Live data from Hacker News

I was on BloombergTV talking SOPA today - how'd I do?

bloomberg.com

51–60 of 163 posts

Re: I was on BloombergTV talking SOPA today - how'd I do?

#51
post #19

Alexis, you did great. Cool, calm, collected, and sharp. You did a great job advocating what most of us here understand and champion. But here is the problem I see with this whole SOPA debate... I didn't see anything that would help my Uncle Art understand what this is all about in his language and why he should care. This is what he sees: - There is a bill in congress. - It's to stop people from stealing other peopl…

I agree, make it simple and something the layman could understand. I'd adjust the analogy to "If someone shoplifts a DVD from Best Buy , this bill allows the government to shut down the store."

Is that really true (in the sense of being analogous to what the bill does)? I thought it was more like, "If someone carries a shoplifted CD into Best Buy and leaves it on a shelf, it allows the government to shut down all Best Buys".

Re: I was on BloombergTV talking SOPA today - how'd I do?

#52
post #36

From my point of view, the 3 important points on SOPA, and your grade on them: 1) This will kill innovation in the US, hurting job growth. Mentioned 2) This will not prevent rogue sites from operating on the internet, meaning we pay the cost of #1 without any real gain Not mentioned at all 3) There are good technical reasons why this is a bad idea Not mentioned at all.

0) The utter destruction of due process and freedom of speech (most of the bill of rights) with respect to the internet, which is rapidly becoming the dominant means of political and private discourse and business in the 21st century.

Re: I was on BloombergTV talking SOPA today - how'd I do?

#53
You did great. And you looked sharp. Good job. For the next interview it would be great if you could paint a picture of post SOPA internet. Try to say, "if it passes we will HAVE to shut down reddit and most likely facebook, twitter and youtube will be gone as well".

Re: I was on BloombergTV talking SOPA today - how'd I do?

#55
Very nice job. I like the 'no need for more government' tack. This is the language that catches people's ears. If I don't understand the issue, my first impression in "Looks like the government is keeping these smart tech kids down."

I think one or two more simple 'take-aways' would help. I also think people want to know why a company Facebook would be against SOPA. If they understood that in the form of a simple example, that would go a long way. Everyone uses Facebook.

Really great job. Very articulate. I would have added 50 ums. :/

Re: I was on BloombergTV talking SOPA today - how'd I do?

#56
post #35

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Another analogy: "If someone gets pulled over for speeding in their Ford Mustang, Ford is liable for their illegal behavior"

"The government could immediately shut down all Mustangs on the road"

Terrorists meet in your backyard, government takes your house.

Re: I was on BloombergTV talking SOPA today - how'd I do?

#57
post #37
post #19

Alexis, you did great. Cool, calm, collected, and sharp. You did a great job advocating what most of us here understand and champion. But here is the problem I see with this whole SOPA debate... I didn't see anything that would help my Uncle Art understand what this is all about in his language and why he should care. This is what he sees: - There is a bill in congress. - It's to stop people from stealing other peopl…

Despite my differences with much of the Republican party platform, one thing that they are damn good at and I respect them for is an ability to communicate with their target base. Where's there's a hot topic issue, the Republicans will come out in lockstep with voices on the same wavelength. They use clear and simple language with a single antagonist. In the really big battles they even coin phrases like 'Obamacare',…

It doesn't hurt that they have a 24hr propaganda network dedicated to repeating these catch phrases and sound bites over and over again.

Re: I was on BloombergTV talking SOPA today - how'd I do?

#58
post #41
post #19

Alexis, you did great. Cool, calm, collected, and sharp. You did a great job advocating what most of us here understand and champion. But here is the problem I see with this whole SOPA debate... I didn't see anything that would help my Uncle Art understand what this is all about in his language and why he should care. This is what he sees: - There is a bill in congress. - It's to stop people from stealing other peopl…

Here is what Alexis seemed to be saying in the interview. - SOPA is bad for websites that rely on user-generated-content (and entrepreneurs like him) - We (i.e. tech community) intimidated GoDaddy and forced them to back away from their support for SOPA - One guy made a million dollars by requesting donations on PayPal instead of demanding payments from all users. This is a great example of innovation. The private se…

`come up with specific solutions for the copyright problem and also acknowledge that copyright holders do have some legitimate concerns`

As Alexis said that's a problem for their industry. It's quite a false flag to say that the tech sites need to come up with a solution. Additionally, DMCA is already one solution.

Re: I was on BloombergTV talking SOPA today - how'd I do?

#59
post #19

Alexis, you did great. Cool, calm, collected, and sharp. You did a great job advocating what most of us here understand and champion. But here is the problem I see with this whole SOPA debate... I didn't see anything that would help my Uncle Art understand what this is all about in his language and why he should care. This is what he sees: - There is a bill in congress. - It's to stop people from stealing other peopl…

The problem I have with the shoplifting analogy as presented is that someone unfamiliar with SOPA might conclude that the website at risk must also be the victim of the crime. How about analogies to other crimes like stealing from another customer, assaulting another customer, etc. What's ironic is that the bar/nightclub industry is effectively governed by such a law. It seems that, when patrons decide to do bad thin…

Other analogies:

A car is used as a getaway vehicle in a robbery so the government goes after the car manufacturer.

A safety deposit box contains an illegal item, so the bank gets shut down.

Re: I was on BloombergTV talking SOPA today - how'd I do?

#60
post #35

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Another analogy: "If someone gets pulled over for speeding in their Ford Mustang, Ford is liable for their illegal behavior"

"The government could immediately shut down all Mustangs on the road"

"Chevy sends an email to the government and all Mustangs are immediately shut down."
Post reply on HN