SOPA Hearing Rigged to Attack Google, SOPA Opponents

[glamdring]

Each of them is complicit in supporting SOPA unless they publicly distance themselves from the BSA on the issue. As the companies are, presumably, dues paying members of the BSA, they are financially supporting the enaction of SOPA.

Slow down, as much as I agree they should distance themselves you don't know if some companies are fighting/debating it withing the BSA. Not only will outing yourself from an organization like the BSA have heavy ramifications on deals/cost of good between former members it will also weaken their influence they have, so many will try to avoid this. Do I think that is a legitimate excuse, not when it comes to a matter like this. Lastly the real reason why I wouldn't necessarily boycott/burn all those companies just for being part of the BSA is the fact that it can be much more effective sometimes to fight it from within. The BSA will not support it if the majority votes no, they will continue to support it if 1 member leaves. Just because an organization that corporation belong to dose/says something it doesn't mean that is what each corporation is saying, just the majority.

Personally it has been long enough if I owned the business I would have left, but you also have to consider they don't make the decision to leave on a dime. Most, like Yahoo with chamber of commerce, will not leave until their membership is up or else you have to explain why ,and a very good reason, to the board and shareholders. The majority of shareholders may not care, you can't label one corporation as a person. They are managed by so man people which are always changing, theoretically if enough Linux users bought the majority share of Microsoft they could start electing the board members and completely change the company.

My last two cents, we might not been in this mess if US citizens obeyed the laws against copyright infringement in the first place. Even if you disagree with it, it's a law here in the US.


Note: I'm not justifying the SOPA in any way shape or form, I'm 100% against it and contacted my representatives. I'm not justifying those people, corporations too, involved in pushing this either, I will indeed boycott their products and send my opinions to them to help influence change. As a consumer you have the most power, many disagree now but that is because we have given it up. The minute consumers realize it and wake up we can start changing things, in all my business classes we spend countless hours just learning how to understand why someone isn't buying a product and changing something so they will. I have also had to study countless cases of corporations completely dropping support for organizations, because people began boycotting and they began to post losses. When a corporation posts a loss the pressure gets put on, a business is suppose to make money so make them earn your money don't just give it to them.

[menotu]

By David Kravets December 9, 2011 (wired)

Senator Wants Answers from DHS Over Domain Name Seizures

Sen. Ron Wyden (D-Oregon) said Friday he would demand answers from the Department of Homeland Security about its domain seizure program known as Operation in Our Sites after it was revealed that the government kept a hip-hop music review site’s name for a year without affording the owner a chance to challenge the seizure.

Wyden also wants to know why there was no court record of the case, other than the initial seizure filing a year ago.

“I expect the administration will be receiving a series of FOIA [Freedom of Information Act] requests from our office and that the senator will have very pointed questions with regard to how the administration chooses to target the sites that it does,” said Jennifer Hoelzer, a Wyden spokeswoman. She said the senator was “particularly interested in learning how many secret dockets exist for copyright cases. There doesn’t seem to be an obvious precedent or explanation for that.”

Wyden’s interest comes a day after federal authorities returned the domain name dajaz1.com, which was back online greeting visitors Friday with a powerful message about proposed web-censorship legislation that expands the government — and copyright holders — power to shutter and cripple sites suspected of copyright infringement.

Link

[djohnston]

Sen. Ron Wyden (D-Oregon) said Friday he would demand answers from the Department of Homeland Security about its domain seizure program known as Operation in Our Sites after it was revealed that the government kept a hip-hop music review site’s name for a year without affording the owner a chance to challenge the seizure.

Yeah, that'll end well.

[Wildman]

Yeah, its all ready ended...that is just Lip service! 

[menotu]

by Mike Masnick  Fri, Dec 9th 2011 (techdirt)

Shockingly Unshocking: Two Congressional Staffers Who Helped Write SOPA/PIPA Become Entertainment Industry Lobbyists

from the revolving-door dept

Two high level Congressional staffers who have been instrumental in creating or moving forward both PROTECT IP (PIPA) and SOPA have left their jobs on Capitol Hill and taken jobs with two of the biggest entertainment industry lobbyists, who are working very hard to convince Congress to pass the legislation they just helped write. And people wonder why the American public looks on DC as being corrupt.

    Allison Halataei, former deputy chief of staff and parliamentarian to House Judiciary Chairman Lamar Smith (R-Texas), and Lauren Pastarnack, a Republican who has served as a senior aide on the Senate Judiciary Committee, worked on online piracy bills that would push Internet companies like Google, Yahoo and Facebook to shut down websites that offer illegal copies of blockbuster films and chart-topping songs

Full article

[Wildman]

by Mike Masnick  Fri, Dec 9th 2011 (techdirt)

Shockingly Unshocking: Two Congressional Staffers Who Helped Write SOPA/PIPA Become Entertainment Industry Lobbyists

from the revolving-door dept

Two high level Congressional staffers who have been instrumental in creating or moving forward both PROTECT IP (PIPA) and SOPA have left their jobs on Capitol Hill and taken jobs with two of the biggest entertainment industry lobbyists, who are working very hard to convince Congress to pass the legislation they just helped write. And people wonder why the American public looks on DC as being corrupt.

    Allison Halataei, former deputy chief of staff and parliamentarian to House Judiciary Chairman Lamar Smith (R-Texas), and Lauren Pastarnack, a Republican who has served as a senior aide on the Senate Judiciary Committee, worked on online piracy bills that would push Internet companies like Google, Yahoo and Facebook to shut down websites that offer illegal copies of blockbuster films and chart-topping songs

Full article

Anti-American

[menotu]

Anti-American

Why's that Mike?

[Wildman]

Stick around awhile and you will see..

[menotu]

Stick around awhile and you will see..

Confused..........

[Abraxas]

What worries me is that Politicians have no idea what the Internet is, and are totally the wrong bunch of hoodlums to be empowered to make any decision on how it is regulated.

[parnote]

What worries me is that Politicians have no idea what the Internet is, and are totally the wrong bunch of hoodlums to be empowered to make any decision on how it is regulated.

And why should "it" be regulated at all? What's wrong with the free and open exchange of ideas?

[Abraxas]

parnote:

"And why should "it" be regulated at all? What's wrong with the free and open exchange of ideas?"

Exactly, it's a great time to be alive !!

Why let one piece of info, like an offensive, or Copyrighted piece of information close down a whole site; say Youtube ?
That's what this "Legislation" in the U.S. is proposing; when it's so easy to just contact the site, and have the Media removed.
The implications with trading partners having to adopt the legislation to please the U.S. Legislation is also obnoxious, highly objectionable and offensive !

[djohnston]

That's what this "Legislation" in the U.S. is proposing; when it's so easy to just contact the site, and have the Media removed.

It's so easy to have it removed because of the obnoxious Digital Millineum Copyright Act. I think what parnote is saying is that we don't even need no stinkin' DMCA.

[Wildman]

Stick around awhile and you will see..

Confused..........

Sorry, I didn't intend to confuse......I just don't like "Lobbyist" they work to undermine us, and, as the elected ones, they come from Big Business, and when they finish the work, they return to Big Business...like M$ and a bunch of others........if they pass this stuff, we will be totally controlled by them...
Then there will be no open and free speech or anything else on the web..

[Abraxas]

The squeaky wheel gets the oil ...