

Lamar Smith Proposes Expanding Hollywood's Global Police Force - HistoryInAction
http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20120709/12574819634/lamar-smith-looking-to-sneak-through-sopa-bits-pieces-starting-with-expanding-hollywoods-global-police-force.shtml

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politician
Ah, the good ole boy 21st district candidate. This corrupt politician has free
reign as long as his district remains gerrymandered. Just throw a few bones to
the rednecks and a few kickbacks to the rich white folk and then collect
checks from the MPAA/RIAA.

Seriously, look at this map:
<http://lamarsmith.house.gov/District/InteractiveMap.htm>

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regularfry
It is utterly mindboggling to me that gerrymandering is legal in the US.

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CWuestefeld
Not only legal, but _required_. It's another example of how something that was
intended to ensure the voice of minorities, has turned into a tool for
entrenching the powerful.

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iamdave
_Required_? This I did not know, I'm about to learn something. Can you go into
a little detail?

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CWuestefeld
From the Wikipedia article [1]:

After the Voting Rights Act of 1965 was passed, some states created "majority-
minority" districts. This practice, also called "affirmative gerrymandering",
was supposed to redress historic discrimination and ensure that ethnic
minorities would gain some seats in government. Since the 1990s, however,
gerrymandering based solely on racial data has been ruled unconstitutional by
the United States Supreme Court under the Fourteenth Amendment, first in Shaw
v. Reno (1993) and subsequently in Miller v. Johnson (1995).

[1]
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gerrymandering#Voting_Rights_A...](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gerrymandering#Voting_Rights_Act_of_1965)

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vijayr
Is this similar to the reservations in India (in jobs, educational
institutions, voting etc)? If it is, then nothing good will come out of it.

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Rasiej
The death of the Open Internet by a thousand cuts starts.

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HistoryInAction
Yep, push back once, and they'll try, try again until decisively checked...
apparently, 2000 in front of the NY Senators wasn't enough ;)

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r00fus
Anyone who thinks Democrats have a monopoly on MAFIAA-corrupted legislators
needs to seriously examine this Republican.

A truly corrupt individual.

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nhebb
Historically, contributions by the RIAA have been pretty evenly split between
Democrats and Republicans. Lobbyists care more about influence than they do
about the R or D after the name. Politicians care more about reelection
campaign funding then they do about ideology.

Edit - sources:

[http://www.opensecrets.org/pacs/pacgot.php?cycle=2012&cm...](http://www.opensecrets.org/pacs/pacgot.php?cycle=2012&cmte=C00009357)

[http://www.opensecrets.org/pacs/pacgot.php?cmte=C00139519...](http://www.opensecrets.org/pacs/pacgot.php?cmte=C00139519&cycle=2012)

You need to look through the last few election cycles for a full picture. The
MPAA, it seems, leans towards Democrats, but they do shift contributions
according to which party controls each chamber.

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rhizome
When beaten back, even in the miniscule way that they have, they reveal more
and more of their priorities by attrition. The elements that were in
SOPA/PIPA/etc. that aren't in this, we can figure are the things that they're
secure with, or that they don't care about. Regardless, there's plenty of
business intelligence in the selection criteria between then and now.

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albertsun
If only some tech billionaire could set up a SuperPAC to defeat this guy in
2012.

Here's his Democratic opponent in 2012
<https://candaceduval.nationbuilder.com/contribute>

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greenyoda
If Smith were to be defeated the RIAA would just start throwing money at
whoever became the chairman of the committee that he's currently in charge of.
(The new chairman would likely be another Republican since they currently have
a majority in the House.)

Corruption is so deeply entrenched in the system that you won't get rid of it
by throwing out one politician, no matter how influential. The best approach
might be to publicize as widely as possible how the system works in the hope
that there will eventually be widespread support for reforming it (maybe by
passing a constitutional amendment to outlaw the kind of legalized corruption
that we call "campaign finance" in the U.S.). If I were a billionaire, that's
what I'd put my money behind.

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guard-of-terra
Maybe now countries around the world will see that strong copyright is an one-
way street to channel money for USA. And then we'll see adoption of more
public-oriented copyright regimes.

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damian2000
I'd never heard of Lamar Smith before, but the name conjures up the image of a
sheriff in a cheesy western, ready to cut the bad guys down with a six
shooter.

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hastur
The Committee hearing is happening RIGHT NOW.

You can see the topics and watch a LIVE VIDEO here:
[http://judiciary.house.gov/hearings/Markups%202012/mark_0710...](http://judiciary.house.gov/hearings/Markups%202012/mark_07102012.html)

Note: As can be seen on the topic list, there are a number of different
topics, and the IPAA is not being discussed yet as of writing this comment.
(This second, they're talking about Child Prevention Act of 2012, HR 6063.)

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HistoryInAction
It's possible that some disagreements between Republicans and Democrats will
prevent IPAA from coming up in today's markup, reports seemed to indicate as
of last night.

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hastur
Good to know, thanks. Where did you learn about that?

BTW, did the stream suddenly die? Or did they finish or go into recess when I
wasn't watching?

