
SOPA not Dead. Hearings to Resume in Feb. - cjoh
http://judiciary.house.gov/news/01172012.html
======
narrator
Why is the tech sector always on the defensive? Tech companies should pitch in
to start a lobbying campaign to limit all copyright to 25 years or something
like that and pursue it relentlessly, if only to keep the RIAA and MPAA
lobbyists busy instead of letting them have all the time in the world to make
trouble.

~~~
Homunculiheaded
This is especially strange when you stop to think that Apple's profits alone
are around double the total revenue of all RIAA members. It's hard to imagine
that the RIAA is the one that gets to bully apple around.

~~~
chc
With iTunes, Apple is one of the media companies' best friends in Silicon
Valley. I don't think either of those parties is really interested in
attacking the other.

~~~
technoslut
If that is the case those companies don't know it. The labels hate Apple even
though they gave them a business model to survive in the digital age. The
studios think the same will happen to them (it will eventually) and they're
afraid of Apple and every other tech giant.

------
pasbesoin
This Ars Technica story contains a quote from Chris Dodd (former Democratic
Senator, now MPAA head), illustrates their attitude, and the misleading nature
of their rhetoric.

[http://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/news/2012/01/sopa-
livesan...](http://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/news/2012/01/sopa-livesand-
mpaa-calls-protests-an-abuse-of-power.ars)

Contrary to what he says, the blackouts were driven from sites' user-bases,
rather than the reverse. And negotiation and planning for them began well
before the Administration's statement (limited in scope as it was, to boot).

Of course, most of us here know this. Just remember, you're dealing with
(consummate) liars.

In this statement. And when they say things are "dead". And basically, as the
saying goes, whenever you see their lips moving.

~~~
libraryatnight
I would love this gentleman's actual address, email or physical, so I could be
certain he was reading what I would like to say to him.

We're all doing a pretty good job of making our representation know we don't
like this legislation, I wish it were as easy to let the people responsible
for engineering this crap just how horrible a thing they're doing.

~~~
pasbesoin
I have been worrying that I let my emotions get the best of me in my
grandparent comment.

I have some thoughts about how to effectively address the politicians who are
the tools in this (note that Dodd would now be in good part a tool wielder
rather than a tool, having moved to the other side of Washington's revolving
door). However, talk's cheap, and I've restrained myself from posting them
when I don't have any further, concrete steps to take or taken, personally,
with respect to what I think might be effective. (I've communicated to
numerous parties, including written letters to my legislators.)

As for his address, the MPAA office address is readily available. But I doubt
anything would actually get through to Dodd. He's not interested in listening.

------
jcromartie
> legislation that protects consumers, businesses and jobs from foreign
> thieves who steal America's intellectual property

What is SOPA going to do to stop _foreign_ thieves? I thought it was limited
to American ISPs? Unless they mean _domestic_ thieves who use foreign sites...

~~~
sp332
It refers to foreign-hosted sites that sell to US-based customers, or who use
US-based advertising agencies, or US banks. The idea is that the largest
audience for US-made IP is in America, so blocking US users would cripple
foreign pirates who traffic in US IP.

~~~
nextparadigms
First step: create "online borders" around US (they tried to do this in
Europe) to "protect our jobs" and all that.

Second step: filter the information you get in US. Make the Internet more like
TV. (<http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A2XPiqhN_Ns>)

------
cjoh
Learn to stop it tomorrow during the blackouts:
[http://www.informationdiet.com/blog/read/better-activism-
day...](http://www.informationdiet.com/blog/read/better-activism-day-
january-18)

------
sudonim
That's the first time I've heard of SOPA being described as protecting
consumers. It seems to me that consumers are knowingly buying the counterfeit
goods or consuming the IP that is targeted by SOPA.

~~~
firefoxman1
Oh yeah, it's just another set of nice-sounding words to make the bill sound
more friendly. Just like how NBC's VP called it a "jobs bill," playing on the
hot 2009-2012 buzzword "jobs." If anything, older consumers are way less
willing to pirate a product; they tend to look for legit brands. It took a lot
to convince my mom that streaming TV shows online was (mostly) legal before
she would do it. As for younger generations, they know very well what they're
doing when they pirate.

~~~
Avenger42
SOPA is a crime bill, and we need to make sure any attempts to paint it as a
"jobs bill" are corrected. We can then move on to how it's a crime bill where
the costs are far out of whack with the benefits, but I feel we're playing
from behind when their first card is the "jobs bill" card and we don't
immediately call them on it.

------
vaksel
I wish we had a truth in politics law that would punish these guys for lying
or cheating the public

~~~
nl
Is there a specific lie you can point to?

 _To enact legislation that protects consumers, businesses and jobs from
foreign thieves who steal America's intellectual property, we will continue to
bring together industry representatives and Members to find ways to combat
online piracy_

Even this isn't technically a lie. SOPA _would_ protect _some_ businesses and
jobs from _some_ thieves.

I don't think it's a good way to go about it, and I think the other
consequences outweigh the benefits, but as it stands your comment doesn't
really make sense in this context.

~~~
yock
I don't think that's exactly it (though I don't understand the down votes
you're getting). The bigger issue is proving the lies. The problem we have is
that people allow their leaders to be vague and imprecise. Whether or not
something is truthful becomes largely based on interpretation and perspective.
The art of bullshit elevated to a career.

~~~
nl
(The downvotes kind of prove both our points, and point to the kind of
behaviours we should expect from politicians: you get more votes for saying
what people want you to say than what you believe the truth is.)

Regarding "proving the lies" sites like <http://www.politifact.com/> are quite
good.

~~~
yock
People have started using downvotes to indicate disagreement. Ironically, on
this site at least, sufficient downvotes result in that post being hidden from
view. Imagine that, censoring opinions with which you (in the proverbial
sense) disagree.

------
Tim-Boss
SOPA was never dead. At most is was just revised or slightly watered down, and
I don't think anyone really believed that "Big Media Co" was going to back off
that easily!

~~~
RexRollman
What I expect is that it will eventually get passed and attached to something
that will create a bad situation if vetoed. If nothing else, they will
probably scale back a provision or two, and reintroduce those at a later date.

------
RexRollman
Of course it's not over. Our corporate overlords haven't gotten their money's
worth yet.

------
djtriptych
Wow look at that gorgeous parseable plain text. I miss the web of old
sometimes...

~~~
chc
What do you mean? I'd say the markup for that page is a bit lousy (e.g.
pointless layout tables, abusing the strong tag just to make text bold), but
it's hardly the worst thing I've ever seen. I can't even tell if you're being
sarcastic or not.

~~~
degenerate
I think he meant to reply to "What the first web blackout looked like" here:
<http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=3475813>

~~~
djtriptych
ack sorry. Indeed I did.

------
viking
I suggest creating a list of special interest groups (strong pro- or anti-)
paired with websites supporting their view that is a potential SOPA target.
This list could be used by activists to inform each of these organizations of
the risk that SOPA could effectively make it possible for their opposers to
_censor_ these websites with a false takedown request.

This would essentially reframe the issue from a piracy/copyright violation
issue to a censorship issue. It would then be a censorship bill, not a jobs
bill.

------
ChuckMcM
In my opinion, the only way to kill the RIAA/MPAA. They seem to be the 'tap
root' which produces weeds long after the ground appears barren.

~~~
potatolicious
Killing the RIAA/MPAA will do nothing - another organization under a different
name will simply spring up to take its place. Plus, it would only address a
single issue out of what is really a systemic problem.

The main problem is how much influence industry and lobby groups have on our
politicans, and the vast majority of this isn't some conspiracy-laden secret-
hand-shaking secret, it's just campaign financing.

Despite some attempts in that direction, we haven't done enough here. I'm
convinced that, if we slam the door shut on lobbying groups' ability to fund
politicians, their influence will vaporize overnight. If corporations are
people, then they need to be on a level playing field - they shouldn't be able
to simply outspend regular citizens in contributing to politicians.

~~~
ChuckMcM
Can you say more about _"The main problem is how much influence industry and
lobby groups have on our politicans, and the vast majority of this isn't some
conspiracy-laden secret-hand-shaking secret, it's just campaign financing."_ ?

I ask because stuff like this is used to abuse Google (see the Viacom vs
Youtube lawsuit) and they have oodles of money and a super PAC and everything.
If one can simply buy a politician why haven't they bought them all off? Seems
expedient.

That they haven't has made me wonder how causative this problem is with
respect to bad public policy. I'd be interested in ways to validate where the
problem is.

~~~
gwillen
I suspect Google's PAC is underfunded because it mostly employs the kind of
people who hate the whole concept of a PAC and find it morally loathsome.

------
logn
When you're paid hundreds of thousands (millions?) by a lobbyist, you don't
give up that easily.

------
georgieporgie
I'm surprised that big media companies are spending so much time and money
lobbying, instead of doing more creative things. The current generation of
youth is growing up in an era where media can be copied instantaneously and
easily. IP is a hard sell, since we're individually far removed from the
mechanics of the economy (we don't work in car factories, for example), so
there's no strong material goods basis from which to build an IP metaphor.

They could be creating PSAs. They could be backing television shows and movies
which portray piracy in a negative light. They could do this skillfully, and
in a manner that isn't laughably heavy handed (like the pre-movie PSAs that
were mocked on The IT Crowd). Look at that article about diamonds from awhile
back, and how stunningly successful De Beers was in inserting diamonds into
the public mind. Compare that with the heavy-handed, simplistic legislation
approach that the MPAA and friends are following.

