GoDaddy lost over 70k subscribers within a week of it coming out that they supported the bill. Reddit started a boycott of them. Heck, even Wikipedia plans to pull their pages off GoDaddy.
I called both my Congressman and Senator about this, and rather strongly suggested they reconsider, on the grounds that not only would I vote against them (for the first time), but would devote myself to making their reelection campaigns a living hell. And preferably invoke the SOPA to ruin their websites.
Of course, that says nothing about what’ll happen when (perhaps maybe more accurately “if”) it gets to a vote. But some cynics are saying that there’s enough money behind the “yes” side (at least more than the already substantial money behind “no”) that it’ll at least get to the vote stage, if not pass with flying colors…
Has Obama had anything to say about this one way or another? If it does get to vote, I’m not sure that it’d be veto-proof. And is there any basis for legal challenges (not saying that they won’t be done anyway, because they probably will; just asking if there’s legit reason to take it to court).
The Times had an opinion article about SOPA over the weekend which made a few interesting points. First, the proponents in the House seemed to be falling all over themselves to proudly state how little they knew about how the Internet works. Second, the problem is that the Entertainment lobbyists spend more than the Internet lobbyists, and have a long history with the legislators. It also mentioned how the entertainment business is know for opposing anything new, even things that eventually made it lots of money like VCRs.
I’d like to propose a small amendment to it. SOPA can pass as it stands, except it cannot go into affect until the content providers deliver a piece or software which can crawl the web and identify, with 100% accuracy, infringing files. That should keep them busy for a while.
The bill is basically the equivalent of the Great Firewall of China, except on economical grounds rather than ideological ones. Of course it’s loathsome.
And of course it will pass. With flying colours. Your legislators know about as much about these newfangled electrickal interwhebbs as mine, which is to say fuck all. But they do know that pirates are bad, m’kay ?!
We all knew that, someday, government and industry would find a way to team up and steal the internet from us. It was inevitable, and the internet is just too huge to leave free and unimpaired. I don’t know why anyone is surprised.
As **Voyager **states, there’s quite a bit of money on the pro side as well, not to mention a history of litigation and getting laws passed no matter how groundless and actively harmful they may be (Disney’s ever renewed extensions of the length of copyright spring to mind). Google, Microsoft and Facebook would truck along just fine on a censored internet. Not as well perhaps, but fine. I’m not so sure they’d put much lobbying weight into preventing it from happening, if any. A press release doesn’t cost much. It also doesn’t do much.
Hell, Microsoft has been known to pull the very copyright shenanigans SOPA would spawn en masse against its web-borne detractors so I doubt they’ll put much money where their mouth is, or even why they oppose it to begin with, besides PR cred. Maybe they just want a copyright on lowdown tricks ?
The problem is, the average person has no idea what this bill is truly capable of, and how easy it is for the real pirates to avoid its effects, because they have no idea how the internet works. So all it does is punish the innocent, (or at best the legally grey-areas, like personal covers of songs on Youtube, Let’s Play videos, etc…) while the guilty are still downloading away to their heart’s content.
I honestly hope that Google, Facebook, Craigslist, and other “internet giants” that are against this bill DO go the ‘nuclear option’ and go black for a day.
Can you imagine the outcry from the average American if, instead of being able to play Farmville, or search for Jessica Alba bikini photos, or sell a slightly damp used-couch, they get a mostly blank page with just some official-looking (but fake,) notice saying something like
“This site has been blacklisted for copyright violation.”
Then towards the bottom, put smaller text like,
“This is what you can expect to see on a number of your favorite websites if SOPA (H.R. 3261) passes in the House. Please contact your representative and tell them what you think of this.”
I honestly feel that’s what it will take. Press releases, internet-savvy nerds trying to drum up support on their Facebook pages, and a few exasperated congressmen pleading in vain against everyone else will do jack shit. The average American has to know what the internet could be like for them if this passes.
With Google leading the protest om their main page.
BTW, someone early said that among the people protesting SOPA now are Apple and Microsoft, it seems that just like GoDaddy they where like politicians that were against something after voting for it.
Well, better late than never, but it sure they were of not much help early.
Blanketyd blank blank
UUUUUUUUUUUUUggggh
Something about somebodies mommy.
Its approximately 034 EST. Og OG I am so furious. Who the heck does this guy think he is?
I have been somewhat insulated until recently.
I didn’t see this one coming.
Who is the freaking congresscritter who did this?
Where the heck was the POTUS? Doesn’t he have something to say about this?
I am not a constructional scholar, but to have this just be the freaking law of the land without us getting some say in it seems rather out of bounds.
This could seriously cripple the Internet. And, my fellow Dopers, as someone who has watched it evolve from its earliest stages, I feel sad.
Sad isn’t the best word, but it does describe how I feel about this.
Gosh, I certainly hope this miserable excrement of a human being doesn’t break what we have all built.
And if he does… well may the will of the people lay upon him.
Sure: Obama has already pledged to veto the bill, and there aren’t enough votes on either side of Congress to override his veto. In fact, I’ll bet dollars to donuts that it isn’t implemented.
I’m really sick of this crap though. The average citizen isn’t even aware of this shit until it’s already gone around congress and gotten lots of support. SOPA shouldn’t have gotten this far.
Right now, it is very likely to fail, but The Senate Judiciary Committee already had passed its twin PIPA bill under the radar. I did take a look at the sickening process, time after time the few congress members that had concerns were rebuffed or their amendments that took care of the concerns already mentioned were voted down, there was then no recourse left but taking the case to the public and that seems that it did the trick.
Seems, because now that there is an opposition that can not be ignored as they were doing with gusto, their solution now is to “fix” the legislation and continue to press on with this or other similar legislation.
This is the thing that bothers me the most. They say it’s all about copyright infringement; but see how easily this can be used for censorship.
I’m in Wisconsin; you know all the stuff that’s been going on here - or do you?. Again and again we see the mainstream media ignoring it. The only real way to get news about it is from leftist-leaning blogs. If this law passed all those sites could be shut down at a moment’s notice with no recourse.
We know Republicans own the mainstream media. That’s why they are always trying to kill NPR. But the Web is even more insidious to them. With it we can broadcast their shenanigans world wide. With it, photos and videos and documents and citations are there for everybody to see.
The uncontrolled Web is anathema to Conservatives. They can’t make you see only what they want you to see, hear what they want you to hear. If they can’t keep people ignorant and misinformed, they fail. That’s what this bill is really about. I hate to sound like I’m spouting conspiracy theories, but there really IS one. I wonder if ALEC had anything to do with this bill. Anybody know?
I recall the good ol’ days when Penguin Books had out-of-copyright titles that did not predate the current generation. At the behest of RIAA, et al, the paid stooges in congress extended the term of copyright from 17 years to something like 100. The constitutional incentive for authors/artists turned into “intellectual property”, the value of which can never accrue to a dead author/artist.
The music industry never treated its artists well, or even fairly. Many artists jumped ship and are directly marketing via the web. How long until they are harassed back into the fold?
We desperately need the open web equivalent of the NRA. If there is such, point me to the site so I can sign up. Who is actively lobbying congress against SOPA/PIPA?
If you have not done so, find and sign a copy of a petition (Google has one, but I think the stooges have Google targeted). Forward the link to your friends.
The thing that leaves a bad taste in my mouth about copyright is that Disney more or less made its entire fortune on public domain content… and then turns around and wants its stuff to never be in the public domain. If they made their fortune making Snow White, why can’t I (hypothetically, I don’t really want to) make my fortune on the next great Mickey movie?
