigate how the "sausage
factory" really works.

This month, I'm pleased to report on one example where the legislative
process really did work as it should. As most of you know, last
session Senators Hatch and Leahy introduced the INDUCE act, a terrible
piece of legislation that would have significantly chilled
technological innovation. Fortunately, a coalition of groups were able
to stop INDUCE from passing. Senator Hillary Clinton (D-NY)
cosponsored this bill, and I recently met with a member of her
legislative staff, Mike, to talk about it.

Mike related some very heartening news: after initially cosponsoring
the bill, Senator Clinton heard all our objections loud and clear and
took them to heart. In fact, since then, she has been asked about
this issue countless times when she has spoken on college campuses.
Hearing the opinions from college students and other citizens, her
office has decided to be "much more judicious" about getting behind
similar measures in the future.

There are going to be a lot of difficult legislative battles to come.
And I hope Senator Clinton will be on the right side of these issues
in the future, though we won't know until the time comes. But I wanted
to relate this story because it shows that our elected officials
really do listen to all of us, and not just those of us who are
well-connected or contribute large amounts of money. Actually, when it
comes to issues like IP, most legislators' minds aren't made up, and a
little educating can go a long way.

I want to encourage all of you to reach out to your legislators -
whether writing letters or actually taking the time to try to get a
meeting with a member of the legislative staff. Ask your
Congressperson and Senators how they feel about these issues, and let
us know what they say. We'll post responses here on the blog.