I take a slightly different approach to the talk of boycotts. My thought has to do with amnesty for the telecoms. Do not pay your phone bill! I am fairly certain that the standard telephone/cell phone service agreement did not and does not allow the telecoms to listen into my telephone conversations and/or provide my user information to the federal government absent some lawful purpose (e.g., pursuant to a warrant!). As part of my agreement to pay AT&T for telephone service I did not agree for AT&T to unlawfully provide my information to the federal government. If the telecoms continue to insist on amensty for past actions that almost certainly were illegal, then we must punish them by withholding payments for services. To look at the telecoms efforts another way, they are paying lobbyists and law firms with our money (obtained via our monthly bill) to persuade Congress to pass a law relieving the telecoms of liability to its customers based on the telecoms unlawful conduct. Refusal by enough people to pay their telephone bills could potentially have several positive effects:

1) directly express the displeasure of the telecoms' customers with the behavior of the telecoms and their attempts to avoid liability to their customers;

2) reduce the amount of money the telecoms have available for lobbying efforts;

3) force the telecoms into financial hardship (after all, companies also have bills to pay, such as leases and loans, not to mention employee salaries); and

4) force the telecoms to pursue numerous small claims cases throughout the country to try to recover the unpaid bills. This would present another enormous outlay for the telecom companies in addition to the missing revenue they would be experiencing. I also envision arguing as an affirmative defense the telecoms unlawful accumulation and transmission of data to the federal government. This could be phrased as a breach of contract defense. A party trying to enforce a contract must show that it has complied with all material terms of the contract itself, otherwise it cannot recover.

It is time for bold action, and since enough members of Congress seem determined to provide amnesty to the telecoms, refusal to pay our bills appears to be the most direct action we can take. Whether some refer to this as "civil disobedience" or some other name, we must let the telecoms know that the economic consequences of obtaining amensty will be more severe than facing the lawsuits currently proceeding.