In response to the “Reuse Rider” attached to the proposed Internet Freedom Act bill (H.R. 4070), content strategy leaders and reuse advocates at Content Rules have initiated an intense campaign to lobby Capitol Hill against passage of the amendment. As reported by TechWhirl, Senator Hudspeth Arnette BalmerLee VII (I-VD) proposed amendment to H.R. 4070 in the form of a rider to the Net Neutrality Clause that would levy significant fines for “egregious reuse and sharing of content.”
“Clearly this rider is not in the best interests of corporate or human citizens,” said Val Swisher, CEO of Content Rules. “The idea that reuse of content will carry fines (in excess of $100,000 in some cases) is simply preposterous. This would put large swathes, and I mean swathes, of content strategists, writers, and social media managers on the unemployment lines.”
Swisher contends that the ability to reuse, repurpose, and reshare content is critical to all companies and individuals doing business or existing in any form in the 21st century. “Consider how hampered the typical company would be if it could not reuse content such as hardware installation instructions, software configuration information, old marketing campaigns from the 1960’s, or performance evaluations of auto rental clerks. Not to mention how time-consuming it would be for everyday Joes and Joannes who couldn’t reuse pictures of holiday meals, doctor’s excuses from PE classes, or the ever-popular Valentine’s Day Card. All of these examples contain information that has been used time and again since the dark ages.”
Noting with rancor, that the rider was placed into the right margin of page 237 of the original paperwork, using 4-point font, Swisher announced a campaign to repeatedly drive home the dangers of the rider with all members of Congress. Tentatively titled “Rescind the Reuse Rider” or the “3R’s” for short, the Content Rules campaign will include reproducible instructions, in both PDF and HTML formats, for copying and pasting the template contents of a sample letter into individual documents to be emailed or snail-mailed to every member of Congress. “We urge all content professionals, their spouses, children, siblings, and neighbors to download the template and instructions, which are available in both PDF and HTML formats, and create hundreds of copies. Send at least a dozen copies to all of these so-called representatives of the American people. We want to show them who really rules.”
Swisher, described her intention to delegate this effort on Content Rules behalf to several staff members, due to the fact that she is involved in a hostile takeover of The Content Wrangler, having successfully purchasing 65% of all shares in the company thus far. A statement on the takeover is forthcoming.
Val is on the Advisory Board for the Technical Communications Program at the University of North Texas. When not working with customers or students, Val can be found sitting behind her sewing machine working on her latest quilt. She also makes a mean hummus.
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