
Nancy Pelosi, Ron Paul join SOPA opposition - ajaymehta
http://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/news/2011/11/strange-bedfellows-nancy-pelosi-ron-paul-join-sopa-opposition.ars
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LeafStorm
I don't think there was any doubt that Ron Paul would oppose SOPA. Nancy
Pelosi's opposition, on the other hand, is somewhat surprising, but also quite
promising.

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bentlegen
Nancy Pelosi represents the 8th Congressional District, which is basically San
Francisco. She knows who her constituents are.

~~~
javert
Is there any real chance she could fail to get re-elected?

I suspect some other reason for her stance on this (can't fathom what,
though).

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hugh3
Pelosi will never fail to get re-elected. But as House Minority Leader she has
other things to worry about, in particular getting all the _other_ Democrats
re-elected. And that means trying not to piss off any big donor group. Big
Content is a big donor group for the Democrats, which is why she'd be
naturally inclined to support something like this. On the other hand,
overwhelming opposition from Big Internet (particuarly Google, etc) is a bit
of a dealbreaker even if Silicon Valley isn't nearly as conscientious about
paying its protection money (err, political donations) as Hollywood.

So, like she says, "we need to find another way". They'll come up with a new
bill that is either less objectionable or one that hides the objectionable
parts more clearly... and then they'll pass it when nobody's paying attention.

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jellicle
This is roughly correct. Please do not confuse Pelosi's temporary and minor
objections to the bill as written with any sort of principled long-term
objection to the concept behind the bill. Pelosi supports copyright
maximization as much as anyone; she's just attempting to find some minimal
accommodation to stop Silicon Valley from squawking so loudly.

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NathanKP
Has anyone yet made a serious estimate of how likely SOPA is to pass?

I would hope that if our legislative system is so divided that they can't
agree on legislation relating to budgets or healthcare, they won't agree on
this legislation either.

Not that its a good thing for the legislation system to be so ineffective, but
it would seem truly ironic if they agree on something that will hurt the
economy, but not on things that will help the economy.

~~~
philwelch
The House _did_ manage to pass a bill upholding the status of pizza as a
vegetable: [http://www.reuters.com/article/2011/11/18/us-usa-lunch-
idUST...](http://www.reuters.com/article/2011/11/18/us-usa-lunch-
idUSTRE7AH00020111118)

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tzs
They did no such thing. That part of the bill concerned how much tomato paste
has to be on the pizza for the tomato paste to be enough to count as a serving
of vegetables. The USDA wants 8 tablespoons, and Congress wants 2.

~~~
jamesbritt
_for the tomato paste to be enough to count as a serving of vegetables_

Sigh; I live in a country where tomatoes are considered a vegetable.

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scq
Tomatoes are actually both a fruit and a vegetable. Fruit is a botanical
distinction, while vegetable is a culinary one.

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ck2
In all seriousness, all we need is President Obama to say he is for SOPA and
it will immediately be voted out of existence.

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nextparadigms
Sadly, that won't happen, though. Obama and Biden are big supporters of RIAA
and MPAA. They were the ones setting up the "voluntary" ISP alert system for
people downloading illegal torrents, too.

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jerfelix
I missed your logic. If Obama is a big supporter of RIAA and MPAA, then why
wouldn't he come out and say that he is for SOPA?

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rbanffy
Two words for you: Overton Window.

SOPA was designed to fail. It was designed, however, to help pass a less evil
version of it in the future, by leaving the impression we have to defend
content creators, but not this much.

Wanna bet?

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spydum
Are you sure Protect-IP wasnt the bill to be shot down, and SOPA is the
replacement?

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rbanffy
It may take more than one absurd bill to shift the window enough.

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cookiecaper
The _real_ question is, "Can Barack Obama stand to sign this bill when he
relies so heavily on youthful support for election?" Also, "what happens if
Republican nominee comes out against it?"

I don't hear much about Obama vetoes, does he just sign everything that hits
his desk like Bush?

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tomjen3
That is not going to chang enuch I am afraid. We could always count on Ron
Paul to vote against it but there are way too many people in the house for one
vote to matter.

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johnnyjustice
This is very interesting news, but I am scared that there will be a bit of a
backlash against this post because of its political nature, on HN
specifically.

How do people feel about Ron Paul's standpoint on Net Neutrality?

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plainOldText
His standpoint is consistent with other libertarian views he has. No
regulation. The Internet has worked fine without regulation for so many years.
And if your carrier/isp is throttling your connection, switch to a different
one.If many people switch then they'll stop throttling. Simple as that.

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rayiner
The internet is the product of a government project and has been heavily
regulated since its inception.

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Gormo
> and has been heavily regulated since its inception

Interesting; I wasn't aware of this. I know that the original network design
grew out of a DARPA project, but I wasn't aware of any significant federal
regulatory involvement since the internet became open to general, non-
government use in the '80s. Do you have any references you could point to that
might provide more detail?

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Pointsly
Love this. Thank God.

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skrebbel
Not so fast. I heard God is in favour of SOPA.

