Copyright Lobby Tries To 'Hire' Demonstrators, Since The Public Refuses To Rally In Support Of ACTA

from the funny-stuff dept

Fri, Apr 27th 2012 4:00am — Mike Masnick

I recently gave a talk at the Innovate/Activate conference, where I discussed where the copyright lobby had been super successful, and where it seemed some of their weaknesses were. One thing I pointed out was that they had completely lost the hearts and minds of the public -- and no matter how hard they tried, they were unable to muster up any kind of public or grassroots support. As an example, I showed a photo of the massive street protests against ACTA in Poland, and questioned what a pro-ACTA demonstration might look like. Well, bizarrely, it appears that some in the Copyright Lobby had decided to try to put on a pro-ACTA demonstration... but they needed to hire people to act as ACTA supporters. Of course, when you seem to think -- as the industry often appears to -- that the only motivating factor possible in the world is monetary exchange, perhaps this isn't that surprising.

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Filed Under: acta, copyright lobby, grassroots, innovate/activate, poland, protest

65 Comments

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Anonymous Coward, 27 Apr 2012 @ 4:08am

Seems to be fake?

Anyway, I wouldn't be surprised. If you already hire people to make stupid comments on blogs and write good reviews for movies on imdb... anything could be next.
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Squig (profile), 27 Apr 2012 @ 4:14am

At the demonstration itself there were 20 policeman and only 3 demonstrators (but it sorta got cancelled before, so that picture may not be entirely accurate). Still, the original point still stands.
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Marcel de Jong (profile), 27 Apr 2012 @ 4:20am

Re:
Don't forget the hired winos and homeless people at the open FCC hearing, where these homeless people were found to be paid by ISPs when the debaters still talked about Net Neutrality.
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PaulT (profile), 27 Apr 2012 @ 4:21am

Re:
A lot of people will do anything for money.

Anyway, fake or not, it does strike me as something they'd try to do. Unless you really buy into the easily-disproven rhetoric coming from the pro-SOPA folks, it's hard to imagine the general public getting riled up enough to protest in favour of SOPA. Anti-SOPA protesters have a lot of things they're concerned about, from the bill not being truly necessary in the first place, to its secretive origins and its unintended consequences. Even accepting the promised and active amendments, there's a lot of problems. I don't see anything this compelling that would cause grassroots support unless there's some astroturfing involved.
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abc gum, 27 Apr 2012 @ 4:27am

It would be extremely humorous if the cops beat the crap outta the paid demonstrators.
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Anonymous Coward, 27 Apr 2012 @ 4:33am

Re: Re:
A lot of students really need money, which is very convenient for agencies like this.
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Anonymous Coward, 27 Apr 2012 @ 4:40am

I wondered when that would show up here.

Of course there is no way to know if it's the copyright lobby directly. For example, certain German newspapers are notorious for pulling shit like that and handing out money to create their own news. And being remarkably unsubtle about it.
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Anonymous Coward, 27 Apr 2012 @ 4:55am

They held a Joseph Kony rally in Sydney Australia last week and not a soul turned up.
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Anonymous Coward, 27 Apr 2012 @ 5:14am

Stupid people breed faster than regular people......WERE SCREWED.
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Anonymous Coward, 27 Apr 2012 @ 5:27am

Not the first time an Astroturf group has hired people to show up at protests.

It was discovered a couple of years ago that health insurance companies were paying people to go to town hall events where a US congressmen was speaking and cause & video tape disruptions complaining about Obama's healthcare bill. They even gave out a list of 15 tips of how best to disrupt a town hall event to make sure the video gets on the news.
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Anonymous Coward, 27 Apr 2012 @ 5:28am

the entertainment industries live completely by money and will die completely by money, or more specifically, the lack of it!
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bob, 27 Apr 2012 @ 5:43am

BFD- the creator haters hire demonstrators too
Just look at those very generous donations from Big Search to the EFF and Wikipedia. A few weeks later, both were demonstrating against SOPA. What a coincidence.

https://www.eff.org/pages/eff-mission

http://wikimediafoundation.org/wiki/Press_releases/Brin _Wojcicki_Foundation_Announces_$500,000_Grant_to_Wikimedia

http://www.theregister.co.uk/2011/11/1 8/brin_wojcicki_grant_to_wikipedia/

It looks like Hollywood is learning from Silicon Valley how to play the game. Now they'll be able to pretend that they're "donations" are really just charity.
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The eejit (profile), 27 Apr 2012 @ 5:48am

Re: BFD- the creator haters hire demonstrators too
UM, first off, those donations (as you keep linking to them over and over and over and over...) wewre to groups that already agreed with the donating company's interests. This is NOT IN ANY WAY like that.

Second, nice assessment of the blogpost. What are you, 12?

And finally, why is your comment not behind a paywall?
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PaulT (profile), 27 Apr 2012 @ 5:51am

Re: BFD- the creator haters hire demonstrators too
So, got nothing, you just want to misdirect attention with conspiracy theories?

Yawn...
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Richard (profile), 27 Apr 2012 @ 5:54am

Re:
Seems to be fake?

Anyway, I wouldn't be surprised.

The abbreviated version of the title of this article in the browser tab said
"Copyright Lobby Tries To 'Hire' Demon"

Now that wouldn't surprise me either!
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bob, 27 Apr 2012 @ 6:06am

I am a complete moron who has absolutely no idea what he's saying, I just like to look smarter than I actually am. But with an IQ of 6, that isn't so hard. I just love spouting off about Big this and Big that. It's just gotta be Big, Big, Big! And who cares about proof? I don't! Who needs it? I'm bob, master of self-confusion! Wheee!!! Big! Big! Big! Big! Big! I just love that word! Big!
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I-Blz, 27 Apr 2012 @ 6:19am

Re:
Will the real bob please stand up?
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Anonymous Coward, 27 Apr 2012 @ 6:21am

I guess they couldn't find the badass astro turf "protesters" from the 2000 Presidential election. Remember them? They were crazy.
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hothmonster, 27 Apr 2012 @ 6:24am

Re: Re:
They call them consultants.
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Anonymous Coward, 27 Apr 2012 @ 6:28am

Re: BFD- the creator haters hire demonstrators too
"It looks like Hollywood is learning from Silicon Valley how to play the game"

Thanks! That joke just made my day!
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Leigh Beadon (profile), 27 Apr 2012 @ 7:01am

Re: Re: BFD- the creator haters hire demonstrators too
Seconded. I almost did a genuine spit-take when I read that.
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Anonymous Coward, 27 Apr 2012 @ 7:15am

Talk about desperation. This is evidence of just how much the public disagrees with IP extremists.
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Anonymous Coward, 27 Apr 2012 @ 7:17am

Re: Re:
In soviet russia, demon hires copyright lobby :P
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terry (profile), 27 Apr 2012 @ 7:18am

Re: BFD- the creator haters hire demonstrators too
"Just look at those very generous donations from Big Search to the EFF and Wikipedia. A few weeks later, both were demonstrating against SOPA. What a coincidence."

Bob, The very implication that the EFF would need to be paid in order to be audibly against SOPA makes it obvious to me that you have never visited the EFF website and are completely unfamiliar with Richard Stallman of the EFF, his writings, speeches, work, and personal policies. The only thing donating money to the EFF would have changed is how much they could spend on fighting SOPA. Their beliefs were their own long before and definitely not purchased.

Stallman is more passionate about freedoms, even to the point he won't use a cell phone that has proprietary technology in it.
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Anonymous Coward, 27 Apr 2012 @ 7:22am

Re: Re: BFD- the creator haters hire demonstrators too
I marked his (but not your) comment as funny.
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Ninja (profile), 27 Apr 2012 @ 7:40am

Re: Re: BFD- the creator haters hire demonstrators too
I have a feeling he was one of the hired...
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Anonymous Coward, 27 Apr 2012 @ 7:46am

Heck, I would join an Anti-ACTA rally as well if someone told me my music/movie/software/etc. "gravy train" was about to fall off the rails.

It is easy to get some people all riled up if you feed them enough FUD, and then encourage them to send in a flood of emails based upon the FUD.
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Anonymous Coward, 27 Apr 2012 @ 7:50am

Re: Re: Re:
Not to mention out of work actors who need to ingratiate themselves to the studios.
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xenomancer (profile), 27 Apr 2012 @ 7:51am

Copyright Lobby had decided to try to put on a pro-ACTA demonstration... but they needed to hire people to act as ACTA supporters
It shouldn't surprise anyone that a lobby backed by the MPAA would try hiring extras at a place so likely to both despise the effort and need the money. It's actually a rather fitting vignette of the overall global trend in IP law.
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Anonymous Coward, 27 Apr 2012 @ 7:51am

Re:
If the cops beat the crap out of paid demonstrators, could the demonstrators file for workman's comp?
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weneedhelp (profile), 27 Apr 2012 @ 7:52am

Re: BFD- the creator haters hire demonstrators too
boB, you're so funny. Thanks for the laughs.
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Anonymous Coward, 27 Apr 2012 @ 7:53am

Re: Re:
Infringement ... errrr ... Theft!!!
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weneedhelp (profile), 27 Apr 2012 @ 7:55am

Re:
Wheee!!! Now thats funny right there.
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weneedhelp (profile), 27 Apr 2012 @ 7:58am

Re:
"It is easy to get some people all riled up if you feed them enough FUD, and then encourage them to send in a flood of emails based upon the FUD."

Its the music/movie industry's modus operandi . Whats your point?
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jupiterkansas (profile), 27 Apr 2012 @ 8:01am

Re: Re: BFD- the creator haters hire demonstrators too
You forget that Mike pays bob to stir up controversy here so we're good and riled up.
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Niall (profile), 27 Apr 2012 @ 8:05am

Re: Re:
What if it was a staged beating?
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Anonymous Coward, 27 Apr 2012 @ 8:07am

Re:
Well, it must've been an unprecedented level of FUD, because the response really was overwhelming.

Or maybe there was no FUD at all: people saw a real danger and acted.
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Chuck Norris' Enemy (deceased) (profile), 27 Apr 2012 @ 8:19am

Re: Re: Re:
Great! Now I have to wait 'til the end to find out who double-crossed who. =[
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Gwiz (profile), 27 Apr 2012 @ 8:44am

Re:
Is the SOPA protest is still chaffing your ass?

You might want to try some A & D Ointment on that.
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Anonymous Coward, 27 Apr 2012 @ 8:59am

Re: Re:
Not at all, but SOPA, since you mention it, is a very good example of how to rile up the freeloaders with a big helping of FUD.
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Anonymous Coward, 27 Apr 2012 @ 9:27am

I have been a songwriter all of my life and I have never been more ashamed of the people supposedly representing me. Nothing more to say.
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Anonymous Coward, 27 Apr 2012 @ 9:48am

I'll support if the price is right! "It's all a scam soon as the cameras are on off comes the GO ACTA SHIRT. Whats under it? FUCK ACTA!
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bob, 27 Apr 2012 @ 10:30am

Re: Re: BFD- the creator haters hire demonstrators too
Actually, that's not clear. The EFF has been a big campaigner for privacy, but somehow they barely raise a peep about Big Search's huge databases. They still talk about the NSA, but you won't find them biting the hand that feeds them.

You'll find that all of the groups like this change their spots to look like their funders.
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bob, 27 Apr 2012 @ 10:34am

Re: Re: BFD- the creator haters hire demonstrators too
I think you're confused. Richard Stallman doesn't work for the EFF. You're thinking of the Free Software Foundation.

And Richard Stallman isn't as committed to software freedom as he once was. When it came down to a battle between Oracle and MySQL, he was quite happy to endorse proprietary software. He's quite capable of being practical.

http://www.zdnet.com/blog/burnette/stallman-admits-gpl-flawed-proprietary-licensing-ne eded-to-pay-for-mysql-development/1426
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bob, 27 Apr 2012 @ 10:39am

Re: Re: Re: BFD- the creator haters hire demonstrators too
You guys may chuckle, but there are big differences between how Hollywood and Silicon Valley lobby. Hollywood follows the old format where they pay money into groups that register as lobbyists; Big Search likes to pretend that it's all a charity. Hollywood pays taxes. Silicon Valley's non-lobbyists don't.

I'm sure, though, that Hollywood will catch up and spawn their own non-lobbyist charities now that they understand how the game is played.

And think for a second. Big Search is at least 10 times bigger than the biggest Hollywood studio in market capitalization. It only makes sense that they're playing catch up.

But you can go on living that making Big Search richer is somehow helping the little people.
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bob, 27 Apr 2012 @ 10:40am

Re:
Why? It's how the game is played. As I pointed out above, Big Search is happy to buy protestors.
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The eejit (profile), 27 Apr 2012 @ 10:41am

Re: Re: Re: BFD- the creator haters hire demonstrators too
"That's not clear".

The EFF has repeeatedly gone after Google before and since that donation was made.
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PaulT (profile), 27 Apr 2012 @ 10:50am

Re: Re: Re: Re: BFD- the creator haters hire demonstrators too
Shhh... facts might shatter his illusions of a grand conspiracy. You don't want to be responsible for the breaking of a mind on its first encounter with sanity. Do you?
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Mike Masnick (profile), 27 Apr 2012 @ 11:57am

Re: Re: Re: Re: BFD- the creator haters hire demonstrators too
The EFF has repeeatedly gone after Google before and since that donation was made.

Yes, EFF has been quite critical of Google on privacy issues.

I'm guessing that "bob" doesn't know this because I'm sure bob won't actually use the technology that would help cure him of his ignorance because that would be helping "big search." Instead, he's waiting for a special paywalled search engine to be created just for him.
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bob, 27 Apr 2012 @ 12:42pm

Re: Re:
Conspiracy! Conspiracy! Everything's a conspiracy! Big Threat! Big Money! Big Loser (that's me)! Paywalls! Paywalls! Paywalls! Proof? I don't need proof! I've got an IQ of 6! That's a tenth of the IQ of the average cockroach! I don't just have a tinfoil hat, I have a whole suit of it! Whee! Mr. Magoo can see better than I do! Whahaha! Gotta keep hating technology, oh yes indeedy! Just gotta hate, hate, hate! I gotta�

We're sorry, your bob-bot has malfunctioned due to a personality conflict and must be repaired. Please return it to the nearest legacy media company's headquarters for reprogramming before it adopts the views we have designed it to oppose. We thank you for continued support of our oppression of the working class.
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Anonymous Coward, 27 Apr 2012 @ 1:16pm

Re: Re:
I think we should just start calling you Big Bob.
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bob, 27 Apr 2012 @ 1:28pm

Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: BFD- the creator haters hire demonstrators too
Of course I know that they've said a slightly scoldy thing from time to time, but if you measure the effort they've put in against the NSA or SOPA, you would see that Big Search gets barely any criticism by comparison.

These days, they're joined at the hip and they'll stay that way as long as the "charity" keeps flowing.

https://www.eff.org/event/eff-mixer-google
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AC Cobra, 27 Apr 2012 @ 1:55pm

Similar things have happened
Seems I remember CreativeAmerica paying people who recruit other people to register at their website (which then automatically counts them as an endorser of CA's message if I'm not mistaken). Also, on a local level, my union local offered to enter people in a lottery for free quarterly dues if they would send a letter or sign a petition to their congressperson supporting PIPA. To the best of my knowledge, few or no members took them up on the offer though, and the offer was regarded with open disgust by many.

"Creator Hater". Sounds like the anti-christ or something. That's brilliant.
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Anonymous Coward, 27 Apr 2012 @ 2:43pm

Re:
Heck, I would join an Anti-ACTA rally as well if someone told me my music/movie/software/etc. "gravy train" was about to fall off the rails.

What is the 'gravy train' exactly?
Many struggling to be noticed artists would no doubt disagree with you.
The problem with posters like you is you talk the talk but don't walk the walk. For example, according to an political ad in the US campaign, 85% of young people are moving back in with ma and pa.
The president of The Pirate Party in Australia works for a bank for chrissake.
Get out of your mainstream comfort zone, and do something creative yourself, instead of whining that musicians are on a 'gravy train'.
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That One Guy (profile), 27 Apr 2012 @ 3:28pm

So is there any reports of how much they were paid? I'm curious as to the current going price of dignity, self-respect and or the soul.
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bob, 27 Apr 2012 @ 4:37pm

Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: BFD- the creator haters hire demonstrators too
See? I just made a claim right there above me and I didn't even back it up with evidence! That's how you troll, oh yes it is! Big! Big! Big! Big! Big! Big! Gotta say Big! Just gotta say it! Big! Big! Big!
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Anonymous Coward, 27 Apr 2012 @ 6:02pm

Re: Re: Re: Re: BFD- the creator haters hire demonstrators too
Why not? You go on living while thinking that making the RIAA richer is somehow helping the little people.
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Anonymous Coward, 27 Apr 2012 @ 7:41pm

Re: Re:
I don't know, this one seems like the real deal to me.
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Anonymous Coward, 28 Apr 2012 @ 12:23am

Re: Re: Re:
Wikipedia are freeloaders, now?
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abc gum, 28 Apr 2012 @ 8:28am

Re:
Every time I see a post from 'bob', I remember that Enzyte Bob is in prison.
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Anonymous Coward, 28 Apr 2012 @ 9:31am

Re: Re:
Apparently you missed the rest of the comment, because the point being made had nothing to do with musicians, per se, who labor to create their own original works.

Musicians, per se, who create such works are not on a "gravy train". That term is generally associated with those free riders who feel entitled to do whatever they want, whenever they want, and the wishes of the author be damned.
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Anonymous Coward, 28 Apr 2012 @ 9:59am

Entitlement
"Musicians, per se, who create such works are not on a "gravy train". That term is generally associated with those free riders who feel entitled to do whatever
they want, whenever they want, and the wishes of the author be damned."

I only feel entitled to copy whatever bits I want with my own physical property. Are you a communist? Do you argue that my right to do what I please with my physical property, my own electricity and within my own house is trumped by another's claim to hold a monopoly?
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Anonymous Coward, 28 Apr 2012 @ 10:02am

Re:
"The problem with posters like you is you talk the talk but don't walk the walk. For example, according to an political ad in the US campaign, 85% of young
people are moving back in with ma and pa.
The president of The Pirate Party in Australia works for a bank for chrissake."

And that has nothing to do with piracy or IP. Opposing IP is not the same as opposing money.
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bob vs bob, 30 Apr 2012 @ 8:03am

Leave the Poor Guy Alone
bob - please be nicer to bob. He's one of the few contrarian viewpoints here that actually tries to be a bit nice.

And even though I don't agree with him. At all. I think he deserves better.
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Jonathan, 5 May 2012 @ 3:22pm

Re: BFD- the creator haters hire demonstrators too
Can you tell me why the EFF wouldn't have come out against SOPA in the first place, as a matter of policy and mission?

Nope, you're just here to slime Google. Who put you up to it? Oracle? Florian Mueller? Someone connected with the content cartel and/or Rupert Murdoch? Someone connected with the national security state? C'mon, the jig is up. Just identify your backers and we can all move on.
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