Some 7,000 websites went dark Wednesday to protest the the Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA), a law that would give the government more power to censor the Internet in service to corporations. The protests appear to have had an impact, and have caused several co-sponsors of to come out opposed to the bill.
In fact, it looks like the Senate version, called PIPA, is effectively dead at this point, with 13 Senators announcing their opposition today alone. Among the 13 were five of the bill’s co-sponsors.
The Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA), one of the primary corporate backers of SOPA, lashed the public protests against it, with former Sen. Chris Dodd (D – CT), the current MPAA Chairman, insisting protests by private websites fearing censorship amounted to an “abuse of power.”
Rep. Lamar Smith (R – TX), the original sponsor of the House version, insists the bill will continue to be pressed forward, saying that those critical of the bill were helping to “enable fraudsters.”
Is it possible that we've just seen an indication that the Congress has finally realized that the people will be heard or they (the erstwhile congresscritter) will be looking for another job? Do we have them really worried about the status quo?
Glad they backed down this time. But a deeper realization that they were going to deny due process and freedom of speech? I don't think so. One thing they seem to understand: being in or out of office.
What's most important to any professional politician is winning the next election. That's what their career resides on. As well as their wet dreams of rising up to the next higher, more powerful, more profitable position. If you want to get a politicians attention, threaten their chances to win the next election. Between the money of the tech companies and the mass outcry of the people against SOPA, that was enough to threaten that. Or, in the balance, to cause enough of a threat that the money from RIAA and MPAA didn't seem worth it.
That's the lesson to be learned. Protests that don't threaten re-election will always be useless. Show the political power to threaten re-election, and the professional politicians who live off our money and power will pay attention.
So next week they call it something else and then we don't get to call them the pieces of #$@! they are anymore.
Never think twice about infringing copyrights. It is trivial.
I had to visit the other site where you appear willing to be a lightning rod in their echo chamber. It was enough to bring me to tears. Thumbs up!
Hear, Hear.
It is incredible how conditioned they have become. All repeating the same mantra, totally echo chamber, no rational, objective thought.
I couldn't do it…I've had to do some really disgusting things in my life but there's no way I could willingly go there everyday and be exposed to such utter ignorance and intransigence.
Wow! MPAA Chairman accuses others of abuse of power. And a congressman accuses dissenters of enabling fraud. We must be having an projection epidemic.
Be careful about the next salvo. They're not done yet. It isn't just about saving movie makers' bread, in this blind attempt to take a meat ax to the internet. It is about controlling the messages which the public discusses and receives, and how they associate with each other. There are those who are really scared of public discourse and protest. Congress is merely the chore boy for the agenda, but the agenda is still there. Otherwise, why deny due process to website owners?
Let them re-introduce a bill that does protect artists and copyright owners.
This was not that. They tried to remove all our civil rights with this bill.
What is wrong with these people ? They need to go !! Even the former sponsors
they need to be removed from office !!!
People make a peaceful protest against a bad bill and it is an "abuse of power"….hmm.. a little bit of projectionism perhaps? Us great unwashed are not supposed to interfere witt the powers that be, who of course, never "abuse" their power….
Chris Dodd using his pot calling kettle black arguments. The man is so crooked you'd have to screw him into the ground to bury him and yet he has the cajones to claim that the peasants using their voice is an "abuse of power". May the SOB get a good kick repeatedly in the nuts for being the rat that he is.
Maybe somebody forgot to make timely campaign contribution or 12. After all, with the notable slakening of people buying albums and CDs, even at inflated prices, the middlemen, forced to cut back on orthodontics and private school enrollements, have to be more cognizant that their political clout goes to somebody who'll stay the course, fight the pirates, find them and hang them up by their music and film-stealing ballz. And screw their children.
These changeling obviously didn't have the right stuff.
Good to see Antiwar.com finally caring about domestic issues. Let's see more of it.
But it's too early to call it a victory, they'll try again, and again. Lest those politicians on hollywood's payroll give up their "contributions."
The western Zionist mainstream corporate media controled had already for many years their own self imposed censorship, as I have experienced myself. Recently I ( a regular contributor) was permanently barred from our national (New Zealand) newspapers from making contributions to their letterpages because I had the audicity to criticize their editorial policy, by which all references to sources of information concerning the Israel-Palestine conflict were carefully removed from letters. The New Zealand press is extremely reactionary, lopsided and biased. Some of their editors are either Zionists or Zionist sympathisers. A full account of the controversy one can find in my blog 'Contraviews'.
Tom
New Zealand
Plan B is already in effect- "Feds Shut Down Megaupload.com File-Sharing Website"
You can expect this legislation to be attached to a future defense authorization bill, a public works authorization bill, or some other legislation that is too "important" to be voted down or vetoed by the president.