In general, petitions are a notoriously ineffective way to lobby. That's doubly so for email versions, for obvious reasons. Even without that problem, an electronic petition will (rightly) be ignored on the grounds that it represents the opinions of a small elite minority. With signatures collected in the streets and shopping malls of America, you have at least some chance of reaching a cross-section of people. But on the net? (And even if I'm wrong about the net's population, would they know it?) --Steve Bellovin
In general, I agree that petitions are a major waste of time and energy; I'm also pretty convinced that this White House email link is a big scam. Why are they any more likely to take your mail seriously just because it comes over the phone lines and not in an envelope? Seems like a pretty transparent PR ploy (also an attempt to make it seem like the White House isn't a bunch of dinosaurs now that everybody and her nephew has an email address). But since it won't take much more than a couple of minutes of any of our time, I can't see an electronic petition hurting our cause any--especially because it'll certainly include the names of many esteemed professionals and braniacs with fancy scientific, corporate, and academic credentials. I think this could be a nice propaganda coup if it got publicised. It could at the very least give a big black eye to the forces of evil. --Dave.