Just so you don’t get completely suckered by what’s going on, let me brief you on the status of the SOPA bill in Congress. This is the so-called Stop Online Privacy Act, HR-3261 and the assumed strategy being employed.
I base this on conversations with lobbyists for the ISP industry actively fighting SOPA.
SOPA is likely just a red herring, a lightning rod for rubes.
Congressman Darryl Issa has pretty much stopped the bill. And now he is introducing the so-called Open Act, which has language a lot more acceptable.
But it doesn’t matter if which has language acceptable to most parties, but this is not important, since SOPA support will dry up with a “OK, you win!” finale.
This is so that the real bill, Senate S.968. The Patrick Leahy “Protect IP Act of 2011” will pass — while all the nuts argue about and then celebrate victory over SOPA.
The House will quickly agree and rubber-stamp the Senate bill which, according to those fighting these bills, is about 96 percent as terrible.
This is a disaster waiting to happen.
Nobody is focusing attention on this parallel bill. Watch this scam get executed like clockwork.
Note how nobody has bothered to even notice this bill. That’s what I’m here for.
Look. This is a sucker’s game. And things will get worse from here, I guarantee. Check out this column I wrote predicting the appearance of the United States in this “national” Internet. Sheesh.
Meanwhile, here are the co-sponsors of this Senate turkey.
Vote them out. And call them.
S.968 – PROTECT IP Act of 2011
Sponsor: Senator Patrick Leahy (D-VT)
Cosponsors (and date of cosponsorship):
Sen. Alexander, Lamar [TN] – 5/25/2011
Sen. Ayotte, Kelly [NH] – 6/27/2011
Sen. Bennet, Michael F. [CO] – 7/25/2011
Sen. Blumenthal, Richard [CT] – 5/12/2011
Sen. Blunt, Roy [MO] – 5/23/2011
Sen. Boozman, John [AR] – 6/15/2011
Sen. Cardin, Benjamin L. [MD] – 7/13/2011
Sen. Casey, Robert P., Jr. [PA] – 9/7/2011
Sen. Cochran, Thad [MS] – 6/23/2011
Sen. Coons, Christopher A. [DE] – 5/12/2011
Sen. Corker, Bob [TN] – 6/9/2011
Sen. Durbin, Richard [IL] – 6/30/2011
Sen. Enzi, Michael B. [WY] – 9/7/2011
Sen. Feinstein, Dianne [CA] – 5/12/2011
Sen. Franken, Al [MN] – 5/12/2011
Sen. Gillibrand, Kirsten E. [NY] – 5/26/2011
Sen. Graham, Lindsey [SC] – 5/12/2011
Sen. Grassley, Chuck [IA] – 5/12/2011
Sen. Hagan, Kay [NC] – 7/5/2011
Sen. Hatch, Orrin G. [UT] – 5/12/2011
Sen. Klobuchar, Amy [MN] – 5/12/2011
Sen. Kohl, Herb [WI] – 5/12/2011
Sen. Lieberman, Joseph I. [CT] – 7/7/2011
Sen. McCain, John [AZ] – 7/26/2011
Sen. Rubio, Marco [FL] – 5/26/2011
Sen. Schumer, Charles E. [NY] – 5/12/2011
Sen. Shaheen, Jeanne [NH] – 6/30/2011
Sen. Udall, Tom [NM] – 7/7/2011
Sen. Whitehouse, Sheldon [RI] – 5/12/2011
Sen. Moran, Jerry [KS] – 6/23/2011 (withdrawn – 6/27/2011)
Thanks for this, John. Let’s all also not forget and keep in mind the third arm of this strategy, ACTA, currently being pushed down the throats of other countries by these same lawyers and lobbyists – represented of course by the US government:
http://www.edri.org/ACTAbooklets
Ivo, you should write a little guest column on that. I love it.
gs
email me ginasmith888@gmail.com
Hi John. My name is Robert and this is what I tell others about SOPA. One. SOPA allows a single individual or group of individuals to practice random and arbitrary censorship against anyone whom they see fit and well to do so. That, is a blatant violation of First Amendment rights. Two. SOPA also allows for such an individual or group of individuals to have access to the Domain Name Services (DNS), an important part of the “backbone” of inter-connected networks that make our World Wide Web. Those wishing to practice such arbitrary and random censorship who really don’t understand how DNS works can wreak an untold amount of havoc if they are allowed to have access to it. In other words, “Don’t mess with DNS!” How am I doing so far?
Random and arbitrary censorship without due process means those who have been censored will have hire a attorney and to go to court to fight the random and arbitrary censors for those rights already guaranteed them by the U.S. Constitution in the first place.
Jerry Moran, the Kansas rep, was smart, and pulled out of it. Glad to see that.
We put the pressure on Orrin Hatch to withdraw his support for the Protect IP Act – and he finally caved! He still doesn’t see why it’s such a bad thing, though…
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