When the recording industry was faced with Napster, it sued it's own customers. That was a good idea.

Now, the US House of Representatives, the People's House, is blocking communication from the people who vote them into office. In a move of staggering wrongheadednes, the House administrator has offered to each office technology that sets up a "logic puzzle" obstacle to incoming email. You might, for instance, have to answer the quesiton "What is sum of 2 and 1?" before your email will be allowed to enter your representatives office.

I used to work in the House, so I have some sympathy with overwhelmed staff, but as one consultant said "E-mail should be their best friend and they haven't figured out how to make it their best friend." Yes, spam is a problem, but mass emails from groups of constituents is NOT a problem. It's democracy. Members of the House have no problem sending mass email TO their constituents -- why are they afraid to receive it?

Mail to Congress has become a useless means of communicating, since it's slowed down by inspection since the anthrax incident. Fax machines pile up letters. And phone calls work, but many offices can barely handle the calls on a hot issue. Visiting offices is not possible for some -- and not as easy as it used to be anyway with the (necessary) security measures.

Check out Jeffrey Birnbaums's piece in the Washington Post today.

Got any idea how we can creatively protest?