
Disastrous IP Legislation Is Back – And It’s Worse than Ever - there
https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2011/10/disastrous-ip-legislation-back-%E2%80%93-and-it%E2%80%99s-worse-ever
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nostromo
One thing I don't understand: why is the (relatively small) entertainment
industry still so much more effective at lobbying than the (relatively large)
tech industry? Google, Facebook, ISPs and others would seem to have a strong
incentive to not want excessive regulation of their industry. So why aren't
they stepping up to the plate and countering the entertainment business'
lobbying efforts with serious bucks?

~~~
TheCowboy
Google has been stepping up. (Google it.) Facebook has been hiring a lot of
"Washington insiders" for awhile now. Etc.

While pg talks about HN as a community of (historically) "apolitical nerds" as
a positive thing[1], but being apolitical will catch up with you eventually if
you have anything worth losing. If members of congress don't have programmers
in their mind as future frothing voters, or people who would ever support
them, that's probably a bad thing.

[1]I do agree a lot of the political 'discussions' on HN aren't worth having
here, and create a lot of noise, but I know way too many apolitical tech savvy
individuals. At least make it known to whoever is in office that they do not
want you against them, and be willing to pick a side.

~~~
winestock
French Proverb: "Those who do not do politics will be done in by politics."

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jdunck
If you oppose PROTECT-IP, consider signing this letter against it:
<https://www.votizen.com/m/gvoa12/>

(Disclosure: I work for Votizen.)

If you sign the letter as a verified voter, the letter and your signature will
be delivered to your representatives.

~~~
Joakal
In Australia, the signing the petition actually gets it heard in parliament if
there's enough signatures.[0][1]

Is there a similar venture for your company?

[0] House of Representatives:
[http://www.aph.gov.au/house/committee/petitions/petitions.ht...](http://www.aph.gov.au/house/committee/petitions/petitions.htm)

[1] Senate: <http://www.aph.gov.au/Senate/work/petitions/index.htm>

~~~
jdunck
In general in the US, if a petition gets enough signatures, then a
representative takes it up as a topic. But there is no guarantee that a
petition will have its hearing.

Are you saying that in AU there is a guarantee? How many signatures are
required?

~~~
swombat
In switzerland, once a referendum request gathers enough signatures (500k for
nationwide), the government is required to conduct a public referendum.

~~~
dho
It's 50k, not 500k (<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Referendum#Switzerland>)

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hmottestad
When do we start calling it the "Great Firewall of the US of A." ?

Just a joke with some attitude. I love how moral gets dictated by those with
money in the US. Not that that isn't the case in most of the world. I just
love how terrible a job they do of hiding it in the US.

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amalcon
Interesting; it has anti-circumvention provisions. These provisions would
appear (to my not-legally-trained reading; this is not legal advice) to apply
to software such as BIND. After all, anyone can run their own instance of
BIND, and thereby "resolve to that domain name’s Internet protocol address
notwithstanding the measures taken by a service provider under paragraph (2)
to prevent such reso lution".

This seems like a bad consequence, what with BIND and its equivalents being
absolutely vital pieces of Internet infrastructure software.

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podperson
My immediate reaction to this (actually the Ars article
[http://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/news/2011/10/house-
takes-...](http://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/news/2011/10/house-takes-
senates-bad-internet-censorship-bill-makes-it-worse.ars)) is that it's a
sterling attempt to create a problem for Bitcoin to solve.

