Stop Online Piracy Act vote delayed, probably well into 2012

There are a lot of power plays being made behind the spotlight with this. This particular administration is one of the boldest ever seen, they're willing to steamroll over people far more than any other has in recent history. However, this time, and with this bill, it's not just the little guys against the big guys. Otherwise this thing would have passed without so much as a blink. The fact that there are very powerful people and organizations on both the support and opposition sides, means that this bill is going to make and destroy people, whether it gets passed or not.

To be a fly on the wall in some of those offices right now, wow. Keep hoping sensible heads prevail, because this thing can, in the truest sense of the word, kill the internet.

 

Shouldn't even be considered by anyone with true technical experience. These supporters are out of their league.

 

Control and money, that's all this is about. No, they have no technical clue what they are doing, they wouldn't likely care even if they did though. That's just how things have become, and it's not going to get better anytime soon.

 

SOPA defined
PROTECT IP / SOPA Act Breaks the Internet
An Open Letter From Internet Engineers to the U.S. Congress

 

Is this thread not similar | same as this thread - suggest topic merge.

 

"The Anti-Internet Bill has NOT Been Postponed To 2012 … The Committee Members Who Support SOPA Sneakily Changed the Hearing Date to December 21st, Trying to Trick the American People Into Thinking It Was Over Until After the Holidays So We Won’t Fight Back!

Don’t Be Fooled: The Horrible Anti-Internet Bill Is NOT Being Shelved Until Next Year

News reports initially said that the despicable anti-Internet bill – SOPA – has been delayed until next year. As Huffington Post notes:

After two days of debate, House Judiciary Committee Chairman Lamar Smith (R-Texas) abruptly halted a key hearing on the Stop Online Piracy Act, postponing a Committee vote on the bill until 2012. The move marks a win for hordes of internet activists who oppose the bill, but gives lawmakers another opportunity to juice deep-pocketed corporations for campaign contributions.

“This is a huge victory for everyone who uses the Internet — and proof that millions of people speaking out can still make a difference in a Congress usually run by corporate lobbyists,” said Aaron Swartz, co-founder of Reddit and Demand Progress, an organization that has staunchly opposed the bills for months.

***

“It is good news,” said Sherwin Sie, deputy legal director Public Knowledge, a non-profit group opposing the bill. “The last thing you want is to get something like this rushed through at the last minute while people are trying to do something else. That’s been the message of SOPA opponents throughout. What’s the big rush?”

But Tech Dirt gives the following update:

Update…. Or not. Despite the fact that Congress was supposed to be out of session until the end of January, the Judiciary Committee has just announced plans to come back to continue the markup this coming Wednesday. This is rather unusual and totally unnecessary. But it shows just how desperate Hollywood is to pass this bill as quickly as possible, before the momentum of opposition builds up even further."

http://www.washingtonsblog.com/2011...ng-to-trick-the-american-people-into-thi.html

 

I've warned about stuff like this plenty before, both here and elsewhere. People who think this sort of thing can't happen, simply because it might mess with whistle blowers and the like, are truly fooling themselves. Moves like this are also why encryption software isn't immune to being regulated and/or made illegal.

Don't expect things like https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/desopa/ to last long either.

 

Many people use VPNs in their work, so the US government couldn't just make them illegal. They could require that all VPN use be licensed, but that would be an administrative nightmare. VPN providers could pose as MLM operations involving sensitive information, for example, with clients appearing as subcontractors.