Rackspace: SOPA "Is a Deeply Flawed Piece of Legislation" 213
hypnosec writes "Cloud-based hosting service provider Rackspace has joined the ever expanding list of companies that are opposed to the U.S. Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA). In a blog post, Rackspace CEO Lanham Napier said that the controversial bill, which will get its final vote before the House Judiciary Committee, will do more harm than good, punishing innocent users in the process. 'The SOPA bill, as it stands, is a deeply flawed piece of legislation. It is bad for anyone who uses the Internet, including Rackspace, the more than 160,000 business customers that we serve, and the tens of millions of retail customers that they serve. It is bad for job creation and innovation,' Napier wrote."
Comment removed (Score:5, Insightful)
Ugh (Score:5, Insightful)
The most hilariously annoying part of this bill is that there's not a single sane citizen of this country who, when properly educated on the bill's impact, would vote for such a thing....yet the lunatics running this country will probably pass it right on through since they're in the chokehold of the industries and power mongers which DO want it.
If it's possible to lose any more faith in the people at the top, I certainly will if this is passed. I'll also cast opposing votes against any representatives who vote for it, regardless of party affiliation.
Doesn't matter, the fix is in (Score:5, Insightful)
Obama and most of the Democratic Party are owned by the big Hollywood studios. The Republican Party is owned by big business in general. The only reason this hasn't passed already (without even a public debate) is that Google and a handful of other big players are fighting it. But even Google is a relatively small fish in this money game.
As for those of us without deep pockets--well save yourself that stamp on a letter to your Congressman.
Re:Nearly all laws are (Score:5, Insightful)
Or rather, that's what you get when your politicians can make promises of intent without any fear of being held accountable once elected.
Re:Doesn't matter, the fix is in (Score:5, Insightful)
Democratic Party are owned by the big Hollywood studios. The Republican Party is owned by big business
Those are two sides of the same coin.
Comment removed (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:PR opportunity (Score:4, Insightful)
Re:Doublespeak/Equivocation (Score:4, Insightful)
Re:Doesn't matter, the fix is in (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:What Would Happen... (Score:5, Insightful)
Interesting thought, but as has been pointed out before, they don't actually care what happens to the internet. The Govt will fund a Govt only network (if they need it) and big media will finally not have to worry about people illegally downloading their "product" and can go back to charging 20 bucks for a CD and forcing television down everyone's throats.
Yet more proof of how little our representatives care about us eh?
Re:Doesn't matter, the fix is in (Score:5, Insightful)
yes - BUT - the R party is also owned by Big Religion.
that is their permanent (until they decide to change this) handicap.
there may be some small good points that the R's have but the fact that they sold their souls to the american taliban (christian right extremists) means I could never vote for any of them, on that principle, alone. the party is too tainted by that one controlling force.
remove that force (it was not always embedded in the R point of view) and then we might have a valid 2 party system. but right now, we have a religious party, a whichever-way-the-wind-blows party and that's pretty much it. neither is worth voting for. both are owned by big business; just different ones.
Politicians or Money (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:Doesn't matter, the fix is in (Score:4, Insightful)
Re:Ugh (Score:5, Insightful)
Many of us believe in a god, or (like me) are outwardly atheist, but many of us who don't believe in a god claim a religion or denomination for reasons of family history(and, more specifically, the risk of being ostracized or written out of the lucrative will for angering the more traditional elders).
Ethanol-fueled, where is this rant going?
Religious people want censorship. The internet's free flow of information is anathema to their shackled minds and irrational fear of truth.
Re:Nearly all laws are (Score:5, Insightful)
Oh they're not idiots.
They're very smart.
It's just that they have different goals to what you would like.
Re:Ugh (Score:5, Insightful)
I don't think you get how this works.
Two candidates are proposed, both owned by the same corporations planning to support identical policies.
You apparently really hate the marketing message the R people used, but that doesn't mean they would have done anything different.
Oh sure, they would have attended twice as many prayer breakfasts, and half as many MLK parades, but I'm not thinking the end result would be any different.
Standard /. car analogy is its like getting all emotional about cars because the Saturn was a really nice car but the commercials suck so you bought a Toyota which is also a really nice car and thinking its important that the Toyota tv commercials don't suck as much.
Something not mentioned.... (Score:5, Insightful)
Rackspace is a large constituent of Lamar Smith's District 21 (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Texas.21st.Congressional.District.gif) as they are headquartered in San Antonio, Texas. Having this large of an employer in his own district against the legislation should be a big wake-up call to Rep. Smith.
Re:and yet it will probably pass (Score:5, Insightful)
I don't know. We said the same thing about the AT&T buyout of T-Mobile. We all knew it was bad for competition. We all knew AT&T was lying to the government about it. And even when the truth leaked out, AT&T and various government people continued to push for it. It looked really bad. But there was LOTS of talk. It became very high profile. The added light and notice the issue got eventually killed the deal.
People need to continue shouting from the rooftops about SOPA.
One thing I have yet to see talked about is how laws like DMCA and the proposed SOPA continue to increasingly put police and government powers in the hands of non-government people... people who aren't otherwise accountable for their actions. It's a huge violation of government trust.
Re:Ugh (Score:4, Insightful)
And don't scream too loudly if any of your ideas are ripped off by Big Bizz to make a buck off of. The true citizens of the US (multinational corporations) have certainly gotten their money'sworth this time. Until an individual can amass the cash that a multinational can, their voice does not matter.
Re:Politicians or Money (Score:4, Insightful)
Money (cash)
Promises of cushy jobs after your term is up.
Fancy dinners/events
etc
etc
How exactly would one go about removing it all from the equation. Block one way and they'll find another, and no politician is going to vote against his/her ability to receive favours...
Re:Nearly all laws are (Score:1, Insightful)
Most all laws over the last few decades have been deeply flawed in some way. That's what you get when you elect idiots.
No, it's what you get when you let a bloated central government interfere with every aspect of your life.
Central planners almost always fsck up, even when they're acting with good intentions; when they get something right it's almost always by chance.
Re:Politicians or Money (Score:2, Insightful)
The only way to solve this problem and much of the problem with Washington is to thoughtfully and radically remove money from politics.
No, the way to fix it is to remove _POWER_ from politics. If government is limited to things that only government can do (e.g. courts, military, etc) then you don't need to worry about it making crazy laws that will destroy things it knows nothing about; if government interferes in every aspect of your life, you can guarantee it will fsck things up.
Re:Nearly all laws are (Score:5, Insightful)
That's what happens when Congress is in the pocket of big business. Any good business person will tell you that you need recurring revenue. Congress does it through sunset provisions: "Oh, that law you really like is expiring soon? Well, maybe I can get an extension passed, but it'll cost lots of money to advance that ahead of extensions that other people want." It's really a racket.
Re:Ugh (Score:4, Insightful)
Yes. Ron Paul is an anti-constitutionalist, anti-libertarian (he only cares that the federal government is neutered, he loves the idea of the individual states violating peoples rights), a hypocrite, a liar, a theocrat and anti-American traitor.
Really? You think that because he maintains the position that the powers of government not enumerated in the Constitution are reserved for the states, Ron Paul is anti-Constitutionalist, a hypocrite, a liar and a traitor? Even though I can see how you might think that refusing to support a bill that might, in fact, be Libertarian and even good for the country on the basis that it requires the federal government to usurp a power that it does not legally have as being entirely a Bad Thing, I find it consistent with his philosophy of government, and even a Good Thing. There is a mechanism in place to grant power to the federal government that the Constitution does not already grant: it's called a Constitutional amendment. If the law really is that good, pass an amendment. If the amendment doesn't pass, then there's a pretty good chance that the value of the bill has not been adequately established. If the failure to pass such a bill means that individual states pass bad laws, well, at least it's easier to change a local government than a federal one. Furthermore, if a state law truly sucks that bad, it's far easier to move to another state than to another country. Depending upon where you live and where you move to, you might not even have to quit your job to move (even though I would...it's a heck of a commute to Alaska from anywhere else).
Re:Nearly all laws are (Score:5, Insightful)
Who is the greater idiot: the idiots or the idiots who vote for them?
Let's not for a moment pretend we have anyone other than ourselves to blame. Everyone says they hate SOPA, but talk about voting against the SOPA parties and suddenly you're a wacko and 90+% people start listing reasons they plan to support the people who enact it.
Re:Nearly all laws are (Score:1, Insightful)
This.
It's sad and ironic that so many that are invested in the entitlement society suffer selective blindness when the all-too-predictable results of such central planning & control manifests, and call for even more central planning & control to "fix" the problem of too much central planning & control.
Strat
Re:Nearly all laws are (Score:5, Insightful)
Lesser evil does not make evil good.
If it bears any resemblance to SOPA it's just as evil.
Re:Flawed? (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:Nearly all laws are (Score:4, Insightful)
Stopping piracy is not evil.
Maybe it is. I don't have the philosophical finesse right now to think of a way to support the statement "Stopping piracy is evil", but I imagine a somewhat convincing case could be made for it. In any event, "stopping piracy" should not be immediately and universally recognized as a Good Thing.
Re:Ugh (Score:2, Insightful)
Ah, but you're offensive, arrogant, and statistically speaking probably not as smart as me! And yet I believe in God, so why don't you just let me as long as I'm doing you no harm? Instead of trying to "convert" me, by being an asshole -- has that ever worked for you, by the way?
Save your anger for the religious nutcases who are actually causing harm. If I choose to "delude myself" because it makes my life more enjoyable, it's really not your problem. I'll make you a deal -- I won't tell you who you can marry or what drugs you can take if you don't tell me what to believe, or not believe. OK?