

We, the people, stopped SOPA/PIPA -- Let's remember that - CodyLittlewood
http://codylittlewood.com/we-the-people-stopped-sopapipa-lets-remember

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dmarusic
The dynamic that stopped it is also underreported: with Republicans lining up
against the bills, Democrats started seeing the bills as a partisan liability
in an election year. I'm most concerned that if anything, the debate has
shifted in favor of the pro-SOPA crowd, even if SOPA is dead. Some kind of
consensus has emerged that something must be done, even if SOPA and PIPA
aren't it. Thing is, that's dangerously false and makes the resurgence of this
battle likely.

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rudyfink
While the author makes good points, I believe it is very premature to call it
stopped. "Stopped" would be passing positive law staking control over the area
SOPA/PIPA wanted to control. What we continue to have is empty space that no
one controls. I think that is better classified as a standoff or draw.

I think the author is correct that we have the democracy that we fight for.

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aqme28
Larger corporations such as Google, Wikipedia, and Reddit had a very important
role in this. Arguably much more than the citizen action alone.

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molmalo
The main problem here is not the media giving credit to Google or Wikipedia
for what happened with those bills. Not even us not acknowledging our own
results.

How many times is Wikipedia going to blackout to raise awareness about bad
legislation? How many times is Google going to post a message in its homepage,
about a political matter, instead of just negotiating a beneficial exit for
them?

The main problem is a vast majority of _us, the people_ , not caring about
what happens at any level of out political structures.

We all know that corporations pay big checks to politicians, just to make them
present and pass their bills. We all know that money buys friends. And BIG
money, buys BIG friends.

SOPA and PIPA may have been delayed. Even stopped. But without trying to go
further, without trying to change this corrupted system, it's just a matter of
time to see _again_ and _again_ and _again_ our rights to be stamped and
stolen from us.

Everything is useless if eat from the bread of complacency and drink from the
glass of auto-satisfaction. If we go to bed thinking "we've done it", instead
of "we have a lot of things to do".

Let's nos stop, let's not forget.

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mukyu
My money is on conservative groups like the Heritage Foundation and National
Review coming out against it (largely for reasons that the tech community was
not focusing on) as the main driving force of change, at least on the
Republican side.

~~~
VMG
I think they came out against it for the same reasons

 _While the federal government does have a role in protecting intellectual
property rights, it should do so in a way that does not weaken internet
security, disrupt growth or restrict free speech rights_

[http://heritageaction.com/2012/01/key-vote-
alert-%E2%80%9Cno...](http://heritageaction.com/2012/01/key-vote-
alert-%E2%80%9Cno%E2%80%9D-on-sopa-and-pipa/)

 _Hollywood and other content providers seeking to protect their copyrighted
materials, and Internet firms seeking to protect their interest in a Web that
remains largely free of government supervision. We favor an Internet that is
largely free of regulation and taxes; we also favor observing the Eighth
Commandment._

[http://www.nationalreview.com/articles/288509/scrub-sopa-
edi...](http://www.nationalreview.com/articles/288509/scrub-sopa-editors)

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VMG
Well legalizing pot should be no problem then.

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capkutay
I only expected to read about SOPA/PIPA on HN and other tech media sites, but
I was rather surprised to see dozens of my non-techy friends on facebook
protesting the bills. Good step forward. Lets keep it up.

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code_duck
It's disturbing that we're to the point that people are celebrating this -
lawmakers actually carrying out the will of their constituents, standing up
for something sensible and refusing to pass a very dangerous bill that is
probably unconstitutional should not be rare.

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erikb
Haha, and you really believe that "we" stopped it? And what did we stop?

