Two PROTECT IP sponsors drop support for their own bill Two of the co-sponsors of the PROTECT IP anti-piracy bill currently working its way through Congress have dropped support for the legislation. “I have decided to withdraw my support for the Protect IP Act,” said Florida Senator Marco Rubio on his Facebook page. “Furthermore, I encourage Senator Reid to abandon his plan to rush …
"So maybe this "internet" thing does work " ...... Herby Posted Wednesday 18th January 2012 21:03 GMT
You're 99% on the right hack and true crack there, Herby.
The Magic Trick in any Great Game is then to have the internet thing working with and for you to protect and server , succour and nurture to the whole.
...get a good boycott started against this idiotic Windows 8 Secure Boot UEFI firmware extension crap.
Its plain as day if anyone cares to notice that Micros~1 is attempting to squeeze out Linux and any other competition .. so business as usual.
Oh and this PIPA atrocity needs to be slammed to the floor and stomped out of existence.
I've spent most of the day on the CBS (yes CBS) web site, reading and watching commentary and trying to inject some sense into the debate. I had a lot of company, a lot of it sensible. It is re-assuring to know that multiple commentards and ordinary people can still make a difference. Hopefully this will become an object lesson in internet democracy and encourage more right-thinking people to do more of the same and more often. Even the MPAA is starting to quiet down. They'll probably ask for their money back.
So what's next? On-line voting anyone? On line, traceable campaign donations to our favorite politicians? Vive la transparence!
BTW, I link you to a great (if a little long) video on copyright and why it is broken. Worth a look.
http://videoskillet.blogspot.com/2009/01/copyright-or-copywrong.html
Seriously, it was great to see what can happen when the technosphere gets a little irate and then works together. Maybe we won't have to keep forever bending over after all,
I also noticed that people on various sites seemed to enjoy slamming Wikipedia for its "political" statement (twitter's boss comes to mind). But quite frankly, Jimbo's decision to go off the air (along with many others) probably made a lot of "mainstream" news sites sit up, grow a pair and finally talk about SOPA. Good on you Jimbo, even if your site's articles do contain the odd misquote...
...but they really seemed to make today what it was. Nothing against Reddit and the rest, but a lot of the sites involved with the blackout were "preaching to the choir" (i.e. their users were already well aware of this situation) but Wikipedia is mainstream enough to really get noticed. Good on them, and the rest too of course
: )
Couldn't agree with your more K. But as long as they figuratively and publicly piss on SOPA's corpse it's OK for me. If this internet protest thing catches on some of these guys might even need to find a new line of work.... MPAA CEO job could be up for grabs sooon....we can only hope.
...that the reason for the Senators changing their mind has nothing to do with being bought o...I mean, "receiving perfectly legal but unexpected campaign contributions from powerful industry players that just happen to be opposed to SOPA".
If such perfectly legal contributions have been received, then it is not impossible that there is quite a hole in the so-called "public relations budget" of the Chocolate Factory this year...
But this is hardly a win. Similar bills and legislation will be back - more stupid acronyms, possibly subtler too. That's if these bills are even dead yet.
Nothing's actually changed. At the moment the MAFIAA are still free to roam the web with extreme prejudice and have content taken down using DMCA requests and threatening tactics.
Why do these rats, who know nothing about how the internet works, have Facebook, Twitter and YouTube accounts, granted to them freely by the very websites that are and would be affected by their blundering incompetence?
What's needed is for some tech companies to grow some real balls. Start blocking these politicians' accounts with extreme prejudice - kick them off the internets where they don't belong. When they receive complaints, do what the MAFIAA do, stonewall then say "Oops, my bad". Hit the assholes with false DMCA requests - this is supposed to be a punishable offence, but as the MAFIAA demonstrate, there is rarely any comeback.
I disagree, It is much better to publicly embarrass these poor, misguided public servants with hard facts and questions like "Don't you think there is enough bad copyright legislation out there already?" and then prove it. Start by informing and letting the man in the street learn and read about the grandmas and college kids getting gang-raped by Hollywood's rapacious legal teams. Let citizens learn, read, comment and then make up their own minds at election time. Shooting these lackeys like fish in a barrel with MPAA gutter tactics is both unsporting and undignified. It is much better and more satisfying to make them squirm under the harsh light of truth.... Besides, a few well placed commentards (and 10,000 web sites) are worth nearly a batallion of lobbyists, or at least they were today.... so rock on....the truth might just set us all free.
show these idiots what they are doing the the rest of the world.
Businesses and Internet sites for that matter have the RIGHT to refuse to do business with anyone for any reason, at least in the US. So no this is not censorship. This would be exercising one's rights.
These organizations and politicians who are so accustomed to stomping all over everyone else's rights to further whatever greedy goals they've got .. its time they got a taste of what they have been dishing out.
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Rep. Allen West (R-FL) has been active on Twitter today, and this afternoon he notified his followers that he opposes the Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA) while implying that SOPA is somehow supported by or the fault of President Obama.
Wow are you sure you wantto give Obama credit for this. Great for his re election campaign
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...the netizens were as passionate as their American counterparts. But of course they would be if they were granted the same freedom of speech online to begin with. I wish the world would unite against oppressors of freedom of speech here in China. Then again... It is better than North Korea, right?
As it stands, I am not even sure I can 'submit' this post as it has the words 'China', 'free speech' and 'freedom' in it.
We are all bystanders thinking we are somehow relevant to these actions: they seem to me to be merely outwardly visible manouvres involving these:
(a) big business attempts to shore up failing busines models to extract enough cash from the people before they all go under for failing to adapt;
(b) the effects of money on the so-called "land of the free", its legislative bodies, and its judiciary, so that "free" means "free if you have thepower, the greenbacks and the right contacts".
(c) the desperate attempts at chicanery by third-rate politicians who are deperate to still have their grasp on power after elections that are looming.
The ordinary people here are just like some farmland crops or livestock to be harvested at will to these immoral money-raking conglmerates; we do not matter so long as we are kept in the dark and fed on manure just enough to keep the money rolling in, and that we do not try to stop their ability to wield power and influence over us. Freedom, openess, and rights mean nothing to them if they are to be applied to anyone other than themselves.
“SOPA: better to get this done right rather than fast and wrong. Copying content is Copyright Infringement, plain and simple, but concerns about unintended damage to the internet and innovation in the tech sector require a more thoughtful balance, which will take more time,” he posted.
"Push the bayonet in. If there is fat. push harder. If there is muscle pull back"
The "sponsors" (I don't mean the sock puppets of the Legislative branch but the people doing the briefing and the paying) of this bill will be back. Perhaps a little better disguised. Perhaps slipping in a few clauses to a bill that can't be blocked (The "Magic Inc" ploy).
The price of freedom does not have to be eternal vigilance but Big Media should consider what happened to the buggy whip makers of the horse era.
Lets agree that people who *create* stuff should be rewarded (rather than those who *manufacture* or package the hardware IE the disks, tapes or films of yesteryear, which seemed to be a key part of the DMCA) and organisations that seek to make money from their work should reward them. The alternate position is that "thinking" is worthless, which does not make a lot of sense to me.
Let's make that the *default* position. If someone then *knowingly* chooses to give their copyright to the universe that is *their* decision, but they must be *aware* of what they are doing.
These do not seem absurd utopian ideas to me but beyond that everything gets *lots* harder.
"The right to free speech is one of the most basic foundations that makes our nation great, and I strongly oppose sanctioning Americans’ right to free speech"
Fucking hell I hate it when American politicians start spouting that crap! I watched Mit Romney doing exactly that a fortnight ago on the news, and to me it says a) I'm shamelessly tarting to the lowest common denominator of red-neck voter, and b) I haven't anything more intelligent or honest to actually talk about!
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