Massive popular opposition to the Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA), which establishes a new censorship regime across websites in the United States, is set to turn broad swathes of the Internet black on Wednesday, with over 7,000 websites poised to shut down in protest of the bill.
The unexpected level of public criticism has taken Congress entirely by surprise, and has officials scrambling to revise the bill just enough to get the major Internet companies it threatens to stop their public opposition. Despite that, experts say a compromise is “unlikely” since the level of censorship sought by certain industries is so massive.
Indeed, the very act of protesting against the censorship of the Internet has enraged industry leaders, with the RIAA’s spokesman terming the planned protests a “dangerous and troubling development” while adding that it was not a “positive development for a democracy,” adding that they hoped Congress would just ignore the protests and pass the bill anyhow.
This would be in keeping with Congress’ usual strategy, which has been to extend intellectual property laws whenever and however the RIAA and assorted other groups want. Still, the prospect that SOPA may cost backers their seats in the 2012 election has many rethinking their endorsements.
Rep. Lamar Smith (R – TX) and Sen. Patrick Leahy (D – VT), the authors of the respective House and Senate versions insist that the protests are just a “stunt” and that they will continue to push forward the bill, with Leahy insisting that SOPA will save “billions of dollars.”
Yet despite this confidence the indications are that the protests have had a real impact and that SOPA will be “shelved,” at least temporarily, in the hope that the bill can be revisited once the public forgets about it.
The only thing that needs to be stopped is the RIAA. It might well be that Americans couldn't care less if they take away their homes, their jobs, their credit, their freedoms and rights. But take away the Internet and you could get a revolution. And the whores in Congress are probably stupid enough to give it a try.
Wouldn´t SOPA be doing the very thing that America complains to China about regarding Internet censorship? Is there anything in the heavens that we as a nation have been preaching to other countries to do or not do that we are not ourselves involved in?
Almost nothing. The hypocrisy of the political underclass of inbreds is truly remarkable.
Your question is ridiculous. By definition, whatever We do is Good. Whatever They do is Bad. Everyone knows that.
The RIAA is yet another dinosaur flailing about trying to crush the competition that's eating away at the dinosaurs it represents. A very good alternative take on this was posted over here…
http://zerogov.com/?p=2550
and here
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/rep-joe-sestak/sopa…
Ensuring SOPA doesn't pass is going to take more than protests from the sheeple. History shows that the majority will vote for one "side" or the other no matter what they do. On the slight chance that some are thrown out of office for their SOPA vote, they will become lobbyists and make even more money and those that replace them will be made members of the two-party fraud political machine and vote the same as those they replace. Therefore, Congress has nothing to lose for voting for SOPA.
No, if the Internet companies want to get Congress to change their vote they are going to have to dig deep and pay more bribe money than the RIAA is paying. They are going to have out find better dirt on Congress than the RIAA has so they can out-extort the RIAA.
Somebody should tell the congressmen and senators the ISPs have the ability to see exactly what you are looking at from your ISP no, they have the ability to LOOK at your records and it isnt illegal for them to do it!
The RIAA is not the problem. Artists deserve the rights to sell the fruits of their labor.
It's all the other tyrannical powers which Congressmen and power brokers like
Lieberman and Clinton want to impose which is being protested.
If these laws were only about stopping piracy, nobody would protest !
The unexpected level of public criticism has taken Congress entirely by surprise, and has officials scrambling to revise the bill just enough to get the major Internet companies it threatens to stop their public opposition.
If this outcry and opposition really did come as a surprise to Congress, then these criminal morons are even stupider and more out of touch with reality than we thought.
since when did the (elected ones) represent the masses???
Congress is in the pay of Rupert Murdoch, David Geffin etc, why should they be interested in what the so-called 'public' wants.
“…industry leaders, with the RIAA’s spokesman terming the planned protests a “dangerous…”
Who the keck is industry leader or RIAA? This is not about music, etc. It’s about a fascist government trying to silence all voices of dissent. RIAA is welcome to get the hell out of the Internet.
First indefinite detention, and now this!!!
Those who give up their rights for a little bit of (false) security deserve none.