

Live video of House SOPA hearing - alex1
http://judiciary.house.gov/hearings/mark_12152011.html

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boredguy8
Wow, it's only being made worse. Bob Goodlatte (R-VA), from what I can tell,
is adding the payment processing blockage suggestion from Google in the last
hearing, without removing any of the terrible, terrible components already in
it.

The entire speech, too, was full of equivocation and mass confusion: sawdust
breaks have exactly NOTHING to do with SOPA. Equivocating on physical goods
and digital goods, when it comes to safety, is asinine.

Edit: HOLY HELL. Melvin Watt (D-NC) just said almost exactly: "A free and open
internet is not unduly compromised by these changes to stop theft and piracy
online." . . . "Trusting private rights-holders against foreign infringing
sites will allow us to stop the compromise of US citizens and the influx of
compromised goods." . . . "We need to be just as aggressive on the internet as
we are with brick-and-mortar stores." . . . "This bill allows us to get into
the internet." . . . "My perspective, as an old country boy, we need parallels
on the virtual world to what we have in the real world." YOU ALREADY HAVE
THEM!!!

Zoe Lofgren (D-CA) is up: please save us. YAY! "The integrity of the Internet
is very much at risk." . . . "Especially disturbing given that today is the
anniversary of the First Amendment." "The internet is not lawless. Breaking
the law can already be punished, just like the physical world. But we have
shut down illegal conduct at the source. The government has never tried to use
the network itself to prevent illegal conduct . . . This will be historic, and
not in a good way. Once the government has a taste of this power...expanding
it will be irresistible. The US Government has never tried to monitor mail to
prevent some sort of illegal content from being sent." Support this
congresswoman!

Jim Sensenbrenner (R-WI) reminding us all that NOBODY was qualified to comment
on DNSSEC issues. Good scenarios, including phishing-style attacks mimicking
SOPA-takedown-esque redirects.

Howard Berman (D-CA) argues that "we can't stop the foreigners from stealing"
argument. But that's always been the case, whether physical or otherwise. We
can't stop a foreign company from making, say, fake Nike clothes and selling
them in South Africa. You _can_ work with foreign governments to shut them
down according to their own laws. And once again, Zoe Lofgren nails it in her
response: "This is the beginning of the balkanization of the internet."

Chaffetz (R-UT) says, "Let's get some nerds in the room." "How can you support
a bill that will dramatically change how the internet works without
understanding what it does?"

Alright, back to work. But this doesn't seem like SOPA's being fixed in ways
that are important.

~~~
pnathan
_"Let's get some nerds in the room"_

Now that's a disruptive thought. :-(

~~~
AgentConundrum
> _"Let's get some nerds in the room"_

Was that a direct quote? I'm Canadian, which means that I have no impact on
this legislation whatsoever. I can't email my congress(wo)man, threaten to
vote for the other guy, throw money behind a better candidate, etc. All I can
do is sit back and hope that somehow you yanks'll take care of it, so
therefore I try not to pay too close attention to this since it depresses the
hell out of me. As such, I wasn't watching the proceedings today and don't
know if that's a direct quote or not.

If it is, then I find that comment extremely disturbing. The reason being that
Congress, being made up mostly of old people largely out of touch with
technology (senate.gov lists the average age of members to be 56.7 years in
the House and 62.2 years in the Senate[1]), they should be looking to the
younger generation in general, and experts in technology specifically, to help
them make informed decisions. Calling these people "nerds" seems incredibly
derisive and shows a general lack of respect for the very people that can best
help them.

It's appalling.

[1] <https://www.senate.gov/reference/resources/pdf/R41647.pdf>

~~~
18pfsmt
Just to let you know, that is a quotation, but it wasn't meant in the derisive
manner (as you decided to interpret it). On the contrary, the reasonable
members of the House understand they need more technical people to weigh-in
and are pushing for another hearing with such people present.

------
colinhowe
Mr Chaffetz is my new hero. More politicians should raise the issue of people
not having a clue what they're on about. Even better, raising it eloquently.

~~~
jaryd
"If we can't get the definition of domestic internet site right then we're not
ready for prime time." Chaffetz

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delinka
I want some questions answered by the proponents, lobbyists and
Congresscritters backing this thing:

1\. Why do you need to avoid due process? The lack of oversight (by the
courts) is what makes this like censorship in China, Iran, etc. With SOPA, all
anyone need do is _claim_ copyright infringement against some web site and it
gets shut down and blacklisted-- correct or not, the targeted site owner is
censored off the internet and cut off from their income simply because someone
pointed a finger. That's bullying, plain and simple, and it's unacceptable.

2\. What punishment is included for abuse of this lack of process? Without
punishment, corporations can censor competitors, politicians can censor
opponents, governments can censor citizens simply by alleging infringement
against them.

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Wilduck
I've been sitting in a hotel lobby for literally 24 hours over the last two
days. There have been two different news stations playing this entire time. I
have heard news coverage of all sorts of topics, but nothing discussing SOPA.

In fact, the only thing I've seen was an ad (presumably by the MPAA or RIAA)
saying that piracy costs jobs, concluding with the phrase "Stop Online
Piracy." How is it possible that neither of these stations even mentioned
SOPA? Is there really that little public interest in the topic? They're
talking about apple cider recipes right now.

~~~
bgentry
The news stations are owned by media conglomerates that back SOPA. There is an
obvious conflict of interest at play here.

------
zephjc
Wow, a guy admitted that he doesn't know if he wants to use modern technology,
yet he's expected to make an informed decision about this. We're pretty
fucked.

I rage-quit watching the video after about 2 minutes.

~~~
gk1
You can't expect every congressperson to be an expert on every bill they vote
on. That is why they have assistants; to research the matter and brief the
congressperson on it. Frequently their opinion will also be heavily influenced
by lobbyists, rather than their own knowledge of the subject.

~~~
runjake
Except that doesn't normally happen... with technology bills, anyway. Or their
assistants do not have the proper expertise or foresight.

------
jmcqk6
Mr. Chaffetz is kicking ass pointing out that they have not taken into account
any of the technical issues. "It's like performing surgery without a doctor."
"Bring in the nerds."

------
smithzvk
This saddens me. I just saw Polis attempt to grant an exemption for University
run DNSs (something already in place for businesses). The amendment was
rebutted with a meaningful argument. Then I watched 20 minutes of completely
mislead arguments such as people thinking like this would mean universities
could freely violate copyright, post copyrighted material without legal
consequences, and anybody at a university is immune from prosecution when
downloading copyrighted material. It was eventually voted down. Ugh, clueless
people...

------
jlgosse
I honestly wonder how many people in that room actually:

1) Understand what this girl is saying,

2) Understand what they are about to vote on,

3) Deserve to vote at all

God bless America!

~~~
fratis
She's barely comprehensible and monotonous besides. Nobody in that room is
listening to her anymore. All three people in the frame behind her are looking
at a screen.

Ridiculous.

~~~
jmcqk6
My understanding was that her reading could have been avoided if a member who
opposed the bill removed their objection. Basically, this was a way to stall
progress on the bill and nothing more. No one was meant to really listen, I
think.

On an unrelated note, today I discovered I definitely do not have the patience
for congress.

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y3di
"If you don't know what DNSSEC is, you don't know what you're doing."

Truer words...

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jaryd
Stream Address:
mms://a1481.l6576439480.c65764.n.lm.akamaistream.net/D/1481/65764/v0001/reflector:39480
Video Codec: WMV3 Audio Codec: WMA2

~~~
datasink
I had some difficulty getting this to work on the Mac with either VLC or
Quicktime/Flip4Mac. I ended up getting it to work using mplayer.

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nextparadigms
How ironic that the Internet could be saved from censorship (SOPA) thanks to
the fear of cyber-terrorism (the DNSSEC issue).

------
cft
The only appropriate response to this is a message prominently placed on
Google, Facebook, Youtube, eBay, Amazon, Yahoo and a Wikipedia blackout.

------
Pointsly
Watching this makes me realize that we don't need new regulations... we need
new leaders... leaders who can compete and are knowledgeable on a global
scale.

~~~
jerf
No such thing can exist in a world of seven billion people. If your model of
government requires that, it is doomed to absolute failure. The correct answer
is to decentralize more and reduce our need for "leaders" in general.

------
jjoergensen
Why should we obey physical boundaries? Internet should be for people across
national borders. If anything, we should establish our own government for the
Internet that actually knows and understands what they're talking about.

------
jaryd
"Lets bring the nerds in and get this right" -- awesome

------
jmcqk6
Something that pro-members of this panel seems to miss is that it requires the
creation of a mechanism to enforce the provisions of this bill, and that
mechanism can be abused far beyond the scope of this particular bill.

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briankim
Justin.TV link:

<http://www.justin.tv/unearthed365#/w/2248548160>

~~~
the-cakeboss
For anyone else looking for an online alternative:

<http://keepthewebopen.com/sopa>

------
SilasX
Quick, someone file a copyright complaint against the broadcast and get it
shut down! We can't risk public knowledge of this hearing, er, I mean, _IP
infringement_ , getting out!

------
dolinsky
In watching the live stream there is some young-ish woman speaking so fast in
order to get through the particular amendment she is (I'm assuming) required
to read verbatim, and in such a monotonic tone, that I can't understand the
reason for doing so. The people listening surely can't be retaining what it is
that she is saying. It would be much more prudent if (gosh forbid) everybody
involved had done their homework, read up on the appropriate amendments prior
to this hearing, and came prepared to discuss and debate merits. Ya
know...kinda like what we all had to do growing up. Do your homework. BTW,
there's a woman furiously typing away on a blackberry with an iPad in her hand
and a man on an iPad who are both on camera directly behind this woman
speaking. I rest my case your honor.

~~~
cbs
Is this your first time watching congress? Yes, shes required to read it, all
you've really said is that its silly for her to do so, which it is. But its a
formality and they'll normally move to have her STFU. In this case its a
procedural runarund. Like a quorum in the senate, nobody actually cares that
everyones there, and if they did care so much about attendance they'd have a
better way to take it.

They did their homework beforehand, otherwise the chamber would be empty, like
always.

~~~
dolinsky
When I have watched hearings in the past it has been to listen to debates
(most of which wind up being read verbatim from a piece of paper), but the
language used is more natural than that of a proposed bill/amendment.

As for doing their homework, from the events surrounding SOPA which have taken
place to date and in reading the list of amendments to be discussed, I don't
believe these JC members - save for a few like Lofgren, Polis, Sensenbrenner,
Chaffetz - have done their homework.

Two of the most important amendments over the next two days: * performing a
study on the impact of any bill prior to its enactment (why this isn't a part
of judiciary procedure escapes me) * an expiry on the provision of the bill
after 5 years, which I think is a wonderful idea.

------
pixelmob
Holy F___ what a bunch of idiots. Chaffetz , Lofgren and Polis seem to be the
only ones who gets this. We are totally screwed if this moves forward. DMCA
made worse.

------
Achshar
I am a n00b to politics but why is that girl speaking so furiously? No one
is/can understand that. They should do some debate. That seems to be useless.

~~~
jaryd
it's a matter of course to read the amended bill into record before they
proceed. everyone sitting there is presumed to have already been familiarized
with the textual revisions

~~~
Achshar
Then why not simply insert the document in the "record". That is precious time
being wasted.

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tibbon
If you're on a Mac, it seems that Chrome probably won't work. Open up Safari
and click on the video stream link
([http://mfile.akamai.com/65764/live/reflector:39480.asx?bkup=...](http://mfile.akamai.com/65764/live/reflector:39480.asx?bkup=39655&prop=n))
For me VLC opened the stream then. You could probably directly open it in VLC
as well, but that isn't what I did.

------
laconian
This shit makes me want to be put into stasis. Wake me up when sanity returns
to this world.

------
RegEx
We're discussing the live hearing in ##SOPA on freenode. Beware, there are
redditors ;)

~~~
someone13
From someone who just joined - if you're looking for real discussion, don't
bother. It's mostly insults and memes.

------
daspion
Are there any sites out there keeping track of how Congressional reps will
vote? I just got a letter from my Senator saying she supports SOPA (and turns
out is a sponsor of the bill). Gillibrand-NY

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emehrkay
What technology do I need to watch this video on a mac?

~~~
RegEx
Getting windows media components for quicktime helped me.

[http://www.microsoft.com/download/en/details.aspx?displaylan...](http://www.microsoft.com/download/en/details.aspx?displaylang=en&id=9442)

~~~
emehrkay
Thank you. Argg requires a silverlight install too. I'll bite the bullet

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hastur
Issa is pretty impressive. Considering he's Republican - even more so.

Also big thumbs up for Polis, Lofgren, Chaffetz.

~~~
hastur
Representative Polis just submitted for the hearing record the lyrics of the
song "Internet is for porn". :)

~~~
hastur
Lofgren just pulled out ACTA. Big plus for her.

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maeon3
We will need a medium to discover what sites cant be visited so we can
reproduce the blocked sites over the black-market under-the-table internet. A
place where we can read about opinions and objectives that have not been
approved by the riaa and mpaa for public showing.

Our internet is turning into fox news, with talking points, narratives,
brainwashing and censorship. Not on my watch!

Do a google search for fox news sopa. Guess how many articles reporting on
some of the most important legislation on the Earth today? I saw zero.
corruption meter reading 100.

Who is up for rioting if this passes?

~~~
jrockway
I'm not up for rioting. I'm up for creating an back channel that the
government doesn't know about, though.

(Think about all the other things that are illegal, like growing certain
plants and crossing the street when the light is red. The laws are just there
to oppress people that the government wants to oppress, and we'll never change
that. One more thought crime on my rap sheet isn't going to make a
difference.)

------
cq
When will this be voted on?

~~~
jaryd
Looks like today... [http://www.dailypaul.com/193200/breaking-news-sopa-being-
vot...](http://www.dailypaul.com/193200/breaking-news-sopa-being-voted-on-
today-today-also-bill-of-rights-money-bomb-for-karen-kwiatkowski-sopas-
primary-challeng)

~~~
jmcqk6
At the beginning of the session, the chairman stated that he expects the
meeting to continue into tomorrow.

~~~
jaryd
We can only hope...

