
Stop the E-Parasite Act - rprime
https://wwws.whitehouse.gov/petitions/!/petition/stop-e-parasite-act/SWBYXX55
======
slowpoke
While I definitely support the notion of this petition, it's time that people
realize that things like these won't do shit, to put it bluntly.

To stop this madness, we have to attack and bring down the people who cause
this retardation - the content industries. They won't somehow come to their
senses and stop pushing for insane laws and regulations.

It's a very dangerous illusion that petty petitions will change anything, at
least on their own. Fight the real enemy, and fight it with all means
necessary - may those be alternative licenses, spreading the word, piracy, or
straight out aggression[1]. Until the content industries are either out of
power or simply gone (and I doubt the former can be achieved without the
latter), this war on freedom for the sake of corporate profits will continue.

[1]: I'm talking about stuff like Operation Payback and Anonymous in general.
I dislike calling it "cyber warfare" because the term is retarded newspeak,
but it's essentially what I mean.

~~~
yummyfajitas
_To stop this madness, we have to attack and bring down the people who cause
this retardation - the content industries._

The content industries don't cause this. They go to politicians and say
"pretty please take away people's freedom to protect our profits". That's the
only thing they have the power to do.

Politicians are not helpless babies who have no choice but to give big content
what it wants. They are intelligent adults who choose to side with big
content.

The people you need to bring down are Biden/Obama, Orrin Hatch, etc.

~~~
poppysan
How does Obama/Biden side with "big content"? Everyone has their preference to
repub or dems, but this seems unfounded to me...

~~~
yummyfajitas
If this seems unfounded to you, it's because you are unfamiliar with Biden's
record.

<http://news.cnet.com/2010-1071-946732.html?tag=mncol;txt>

[http://www.politechbot.com/docs/congress.p2p.letter.081002.p...](http://www.politechbot.com/docs/congress.p2p.letter.081002.pdf)

[http://news.cnet.com/Senators-aim-to-restrict-
Net,-satellite...](http://news.cnet.com/Senators-aim-to-restrict-
Net,-satellite-radio-recording/2100-1028_3-6149915.html?tag=mncol;txt)

[http://news.cnet.com/8301-10784_3-9920665-7.html?tag=mncol;t...](http://news.cnet.com/8301-10784_3-9920665-7.html?tag=mncol;txt)

Please note that I was attempting to avoid partisanship by naming Orrin Hatch
(R, Utah) as well.

------
SkyMarshal
>This bill is a direct assault on a free internet and a shameful attempt by
copyright lobbyists to destroy _net neutrality._

Shouldn't have used that term here. This petition just lost any Republican/Tea
Party support it might have had. And though there may be some overlap, this
isn't really about Net Neutrality vs. the telecoms anyway.

~~~
tmvphil
I think you can be for net neutrality (the concept), while being against net
neutrality (as proposed FCC regulation).

------
dhimes
Do these petitions do any good? That is, is it even worthwhile to sign it? Or
is our time better spent elsewhere.

~~~
phsr
There was actually a meta-petition[1] recently that was asking for the White
House to pay more attention to these petitions, so it seems like these
petitions are mostly ignored

[1]
[https://wwws.whitehouse.gov/petitions/%21/petition/actually-...](https://wwws.whitehouse.gov/petitions/%21/petition/actually-
take-these-petitions-seriously-instead-just-using-them-excuse-pretend-you-are-
listening/grQ9mNkN)

~~~
sixtofour
Of course they're ignored. Everything that comes across a politician's
attention is an opportunity for him to reinforce his message.

The petitions are not there for us to influence them. They're there ( _they_
spent effort to put them there) for _them_ to influence _us_.

------
thomaslangston
The following link will take you to an EFF page. You can enter your address
and get the contact info for your Congress members. It also lets you email
them automatically about the other version of this bill, Protect IP, which is
just as bad.

[https://wfc2.wiredforchange.com/o/9042/p/dia/action/public/?...](https://wfc2.wiredforchange.com/o/9042/p/dia/action/public/?action_KEY=8173)

~~~
jreposa
I used OpenCongress. It's similar in that it will email your congress members
based on your address.

[http://www.opencongress.org/contact_congress_letters/7509-H-...](http://www.opencongress.org/contact_congress_letters/7509-H-R-3261-Stop-
Online-Piracy-Act)

------
Aloisius
Whoa, when did whitehouse.gov start doing petitions? That's pretty nice. And
they have their own URL shortener? They've come a long way.

------
scythe
I had an account on whitehouse.gov the last time they did this petition thing
and now I can't log in.

Not that it won't let me, but if I hit "sign in" there's no fields in which to
enter a username and password. Like there's no sign in option there _at all_.
What the fuck?

~~~
jim-greer
I had that problem with Chrome Mac (15.0), but Firefox (3.6) worked.

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eschulte
Signed this petition, just like I filled out the EFF form a while back. If you
want to be heard it is better to call your representatives as that way at
least one of their staffers has to spend a couple of minutes getting you off
the phone.

------
tensafefrogs
I'm unable to log in. Being redirected to a 404 page and it's not logging me
in, so I can't sign it.

~~~
cgag
I'm logged in, but the buttons to sign and share the petition are still grayed
out.

------
altrego99
This whole thing is very screwed up. For once I am glad that I don't live in
US.

~~~
waqf
Where do you live that is safe from the content industries?

Not that such places don't exist, but the problem is much wider than the US,
partly but not entirely because of the US's ability to strongarm other
countries into passing their own legislation, e.g. ACTA. You wouldn't be safe
in Canada, or Australia, or the UK, or France, or ... .

------
delinquentme
can anyone else not log in to sign this?

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TruthElixirX
This will get ignored like the "Remove "under God" from the pledge" petition
and the "tax Marijuana like alcohol and tobacco" petition.

~~~
nicki_easy
Here's the most popular petition to take the petitions seriously:
[https://wwws.whitehouse.gov/petitions#!/petition/take-
petiti...](https://wwws.whitehouse.gov/petitions#!/petition/take-petitions-
seriously/bHPkPddj)

~~~
phsr
This one[1] has more signatures

[1]
[https://wwws.whitehouse.gov/petitions/%21/petition/actually-...](https://wwws.whitehouse.gov/petitions/%21/petition/actually-
take-these-petitions-seriously-instead-just-using-them-excuse-pretend-you-are-
listening/grQ9mNkN)

------
lukejduncan
Is anyone talking about the concerns of having people store a password with
the whitehouse? Most people use the same password everywhere. IANL but this
could easily be a huge phishing scam...

~~~
ugh
Because … the White House is interested in phishing?

What?

~~~
T-hawk
The grandparent has a point, but didn't state it very well.

The NSA and CIA and other three-letter federal agencies do have a reputation
for grabbing any telecommunications data they can get. One could think that
they might be monitoring and capturing activity on the White House site, to
correlate with persons of interest, or even just collecting everything for
future use. (And it's not necessarily evil either; we'd cheer if they
intercepted a source of terrorist funding by using account credentials that
matched something carelessly entered into this site.)

The scenario is somewhat far-fetched, but not entirely out of the question for
secretive unaccountable US government agencies.

~~~
anigbrowl
No matter what system they use, someone will find it fundamentally
objectionable. It,s too simple. It's too complex. There's too much security.
There isn't enough security. Give people a window on the administration, and
the first thing they'll do is whine about the curtains.

~~~
lukejduncan
I wasn't whining. I was asking if the conversation is being had. It's a
question of fostering trust. So I'll ask again: Is anyone talking about the
potential concerns here? Has this been asked and answered? Is there a
technical solution that alleviates the concerns? I don't think this is
whining, just starting a conversation. If the goal of the forum is to open a
dialogue is there a way of doing so that ensures the security of citizens?

