Defeat SOPA

If this is a repost, sorry.

SOPA is a festering piece of E36 M3 that is so profoundly anti-consumer and just plain evil that it must be stopped.

Seriously, I don't care if you are Right Wing, Left Wing, Red Wing or Wing Tip, this is a seriously bad piece of legislation.

More info here :

http://www.craigslist.org/about/SOPA

Click the links through Craigslist and write your elected officials!

If you're lazy, here is the main one you may want to use:

https://action.eff.org/o/9042/p/dia/action/public/?action_KEY=8173

I went to email my senator and it is the very same guy (Ron Wyden) that has put a hold on this bill and is spearheading the stand against it.

Go Ron! Glad I voted for you.

Even MC Hammer is against it. And hes one of the guys this is supposed to "protect".

There's also pipa, protect internet piracy act. Both are bullE36 M3 and better not become law.

Cory Doctorow - SOPA is only the beginning

The American people have put up with the PATRIOT Act and the Military Commission Act for years. The large majority of us are content to sit idly by obliviously as our rights are taken away. We can be murdered or indefinitely detained, we can be spied on without a warrant, we can be held without being charged or given a trial, we can be arresting and carted off to who knows where just for protesting even in the face of a court order to allow the protest......the internet is the single most dangerous thing facing the regime since the many can actually sift through the propaganda and organize. It is a threat that has to be contained. Just another step along the path.

Giant Purple Snorklewacker wrote: Cory Doctorow - SOPA is only the beginning

A very interesting speech. Thanks for posting it.

T.J. wrote: The American people have put up with the PATRIOT Act and the Military Commission Act for years. The large majority of us are content to sit idly by obliviously as our rights are taken away. We can be murdered or indefinitely detained, we can be spied on without a warrant, we can be held without being charged or given a trial, we can be arresting and carted off to who knows where just for protesting even in the face of a court order to allow the protest......the internet is the single most dangerous thing facing the regime since the many can actually sift through the propaganda and organize. It is a threat that has to be contained. Just another step along the path.

The powers that be have done a very good job of hiding the effects and obfuscating those two acts through a need of "Safety".

SOPA is just another brick in the wall

FWIW the White House has come out completely against it, so there's at least a chance it will be vetoed. Also the take down and blacklist provision has been removed (at least from the protect IP act) according to Arstechnica.

I'd personally be surprised if either of them passed with the amount of coverage they're both getting. No one besides legislators and lobbyiests have anything positive to say about it. There's also very little they can do to scaremonger especially with the backlash last year about corporate profits.

Whether or not piracy actually impacts businesses to the extent that they claim is debatable and everyone will throw a different figure at you.

I read an interesting blog last night on it. To sum up, it basically claims SOPA is an attack on the General Purpose Computer (PCs to you and Me) and if it passes, will put us all into an age where everything is stored on the "cloud" and all we have at home are dumb terminals to access it

mad_machine wrote: I read an interesting blog last night on it. To sum up, it basically claims SOPA is an attack on the General Purpose Computer (PCs to you and Me) and if it passes, will put us all into an age where everything is stored on the "cloud" and all we have at home are dumb terminals to access it

I like the quote in the clip I posted above - "The law made unreasonable demands on reality and reality did not comply".

It's dead

Just need PROTECT IP to suffer the same fate. Then do horrible things to our "representatives" (like not elect them again and actively boycott them) so this is never considered again.

"I'd be surprised if either one of them passed with the amount of coverage they're both getting."

I guess I live in a cave? I hadn't heard about these 2 bills until saturday when I happened to click on Craigslist. Never heard about it in the mainstream media.

And as far as this NOT passing...last night I watched the latest effort by Bill Moyers on PBS. It outlined the explosion in wealth the top 1% have accumulated in the last 25-30 years. While the rest of us have "gotten by" with asset growth in the single digits...if at all, the top 1% have seen a 235% (YES, THAT'S 2 HUNDRED AND THIRTY FIVE PER CENT) growth in their assets, AIDDED by their bought and paid for representatives in D.C.

If "big business" wants this, or if the party that's "tough on crime" wants this...we WILL get it, sooner or later. If nothing else, look for parts of SOPA and PIPA to wind up in other bills.

The0retical wrote: FWIW the White House has come out completely against it, so there's at least a chance it will be vetoed. Also the take down and blacklist provision has been removed (at least from the protect IP act) according to Arstechnica. I'd personally be surprised if either of them passed with the amount of coverage they're both getting. No one besides legislators and lobbyiests have anything positive to say about it. There's also very little they can do to scaremonger especially with the backlash last year about corporate profits. Whether or not piracy actually impacts businesses to the extent that they claim is debatable and everyone will throw a different figure at you. Uh, the white house claimed they were gonna veto ndaa as well but that got signed into law

In reply to dankspeed:

Yea but do you actually think they're going to cut the expenditure for things like DoD healthcare which are included in that? That was all bluster.

The problem with NDAA is the riders which are attached to it. Not to start a huge political discussion but this is exactly why we need the line veto back.

I agree with you. A line veto would take care of a lot of the Pork and tactics people use to make good bills unpassable

In reply to The0retical:

I would love a line item veto!

Can you imagine the crap a line item veto would generate?

A sitting president could (and, if they were smart, would) veto any item that went against his party line, forcing it back for an override vote.

2/3 of Congress would have to agree to it in order to pass. Congressional seats would become the most hotly contested political seats in the nation.

When it affects porn, people will riot.

pinchvalve wrote: When it affects porn, people will riot.

I will support any Occupy movement

Reddit Founder Alexis Ohanian on CNBC:

"Why is it that when Republicans and Democrats need to solve the budget and the deficit, there's deadlock, but when Hollywood lobbyists pay them $94 million dollars to write legislation, people from both sides of the aisle line up to co-sponsor it?"

http://video.cnbc.com/gallery/?video=3000067904

We really need a zombie/alien/robot/whatever apocalypse.

Wikipedia said: Today, the Wikipedia community announced its decision to black out the English-language Wikipedia for 24 hours, worldwide, beginning at 05:00 UTC on Wednesday, January 18 (you can read the statement from the Wikimedia Foundation here). The blackout is a protest against proposed legislation in the United States — the Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA) in the U.S. House of Representatives, and the PROTECT IP Act (PIPA) in the U.S. Senate — that, if passed, would seriously damage the free and open Internet, including Wikipedia.

So if you think you're going to use Wiki tomorrow, you better know a different language.

Brett_Murphy wrote: Can you imagine the crap a line item veto would generate? A sitting president could (and, if they were smart, would) veto any item that went against his party line, forcing it back for an override vote. 2/3 of Congress would have to agree to it in order to pass. Congressional seats would become the most hotly contested political seats in the nation.

Which is why it was declared unconstitutional during the Clinton administration.

From the looks of the lawsuit and the court majority ruling it appears that it was big business that had it killed off, a couple of hospitals and insurance companies brought one suit and another by the industrial farming conglomerates. The reason being that it allowed "diluted bills" to be put into law circumventing representatives and senators voting power aka pork included because that's what we voted on.

It's a well intentioned idea, but that whole abuse of power thing comes into play as you stated. Ideally it would break the riders on bills into their own bills and not require the 2/3 majority to pass because the representatives would then be held accountable for individual riders, however due to the way that the constitution is constructed that is not possible without an amendment.

The only way around this would be to have a president with the ball bearings to actually highlight, bring to the attention of the public the waste, and veto the bills until the pork was removed, asserting his veto power indefinitely. Congress may control the purse strings but that doesn't mean they have unlimited unchecked spending power.

edit: the case in question is Clinton v. City of New York and Clinton v. Snake River Potato Growers Inc.

Summary of disposition is here.

edit 2: And I've successfully derailed the thread.

Also SOPA is a terrible idea. The DMCA already provides a route for take down and prosecution. SOPA is too far reaching and too vague.

T.J. wrote: The American people have put up with the PATRIOT Act and the Military Commission Act for years. The large majority of us are content to sit idly by obliviously as our rights are taken away. We can be murdered or indefinitely detained, we can be spied on without a warrant, we can be held without being charged or given a trial, we can be arresting and carted off to who knows where just for protesting even in the face of a court order to allow the protest......the internet is the single most dangerous thing facing the regime since the many can actually sift through the propaganda and organize. It is a threat that has to be contained. Just another step along the path.

Yes, but we tolerate those things because the mere mention of terrorism sends us into fits of uncontrollable bed wetting. SOPA is a different ballgame.