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

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

#21

Post by corin_ »

squeee wrote: post #8

I love how everyone keeps asking where is the compromise from the tech industry. This bill is like someone saying "Hi Bob, this store you have here is great, but sometimes someone comes in and steals one of my products off your shelves and since you can't guarantee me that I will get paid for every one of my products that walks out the door I'm going to have to shut down your store until you can." But, to answer your…

This analogy is as bad as people who say that piracy is the same as stealing from a shop - in your story, the content producer does get paid for that product, it's Bob the store owner who loses money. You think shops can turn around to their suppliers and say "hey, a few things got stolen so we'd like a refund for them"?

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

#23

Post by InclinedPlane »

Notice the blatant verbal blunder the reporter makes in the first few minutes, she says: "SOPA would allow the government and private companies to shut down websites enabling copyright infringement..."

Is there a word missing there perhaps? A word that we've become accustomed to in its routine presence in the media?

When members of the media talk about crimes the word "alleged" might as well be "uh" given the frequency it drops from their mouths. But not here.

Even a news outlet as savvy as Bloomberg is utterly clueless about the pitfalls of erasing the presumption of innocence and due process for the online world.

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

#25

Post by dpapathanasiou »

edw519 wrote: 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…

Why is the internet so afraid of ethical behavior?

This is the problem with how these bills are named.

SOPA stands for "Stop Piracy Online Act". I.e., how can you be against something that stops theft?

It would have a completely different mainstream reaction if it were called the "Censor the Internet Act" or "Stop Free Speech Online Act".

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

#26

Post by msb »

That was one of the most rational discussions about the SOPA debate that I have seen. There is far too much vitriolic debate over the extremes of this type of legislation, it was nice to see you avoid that entirely. Your reference to Louis C.K. managed to subtlety communicate why SOPA is more about power than preventing piracy, a focal point that is often missed. Well done.

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

#27

Post by Alex3917 »

I think the one weakness was using the phrase 'user-generated website' out of context, because understanding what this means is really the key to getting people to understand the implications of the bill. I think most people probably have a vague idea of what user generated content is, but I'm not sure they would have connected all the dots from just this phrase, in terms of understanding why exactly the bill would cause sites like reddit, ebay, google, etc. to get shut down. Overall pretty good though, especially considering how insane live TV is.

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

#29

Post by kn0thing »

jiggity wrote: post #9

Looking sharp. We're lucky to have a charismatic figure from our demographic who can articulate the issues that matter to us. - From the outside-in perspective, you carry the impression of being a young, successful, and likable Silicon Valley entrepreneur. - From the inside-out, you have the ultimate cred, not just for starting one of the most influential online communities but imbuing it with your distinctive ethos…

Thank you. reddit was started and sold from Somerville, MA though ;)

It's going to take much more than a few TV news appearances, though. It's on all of us to motivate our friends & family to educate their representatives about the horrors of these bills. We're on the right side of this, but it's going to take a concerted effort from all of us to win the day.

I may be getting another chance to return to Washington later this month to meet with decision-makers. I'll be back here to solicit feedback on my testimony.

https://plus.google.com/113164038788726940319/posts/ab9eFgmo...

Oh, and be sure to check out http://engineadvocacy.org

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

#30

Post by narrator »

One thing to remember when arguing about SOPA in a forum that encompasses a broader audience than Hacker News or Reddit is that not everyone is involved in the internet industry or even primarily a knowledge worker.

Think about how to appeal to someone who is retried or involved in managing a bakery or who runs a flower shop. We don't want to come off as a bunch of elitist nerds. We want them to understand that we're concerned about the future of innovation in this country and the preservation of free speech. We should focus on explaining how SOPA wildly oversteps the bounds of reasonable measures to prevent piracy and causes an enormous amount of collateral damage to the rest of the economy and innovation.

The store analogy was a pretty good start, IMHO.

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