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

Microsoft, Apple and Others Withdrawal Support for SOPA

informationweek.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

41–50 of 54 posts

Re: Microsoft, Apple and Others Withdrawal Support for SOPA

#41

Post by tedunangst »

ImprovedSilence wrote: post #36
nirvana wrote: post #2

This HN title is inaccurate. There's no evidence that Microsoft or Apple actually supported SOPA. Merely an industry association of which they are members, supported it. This association removed its support. A more appropriate title would be "Business Software Alliance withdraws support for SOPA." I'm pretty sure most people on HN who know what SOPA is, know who the BSA is, and if not they'd learn it from reading the…

Guilt by association. I didn't hear Apple or Microsoft threatening to withdraw funding for the BSA in light of this bill.

And yet the BSA has revoked its support. Are you just mad because MS didn't 3-way you in when they called BSA to complain?

Re: Microsoft, Apple and Others Withdrawal Support for SOPA

#43

Post by Adaptive »

danilocampos wrote: post #11

Can anyone on the inside explain how this kind of thing works? This is my thinking: These companies belong to different trade groups. They pay their dues, contribute opinions on different things, but mostly leave these groups alone and go on doing their actual business. Meanwhile, the trade groups advance their own agenda, given a mostly free hand by their constituency, which again, has better things to do. The group…

Don't think for a minute that BSA members aren't acutely aware of what it does in their name. There was a lot of time during which MS, Apple and others could have come forward with a counter position on this.

BSA lobbies on behalf of member companies. The member companies know exactly what they are paying for. None of them are in the habit of throwing money away.

Re: Microsoft, Apple and Others Withdrawal Support for SOPA

#44

Post by antihero »

shaggyfrog wrote: post #3

I guess the question that gets immediately raised in my mind is: what the heck were these companies doing supporting the damned thing in the first place? It's like the rats scattering when the light turns on. Is all of corporate America happy to support these egregious pieces of legislation as long as the public doesn't find out? That last part was mostly rhetorical... mostly .

Well, it simply highlights the fact that whilst people may deceive themselves into thinking that what's good for companies is good for everyone (due to increasing of wealth and production), we realise that companies are in it for the people who run the companies, and if there so happens to be some downright abhorrent legislation that may benefit them, they'll support it until it becomes an issue where the net impact will be negative, due to bad press and the like.

It's morality by committee.

Re: Microsoft, Apple and Others Withdrawal Support for SOPA

#45

Post by zb »

yumraj wrote: post #6

I think you mean "Adobe" and not "Apple", since "Apple" is not mentioned anywhere in that article.

It's a reference to a previous article that specifically called out Microsoft and Apple as tacit SOPA supporters by virtue of their membership in the BSA.

Re: Microsoft, Apple and Others Withdrawal Support for SOPA

#46

Post by zb »

danilocampos wrote: post #11

Can anyone on the inside explain how this kind of thing works? This is my thinking: These companies belong to different trade groups. They pay their dues, contribute opinions on different things, but mostly leave these groups alone and go on doing their actual business. Meanwhile, the trade groups advance their own agenda, given a mostly free hand by their constituency, which again, has better things to do. The group…

That sounds pretty plausible to me. Remember that the BSA is an organisation that is in constant danger of looking like a cartel. To avoid giving this impression too strongly, it's quite likely they have a fair degree of autonomy over copyright enforcement policy. After all, the whole reason the BSA exists is to keep its harassment of small businesses at arm's length from its members.

That being the case, it's not entirely surprising that the BSA would support anything that appears to make copyright enforcement easier for them. Nor is it particularly surprising that some of its members would find SOPA in conflict with their other interests and request that the BSA adopt a more nuanced position.

I guess that's just not as much fun as some of the other conspiracy theories I see in this thread.

Re: Microsoft, Apple and Others Withdrawal Support for SOPA

#47

Post by lukeschlather »

tedunangst wrote: post #41
ImprovedSilence wrote: post #36

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Guilt by association. I didn't hear Apple or Microsoft threatening to withdraw funding for the BSA in light of this bill.

And yet the BSA has revoked its support. Are you just mad because MS didn't 3-way you in when they called BSA to complain?

Personally I'm mad because Microsoft, Apple, and the rest haven't given an opinion one way or another. Without any official statements I can only assume that they were fully in support of the BSA's actions, but they are backpedaling in light of the public outcry.

Re: Microsoft, Apple and Others Withdrawal Support for SOPA

#48

Post by lukeschlather »

danilocampos wrote: post #14
shaggyfrog wrote: post #3

I guess the question that gets immediately raised in my mind is: what the heck were these companies doing supporting the damned thing in the first place? It's like the rats scattering when the light turns on. Is all of corporate America happy to support these egregious pieces of legislation as long as the public doesn't find out? That last part was mostly rhetorical... mostly .

As I've said elsewhere, conservation of incompetence seems the likeliest explanation. The companies have better things to do, so no one in charge realizes that they're dues paying members of an organization that's advancing a truly moronic cause. Until the press gets involved, then things get escalated and straightened back out. Assuming that's in the neighborhood of truth, it highlights the importance of a press fre…

SOPA is pretty egregious, and it looks like it could get everyone in a lot of trouble given the way someone can merely allege copyright infringement and get a site blacklisted.

Any company with a crucial web presence definitely does not have better things to than stop this bill from being passed.

Re: Microsoft, Apple and Others Withdrawal Support for SOPA

#49

Post by jka »

ypcx wrote: post #30
danilocampos wrote: post #11

Can anyone on the inside explain how this kind of thing works? This is my thinking: These companies belong to different trade groups. They pay their dues, contribute opinions on different things, but mostly leave these groups alone and go on doing their actual business. Meanwhile, the trade groups advance their own agenda, given a mostly free hand by their constituency, which again, has better things to do. The group…

I don't think we need to dig into specific technicalities of this, especially with our limited knowledge of the hidden, behind-the-curtain power structures. This law was specifically designed to create an internet weapon of suppression of the unwanted. Apple could have use this to suppress jail breaking. Microsoft could use this to suppress Linux. Lobbyists could use this to suppress the Occupy movement. The powers t…

Personally, I agree with all of the points you made here, except for the suggestion that we don't need to dig further. The SOPA bill (still) has a lot of potential to enable Internet censorship, and for something that far-reaching I think it's fairly important to be transparent about the various lobbying groups and their aims.
Post reply on HN