Joined Jul 2005
Scarydevil Monastery
Forum Thread
Please help if you can - the internet needs you!
December 16, 2011 at
05:15 AM
in
Internet & Websites
(6)
http://americancensors
http://stopcensorship.
Yesterday I watched about three hours of this debate online [keepthewebopen.com] - the advocates for keeping the internet free (Reps. Lofgren, Issa, Chaffetz, and Polis, mainly) are fighting hard against a cadre of old technophobes who admit that they have no idea how the internet works or what it does.
The "good guys" managed to keep proposing amendments long enough that the debate was held over until today. They're starting again at 1000 EDT - roughly 90 minutes from now.
I don't know what else can be done but if you haven't already, PLEASE visit the first link and do as much as you can. If you have time & are willing to call, do that. If you can send email or sign petitions, do that. Educate yourself about the issue to be sure you agree - but I think any rational reasonable person will realize that this is a bad, bad bill and a horrible idea. The second link is another petition you can sign to have a Senator read your name during a filibuster of the Senate bill (right now the two bills are in committee).
I can't explain it any better than they do at stopcensorship.org so I won't try. Suffice to say that the internet as we know it could be drastically changed (IMO for the worse) should this bill pass.
I'll be watching as much as I can today - the third link has a live stream of the committee chambers.
Thanks.
http://stopcensorship.
Yesterday I watched about three hours of this debate online [keepthewebopen.com] - the advocates for keeping the internet free (Reps. Lofgren, Issa, Chaffetz, and Polis, mainly) are fighting hard against a cadre of old technophobes who admit that they have no idea how the internet works or what it does.
The "good guys" managed to keep proposing amendments long enough that the debate was held over until today. They're starting again at 1000 EDT - roughly 90 minutes from now.
I don't know what else can be done but if you haven't already, PLEASE visit the first link and do as much as you can. If you have time & are willing to call, do that. If you can send email or sign petitions, do that. Educate yourself about the issue to be sure you agree - but I think any rational reasonable person will realize that this is a bad, bad bill and a horrible idea. The second link is another petition you can sign to have a Senator read your name during a filibuster of the Senate bill (right now the two bills are in committee).
I can't explain it any better than they do at stopcensorship.org so I won't try. Suffice to say that the internet as we know it could be drastically changed (IMO for the worse) should this bill pass.
I'll be watching as much as I can today - the third link has a live stream of the committee chambers.
Thanks.
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It's sad that Republicans and Democrats can't agree on anything except for anything that makes themselves bigger and we the people more dependent on them.
So much for Article 1 Section 8 of the Constitution. Now we have government deciding how we should buy healthcare, deciding whether we can buy McDonald's Happy Meals, and now deciding what we can and can't say on the Internet.
If you live in one of these districts, tell them you support the protection of copyright holders, but not by giving unlimited powers to government to do so.
(R) Rep Smith, Lamar [TX-21] - Sponsor
(R) Rep Amodei, Mark E. [NV-2] - 11/3/2011
(R) Rep Blackburn, Marsha [TN-7] - 10/26/2011
(R) Rep Bono Mack, Mary [CA-45] - 10/26/2011
(R) Rep Carter, John R. [TX-31] - 11/3/2011
(R) Rep Chabot, Steve [OH-1] - 10/26/2011
(R) Rep Gallegly, Elton [CA-24] - 10/26/2011
(R) Rep Goodlatte, Bob [VA-6] - 10/26/2011
(R) Rep Griffin, Tim [AR-2] - 10/26/2011
(R) Rep King, Peter T. [NY-3] - 11/3/2011
(R) Rep Marino, Tom [PA-10] - 11/3/2011
(R) Rep Nunnelee, Alan [MS-1] - 11/3/2011
(R) Rep Quayle, Benjamin [AZ-3] - 12/13/2011
(R) Rep Ross, Dennis [FL-12] - 10/26/2011
(R) Rep Scalise, Steve [LA-1] - 11/14/2011
(R) Rep Terry, Lee [NE-2] - 10/26/2011
(D) Rep Baca, Joe [CA-43] - 12/7/2011
(D) Rep Barrow, John [GA-12] - 11/14/2011
(D) Rep Bass, Karen [CA-33] - 11/3/2011
(D) Rep Berman, Howard L. [CA-28] - 10/26/2011
(D) Rep Chu, Judy [CA-32] - 11/30/2011
(D) Rep Conyers, John, Jr. [MI-14] - 10/26/2011
(D) Rep Cooper, Jim [TN-5] - 12/12/2011
(D) Rep Deutch, Theodore E. [FL-19] - 10/26/2011
(D) Rep Holden, Tim [PA-17] - 11/30/2011
(D) Rep Larson, John B. [CT-1] - 11/30/2011
(D) Rep Lujan, Ben Ray [NM-3] - 11/14/2011
(D) Rep Owens, William L. [NY-23] - 11/14/2011
(D) Rep Schiff, Adam B. [CA-29] - 10/26/2011
(D) Rep Sherman, Brad [CA-27] - 12/7/2011
(D) Rep Wasserman Schultz, Debbie [FL-20] - 11/3/2011
(D) Rep Watt, Melvin L. [NC-12] - 11/3/2011
(D) Rep Barrow, John [GA-12] - 11/14/2011
It isn't good for people to be uninformed and it's beyond idiotic for someone representing those people to choose to remain uninformed.
The representation is incompetent.
Updating as promised. I don't know where we are re: resuming the debate but I will find out and post the info here.
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Many people in the IT industry know & trust Tom's Hardware. Here's a really good article wherein the authors illustrate perfectly the kinds of consequences we can expect should SOPA and PROTECT-IP come to pass:
http://www.tomshardwar
Don't let up the pressure. Keep bugging your family. Ask them to tell one person they work with every day/week/month whatever they will listen to. This is making it's way, gradually, into the mainstream media [npr.org] too, but in a roundabout way. Still, you can send links to media outlets your relatives & friends might recognize, instead of stuff like Techdirt & DailyKos.
If you have time call your representatives. CALL. A phone call, even if you leave a voice message, carries so much more weight than emails. Don't stop emailing! But call too. Be a power for the change you want to see in the world.
This would be awesome to see, but scary if we make it this far.
This would be awesome to see, but scary if we make it this far.
"Sites such as Google, Amazon and Facebook could temporarily replace their usual homepage with a black screen and a message asking users to contact politicians and urge them to oppose the Stop Online Piracy Act.
The move could come as early as January 24, when the bill is due to be debated in the House of Representatives. "
I agree it would be scary.
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