WIRETAP: boycotts

[Eric Hughes <hughes@soda.berkeley.edu>]

>Also for consideration: boycott AT&T and all other companies making
>phones with the wiretap chip, and let the phone makers know about 
>the boycott early and often.

Boycotting AT&T overall isn't going to do much economic harm, since
the number of anti-wiretap chips is small in comparison to the number
of long-distance companies.  If you want to hurt them, get them where
it counts.

1.  The AT&T wiretap phone is designed by a division in Greensboro.
Find out everything that this specific division makes.

2. Take this list and in the second column write down all the products
which directly compete with those in the first column; these are the
alternatives.

3. Get Communication Week to give (or sell) you a mailing list of
their subscribers; these folks are already qualified purchasers of
telecom equipment.

4. Send and educational mailing to this list, explaining that if they
support AT&T in wiretapping, that soon they'll be screwed themselves.
Include the list of AT&T products and alternatives and urge people to
voice their frustration by buying from someone else.  They might also
want to send in the sample protest letter you've included.

Now this strategy has a few characteristics I'd like to point out.
First, if no one buys wiretap chips, the wiretap chip doesn't gain
market share, a very important point where compatibility creates
positive feedback loops in the market.  Second, it's selective in it's
targets; the model here is to target one division.  When sales
actually suffer, there is the possibility of getting the division
manager fired for taking an action not in the best interest of the
company.  A shareholder lawsuit might also help here.  If you can
bring down wrath on one manager's head, you will deter others from
following the same strategy.  Third, since this is such a charged
issue, you might be able to get donated mailing lists, ad agency
consults (Jerry Mander comes to mind), etc. free or cheap.  At the
very least, such a campaign doesn't cost a lot (on corporate terms) to
do entirely commercially; CPSR and/or EFF could mount it.

As a second round, target the PBX division of AT&T, since that's where
the next round of chip deployments are.

Eric