Gamers Weigh In: The Entertainment Consumers Association Supports a Bottom-Up Approach to Internet Legislation
Wednesday, August 15, 2012
We continue to receive terrific feedback on AppRights from consumers, public-interest groups, and stakeholders.
We recently heard from Jennifer Mercurio, the Vice President and General Counsel of the Entertainment Consumers Association (ECA), a non-profit organziation dedicated to representing consumers in the digital rights arena. The ECA works on behalf of gamers, film, and music consumers and is dedicated to giving "gamers a collective voice with which to communicate their concerns, address their issues and focus their advocacy efforts." The ECA has over one-million members that include families, carriers, and mobile devices makers who are concerned about issues like privacy, cybersecurity, and streaming.
In her letter to the Congressman, Mercurio applauds AppRights for recognizing the "faults in previous legislative attempts and are working to correct them." In contrast, she pointed out that Congress is "generally deaf to the concerns of consumers," as shown by legislation like SOPA and CISPA failing in the face of overwhelming disapproval.
Congressman Johnson agrees: “We've all seen what happens when Congress tries to shove legislation down the public's throat without asking the internet what it thinks first,” which is why he opposed SOPA and compared CISPA to "1984".
We had a chance to catch up with Mercurio to learn more about the perspective of gamers and media-content consumers on mobile privacy. She explained that this is a large community that is passionate about privacy and cybersecurity.
Here’s a copy of her letter on behalf of the ECA. Let us know if you agree with her take on internet policy via our secure form at AppRights.us, via Twitter (@AppRightsUS), or on Facebook.
