Ford doesn’t actually support SOPA/PIPA. Ford was one of the signatories to the open letter which led to SOPA, which is why they’re listed on all the petitions.
I’m not sure the heat ever will die down. If SOPA 2.0 ever comes close to law, Wikipedia et al will just rally the troops a second time. Politicians like lobbyist money, but they like being re-elected even more.
Ah…interesting. I wonder how many companies are in the position Ford is in right now…allowing their company name to be attached to a letter to Congress asking them to do something about internet piracy and now the result is SOPA and they’re like “Well we didn’t want that!” and now some people believe that they support the bill when in reality they only support the general gist behind the bill (as do I…trying to reduce/stop piracy…but not like how SOPA would have done it).
Off the top of my head, the Entertainment Software Association (video game makers) heavily supports SOPA. However, most game companies think it’s terrible and have made big public showings of pulling support from the bill.
I’ll bet it’s like that with a lot of the companies on these lists.
Google and EFF aren’t going anywhere, and I doubt Congress will be able to revive similar legislation without drawing their notice.
I’m gonna steal that if you don’t mind, because it is very awesome.
Good God, man, that’s copyright infringement! You could get the whole thread shut down!
So why did the Pres sign NDAA when he promised to veto anyway?
I hear you, but I don’t think you realize what lobbying heavyweights the RIAA and the Chamber of Commerce are. They have a successful track record going back to the 40s.
Of course not. Neither do I support fundamental changes to the internet. It’s a choice between two evils. I also think perpetual copyright is unconstitutional. The media industries are way too powerful and greedy. Let’s go back to a 17-year term. Should be long enough for a living artist. Any real artists out there to comment?
IIRC, he promised to veto it if the provision allowing for detention of US nationals wasn’t removed. It was removed.
The problem isn’t necessarily companies who make use of their work retaining copyright (imo), it’s the ones that sit on it. I don’t really have an issue with Star Wars remaining in copyright because it’s licensed out like a 50 cent hooker, sure a lot of crap, but the expanded universe is huge. Sure, Lucas still makes money off of it, but hey, he’s giving everyone a chance. Even if he didn’t license it out but was still making things in-house (i.e. with LucasArts) it wouldn’t be a big deal. It’s when companies copyright a song and then complain when somebody uses it 30 years down the road even though they had no intention to release it again that it starts to raise eyebrows.
That reminded me of something which might explain why Ford cares: it is about car names.
What’s laughable is that the entertainment industry thought they could get away with something this mind-blowingly transparent. They have a wall of money to throw at their politicians, but the internet is far, far bigger than that. The very platform they tried to cripple, is the very platform that will taint the supporters of this bill. Re-election suicide.
I’m sort of glad this bill has exploded into awareness. It exposes one of the raw nerves of what’s wrong with our bi-polar government and those who can’t keep in touch with the fast moving advancement of technology or those strong armed by lobbyists.
Find a new model that works Corporate Media. The world has changed going on 15 years now. Get your shit together, already. The internet stays as is.
Oh yeah. I still haven’t quite digested the bullshit 20th Century Fox pulled over the *Watchmen *movie. Can’t be arsed to do anything with rights they’d owned since 1986, but oooh boy, if someone else is doing something with it, can you hear that choo-choo in the distance ? That’s the easy cash grab train coming to the station !
“If you want to raise the tax 5%, say you are going to raise it 10%, let the people fight for it, and then pretend to back down. That way you get your 5% raise, and the people think they’ve won.”
That is how I’ve always considered the SOPA bill: with the public outcry it has received it was clearly never going to pass, but maybe it was never intended to. The lobbyists have the money and willpower to continually bombard congress with various iterations and versions of the bill, and a single slip of vigilance on the part of the protestors will be our doom.
I’ve nicked this off someone else on another messageboard, but have asked him, so it’s not copyright infringment, because I think it’s a pretty good explanation of howit could affect security:
So the bill would block access to sites, like, say, the Straight Dope if someone came on here and posted links to illegal copyrighted work (because that is actually it takes - posting links, not even posting the content yourself).
Or sites like mumsnet or health product sites with forums. Not piracy sites by any means and not sites where you’d expect every user to be tech-savvy.
So people try to access those sites, Google for a way round it, involving rerouting, then don’t realise that all their other sites are also being rerouted, including the ones where they submit financial details.
TBH the debate isn’t really about piracy, but about unfairly restricting fair use and shutting sites down without due process. It would be as if, in response to shoplifting, the govt forced shops to shut down.
That is an awesome phrase and I am going to steal that too.
I’m, like, a word-pirate. 
Of course big pharma would love to dump money on supporting intellectual property. At first I was surprised to see all their names there, but then I realized they’re just allied with anyone who takes a pro-IP stance.
God knows they’d rather spend money on lobbying and advertising then, you know, actual research.
BTW, I know Downfall parodies are old hat, but this one is actually very funny and a straightforward explanation of the problems with SOPA. And I wonder how well parodies would fare under SOPA.
That’s great, SciFiSam. 