Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

SOPA vote is now December 21

cbsnews.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

61–69 of 69 posts

Re: SOPA vote is now December 21

#61

Post by einhverfr »

exDM69 wrote: post #17
r00fus wrote: post #3

So the delay is just to put it under the radar while everyone is off on Holiday break? Devious.

This is a classic dirty trick in politics. Organize an unpopular vote when a lot of the voters have left for xmas holidays. Just make sure there's a majority left when the vote is on. As an example: the federal reserve act was established in the same way on the days before xmas when a lot of the opposition had already left for holidays. Since it's holiday season, the news will be a lot quieter than usual and the publ…

Now, this is the committee vote, though, right? It means it ends up front and center in front of the full body after the holidays, right?

Re: SOPA vote is now December 21

#62

Post by einhverfr »

ck2 wrote: post #14
orangecat wrote: post #6

Ugh. One thing I oddly haven't seen mentioned at all: if it passes, will Obama sign it? I disagree with him on many things, but he's not stupid, and given his support base there have to be some geeks close to him that can explain how awful it is. Of course, his support base also includes Hollywood...

Obama likes to be the "stern and discipline" "law & order father figure" which is what sucks in some of the independents that are more right leaning. As a progressive I could not be more disappointed in him for so many reasons. The left keeps going back to him like the abusive partner (oh he only hit me because it was my fault really). He's going to sign this regardless of the consequences.

Obama likes to be the "stern and discipline" "law & order father figure"

I have started calling him "Reg Regum" and "Pater Patria" if only to suggest that our republic seems to be dying. I am sure those who study Rome will get the point (Rex Regum, i.e. "King of Kings" and Pater Patria, i.e. "Father of the Fatherland" were both titles bestowed to Augustus).

One thing Obama has shown consistently throughout his administration is that he wants there to be a very strong executive with powers that can be exercised in largely arbitrary ways. This has been the case with state secrets privilege in arguments, the proposal to allow indefinite detention back in 2009, and more down to the present. There is no way he would veto SOPA.

Re: SOPA vote is now December 21

#63

Post by antoko »

ceslami wrote: post #58

To me, the most shocking about SOPA has been the way it is portrayed in the media. Imagine reading this passage if you weren't "in-the-know" (as many of us would like to think we are): "But most of the major players in the technology industry, including Google and Facebook, are strongly opposed to the legislation because they say they would be forced to police their websites for possibly illegal content. Google, whic…

>To me, the most shocking about SOPA has been the way it is portrayed in the media......The media is minimizing the issue to corporate laziness....I think an outlet like CBS has an obligation to do better than that.

The media are the ones that are lobbying for this bill, did you really expect them to cover it with anything approaching impartiality?

CBS is owned by Viacom. Getting the media to join the fight against SOPA is not very likely.

Re: SOPA vote is now December 21

#64

Post by hillbilly »

kijin wrote: post #56
skymt wrote: post #46

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Both of those bills attempted to create new restrictions on speech. SOPA simply creates new censorship measures against forms of speech that are already illegal.

New censorship measures which a lot of people believe violate due process. I can't quite decide which option would be better in the long run: (a) stop SOPA, only to have similar ideas come up every single year, or (b) let SOPA pass, then build a case and take it all the way to the Supreme Court hoping that measures such as SOPA would be ruled unconstitutional once and for all. If this succeeds, it would set a precede…

The SOPA bill states that even if one provision is deemed unconstitutional, the rest of the bill remains intact.

Re: SOPA vote is now December 21

#66

Post by nitrogen »

shutej wrote: post #49
acabal wrote: post #47

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I just don't understand how with this bill being so clearly bought by the rich media companies, why there isn't a counter from the rich internet companies. I mean if the RIAA can give $1 million to Senator X, then why can't Google give $2 million to Senator X to ignore the RIAA? Sure it's dirty politics, but at this point it's just semantics as to who is dirtier. The media companies are throwing money at Washington t…

How to say this without trolling? This isn't the RIAA's country, it's not Google's country, it's not Microsoft's country, and it's not Yahoo's country. It's our country. Until we, the people, accept our responsibilities and stop this from happening, it will continue to happen. More corruption is not the answer.

How to say this without trolling?

This isn't the RIAA's country, it's not Google's country, it's not Microsoft's country, and it's not Yahoo's country. It's our country. Until we, the people, accept our responsibilities and stop this from happening, it will continue to happen. More corruption is not the answer.

Look at it from this perspective: as a practical matter, today, corporations have significantly more power in politics than individuals, and media companies more than tech companies. If something isn't done right freaking now, SOPA will pass from committee in three days.

There is nothing you, as an individual, or we, as a collective, can do against the millions of dollars spent on lobbying and campaign contributions by the media companies in the next three days. Talk of what "ought" to be will not solve the immediate problem.

An analogy: suppose you are poor (or bootstrapping), and you are $150 short of making rent for the month. Rent is due in five days. You can talk on and on about how you should have got a better job, didn't iterate on customer development, etc., but if you don't come up with $150 right now, you will "die." So, you might go to a payday loan shark, get a cash advance from your credit card, or sell something to make rent and live another day.

What's my point? When your very survival is on the line right now, you have to do whatever you can to live to fight another day. That's where we are now with media companies and the Internet.

Re: SOPA vote is now December 21

#67

Post by adambyrtek »

ck2 wrote: post #12

There must be serious money to be made - or rather already made for the representatives plowing this through - there is simply no other explanation. Money is definitely deep in pockets. Looking at the "donation" list it's to both sides of the aisle and HUGE amounts, these aren't little $10k donations but $100k and even $1M I am starting to understand the fall of Rome a little better.

This is exactly the point of the Rootstrikers campaign[1], supported by Larry Lessig[2]. I encourage all of you who live in the US to take action.

[1] http://www.rootstrikers.org/

[2] http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ik1AK56FtVc

Re: SOPA vote is now December 21

#68

Post by ceslami »

antoko wrote: post #63
ceslami wrote: post #58

To me, the most shocking about SOPA has been the way it is portrayed in the media. Imagine reading this passage if you weren't "in-the-know" (as many of us would like to think we are): "But most of the major players in the technology industry, including Google and Facebook, are strongly opposed to the legislation because they say they would be forced to police their websites for possibly illegal content. Google, whic…

>To me, the most shocking about SOPA has been the way it is portrayed in the media......The media is minimizing the issue to corporate laziness....I think an outlet like CBS has an obligation to do better than that. The media are the ones that are lobbying for this bill, did you really expect them to cover it with anything approaching impartiality? CBS is owned by Viacom. Getting the media to join the fight against S…

I absolutely agree with you. As crazy as it is, most people don't realize that news programs project the agenda of their corporate parents -- the media just "speaks the truth."

Re: SOPA vote is now December 21

#69

Post by mynameishere »

peteretep wrote: post #57
mynameishere wrote: post #48

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Rome fell partly because the treasures stopped coming in from conquest. And the US is being invaded faster than any other country in history, to the best of my knowledge. It's odd that so many people are unaware of this. Had 1-2 millions entered Rome every year, as with the US currently, it wouldn't have taken centuries to fall. This is just math of course--people differ in their judgements.

I hear the world's tiniest violin playing for a country that consistently attracts the world's brightest and most entrepreneurial people from other countries. With a population density that starts off small before you even consider that almost all of the entire country is habitable... You're right. It's just math. You just don't understand that math.

Math is non-subjective. If you like the flow, great, but that doesn't relate to the math.
Post reply on HN