House Judiciary Committee SOPA Hearings Stacked 5 To 1 In Favor Of Censoring The Internet
from the what-are-they-afraid-of dept
Apparently the folks behind SOPA are really scared to hear from the opposition. We all expected that the Judiciary Committee hearings wouldn't be a fair fight. In Congress, they rarely are fair fights. But most people expected the typical "three in favor, one against" weighted hearings. That's already childish, but it seems that the Judiciary Committee has decided to take the ridiculousness to new heights. We'd already mentioned last week that the Committee had rejected the request of NetCoalition to take part in the hearings. At the time, we'd heard that the hearings were going to be stacked four-to-one in favor of SOPA. However, the latest report coming out of the Committee is that they're so afraid to actually hear about the real opposition that they've lined up five pro-SOPA speakers and only one "against."Why is the Judiciary Committee so afraid to hear the concerns of the wider internet industry?
The five "pro" speakers are the Register of Copryights, someone from the MPAA, someone from Pfizer, someone from MasterCard, and someone from the AFL-CIO. The choice of MasterCard is deliberate, since Visa is against the bill -- because Visa recognizes that supporting a bill that requires them to cut off customers based on accusations of infringement is going to be a huge burden, and one that isn't good for their own customers.
Furthermore, the "one" against SOPA is going to be Google. This is a strategic choice, because the pro-SOPA folks know that Google is easy to dismiss on this topic, because they'll claim (not accurately) that Google just wants to profit from infringement. Google is already under a lot of scrutiny in Congress, and so it makes it much easier for pro-SOPA supporters to say that "ah, the only opposition is Google." And, yet, that's not true. Companies throughout the tech and internet industries have expressed concerns. Facebook, Twitter, Mozilla, eBay and over 160 startups have all come out against the bill. This isn't "just a Google issue." This is an issue of the entertainment industry trying to change the fundamental legal and technical framework for how the internet has functioned -- and in doing so, creating tons of liability and compliance costs for the part of the economy that is growing and has been creating jobs. Just because Hollywood is jealous, doesn't mean that they should get to use Congress to punish the industry that's doing well.
Either way, it's quite stunning that the Committee has decided to go so far in stacking the deck, and it shows just how unwilling they are to hear the real concerns about the bill.
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Filed Under: copyright, fairness, hearings, industry, lamar smith, sopa
Companies: afl-cio, google, mastercard, mpaa, pfizer
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Past time to throw the bums out
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Re: Past time to throw the bums out
Nor will I feel sadness if I see them both fall.
SOPA is the act of a traitor selling out the whole Country.We will know their names and I will not feel sadness to see them all go down one way or the other.
You do not mess with basic freedoms we are entitled to living here and this bill crosses the line.There are many wack-jobs in this Country who will find some Employment coming up.
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Re: Re: Past time to throw the bums out
No, we had 30 years of an amazingly good economy, where everyone could ignore the graft and corruption. Now that we have to tighten our belts, we are seeing the parts of the system that don't work.
Changing the talking heads will do NOTHING to change the government, because THEY AREN'T IN CHARGE. Find and remove the parasites, and actually check to see if your congressperson is TRYING to fix things. Several of the reps voted out last term were just knee-jerk reactions.
Or, to put it another way, who trains new congresspeople? Their constituents, or lobbyists?
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Re: Past time to throw the bums out
We need a better system that allows more people to vote and represent their constituents instead of the safe voting methods we currently have.
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A common argument of the shills is that they are going to make it much harder for the masses to "pirate", that they hardcore guys won't be impacted, but the "masses" will step back into line. Historically speaking, has this ever worked for any industry? Ever?
Most people I know listen to YouTube, Pandora, or other free legal services for music. They don't need to pirate because what they want is already free. Why break the law if you can get it legally for free? So what happens when the AA's use this new hammer to destroy the above mentioned free services? People go right back to pirating, that's what... but they already know that I'm sure.
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Everybody from youngest to oldest use the site.
Wait till they see it was taken down because a young mother recorded her baby, with some music barely audible in the background, was heard.
That is when the shit will hit the fan. Pun intended.
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Will the last person to leave America...
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Lock Out
If all of the opposing tech companies shut down access to their sites for one day with a simple page explaining to ALL of their users what this will do, I bet the legislature would be HAMMERED by irate constituents complaining about unfair representation.
And yes, I know this won't happen, but it could certainly open some eyes!
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Re: Lock Out
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Virtual Tech Industry Union
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Re: Lock Out
Visa would be the best one for this. Don't process credit cards for one day. Put out a press release letting everyone know when it will be. Put a note on the front page of their website explaining why they are doing it. A lot of people would sit up and take notice if they couldn't process their Visa card for one day. Youtube and Facebook may hurt some people a little, but showing them what the consequences could really be if they were ever on the accused end of that stick would resonate a lot better than taking away Farmville or videos of cats chasing laser pointers.
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Re: Lock Out
I really think it would have been really funny if it had been done to just the constituents of the members of the judiciary committee 2 days before the hearing... ;)
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Re:
OK then, "government mandated destruction of websites and companies based on accusation alone with massive amounts of collateral damage that will violate the 1st amendment". That better?
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there is no indication that this is going to happen, except from a few chicken littles like Mike who seem convinced that the sky is falling.
Mike, is this going to be "all SOPA all the time" until they pass it and shut you up already?
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#Oh, and by the way: you're not fooling anyone.
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Second, Why does Hollywood tend to remake shut that's already been made?
And third, why are you acting like a cancer that is killing culture?
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And have zero reason to.
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You think all people are criminals.
Not everyone thinks like you.
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Re: Re: Re:
You do realize that this law will be used to shut down TechDirt right? So many people think that Mike is advocating piracy, it's only a matter of time before someone files the paperwork. That is a violation of the first amendment.
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Not a fan of history, are you? Anyone that is given power eventually abuses it, and in this case the people getting the power are /paying/ for it, so it's a guarantee that it will be abused.
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Dirty Tricks? Really?
Hopefully, Google will see this, and start calling them out for being the cheaters they are. OR use that "Google must blacklist stuff" against them and blacklist MPAA, Mastercard, and all the other supporters of the bill.
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No, it's still basically producers of content versus grifters.
Recently Google has become MORE embedded into many file-sharing sites, requires allowing javascript to run Google captcha. While you try to inoculate it here by a mention, it's still in practice /directly/ profiting from file-sharing.
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Re: No, it's still basically producers of content versus grifters.
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Re: No, it's still basically producers of content versus grifters.
You heard it here first, if SOPA passes, Firefox and Google Chrome will be killed. You all will be stuck with IE, *Insert evil laugh*
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Re: Re: No, it's still basically producers of content versus grifters.
Guess I'll be stuck with Opera or Konquerer or Dillo or ...
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Re: Re: No, it's still basically producers of content versus grifters.
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Re: No, it's still basically producers of content versus grifters.
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Re: No, it's still basically producers of content versus grifters.
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Let it pass.
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Re: Let it pass.
Every time an ISP or carrier is forced to blacklist a site, they should blacklist both the site (complying with the law), and the requestor's site too (in the case of the RIAA and the MPAA, they could blacklist both that site, and a randomly chosen member of the association) - 'We decline to transport your data'.
A bit of cooperation between say VISA and Google could have a similar effect for payments too - you block via VISA, Google declines to include your site in its search spider, and therefore its search results. You block via Google, Google declines to include you in its search spider.
I wonder how long this nonsense would last if someone like Sony or Viacom got wiped off the UK or US Internet landscape for a few weeks.
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A simple solution
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Re: A simple solution
We need to strengthen opposing distribution channels - especially ones that are not under the control of Big Copyright and the Corporatist Oligarchy.
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Re: A simple solution
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Re: A simple solution
Sorry, that doesn't work. Look at how record sales dropped dramatically when they started suing people and have never returned. All this did was convince them that "piracy" was worse than ever. The entertainment community is not cognizant of "cause and effect" logic. If they aren't selling what they used to, it must be piracy.
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Odds in favor..
Just another example that the U.S. is no longer a democracy, but a plutocracy, where the rich companies and people get (via paying) the laws passed that they want and avoid taxes.
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Someone said it
Reason 1: The minute this bill begins to effect the broader public, those individuals will stand up and start complaining, LOUDLY. That will prime a country, which is already on the verge of a revolution with the Occupy movement to even more unstable heights.
Reason 2: Because even if reason 1 doesn't work. We can almost certainly have this bill stricken down by the Supreme court, as the bill OBVIOUSLY infringes on our first amendment rights, rights which the politicians CANNOT LEGISLATE AWAY.
Failing those two reasosn showing some degree of success, I will frankly grab my shit and move out. I'm tired of all the corruption and ignorance from the so called politicians on capital hill. They have no idea what they are doing when the propose legislation like this, and the fact that they won't even speak to industry experts on even the technical feasability of what they propose, is flatly astonishing!
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Re: Someone said it
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SOPA
Give them what they want, they’ll get it eventually, legally or otherwise.
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Re: SOPA
If you think you have lost, then you are right, you have already lost.
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Watch it tomorrow
10am Eastern time
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SOPA
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Sure, just one small step
Time to be tougher. Take down entire domains, entire sites.
Let the Internet die-because they're against it-the stupid people who think that a few select interests should run the world.
When it does die, and everyone goes away, then MPAA an RIAA will have nobody else to go after or blame for their problems.
See, fixed that problem!
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Why this will never pass...
A bunch of high level engineers wrote a paper on why SOPA and Protect IP will break the entire internet on the engineering level.
One important quote stuck out...
"The site redirection envisioned in Section 3(d)(II)(A)(ii) [Protect IP/SOPA] is inconsistent with security
extensions to the DNS that are known as DNSSEC. The U.S. Government and private
industry have identified DNSSEC as a key part of a wider cyber security strategy, and many
private, military, and governmental networks have invested in DNSSEC technologies."
Did you read that line?
"The U.S. Government and private
industry have identified DNSSEC as a key part of a wider cyber security strategy, and many
private, military, and governmental networks have invested in DNSSEC technologies."
SOPA and Protect IP will be killed by the Pentagon/CIA/NSA because it would waste billions of taxpayer dollars within the military-intelligence sector spent on developing DNSSEC with is a totally at odds and incompatible with the DNS architecture proposed by Protect IP and SOPA...
At least we have the military-intelligence sector behind us...phew...
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Obama Against SOPA
If it does pass, I'm going to seriously start considering moving to Canada.
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crash
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why would anyone support sopa
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Re: why would anyone support sopa
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wow really?
if it passed,people would protest against government and maybe even start a world war ON THE INTERNET!!!!
also how would this affect people in other countries?
if it passes hackers and other people would take down the government.....so i would be carefull if i were them.
also it is supposed to protect movie producers tooo right?
wrong. it would actually hurt them. there would be no ratings or compliments and they would have to be more carefull of what they put in the production (like thats not already hard!) so if you see this please protest for the good of you this country and the whole world too
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SOPA Better not pass
B. Ask my parents to move to Sweden
c. Crap in my pants
D. Walk over to the Congress Hall place a complaint and Tell them "WHat the hell is worng with you? You guys are taking the constiution spitting,crapping and steppping on it!" The 1st Amandment will be broken and there will be mostly a voiloint revolution over the internet. (
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