Best Congressional Response To SOPA Yet? Rep. Bruce Braley Takes To *CENSORED* To Explain His *CENSORED*
from the you-win-1000-internets dept
Lots of folks in Congress have been speaking out about SOPA and PIPA today — and what’s fascinating is how many of them are actually using key internet innovations to do so. Most of the comments we’ve seen were first made on Twitter and Facebook. But the best response (and by best, we mean funniest) response we’ve seen today comes from Rep. Bruce Braley from Iowa. You just have to watch the video to see:
Filed Under: blackouts, bruce braley, pipa, protect ip, protests, sopa
Comments on “Best Congressional Response To SOPA Yet? Rep. Bruce Braley Takes To *CENSORED* To Explain His *CENSORED*”
At least some one in this debate has a sense of humour.
And there’s certainly a few laughs needed and I’m glad I got these few.
;-D
That's really funny
My senator John Boozman just sent me an email indicating he was going to drop his support of SOPA.
Mike, get it right
That is the best AND the funniest 😉
Placards
I just realised one thing. This is that the next few days until the 24th will be dominated by street protests.
Here is one example from today…
http://bits.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/01/18/techies-plan-to-take-sopa-protest-to-the-streets/
Millions of people certainly protested on-line today but they are not the only protesters.
That...
was freaking AWESOME!
Gets funnier with each viewing.
I think Bruce got our message
He’s my Rep., and when I wrote him a few weeks ago his reply wasn’t quite so unequivocally against SOPA.
In an email today to all the constituents that had written him, he wrote that he “gets it,” he’d heard from hundreds of us, SOPA is bad, he’s opposed to it, and he’ll vote “no” if it ever gets to the floor.
I also kind of got the impression that maybe he’d gotten more mail on this than he could be expected to respond to anymore, and we could perhaps maybe stop now . . .
Re: I think Bruce got our message
Why stop? Might as well keep the pressure on. That’s what Lobbyists do. We may not have the cash floating around, but constantly making contact forces them into a whole ‘squeaky wheel gets the grease’ situation.
Re: I think Bruce got our message
There did seem to be a bit of an “all right already – jeeze!” tone to his voice…
Re: Re: I think Bruce got our message
“Look, I get it, you’re against censorship, could you shut up now please?”
What he is really saying is:
As you can plainly see, he says ***** ***** ***** to help our ***** to ***** and ***** and stop ****** from ******.
Dammit, SOPA got me too D:
ZOMG!
The opposition is still growing, more senators are now opposing PIPA.
“PIPA support collapses, with 13 new Senators opposed”
http://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/news/2012/01/pipa-support-collapses-with-13-new-opponents-in-senate.ars
And not only that, another 5 senators opposing the bill were included at the end of the article.
Something needs to be done?
The one thing I disagree with is the part where he says that the problem with online piracy is real and that we need to do something about it. I’m not sure that has actually been shown. Yes, there is a lot of piracy, but is it really causing a problem? And if there is anything to be done about it, why should it be Congress that does whatever needs to be done?
Ok, yes, a lot of middlemen are losing their jobs. Otherwise, nobody has shown ANY actual harm from Internet piracy. And Internet piracy definitely has benefits to the pirates, to those consuming the pirated goods. To the creators and owners of the content being pirated, it usually ends up working as free advertising, especially if they roll with it. (Reference: look at the arguments that were made regarding music played over the radio.)
Re: Something needs to be done?
I don’t think piracy per se is the scary part for them, it’s not having control.
They hated radio before they realized that with payola and all that shit they could use it do decide who got airtime, basically deciding who would get big and who wouldn’t … with the internet they no longer have that control.
So. 8 million managed a few mouse clicks, tapped a few keys, and the problem goes away? Sorry, this is another one of those nasty situations where I spend more time looking to see just what we’re supposed to be distracted away from.
This was too easy, they’ve done this to us before.
No, I’m not paranoid, this just seems stupidly simple. No cloak and dagger, most everything about SOPA & PIPA, as evil as I believe they could be, is readily available? Really?
Sorry folks, what’s REALLY the deal here?
What's REALLY the deal here?
@Havoc:
While I’m sure RIAA/MPAA would have been happier if the bills had passed (and for a while it seemed like they would), the RIAA/MPAA can be happy with at least two victories. Hopefully this is all they won, but I think there isn’t any more to it.
1. Everybody in Congress seems to be saying “we agree that something needs to be done about Internet piracy”. I don’t think that is the case — I don’t agree that Congress needs to do anything about piracy. Or at least not in the obvious sense. Maybe Congress does need to do something about Internet piracy, e.g. reducing copyright terms, codifying fair use, adding penalties for false DMCA takedown notices, etc.
2. In the eyes of some, we (those opposed to SOPA/PIPA) now somehow “owe” the RIAA/MPAA something in return for their “concessions” in not getting SOPA/PIPA passed. “You guys won last time, so now its our turn to win!”
Re: What's REALLY the deal here?
I agree, I would be infinitely happier if to start with even just one politician said something like,
“I’ve been told the problem with copyright infringement has a serious effect on business.
So I have started looking at the evidence, and you know the problem with that is there isn’t any compelling evidence to suggest there is any real problem requiring further legislation regarding enforcement.
In fact the more we look at the evidence the more inclined we are to think that copyright law itself is causing problems to businesses, causing them to seek profits in litigation as opposed to innovation and/or meaningful work.
I understand that similar problems are occurring with patents and even trademark legislation, so I intend to start working with my colleagues to explore the situation and to see if perhaps some changes need to be made to copyright, trademark and patent legislation if they are in fact damaging competitiveness and closing the future off against innovation.
If we find that, that is the case, I will be pushing for reforming legislation and until the evidence has been fully examined I will not support any further overreaching on IP legislation.”
Yeah, just one person, who would actually suggest that they would actually look at the evidence.
But no, at the moment all we get are people parroting that the problems are real and need more legislation than already exists, even if SOPA/PIPA wasn’t the absolute perfect way to deal with it.
Re: What's REALLY the deal here?
I guess I was unclear, though you have good points. Ever see “wag the Dog”? We’re fed this, which really had no reasonable chance of passing, to distract from something else, and there’s ALWAYS something else.
The big question is WHAT?
Re: Re: What's REALLY the deal here?
You have probably no more than a day or two to find out.
“The one thing I disagree with is the part where he says that the problem with online piracy is real and that we need to do something about it.”
Precisely. This seems to be an agreed upon talking point from all politicians and entities that now claim to oppose SOPA. This has to be nipped in the bud since everyone who is not a shill knows that this has been thoroughly debunked, and piracy has ZERO effect on sales, no effect on jobs and profits. Any politician who continues to barf out this drek still needs to be removed from his precious office, because holding onto this false idea shows that they are STILL going to be a threat, still corporate owned, still misinformed or lying.
” I guess I was unclear, though you have good points. Ever see “wag the Dog”? We’re fed this, which really had no reasonable chance of passing, to distract from something else, and there’s ALWAYS something else. “
In this case, There isn’t anything else .. really.
The distraction is ‘ZOMG PIRACY !!! LOST JOBS !!!’
The true purpose is a clampdown on a ( currently ) free internet. The last US election was an eye-opener for US politicians who suddenly realized that the internet NEVER forgets .. ever. Every lie told was debunked almost immediately and spread virally across the ether. Secrets can no longer be kept. The cries of ‘Piracy’ and huge fake numbers of lost revenue ARE the distraction. The Media moguls want to continue to hold all the Keys to all the gates, the politicians want their dirty laundry to stay hidden. SOPA/PIPA allows both camps to get what they want, but which is easier to spin and sell ?
Re: Re:
“The true purpose is a clampdown on a ( currently ) free internet.”
Precisely.
And it seems to me that they’re already enforcing it: there are certain things that I can no longer access, supposedly simply because of where I live.
Re: Re:
You’re missing the point. Badly. Painfully.
SOPA and PIPA are the unrealistically-bad bills, designed to piss off everyone who normally pays attention to the legal landscape, which will allow something innocent-seeming but deadly to pass through the legislative process undetected.
Distracting us from HR3699?
Basically publicly funded research will be owned by the Publishers somehow…
http://savageminds.org/2012/01/06/why-hr-3699-sucks/
http://blogs.scientificamerican.com/evo-eco-lab/2012/01/16/mistruths-insults-from-the-copyright-lobby-over-hr-3699/
currently, any and all SOPA/PIPA videos i attempt to view (ie, ones on Youtube linked from Techdirt) are just coming up with ‘sorry, an error has occurred, please try again later’.
” You’re missing the point. Badly. Painfully. “
No, not really. I get your point.
Government has a history of sleight of hand and misdirection.
I get it.
I just don’t agree with you.
I just think you are wrong, that’s all.
So then, what ‘innocent seeming’ problem are you looking at that you feel is more important than blanket censorship and open contempt for what the actual constituents want ?
I think you protest too much.
Here lies the truth about SOPA/PIPA that even TechDirt has yet to report: what MPAA, RIAA, and Hollywood execs do not want you to see.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WJIuYgIvKsc
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NzS5rSvZXe8
The truth behind why these big companies responsible for SOPA and PIPA are also responsible for piracy itself is far more insidious than even their outmoded business model.
Hint: can you say, do as I say so I can crush you under heel?