

PIPA Co-Sponsor Admits Bill Went Too Far (His Son Told Him) - theoj
http://www.tomsguide.com/us/PIPA-SOPA-Justin-Bieber-Chris-Coons-Chris-Nodd,news-15359.html

======
swombat
_His comments arrive after the U.S. Chamber of Commerce released a study on
Wednesday indicating that industries depending on IP rights account for more
than $5 trillion of the country's gross domestic product (GDP). The country's
total GDP is about $14.6 trillion._

I'm sure if you fumble around the arithmetics enough, and include anyone who
produces or depends on anything that could fit under the increasingly vague
label of "IP" (this company has a movie night every month, they depend on
IP!), you can probably even boost that made-up number to 75% or 90% of GDP!

~~~
FreebytesSector
Clothing manufacturers, cotton producers, and even fast food chains are
included in these totals. It is simply an attempt to make people think that
the movie and music industries contribute jobs when that is simply not the
case. Even I depend on IP if you consider that I offer a product that can be
pirated, but it does not strengthen their position unless you believe their
lies. The values may be accurate, but they are not revealing the true source
of the revenue and are simply lumping in everything they can to this total to
justify their attempts at supression.

------
vezycash
Virtually all the "screw the internet" bill founders turnaround and say
something like this. I just goes to show that these guys are dummies or
puppets for hollywood.

While hollywood pays, they throw try to screw up a lot of things as soon as
the payment(s) stop, they turn around and admit crap like this - so tell me.
What good does this guys admission of being stupid do to other bills like
PIPA?

~~~
babarock
_What good does this guys admission of being stupid do to other bills like
PIPA?_

It shows the negotiating power of _the Internet_ to the world. After all, the
bill was defeated by online communities like Reddit, Wikipedia or HN right
here. If anything that's an admission that online communities should be
listened to, much more often.

And I like that. When people ask me where I'm from, I often jokingly answer
"From the Internet", I'm sure a lot of people here can relate to this feeling.
I'm not a US citizen, but being from the Internet I am directly impacted by
these laws. I am glad to think that my "people" (fellow interneteese) and I
can make ourselves heard.

------
rpwilcox
Beiber's cover songs on the Internet aren't illegal because of PIPA, they're
illegal because of the current broken copyright system.

Unless Bieber got authorization from the rights holders, which is (I'm
guessing) both impossible and something no 8 or 9 year old would try properly.
(see also: this Wired article on the issue:
[http://www.wired.com/epicenter/2012/05/opinion-baio-
criminal...](http://www.wired.com/epicenter/2012/05/opinion-baio-criminal-
creativity/) )

In one way the PIPA protests were a resounding success. In another way,
copyright laws in the US - regardless of PIPA - need some serious looking
into.

When birthday parties everywhere violates copyright law (by singing the
canonical Happy Birthday song), and face potentially large fines because of
it, something's broken.

------
altrego99
I think the scary thing is that these guys actually have the power to control
the Internet, if the bill is approved.

While protesting is good, I hope there will also be a solution which takes
away that power from them - so that anyone can put up a website without fear
of being taken down (or of having RIAA knocking at his door for referring to a
website which has link to some where else from where you can download a movie
that no one else would anyway buy).

------
ttt_
Taken at face value, it is blatant evidence that the bill was not properly
examined before being pushed to vote.

Shame on legislators everywhere that follow the same pattern.

Of course face value probably does not entail all that may have been
orchestraded out of sight.

