And after noticing this on my yahoo news, I wrote a letter not an hour ago to my reps stating my opposition as their constituant to this bill. It will go out with the morning mail.
If you do not know your reps name and address,
Here is the
House of Representative search feature by zip code
Here is the
Senate representatives listing
Email is rarely effective, though feel free to use that to dash off a quick note. Now.
But also follow it up with a real letter if you have the time.
As a Florida resident who depends on the NOAA website for Hurrican information, as well as historic data which I use for architecture, I am very concerned. (The bill will not affect Hurrican forecasting, but will cut off access to historic data and meterological information that many hobbyists depend on.
We paid for this information. Our taxes [ay for the NOAA, and we foot the bill. Now we are being asked to foot the bill twice by paying to have the data collected, and then paying private companies for access, when they get it in bulk for little money.
To make an analogy, would you pay to buy a car, and then like to pay every time you need to drive it?
We paid for the information, and now we are being told we also need to pay to use it.
Here is the bill