House Kills SOPA 495
An anonymous reader writes "In a surprise move, Representative Eric Cantor (R-VA) announced that he will stop all action on SOPA, effectively killing the bill. This move was most likely due to the huge online protest and the White House threatening to veto the bill if it had passed. But don't celebrate yet. PIPA (the Senate's version of SOPA) is still up for consideration."
Internet wins (Score:5, Insightful)
Hurray. (Score:5, Insightful)
The larger issue... (Score:5, Insightful)
The people who brought the bill in the first place, are still active; and still receiving funding. More fundamental provisions are called for, to ensure such bills are not tabled in the first place.
Re:Holy crap (Score:5, Insightful)
[sarcasm]You wouldn't vote against kittens would you?[/sarcasm]
Source? (Score:5, Insightful)
Is anyone else reporting that SOPA is dead?
Counterattack. (Score:5, Insightful)
google, amazon, ebay et al - its their task. they need to start buying congressmen/senators, and start buying laws, now. Because thats how the capitalist democracies work.
Whats going on? (Score:5, Insightful)
I'm curious whats actually going on? So, distract the populace with a ridiculous bill, meanwhile push thru and organize... what, the war on Iran, or prepare for the collapse and dissolution of Euroland, or maybe its time for the Argentine economy to collapse again, or ... My point is you ram thru an over the top #1 story to overshadow the #2 story, so what is currently the #2 story?
Nah (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:Holy crap (Score:5, Insightful)
No, they're just listening to a different group of corporations for a while. If Google, Amazon, and Facebook were in favor of this, the people wouldn't stand a chance.
Re:Internet wins (Score:5, Insightful)
Now you know why they want to shut down the Internet!
Let's even presume they shut down the Senate version.
How can we stop the "sneak it in later" effect?
Re:Internet wins... (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:Counterattack. (Score:5, Insightful)
google, amazon, ebay et al - its their task. they need to start buying congressmen/senators, and start buying laws, now.
The fact that I can agree with you makes me hate our "democracy" even more.
Re:timing of this shelving is just perfect (Score:4, Insightful)
It's January 18 right? So they can still do the campaign, just replace the letters to read PIPA ... unless the Senate version gets pulled tomorrow, also in time to be ahead of the protests.
(Do we still do the protests? Or will people whine "well we already won, so why bother protesting?")
Re:Holy crap (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:Internet wins (Score:5, Insightful)
True, but the War of Rights with never end.
Today a battle was won.
what's more, people from all different sides came together to make this happen.
Enjoy the moment.
Remember the day.
and yes, tomorrow it all starts all over again.
but we'll deal with that tomorrow.
Re:Internet wins... (Score:3, Insightful)
SOPA was as unpopular on the right side of the spectrum as it was on the left
Really? It sure looks like the right wing politicians in our government -- which includes almost all the politicians in Washington (don't kid yourself; we live in a very right-wing age) -- were highly supportive of SOPA. Why would they not be? They give hand-outs to corporations all the time, and they rarely pause to think about the effect on our civil liberties. It was only because of the libertarian element of the Republican party that this bill was shelved; there are just enough libertarians to create a potential problem.
SOPA Is very much a right-wing bill. What could be more right-wing than attacking a system where anyone can communicate equally, regardless of where they fit into the hierarchy of society? The point of SOPA is to curb the free and open nature of the Internet and to reinvigorate the power of established corporations and government agencies -- sounds very right-wing to me.
Or are we only operating under the Fox News definition of "right wing?"
Re:It COULD be brought back (Score:5, Insightful)
In saner years you'd be right that it would be stopped. But there's something wrong this time - the push for the bill vs the content was so strong, the strongest I've seen in years. It's beyond "they got caught" - of course they knew they'd be hated for it. But they'd already stated "we want to pass this anyway despite your opposition". So if you'll allow me to go all Monty Python, "it's not dead, it's resting!" Let's assume the senate version rests too.
This situation reeks of a Meta-Campaign. So they'll either rename it, or worse, split the components among other bills so that there's nothing to rally against.
Try this - they're introducing it this time before this election round. Then once the people are re-elected "now they have nothing to lose" so they'll resurrect it next year. Or some such variations on a theme. The point is, just because it's sleeping, it's definitely going to wake up. Except for some surprise fallout, thousands of companies were drooling at how much fun power they stood to gain from this.
Re:Nah (Score:5, Insightful)
They just got caught. They'll try again when people are distracted by something else.
Exactly. Let's not declare victory yet- This is nothing but a strategic retreat.
The intent is still there, they just met enough resistance that they figured it was prudent to fall back and re-group.
With a number of high-volume sites going black on the 18th and growing media attention, public awareness might have approached a level that SOPA proponents weren't comfortable with- If they pull the target of the protest out of harm's way before the 18th, it will reduce the impact of the protest. Now, when the 18th rolls around, congress can say "Hey! We heard you, realized SOPA was a bad idea, and have pulled it from the docket, so there's really nothing to get upset about.".
We need to stay vigilant... It's likely that the bill will be reintroduced with subtler language, or that SOPA-like riders will be introduced into other legislation, or who knows what. The entertainment industry has invested too much cash in the Congressional vending machine to walk away from this without a return.
Re:Internet wins... (Score:5, Insightful)
Yes I know that it is fashionable to describe everything that falls short of libertarianism "socialist," but there is nothing socialist about SOPA, and socialism is not the be-all and end-all of left wing politics.
Re:Internet wins... (Score:5, Insightful)
I know this will blow your mind, but maybe left vs. right isn't the appropriate fight here. Most of us Americans are hung up on it, but maybe it doesn't always apply as much as you would think it would.
The second axis of the political world is corpratism, and corporatism is heavily represnted in both parties. Look at the names of the people pushing this bill. It has nothing to do with party. It had to do with the hugest corporate consitutencies pushing dollars into politician's pockets.
The corporation patches on their suits may be slightly different, but BOTH parties are corporatist. Stop thinking everything is left vs. right or pretty soon there won't be any debate because there will be ONE group in charge and you'll be against the wall if you say you don't like it.
Re:Internet wins... (Score:4, Insightful)
Then why did it have the support of MOST of the republicans?
Hell even many of the current republican presidential candidates have voiced their support for SOPA.
Re:Internet wins (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:Internet wins (Score:5, Insightful)
"and yes, tomorrow it all starts all over again.
but we'll deal with that tomorrow."
It's already started. PIPA and STOP are both SOPA renamed. They are not "enjoying the moment", they are 2 steps ahead of us already.
Re:Absolutely (Score:5, Insightful)
All these posts on Slashdot about how bad the bill is really made a difference!
True. This really is one of the major think-tanks of information science policy. You may have meant it as a joke, and gotten modded so, but when it comes to sober and deliberative analysis of the effects of information science law, I don't think it gets a whole lot better than this. We are clearly stronger on information science policy than Congress, the BSA, or most of the major think-tanks in D.C. When we forge opinions here, they are based not on the highest bidder but on the strongest position (with a bit of an anti-authoritarian bent, admittedly). If I post something that is emotional and not well-founded, I get kicked in the jewels pretty soundly (more often than I'd like to admit). When we take the resulting theories out to the world, they are treated with respect because they have been tempered in the heated debates that happen right here. This is not far off from the new-media Federalist Papers.
The fact that we joke and rant and argue does not mean we are not getting the job done. It is possible that American Democracy has no future -- corruption may be unstoppable -- but if it has a future, this is what it looks like.
Re:Internet wins... (Score:5, Insightful)
it was introduced by House Judiciary leader Lamar Smith, a Republican, but co-sponsors include Democrats Howard Berman, John Conyers, and Ted Deutch, amongst others
You are apparently operating under the assumption that the Democrats are not on the same side of the political spectrum as the Republicans. The Democrats have shifted so far to the right that by now the best you can get is a centrist. The few democrats that linger on the left side of the spectrum are on the fringe.
Re:Internet wins... (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:Absolutely (Score:1, Insightful)
You have got to be joking.
This is not far off from the new-media Federalist Papers.
No, not joking. Utterly batshit insane.
Re:Internet wins... (Score:5, Insightful)
And I think it can be argued equally as strongly that the end game to capitalism is fascism. Especially when you have large corporations that more or less have reached critical mass, and are no longer accountable to the people.
Re:Absolutely (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:Sopa (Score:4, Insightful)
It doesn't matter if it passes with 100 votes in the Senate, if it's DOA in the House.
It won't see the President's desk.
Re:Internet wins... (Score:5, Insightful)
No.
We'd call it the Moderate Right. :-/
Re:Noted (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:sopa is delayed (Score:5, Insightful)
What scares me most is having this undead piece of rancid pig feces laying around, is that some time over the next year a special committee will convene and railroad this thing through in the dark of night while nobody is looking or can respond to it. Our legislature has in recent years done a number of dirty deeds in the middle of the night to avoid notice, prevent obstruction and make evil corporate masters happy.
I want a stake through this things heart, its head removed and a bucket of holy water dowsed on it.
Re:Absolutely (Score:4, Insightful)
Re:Making sure it stays dead (Score:5, Insightful)
The way to make sure this kind of law does not rise from the dead like a zombie in a bad horror movie is to punish the lawmakers who co-sponsored it. If you live in a state or district where your congressman/senator put his name on the respective bills (SOPA or PIPA), write them and tell them you will support/campaign for/contribute to their opponent, even if the bills are dead, just because they were stupid enough to ever think it was a good idea and put their name to it.
If there is one thing they fear more than their desire for campaign funds, it's getting voted out of office. So make this a "vote you out of office" issue, so the next time the entertainment industry comes knocking (and they will), the legislator will tell them to go away.
On the other hand, if you happen to live where your representative was opposed to the bill, thank them for doing it, and tell them you will to everything you can to support them in the next election.
To some degree, it does not matter if you actually do work for their opponent or them or the other stuff, cause likely some staffer will just tally your opinion in a spreadsheet, but you want to show up in the column of "very strongly against" the next time this shows up. They do pay attention to the aggregate opinions.