The Internet Strikes Back: Anonymous Takes Down DOJ.gov, RIAA, MPAA Sites To Protest Megaupload Seizure

Joe Biden Picked An Interesting Day To Raise Money From Silicon Valley...

from the timing-is-everything dept

Thu, Jan 19th 2012 4:29pm — Mike Masnick

Where was VP Joe Biden during yesterday's big SOPA/PIPA blackout? Apparently he was cruising around Silicon Valley for cash from tech CEOs. Biden, of course, has been seen as the White House's key man in supporting Hollywood efforts to pass ever more draconian copyright laws. One would hope that the various tech CEOs he met with spent some time showing him how their websites were blacked out in protest. From the article linked above, Biden spoke about a variety of topics during prepared remarks... but said nothing about SOPA/PIPA (or, at least the reporter didn't mention it). Given the White House's existing statements concerning the bills, he'd probably be limited in what he can say anyway... but is this a sign that Biden might finally realize that his previous actions were so damaging to the part of the economy that is developing innovation and actually creating jobs?

But, of course, it appears the White House was hedging its bets. While Biden went to Silicon Valley... Obama went to Disneyworld:

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.

Techdirt is one of the few remaining truly independent media outlets. We do not have a giant corporation behind us, and we rely heavily on our community to support us, in an age when advertisers are increasingly uninterested in sponsoring small, independent sites — especially a site like ours that is unwilling to pull punches in its reporting and analysis.

While other websites have resorted to paywalls, registration requirements, and increasingly annoying/intrusive advertising, we have always kept Techdirt open and available to anyone. But in order to continue doing so, we need your support. We offer a variety of ways for our readers to support us, from direct donations to special subscriptions and cool merchandise — and every little bit helps. Thank you.

–The Techdirt Team

Filed Under: fundraising, joe biden silicon valley, pipa, politics, protect ip, sopa

36 Comments

If you liked this post, you may also be interested in...

Reader Comments

Subscribe: RSS

View by: Time | Thread

vegetaman (profile), 19 Jan 2012 @ 4:41pm

Let's see...
Politician Thought Process:

"Pay them lip service, take their money, and fuck them over anyway."
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
- gorehound (profile), 19 Jan 2012 @ 5:26pm
  
  Re: Let's see...
  Exactly.If I were a Tech Company I would tell him to Fuck Off.
  [ link to this | view in chronology ]
- Anonymous Coward, 19 Jan 2012 @ 5:40pm
  
  Re: Let's see...
  I assume "them" in this case is us.
  [ link to this | view in chronology ]
- martyburns (profile), 20 Jan 2012 @ 4:58am
  
  Re: Let's see...
  ..looking for the 'Sad but True' button..
  [ link to this | view in chronology ]
Nastybutler77 (profile), 19 Jan 2012 @ 4:49pm

I've come to the conclusion that no candidate for President is worthy of the office, due to the very fact that they want to be President. We should employ scouts that go around the country looking for someone with all the qualities that make a wise, effective leader and force him/her to be President for four years. It should be against his/her will as that is a key quality they should be looking for.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
- The Groove Tiger (profile), 19 Jan 2012 @ 5:02pm
  
  Re:
  Careful he doesn't get his hands on any infinite improbability drives 'though.
  [ link to this | view in chronology ]
  - ltlw0lf (profile), 19 Jan 2012 @ 5:34pm
    
    Re: Re:
    Careful he doesn't get his hands on any infinite improbability drives 'though.
    
    Or kidnaps himself. But I'd take Zaphod Bebblebrox over what we have now any day. He is, just this guy, you know?
    [ link to this | view in chronology ]
- Anton Sherwood (profile), 19 Jan 2012 @ 7:20pm
  
  Seems to me it would be simpler to cut the Presidency itself down to a scale such that entrusting it to one human would not be obviously insane.
  [ link to this | view in chronology ]
- TDR, 19 Jan 2012 @ 7:30pm
  
  Re:
  Indeed, Nastybutler. To quote Worf:
  
  "As Kahless himself said, great men do not seek power. They have power thrust upon them."
  [ link to this | view in chronology ]
  - demented, 19 Jan 2012 @ 10:13pm
    
    Re: Re:
    Amen. The good, noble men and women are probably all out there trying to do something to help their country. They probably shy away from all the corruption and disgusting muck spread across the political system, so only the vermin are interested.
    [ link to this | view in chronology ]
weneedhelp_not signed in, 19 Jan 2012 @ 4:50pm

Joe Biden Picked An Interesting Day To Raise Money From Silicon Valley...
Are you kidding Mike, it was the perfect time to go. It is almost like he was extorting "protection" money old Mob style.

Biden to tech in cheesy gangster voice: Eh, we can help you with your problem.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
- xenomancer (profile), 19 Jan 2012 @ 6:38pm
  
  Re: Joe Biden Picked An Interesting Day To Raise Money From Silicon Valley...
  We've thought of that.
  [ link to this | view in chronology ]
  - The eejit (profile), 20 Jan 2012 @ 2:27am
    
    Re: Re: Joe Biden Picked An Interesting Day To Raise Money From Silicon Valley...
    IF it doesn't involve revenge porn, I'm not interested.
    [ link to this | view in chronology ]
ShellMG, 19 Jan 2012 @ 5:28pm

I need to check Techdirt's category listing and see if there is a "you-can't-make-this-stuff-up" posted.

There are a billion lame jokes in this story. The challenge is NOT to bring up any.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Anonymous Coward, 19 Jan 2012 @ 5:46pm

His reasoning is "While SOPA may not pass now, if you want it not to pass after I get re-elected you better donate now".
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
- Anonymous Coward, 19 Jan 2012 @ 5:46pm
  
  Re:
  (that's why he's visiting Silicon Valley)
  [ link to this | view in chronology ]
- Anonymous Coward, 19 Jan 2012 @ 8:36pm
  
  Re:
  Sure. Elect them again and in their final term they can do whatever they and Hollywood want without having to worry about pleasing any electorate.
  [ link to this | view in chronology ]
  - Anonymous Coward, 19 Jan 2012 @ 9:26pm
    
    Re: Re:
    not if he wants a nice job with this corporate constituents afterwords.
    [ link to this | view in chronology ]
    - Anonymous Coward, 20 Jan 2012 @ 8:25am
      
      Re: Re: Re:
      with his *
      [ link to this | view in chronology ]
Brian Schroth (profile), 19 Jan 2012 @ 6:49pm

This is the standard way Washington operates. Create a shitty law at the behest of one industry to give them the return on their investment. Then go to the opposing industry and say "Nice little industry you've got going there. It would be a shame if this shitty law were to pass and mess it up..."

Then you can get money from everyone!
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
- demented, 19 Jan 2012 @ 10:15pm
  
  Re:
  Sort of like the cartoonish Mafia guys in Monty Python who try to extort the army.
  
  "Fings break, colonel...."
  [ link to this | view in chronology ]
- Anonymous Coward, 20 Jan 2012 @ 9:45am
  
  Re:
  I think you might need to double check your sources on who gets what money from where:
  "Yet Obama still received $884,000 from the oil and gas industry during the 2008 campaign, more than any other lawmaker except his Republican opponent, Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.)."
  http://www.opensecrets.org/industries/indus.php?ind=e01
  
  The myth that Republicans and Democrats are corrupted by difference sources of money is just that, a myth. Corporations are more than willing to jump across the isle with their dollars because they see the isle for what it is, a fiction designed to provide the illusion of choice to the common voter.
  [ link to this | view in chronology ]
Anonymous Coward, 19 Jan 2012 @ 8:02pm

How can you tell their lying?

Simple, their lips are moving...
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Violated (profile), 19 Jan 2012 @ 8:41pm

Hmmm
So how much money did Joe Biden get? Then can we get rid of Hollywood at last and their stupid laws?
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
BentFranklin (profile), 19 Jan 2012 @ 9:45pm

The Republicans have the banks, oil companies, manufacturing, retail and just about every other large sector vying with each other to corrupt them. The Democrats have just two, tech and Hollywood, and they're so stupid they get them both pissed off at them!
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
- Liz (profile), 19 Jan 2012 @ 9:49pm
  
  Re:
  Democrats generally also have Union support.
  [ link to this | view in chronology ]
Liz (profile), 19 Jan 2012 @ 9:48pm

Did Obama tour the park? Did he talk about "Hope and Change" in Fantasy Land?
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
demented, 19 Jan 2012 @ 10:18pm

Re: Re:
Obama in Disneyland - a corrupt fantasyland that employs perverts. Nowhere has the US government seemed so at home!
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
- The eejit (profile), 20 Jan 2012 @ 2:34am
  
  Re: Re: Re:
  I was going to make a sarcastic joke about the Vatican, but then I realised that they sctually have a moral code.
  [ link to this | view in chronology ]
Anonymous Coward, 19 Jan 2012 @ 10:33pm

I hear all this talk of "high tech" companies in Silicon Valley (actually, the Santa Clara Valley), but it baffles me why companies like Google, Youtube, Twitter, Facebook and the like constantly come up in conversation as high-tech leaders. (To be fair, Google has over the years morphed in a direction that many may deem to reflect being classifiable as a high tech company.)

Is IBM an example of what high tech is all about? Yes. Intel? Yes. HP? Yes. AMD? Yes. Apple? Yes. Lockheed Martin? Yes. Cisco? Yes. LSI Logic, National Semiconductor, Nvidia, Oracle, Genetech, Abbott, Gilead, LCA? Yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, and yes. I do not included NASA Ames because of its status as a government facility.

What sets these and others like them apart? They perform basic and applied research, invent, manufacture, and distribute the very products needed for so many of what I believe are more aptly described as pseudo-high tech to ply their trade. They also, I believe, far and away collectively employ the largest number of persons in the area.

My comment is not to denigrate the work product of companies whose names are constantly bandied about regarding SOPA and jobs, but only to ask why are they, to the exclusion of others, the ones receiving all the attention? Likely they are the ones most concerned about SOPA, but are they really the ones that are receiving the lion's share startup investment? I do not know the answer, but my experience suggests they are not.

Just food for thought when the discussion turns to the creation of copious numbers of jobs.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
PrometheeFeu (profile), 19 Jan 2012 @ 11:12pm

I think writing to reps about opposing PIPA/SOPA or even threatening to vote against them is a step in the right direction. But better is pledging to donate to their opponent's campaign and PACs if they do vote for the law.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
That Anonymous Coward (profile), 20 Jan 2012 @ 1:00am

This is what we call a call back...
http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20111114/10493316765/vp-joe-biden-explains-why-sopa-protec t-ip-are-anti-american-bad-idea.shtml

I wish someone at the event had just run that video in the background and flat out asked him which face he was talking out of today. He has shown he is 2 faced and has no concept of the things at play, he just wants money.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
The Luke Witnesser, 20 Jan 2012 @ 4:38am

Here lies the truth about SOPA/PIPA that even TechDirt has yet to report: what MPAA, RIAA, and Hollywood execs do not want you to see.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WJIuYgIvKsc
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NzS5rSvZXe8

The truth behind why these big companies responsible for SOPA and PIPA are also responsible for piracy itself is far more insidious than even their outmoded business model.

Hint: can you say, do as I say so I can crush you under heel?
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
- weneedhelp (profile), 20 Jan 2012 @ 9:17am
  
  Re: Here lies the truth about SOPA/PIPA that even TechDirt has yet to report: what MPAA, RIAA, and Hollywood execs do not want you to see.
  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WJIuYgIvKsc - WOW!!!! Watch this.
  [ link to this | view in chronology ]
- weneedhelp (profile), 20 Jan 2012 @ 9:39am
  
  Re: Here lies the truth about SOPA/PIPA that even TechDirt has yet to report: what MPAA, RIAA, and Hollywood execs do not want you to see.
  Thanks for the links Luke.
  Dont miss this one either:
  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NzS5rSvZXe8
  [ link to this | view in chronology ]
Mercy Grant, 21 Jan 2012 @ 2:40pm

BLACK MARCH
BLACK MARCH
Thursday, March 1st to Saturday, March 31st, 2012

With the continuing campaigns for Internet-censoring legislation such as SOPA and PIPA, the closure of sites such as Megaupload under allegations of �piracy� and �conspiracy�, the time has come to take a stand against music, film, and media companies� lobbyists.

The only way is to hit them where it hurts.
Their profit margins.

March 2012 is the end of the 1st quarter in economic reports worldwide.

Do not buy a single record. Do not download a single song, legally or illegally. Do not go see a single film in cinemas, or download a copy. Do not buy a DVD in the stores. Do not buy a videogame. Do not buy a single book or magazine.

Wait the four weeks to buy them in April; see the film later, etc. Holding out for just four weeks, maximum, will leave a gaping hole in media and entertainment companies� profits for the 1st quarter, an economic hit which will in turn be observed by governments worldwide as stocks and shares will blip from a large enough loss of incomes.

This action will give a statement of intent:

�We will not tolerate the Media Industries� lobbying for legislation which will censor the internet.�
[ link to this | view in chronology ]