Al Gore Comes Out Against SOPA/PIPA
from the and-he-invented-the-internet!-(joke) dept
Well, check this out. Al Gore has come out strongly against SOPA and PIPA, angrily denouncing the bill and its supporters. It's a quick 2-minute video taken at a CareerBuilder event, and it's in response to an audience question. The actual question isn't heard in the video, but he's clearly talking about SOPA/PIPA and appears to be well-informed on the issue:"... are now able to be shared digitally. There is a growing concern on the part of the companies and individuals who create that content, that they're not getting compensated in a fair way, and so they want to impose a new set of requirements on those companies who provide access to the internet, like the browsers, the search engines, etc. And some of these new requirements, according to the experts on the internet, would very probably have the effect of really shutting down the vibrancy of the internet. As in all things, some compromise must be possible. The content creators and owners have a point and a legitimate complaint... But, in our country, in our world today, there is hardly anything more important -- whether you want to solve global warming, as I do, whether you want to reinvigorate democracy as many of us do, whatever problem you want to fix -- there is hardly anything more important to getting the right things done than to save and protect the vibrancy and freedom of the internet. The internet is bringing life back to democracy. We saw it in Egypt. We're seeing it in Russia now. We've seen it in so many places.... If you look at the reform movements around the world, and in the US, more than likely they're based on internet forms of organization. And anything that would threaten the vibrancy and freedom of the internet, I'm against!"There's very loud applause at the end. If you watch it, you see he gets more and more animated and worked up towards the end. He's also clearly familiar with the details, since he knows the real impact of the bill. Rather than just focusing on "foreign" sites, as supporters of these bills would like everyone to, he points out that the way in which this is done is to put new requirements on tons of domestic internet companies. He may not have invented the internet (and yes, I know that was taken out of context, but it's a meme at this point, so live with it), but he certainly understands its importance... and he's clearly not a fan of SOPA/PIPA.
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Filed Under: al gore, copyright, internet, internet freedom, pipa, protect ip, sopa
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Re: After ALL
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Are you sure that is the real Al Gore?
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Re: Are you sure that is the real Al Gore?
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Re: Re: Are you sure that is the real Al Gore?
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Re: Re: Re: Are you sure that is the real Al Gore?
IE: See, any politician. FTFY
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Re: Are you sure that is the real Al Gore?
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Candidates
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Sadly, I wish I was just kidding...
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Then I would look skyward so I could spot the winged pigs flying by.
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Even with the on-going stream of opposition, this is still not a "story" to be followed by the mass media, and therefore is unknown to a great portion of the population. For them, and for congress, having most of the country be aware of what's actually in this bill is "bad for business". As are civil protections.
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The only think we can really look at is his voting history. What's the most similar bill proposed or passed during his elected term (IE: DMCA?) that he voted on and what was his vote? What he says now almost means nothing and we should take it with a grain of salt. Voting history is what we should try and look at when possible.
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Wikipedia says the DMCA was passed in 1998. The WIPO treaties that lead up to the DMCA were both apparently ratified in 1996. In both cases, Gore was Vice President (1993-2001).
Assuming Wikipedia's dates are accurate, he would only have voted in the event of a tie (which wasn't true in either case), so his actual voting position is unknown.
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What Al Gore actually said is quite accurate (per, among other people, Vint Cerf and Robert Kahn); what was misquoted in the press is wrong. Please see: How a journalist invented that Al Gore invented the Internet, which links to Seth Finkelstein's page describing how this story spread.
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"The content creators and owners have a point and a legitimate complaint"
They don't and until legislators grasp that, they cannot come to any sensible decisions.
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These are people who regularly oppose those things that will expand their businesses and make them more money, what they clearly do not need is for people to buy into their fake storylines, the losses they will face due to the legal and political support they are currently getting will probably destroy them.
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This is what scares me the most. Not that SOPA will pass, at this point, I think it might not. But now that the ball is rolling, something will get passed and it will be bad for all of us.
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What do you think the OPEN act is?
You're absolutely right about this. Even if we win, we'll still lose, because SOMETHING will be passed. If not SOPA, some other version of it, which will still be bad.
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"The content creators and owners have a point and a legitimate complaint... But,"
anything that come before the "but"....
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Anyone claiming to have a legitimate claim because they want IP laws for themselves don't. The only one that would have a legitimate claim is the public since that's whom IP should benefit.
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I always summarize my view as this. I have Netflix and Hulu Plus, which I love. I pirate any other cable shows if I really want to see them. I also don't like doing it, because I have to search for a good torrent, download it, upload it to my server, worry about disc space.. OR.. stream it through a simple interface. I stand before Hollywood a willing consumer with no price effective solution.
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Is he super serial?
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Re: Is he super serial?
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Now if we could just get people to actually speak about issues and look for common ground, we might actually get some where (even if its not ideal for both side, it will be far from the worst outcome).
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So what?
I do believe he is a private citizen, and as such, he has absolutely no impact on these matters before Congress except as a private citizen.
He was once VP. Not any more, and not even credible in most cases. (see the "Al Gore invented the Internet" meme.)
But he's still right about the issue. Too bad nobody will ever listen to him or us, for that matter.
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Use your voice AND donate to EFF
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Al Gore is about as credible as Mickey Mouse.
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Doesn't help
"Owners" is a stupid word. What he says is divisive. We're NOT arguing for the importance of the Internet over something else. With that rhetoric, we look like we're trying to replace something. We're NOT. The Internet JUST IS important. It's not "up for grabs" like their content is. Their content goes away, who cares. Internet goes away, we all lose.
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Al Gore uses DMCA to take his speech down
His objection is what, exactly? "Copyright for me but not for thee" seems to be the gist of it.
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crud, that is the last thing this issue needs
It was frustrating to watch the issue of net neutrality get politicized. To this day, it takes a great deal of energy to convince people that net neutrality is a good thing.
Obama supports it. He is widely unpopular. So net neutrality must be a bad thing.
If Gore wanted to help us defeat Sopa and Protect IP, he would keep his mouth quiet. He is even less popular than Obama!
I can hear them now... "I read that Gore is against SOPA, and foxnews is for it."
Dumb! Who is behind this strategy? I am glad Gore is on the right side of this issue, but it is absurdly dumb to broadcast that!
All it does, is make the issue that much more polarizing.
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Removed video
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Gore's Rant Now In Graphic Poster Form!
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Censorship!
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if you can't hear the original question,
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Re: if you can't hear the original question,
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Re: if you can't hear the original question,
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video pulled
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RE: video pulled
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If you watch the movie, you can see some similarties between Lamar Smith and Allistair Dormandy.
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