'Nerds' Finally Get Their SOPA Hearings Over Technical Impact... But Not At The Judiciary Committee
from the good-to-see dept
While Lamar Smith and the House Judiciary Committee still have refused to hear from the actual technology experts, Rep. Issa has now scheduled a SOPA-related hearing... in his House Oversight Committee, and it will finally allow tech experts to speak about the technological impact of SOPA. It's a good list of speakers including: famed security researcher Dan Kaminsky (who co-authored the paper about problems of SOPA with Paul Vixie and others), Stewart Baker (former DHS/NSA top official, who has warned about SOPA harming internet security), Dr. Leonard Napolitano (from Sandia National Labs, who also warned about the security problems), Michael Macleod-Ball (from the ACLU). And representing the startup world, we've got Brad Burnham (from Union Square Ventures -- probably the most sought after VC firm for startups today) and Alexis Ohanian, the entrepreneur behind Reddit, Hipmunk and Breadpig, and who has been an outstanding advocate for why SOPA is dangerous. Think of this as the hearing that Lamar Smith didn't want you to hear. Update: Reasonable point in the comments: this hearing is extremely one-sided as well. Perhaps that's fitting "counter-balance" for the pro-SOPA hearing that the Judiciary Committee held, but it still would be nice to have at least some "pro-" voices on the hearing. Of course, can you think of an actual, respected technologist who is in favor of SOPA? Yeah... didn't think so...Thank you for reading this Techdirt post. With so many things competing for everyone’s attention these days, we really appreciate you giving us your time. We work hard every day to put quality content out there for our community.
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Filed Under: alexis ohanian, brad burnham, cybersecurity, dan kaminsky, darrell issa, dns blocking, dnssec, leonard napolitano, michael macleod-ball, pipa, protect ip, security, sopa, stewart baker
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That's a very good point. Though... can you find an actual technologist in favor of SOPA?
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"Oh there are tech dudes out there who would support CACA (his term for SOPA/PIPA, stands for Crap Assed Copyright Amendments). I'm sure you can find a few at Sony or the US Chamber of Commerce. Of course, given the level of penetration of the networks for those organizations, I don't have to comment on what I think of the skills of such people."
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Though you do bring up one point: it shouldn't be that hard for these companies to conjure up employees that will say whatever the company tells them to when they're having to speak as a spokesman of the company.
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That's why (just about) every calm scientific debunking of, oh, let's pick this Mayan calendar bullshit that many pathetically stupid people are buying into as an example, is bookended by some idiot with woo-woo pseudoscience claiming that no, really, it's going to happen, mainstream scientists are suppressing it, it's a conspiracy, blah, blah, blah. This is why you see morons arguing for creationism, ignorant assholes denying anthropocentric global warming, and con artists flogging the merits of astrology.
And this in large part is why, early in the 21st century, your average American is a mathematically/scientifically/technically illiterate bozo who lacks even the slightest trace of critical reasoning skills. (And why your average Congresscritter can get away with trumpeting their own profound ignorance of even the merest basics of how the Internet works.) As Isaac Asimov said, "Anti-intellectualism has been a constant thread winding its way through our political and cultural life, nurtured by the false notion that democracy means that 'my ignorance is just as good as your knowledge.'"
And this is why we have people who have never solved a partial differential equation, never built a linear amplifier, never configured an authoritative resolver with BIND, never worked through the Krebs cycle, never calculated the static load on a beam, never done any of the thousands of things required to achieve a baseline level of competence in biology or hydraulic engineering or network design, with the audacity to believe that they're worthy to hold opinions -- and what's more, to impose those opinions on others.
In this particular case, there's a reason why the experts have lined up as they do. They're right.
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http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=kcc_KAhwpa0
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OPEN
I cannot say this is a big surprise when it was Congressman Issa who was jointly behind the OPEN bill which is an alternative to SOPA and PIPA. So working hard to kill those two and to promote his own which is how politics should happen.
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Agreed. SOPA/PIPA supporters will just ignore it. Plus, optics are not great. Frankly, just looks like Issa used his authority as chair of House Oversight Committee to have a hearing on a bill that doesn't fall under that committee's mandate and then rounded up experts who agree with him. Wouldn't be surprised if this was more harmful than beneficial in the long run.
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GoDaddy looked like the one lone hope for SOPA supporters in the technology sector, till it was revealed that GoDaddy had managed to get itself specifically exempted from the SOPA requirements, and hence was merely trying to use SOPA to regulate its competitors.
If you find a technologist who supports SOPA, though, feel free to send Issa an e-mail requesting them. Maybe he'll be less excluding of people he disagrees with than Lamar Smith et al.
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And I am not going to support any kind of stifling of free speech and websites and that goes for Issa and his kinder more gentler version of Censorship.
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In order to be a SOPA/PIPA supporter, one must already have an overdeveloped power for ignoring facts (ie. ignorance). Even an objectively "balanced" panel would be ignored by SOPA/PIPA supporters, since the proposal itself is a charade.
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Prediction:
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Really?
I weigh 250 and nobody invited me... ;-(
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