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Posts tagged SOPA

MPAA Directly & Publicly Threatens Politicians Who Aren’t Corrupt Enough To Stay Bought

Posted at 10:51 , January 22 2012

So what is OWS protesting about, anyway? Stuff like this. Laws and politicians that are bought and sold through campaign contributions. Usually no one pays much attention to the legislative process, but thankfully the internet fury over SOPA/PIPA has got the lobbyists desperate enough to reveal their hand:

Reinforcing the fact that Chris Dodd really does not get what’s happening, and showing just how disgustingly corrupt the MPAA relationship is with politicians, Chris Dodd went on Fox News to explicitly threaten politicians who accept MPAA campaign donations that they’d better pass Hollywood’s favorite legislation… or else:

“Those who count on quote ‘Hollywood’ for support need to understand that this industry is watching very carefully who’s going to stand up for them when their job is at stake. Don’t ask me to write a check for you when you think your job is at risk and then don’t pay any attention to me when my job is at stake.”

This certainly follows what many people assumed was happening, and fits with the anonymous comments from studio execs that they will stop contributing to Obama, but to be so blatant about this kind of corruption and money-for-laws politics in the face of an extremely angry public is a really, really, really tone deaf response from Dodd.

Emphasis copyeditor’s. Full article at Full article at Techdirt.

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Speaker Cantor Shelves Vote on SOPA After Veto Threat, Bill Effectively Dead

Posted at 7:38 , January 16 2012

Daily Tech brings good news: SOPA is, for all intents and purposes, DOA.

The House Oversight Chairman, Rep. Darrell Issa (R-Calif.) has long been a stern critic of the Orwellian “Stop Online Piracy Act” (SOPA) (H.R. 3261). The representative announced some huge news on Monday. He reveals that Majority Leader Rep. Eric Cantor (R-Va.) promised to shelve any potential vote in the Republican-controlled House in terms of passing SOPA.

[...] The “death” of SOPA comes just hours after President Barack Obama made headlines when his close advisors came out against SOPA. Some heralded the opposition as a hint that the President might veto the bill to prevent catastrophic economic damage.”

Great news, although this little gem might get lost in the shuffle and needs to be quoted:

Big media paid approximately 10 percent of active U.S. Senators’ total combined election costs in the last election cycle. Many of these same big media companies who are looking to imprison file sharing Americans recently plead guilty to stealing tens of millions of dollars in work in Canada alone, from independent artists.”

Emphasis editor’s. Full text available at Daily Tech.

(As the article notes, we’re not done—PIPA is still alive and kicking. Let’s make sure it doesn’t stay that way for long. —Ed.)

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Members of Congress bow to public pressure, backpedal on SOPA

Posted at 11:32 , January 14 2012

The Stop Online Piracy Act would effectively kill the free Internet. It has enjoyed near-universal support in Congress, but the American people are not nearly as keen—and now, their voices are being heard.

The public outcry over the Stop Online Piracy Act and Protect IP Act seems to have gotten so loud that even members of Congress can hear it. On Thursday we covered the news that Sen. Patrick Leahy (D-VT) was expressing second thoughts about SOPA’s DNS provisions. He said he changed his mind after he “heard from a number of Vermonters” on the issue.

On Friday, several Republicans started backpedaling as well.

SOPA sponsor Lamar Smith (R-TX) announced that he would be pulling the DNS-blocking provisions from his own bill. “After consultation with industry groups across the country, I feel we should remove Domain Name System blocking from the Stop Online Piracy Act so that the Committee can further examine the issues surrounding this provision,” Smith said in a Friday statement.

Meanwhile, six GOP senators who served on the Senate Judiciary Committee (which unanimously approved the legislation last year) wrote a letter to Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid asking him to postpone a vote on PIPA to give them more time to study the legislation.

“We strongly believe that the theft of American intellectual property is a significant problem that must be addressed,” they wrote. But since the Judiciary Committee last considered the legislation, “we have increasingly heard from a large number of constituents and other stakeholders with vocal concerns about possible unintended consequences of the proposed legislation, including breaches in cybersecurity, damaging the integrity of the Internet, costly and burdensome litigation, and dilution of First Amendment rights.”

[...] Another member of Congress that has been feeling the heat from voters is Rep. Paul Ryan (R-WI). After reddit members raised $15,000 in 48 hours for his anti-SOPA challenger, Ryan came out with a clear statement of opposition to the legislation.

“It appears that lawmakers are beginning to realize how much damage their anti-’piracy’ bills could cause to the Internet and to Internet-related businesses,” said Public Knowledge’s Sherwin Siy in a statement. “While we are pleased that some progress is being made, we are also firm in our opposition to both bills because some very bad provisions remain.”

Emphasis copyeditor’s. Read more at Ars Technica.

(Not specifically Occupy-related, but this pushback is very much in the spirit of the protests. —Ed.)

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SOPA Bill Announced as Benched—Then Mysteriously Isn’t

Posted at 3:04 , December 17 2011

The House Judiciary Committee had originally announced the Stop Online Piracy Act was tabled until 2012. SOPA, despite the well-meaning name, actually does very little to stop piracy and instead provides a mechanism to shut down entire DNS ranges with very little due process. It turns out plans may have suddenly and curiously changed:

[...] Despite the fact that Congress was supposed to be out of session until the end of January, the Judiciary Committee has just announced plans to come back to continue the markup this coming Wednesday. This is rather unusual and totally unnecessary. But it shows just how desperate Hollywood is to pass this bill as quickly as possible, before the momentum of opposition builds up even further.

Full story available at TechDirt.

(This is just a flat-out dirty trick—they’re hoping the public will assume the bill has been quashed and let them finish their job in peace. Don’t forget to call your senators and representative about this, the future of the internet hinges on it. —ed.)

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SOPA Staffers Rewarded with Cushy Jobs as Entertainment Industry Lobbyists

Posted at 3:41 , December 13 2011

It’s sad that things like this are no longer surprising, but the reward for writing up SOPA is… You guessed it, a paid job helping to get SOPA passed!

Allison Halataei (former deputy chief of staff for House Judiciary Chairman Lamar Smith (R-Texas)) and Lauren Pastarnack (former senior aide on the Senate Judiciary Committee) have cool new jobs. Having written the Internet-destroying Stop Online Piracy Act for their bosses while drawing a salary at public expense, they’ve now accepted massive raises to go work for the entertainment companies who stand to benefit from the law they wrote. Their new job? Helping to run the campaign to push their law through.”

Information courtesy of BoingBoing.

(If you haven’t been following it closely, the Stop Online Piracy Act and its Senate partner, the PROTECT IP bill, are attempting to grant large and unchecked swaths of power to copyright holders, essentially allowing them to shut down any site they vaguely suspect of infringement with very little due process or recourse. We mention it here not only because it deeply affects the Daily Occupation—without the ability to repost content, we’re more or less crippled—but also OWS as a whole. Once you start shutting down sites with content you don’t like, it’s not that hard to start shutting down sites with opinions you don’t like. —ed.)

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[Op-Ed] Internet Censorship, the First Refuge of Scoundrels

Posted at 1:49 , December 4 2011

The internet has become the printing press of our generation.

I realize it sounds like hyperbole, but I really do believe it. The internet has opened possibilities and changed organizational landscape within the course of a single generation. Information flows freer than ever, huge crowds can communicate and organize nationally within seconds, and it’s very difficult for any central body to shut down concentrated swarms.

But not impossible.

Continue reading [Op-Ed] Internet Censorship, the First Refuge of Scoundrels

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