The Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA) and it's supporters.

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US House of Representatives: Internet pirates - Boing Boing

TorrentFreak continues to crawl through YouHaveDownloaded, a database of IPs that have been logged by a BitTorrent-spying tool run by some folks in Russia. They've already revealed the downloading habits of the RIAA and DHS as well as the behavior detected at Nicholas Sarkozy's official residence, and now they're publishing stats on the US House of Representatives.

The House, of course, has been mired in Internet controversy since Rep Lamar Smith introduced his Stop Online Piracy Act, which establishes a regime of national censorship in the name of fighting copyright infringement. So it is with some amusement that TorrentFreak points out that more than 800 of the IP addresses assigned to the House of Reps were involved in copyright infringement over BitTorrent, according to the YHD database. There's a big trove of self-help books in there, with titles like "Crucial Conversations- Tools for Talking When Stakes Are High," and who knows, maybe that's what Mr Smith was reading when he decided to sell out America to Hollywood?

Something that immediately caught our eye are the self-help books that are downloaded in the House. “Crucial Conversations- Tools for Talking When Stakes Are High,” for example, may indeed be of interest to the political elite in the United States. And “How to Answer Hard Interview Questions And Everything Else You Need to Know to Get the Job You Want” may be helpful for those who aspire to higher positions.

Books tend to be popular in the House because we found quite a few more, including “Do Not Open – An Encyclopedia of the World’s Best-Kept Secrets” and “How Things Work Encyclopedia”. But of course the people at the heart of democracy are also downloading familiar content such as Windows 7, popular TV-shows and movies.

And there was another category we ran into more than we would have wanted too. It appears that aside from self-help books, House employees are also into adult themed self-help videos. We’ll list one of the least explicit here below, but that’s just the tip of the iceberg.

As for me, I'm just shocked (and a little bit heartened, to be honest) to learn that there's someone in the House who knows how to use the Internet.

 

[nitroz]

Let's pick ONE Senator of voted for NDAA/SOPA and destroy him like we're doing for GoDaddy. Relentlessly investigate and find skeletons in his closet, money bomb is opponents, etc. : politics

Members of Reddit are currently devising a plan to have a member of Congress that supports the SOPA bill to lose their seat in congress. I will be participating in the efforts myself. (While obeying all laws)

 

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Surprise: Heritage Foundation, Who Almost Always Supports MPAA, Comes Out Against SOPA | Techdirt

Increasingly, it looks like the MPAA and the US Chamber of Commerce can't even count on their closest "friends" to support SOPA. The latest surprise is that the Heritage Foundation has come out against SOPA, warning that it would likely have dangerous unintended consequences. They note both the security concerns as well as the First Amendment concerns:

The requirement that search engines omit links to rogue sites undercuts the role of search firms as trusted intermediaries in conveying information to users. There are, of course, other circumstances where search engines already omit information and links—for instance, Google routinely screens out child pornography from its search results. But there has never been a government mandate that information be withheld from search results. Imposing such a mandate would represent the first step down a classic slippery slope of government interference that has no clear stopping point.

Arguably, the limits placed on search engines as well as other third parties under SOPA would also violate constitutional protections of freedom of speech. But even if not barred legally, any such restrictions should be imposed only after the most careful consideration, only when absolutely necessary, and even then, to the smallest degree possible.

What's really shocking about this is that the Heritage Foundation has a long, long history of being strongly in favor of more draconian copyright law, and a big supporter of efforts by the RIAA and MPAA to go legal at the drop of a hat over copyright issues:

Unlike some Washington advocacy groups that are predictably anti-copyright, Heritage has historically taken the opposite position. It called the Motion Picture Association of America's decision to sue peer-to-peer pirates a "wise choice," and suggested that disrupting P2P networks to curb piracy, an idea that some politicians actually proposed, is a step "in the right direction."

[....]

Ed Meese, Reagan's attorney general who's now a Heritage fellow, seemed to be channelling an MPAA lobbyist when writing in 2005 that "there is no difference between shoplifting a DVD from a store and illegally downloading a copyrighted movie from Kazaa." Heritage's warnings of international "threats to intellectual property rights" date back to at least 1987. And it scores protection of intellectual property rights in its annual Index of Economic Freedom.

To now have the group go the other way is a huge surprise -- and furthers the rapidly growing momentum against SOPA. It had appeared that much (though certainly not all) of the momentum had been on "the left." But, with recent concerns from DC groups that "the right" tends to follow and respect (including CATO, CEI and now Heritage), it seems like plenty of politicians on both sides of the aisle may be increasingly skeptical of SOPA. It may have the votes to get out of the House Judiciary Committee, but it may be difficult for it to survive a floor vote.

 

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Heritage Foundation Says SOPA Threatens Free Speech | Techdirt


We recently wrote about the somewhat surprising move that The Heritage Foundation had come out against SOPA. This was surprising mainly because the think tank was famous for being very closely aligned with the MPAA on copyright issues in the past -- even to the ridiculous degree of insisting that "there is no difference between shoplifting a DVD from a store and illegally downloading a copyrighted movie from Kazaa." However even an organization that has made that statement in the past recognizes that SOPA/PIPA aren't actually about copyright, but about regulating the internet in dangerous ways.

The think tank has decided to speak out again about how SOPA "threatens free speech." Much of the discussion focuses on the government's totally bungled seizure and censorship of Dajaz1.com. It notes how ridiculously overbroad this kind of censorship is under existing law, and questions why we would want to go down the "slippery slope" of expanding those powers for the government.

Once again, when even the most strident supporters of copyright are recognizing what horrible bills SOPA and PIPA are, it makes you wonder how Congress can continue to move forward with them.

 

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Conservatives lining up in opposition to SOPA

Views on copyright law have never broken down cleanly along ideological or partisan lines, but many of the key supporters for the Stop Online Piracy Act have come from the political right. The legislation is sponsored by Rep. Lamar Smith (R-TX) and it enjoys support from right-leaning, corporate-funded organizations like the Chamber of Commerce and Americans for Tax Reform.

But a growing number of right-leaning individuals and organizations have come out against SOPA. Last Wednesday, the Heritage Foundation, one of the nation's largest and most influential conservative think tanks, published an article by senior research fellow James Gattuso warning about the "unintended consequences" of SOPA. And on Thursday, he was joined in opposing SOPA by Erick Erickson, editor of the popular conservative blog RedState.

In his article, Gattuso noted that SOPA would undermine Internet security by delaying the implementation of DNSSEC and by causing Internet users to use offshore DNS servers to circumvent DNS blocks. He also warned that government regulation of search results would be "the first step down a classic slippery slope of government interference that has no clear stopping point."

Gattuso's stance is notable because Heritage has traditionally supported strong enforcement of copyright law. As former US attorney general Edwin Meese put it in a 2005 article for Heritage, "stealing is stealing, and it must stop."

Gattuso agrees with Meese that the "stealing" needs to stop, but he argues Congress should deal with the problem "in a way that does not disrupt the growth of technology, does not weaken Internet security, and respects free speech rights." And he doesn't think SOPA fits the bill.

Erickson also opposes SOPA, and he is taking a more activist approach to the issue. In a Thursday blog post, he pledged to recruit primary challengers to run against conservatives who support SOPA.

"I love Marsha Blackburn (R-TN). She is a delightful lady and a solidly conservative member of Congress," he wrote. However, because Blackburn is a SOPA cosponsor, Erickson pledged to "do everything in my power to defeat her in her 2012 re-election bid."

Erickson proposed that liberals and conservative SOPA opponents make a pact in which each agrees to support primary challenges against SOPA cosponsors in their own parties.

Erickson and Gattuso are jumping on a bandwagon that has long been occupied by the more libertarian sectors of the American right. GOP presidential candidate Ron Paul came out against SOPA last month, and his libertarian-leaning son, Senator Rand Paul has criticized the Senate version of the legislation. Scholars from libertarian think tanks such as the Cato Institute (where I'm an adjunct scholar), the Competitive Enterprise Institute, and the Mercatus Center have all criticized PIPA and SOPA.

In short, the fight over SOPA is less about left versus right than it is about declining industries—Hollywood and major labels—versus the Internet community. Conservative bloggers like Erickson, Matt Drudge, and Glenn "Instapundit" Reynolds are as offended by the legislation as are their liberal and libertarian counterparts. Conversely, even staunch civil libertarians seem to get confused about copyright issues if they're too closely tied to Hollywood.

Speaking to CNET last week, Rep. Darrell Issa (R-CA) predicted that Republican opposition would help kill SOPA. "I think the Republican House leadership will look and say, 'Unless we have the support of the vast majority of Republicans, we're not going to take the bill to the floor,'" he said.

 

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It's vital to pick TWO pro-SOPA congressional targets, one Dem and one Rep. Otherwise we can kiss credibility goodbye. : politics

This is a more organized plan to go after two select members of congress, in attempt to take their seats away.

Both Corker and Graham are scumbags. They are also both Republicans. It's totally against our message to only pick Republican bill supporters when Democrats voted for it, too. We're trying to say, "No one is safe who supports this kind of legislation." Only attacking Republicans, no matter how dirty they are, will muddle our message with partisan politics. It's not realistic to attack everyone who supported SOPA and support everyone who didn't. Reddit still needs to focus it's resources on the minimum number of congresspeople. So let's vote for two and get the party started!

EDIT: Here's a possible subreddit for voting on two potential targets:

pick two bad congresspeople: one red (R), one blue (D).

Anyone with superior reddit-ing skills please fix the subreddit, PM me, or make your own!

 

[uscitizen]

Boycott the Godaddy NASCAR car.

 

[nitroz]

Boycott the Godaddy NASCAR car.

Today is leave GoDaddy day. (even though they have lost THOUSANDS of domains allready)

 

[Douger]

The first Nazi that showed up at my door with a subpoena would get a 00 buck blast to the throat.
Just another one of the reasons I left east murka. I like freedom, as opposed to, FreeDumb

 

[nitroz]

The first Nazi that showed up at my door with a subpoena would get a 00 buck blast to the throat.
Just another one of the reasons I left east murka. I like freedom, as opposed to, FreeDumb

but they would have a warrant for your arrest as a felon.

 

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SOPA opponents may go nuclear and other 2012 predictions | Privacy Inc. - CNET News

It was Google co-founder Sergey Brin who warned that the Stop Online Piracy Act and the Protect IP Act "would put us on a par with the most oppressive nations in the world." Craigslist founder Craig Newmark, Twitter co-founders Jack Dorsey and Biz Stone, and LinkedIn co-founder Reid Hoffman argue that the bills give the Feds unacceptable "power to censor the Web."

But these companies have yet to roll out the heavy artillery.

When the home pages of Google.com, Amazon.com, Facebook.com, and their Internet allies simultaneously turn black with anti-censorship warnings that ask users to contact politicians about a vote in the U.S. Congress the next day on SOPA, you'll know they're finally serious.

True, it would be the political equivalent of a nuclear option--possibly drawing retributions from the the influential politicos backing SOPA and Protect IP--but one that could nevertheless be launched in 2012.

"There have been some serious discussions about that," says Markham Erickson, who heads the NetCoalition trade association that counts Google, Amazon.com, eBay, and Yahoo as members. "It has never happened before." (See CNET's SOPA FAQ.)

Web firms may be outspent tenfold on lobbyists, but they enjoy one tremendous advantage over the SOPA-backing Hollywood studios and record labels: direct relationships with users.

How many Americans feel a personal connection with an amalgamation named Viacom -- compared with voters who have found places to live on Craigslist and jobs (or spouses) on Facebook and Twitter? How would, say, Sony Music Entertainment, one of the Recording Industry Association of America's board members, cheaply and easily reach out to hundreds of millions of people?

Protect IP and SOPA, of course, represent the latest effort from the Motion Picture Association of America, the RIAA, and their allies to counter what they view as rampant piracy on the Internet, especially offshore sites such as ThePirateBay.org. It would allow the Justice Department to obtain an order to be served on search engines, Internet providers, and other companies forcing them to make a suspected piratical Web site effectively vanish, a kind of Internet death penalty.

There are early signs that the nuclear option is being contemplated. Wikimedia (as in Wikipedia) called SOPA an "Internet Blacklist Bill." Wikipedia co-founder Jimmy Wales has proposed an article page blackout as a way to put "maximum pressure on the U.S. government" in response to SOPA.

The Tumblr microblogging site generated 87,834 calls to Congress over SOPA. Over at GoDaddyBoycott.org, a move-your-domain-name protest is scheduled to begin today over the registrar's previous--and still not repudiated--enthusiasm for SOPA. Popular image hosting site Imgur said yesterday it would join the exodus too.

Technically speaking, it wouldn't be difficult to pull off. Web companies already target advertisements based on city or ZIP code.

And it would be effective. A note popping up on the screens of people living in the mostly rural Texas district of SOPA author Lamar Smith, Hollywood's favorite Republican, asking them to call or write and voice their displeasure, would be noticed. If Tumblr could generate nearly 90,000 calls on its own, think of what companies with hundreds of millions of users could do.

If these Web companies believe what their executives say (PDF) about SOPA and Protect IP, they'll let their users know what their elected representatives are contemplating. A Senate floor debate scheduled for January 24, 2012 would be an obvious starting point.

"The reason it hasn't happened is because of the sensitivity," says Erickson, "even when it's a policy issue that benefits their users." He adds: It may happen."

Or it may not. It would change politics if it did.

Other predictions for 2012:

Privacy from above

A few years ago, it would have been something that only the military could afford, but for $300 or so, you can buy Parrot's remarkable AR.Drone quadricopter. In addition to being a technological tour de force that will enrapture any child, it's an iPhone-controlled spy cam and capable airborne surveillance platform.

Which means it and similar aircraft are capable of invading privacy in novel ways -- don't be surprised if the Ed Markey set concocts proposals to somehow regulate or license them. On the other hand, they also offer novel ways to advance government and police accountability.

Journalists and activists are already starting to do just that. The Sea Shepherd Conservation Society is taking footage of Japan's whaling fleet; Occupy Wall Street has its "occucopter"; CNN has shot aerial footage with a drone. Your 12-year old neighbor won't be far behind.

Obama fails privacy test

In 2011, the surveillance enthusiasts at the U.S. Department of Justice firmly opposed a proposal from Internet companies and civil liberties groups to enhance the privacy of anyone who owns a mobile device or uses Web-based email. (Cloud computing users currently are second-class citizens: they have more privacy if they store documents on their own hard drive at home.)

The Justice Department's announcement might come as a surprise to anyone who voted for candidate Obama based on his campaign promises at the time. He told CNET in 2008 that: "I will work with leading legislators, privacy advocates, and business leaders to strengthen both voluntary and legally required privacy protections."

Which has yet to happen. If pro-privacy legislation introduced this summer advances, Obama will get to choose between honoring his civil liberties pledge or siding with the surveillance-industrial complex. Given his poor record in this area so far, this is one privacy test he's likely to fail.

Antitrust on the rise

It tends to be far cheaper to pay lobbyists to cripple your rival than compete in the marketplace. A decade ago, Sun, Oracle, and Netscape teamed up to convince the solons at the U.S. Justice Department that arch-enemy Microsoft needed to be lopped off at the knees.

Now Google is a primary target, and Microsoft and its allies are the ones lobbying for some impromptu axe-wielding. The latest round came this week when the Wall Street Journal reported: "Competitors say Google is abusing its power in Web search to gain sway over the $110 billion online travel business."

There's no evidence that Google's Flight Search is harming consumers, which is supposed to be the modern requirement for an antitrust violation. Or that Facebook Credits somehow violates antitrust law, which some activists have claimed. But because bureaucrats build careers on high-profile prosecutions, don't expect that to stop the antitrust aficionados in the U.S. government in 2012.

Anonymous takes on politicians

If 2011 was the Year of the Hackers, 2012 may be the Year the Hackers Upset the Political Establishment.

Anonymous has taken aim, with various degrees of success, at targets including Sony, police, and the San Francisco-area subway system.

The obvious 2012 election-year target: politicians, especially ones supporting SOPA. Sarah Palin's e-mail was hacked in 2008, revealing nothing especially interesting, but the Twitter account of threesome-loving ex-congressman Anthony Weiner proved to be an entertaining read. A recent Reddit thread says it's time to "destroy" a pro-SOPA politician, and suggestions of dubious legality are already surfacing.

 

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THE MANHUNT HAS BEGUN!

SOPA Supporter Paul Ryan (R-WI) On Track to Be First Politician Brought Down by Reddit | Betabeat — News, gossip and intel from Silicon Alley 2.0.

Alternate headline: Paul Ryan Opponent Rob Zerban On Track to Be the First Politician Elected by Reddit.

For days, Reddit has been dominated by stories about SOPA, GoDaddy and the Congress members who are pushing the DMCA-supplanting bill forward. After a successful boycott of GoDaddy, which allegedly helped write SOPA, Redditors turned their sights on the politicians supporting the bill. ” As one Redditor wrote in a wildly popular post: “Let’s pick ONE Senator of voted for NDAA/SOPA and destroy him like we’re doing for GoDaddy. Relentlessly investigate and find skeletons in his closet, money bomb is [sic] opponents, etc. It [sic] we could unseat someone and destroy their career it would have massive repercussions.”

SOPA supporter Mr. Ryan has a 54 percent favorable rating with his constituents, but polls suggest challenger Mr. Zerban has a chance. The Reddit community rallied around Mr. Zerban. Members of the subreddit OperationPullRyan (1,554 subscribers) encouraged Mr. Zerban to show up for an “Ask Me Anything (AMA)”. He did so yesterday; the thread racked up 1,874 comments. (Betabeat emailed Mr. Zerban to see if he’s had a corresponding bump in donations; we’ll update if we hear back.)

Mr. Zerban’s answers were thorough and thoughtful. In a typical exchange:

5) Is waterboarding torture? Do you support enhanced interrogation?

Yes it is torture. No, I do not.

6) What is your stance on Afghanistan? Should the US keep a presence there? Iraq?

We need to get out.

7) Should marijuana be decriminalized?

Yes.

8) Have democrats of the last 10 years been insufferably feeble? Agree or disagree.

I see what you did there ಠ_ಠ . I believe each individual should be judged on their own record.

9) Do you have cats? Do you have pictures of cats? Those usually go over well here.

Sorry, no cats. I do have two dogs: Barley & Hops

Redditors bemoaned the candidates lack of cats (he’s allergic). But otherwise the aspiring Congressman seemed to pass Reddit muster. His most important qualification: opposition of SOPA.

Mr. Zerban’s stance on SOPA:

SOPA is a complex issue but here is how I approach it- the first thing to remember is that our free speech is our most fundamental right as Americans and this is critical to our society and economy. It is also critical to innovation and this process of free speech, which we are doing right now on reddit, is what enables us to share and develop the ideas that impact the world.

We need to preserve the free nature of the internet. I believe that more and more people are going to pay for content they enjoy to be able to use on many devices and in different formats, and the benefit to a company of brand growth, new fans, and advertising, can be a great benefit. Companies need to start thinking outside of the box and leveraging the exposure to greater benefit.

There are many online companies that oppose SOPA including Google, Facebook, Twitter, Zynga, eBay, Mozilla, Yahoo, AOL, and LinkedIn. These companies wrote a letter to key members of the U.S. Senate and House of Representatives, saying SOPA poses “a serious risk to our industry’s continued track record of innovation and job creation, as well as to our nation’s cybersecurity.” I think where it goes too far is that it allows unilateral measures to revoke IP addresses or domain names. In short, I recognize the need for content providers to be able to profit and benefit from their work but there needs to be a middle ground approach to this issue.

 

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Reddit Users Set Their Sights on Pro-SOPA Candidates

Members of the Reddit community have launched a digital grassroots campaign against pro-SOPA (Stop Online Piracy Act) politicians.

Redditors began the campaign Wednesday with a post asking fellow Redditors for suggestions on a politician to target. The original poster, Reddit user “digitalboy,” was inspired by the social news site’s community effort to boycott GoDaddy over their support for SOPA.

The original mission statement was to find “one senator” who voted for SOPA or the NDAA (National Defense Authorization Act) and “destroy him.”

Digitalboy’s post left it up to responders to decide the target of Reddit’s wrath. In a few hours, the community decided on South Carolina Republican Senator Lindsey Graham. A “subreddit” named “Operation Graham Cracker” was opened by Reddit user “spez.” There, participants posted material showing Graham’s support for positions unpopular in the Reddit community, which favors free speech and an open Internet.

Some Redditors expressed concern over the mission of the campaign. “Redblender” asked, “What’s the objective here? To stop SOPA/NDAA? Or to destroy someone?” The front page for the Operation Graham Cracker subreddit now states that the goal is to “show that legislation like SOPA and PIPA, as well as the indefinite detention sections of the NDAA are unacceptable, and that there is career blowback for supporting such legislation.”

According to the organizers, this will be achieved through the following methods:

“Cause the electorate (voters of target district) to become completely disillusioned with the idea of voting for the candidate.”
“Destabilize candidate’s office through legal, peaceful disturbance and investigation.”
“Send a clear message to all of the body politic that the internet is a force for good that should be reckoned with.”

Even with this outline, the campaign’s target sparked fresh debates. Many Redditors, including “FM7-8,” expressed the desire for a non-partisan effort targeting pro-SOPA Democrats and Republicans alike. Soon after the “Graham Cracker” subreddit opened, the community realized that Senator Graham is not up for re-election in 2012. The Redditors decided they would change targets.

A dialogue opened to discuss and debate alternatives, and Redditors chose Wisconsin Republican Congressman Paul Ryan.

A new subreddit opened named “Operation Pull Ryan.” Redditor “joshawesome” registered pullryan.com. The subreddit has become a source for data about Ryan’s legislative record and contact information for his offices and social media accounts. Facebook and Twitter pages for Operation Pull Ryan have also been established. One Redditor, “Niehaus,” reached out to an opponent of Ryan to get his stance on SOPA, and a screenshot of the response was posted in the subreddit.

Redditors are currently debating the most effective ways to have an impact on Ryan’s next election, being held Nov. 6, 2012.

Will the Reddit community’s methods be an effective way to influence next year’s elections? Let us know what you think in the comments below.

 

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Reddit Forces Paul Ryan to Play Defense on SOPA - Politics - The Atlantic Wire

Link-sharing Website Reddit forced Congressman Paul Ryan to defend his position on the controversial Stop Online Piracy Act Thursday after the Internet hive-mind pledged its support for his opponent, Democrat Rob Zerban, a harsh critic of the anti-piracy legislation.

"Contrary to false reports, Congressman Paul Ryan is not a cosponsor of H.R. 3261, the Stop Online Piracy Act," said Ryan press secretary Kevin Seifert in a statement. The wrath of Reddit, which was recently tested in a successful boycot of domain registrar Go Daddy for supporting the same legislation, is proving to be more fearsome than one might expect from a website that also trades in kitten photos and WTF ephemera. This week, Reddit's increasingly ambitious users aimed to unseat a member of Congress who supports SOPA, pointing its attention toward Ryan. “Let’s pick ONE Senator of voted for NDAA/SOPA and destroy him like we’re doing for GoDaddy," said one user. As a result, Reddit users began coordinating opposition research campaigns against Ryan and support for his opponent via a money bomb and widely-popular Q&A session.

Today, in an effort to clarify his boss's position, Ryan's flak did not say the congressman opposes SOPA, a law that gives the federal government expanded powers to order American Internet companies to sever ties with foreign domains that offer copyrighted content such as music and films. "He remains committed to advancing policies that protect free speech and foster innovation online and will continue to follow the House Judiciary Committee's deliberations on this issue carefully," said Ryan's spokesman.

So why are Redditors after him? It's possible they were misled by this letter to a constituent mislabeled by someone unaffiliated with Ryan's campaign "Paul Ryan Supports SOPA," which merely notifies a constituent that Ryan is looking into the issue—not that he supports the bill. As the New York Observer's Adrianne Jeffries points out, the SOPA Track website says Ryan has not taken any money from "big media" donors who support SOPA. Still, the SOPA Track file appears to be an incomplete log of the financing by SOPA-supporting organizations.

According to Center for Responsive Politics, Ryan has received $288,600 from groups that support SOPA and $39,950 from groups who oppose the legislation. Obviously, it's fair to question Ryan on his position on this high profile issue. Ryan does, however, seem to be an odd target for Reddit in this case given that other members of Congress have openly supported the bill and the fact that the bill has been shelved until January 2012. Perhaps Reddit activists should wait until Ryan has made up his mind about the bill to go all knives out on the guy?

 

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SOPA Debate Highlights Congress's Ignorance - Miller-McCune


When members of Congress earlier this month considered the Stop Online Piracy Act — better known to anyone who actually hangs out on the Internet as #SOPA — the most notable feature of the debate turned out to be the sheer ignorance of the elected officials discussing it. One after the other, members of the U.S. House of Representatives professed — nay, bragged about — approaching this weighty legislation from the vantage point of someone who is not “a nerd” or a “tech expert.”

Nerds and tech experts, and plenty of savvy Internet users who don’t consider themselves either of these things, cringed in unison. They retaliated with an Internet meme, of course, an open digital letter informing Congress that it is finally “No Longer OK To Not Know How The Internet Works.”

The episode — and the backlash it engendered — raised serious questions about how much personal expertise is required of elected officials with the power to regulate technical niches, from stem cell research to Internet commerce. But, perhaps more importantly, it raised this question: Where do members of Congress get their expertise? They don’t all arrive in town as born experts on medical cost curves and equity derivatives.

“If the pharmaceutical industry, for instance, chose to ignore Washington,” said Clay Johnson, who works on just this question as the director of engagement at Expert Labs, “then we’d be having hearings about biopharm drugs or hearings about the FDA where you’d hear members of Congress saying, ‘I’m not a biologist, but…’ or ‘I’m not a bio-scientist, but…’”

This doesn’t generally happen, though.

“If you look at just about any other industry,” he went on, “you see members of Congress very well versed in biotechnology and pharmaceuticals. And that’s because there’s a lobbyist there who’s constantly telling them what it is that they want.”

The tech world, Johnson argues, doesn’t do this very well. Congress could be more educated about the Internet and technology. But he turns this problem on the people who’ve been complaining about it: if your member of Congress doesn’t know how the Internet works (or why SOPA would in fact harm its basic architecture), that means no one with a vested interest in its regulation has turned up in Washington to try and explain it to him or her. Yes, like some septuagenarians elsewhere, many 70-year-olds in Congress don’t get technology. But techies don’t get Congress very well, either.
Idea Lobby

THE IDEA LOBBY
Miller-McCune's Washington correspondent Emily Badger follows the ideas informing, explaining and influencing government, from the local think tank circuit to academic research that shapes D.C. policy from afar.

Johnson writes about this challenge in his new book The Information Diet. The most dangerous special interest in Washington, he argues, is the electorate that’s completely disconnected from the levers of power in the capital. Activists and voters tend to write off their representatives as cloistered sell-outs who only listen to lobbyists with the largest checkbooks. But in their cynicism, they decline to engage representatives themselves — and this of course only leaves more empty scheduling time and attention bandwidth for lobbyists to fill.

“To date,” Johnson said, “I’ve never heard a congressional scheduler say, ‘Oh gosh, my congressman is so busy meeting with constituents here in Washington, D.C.’”

People who care about tech issues and Internet regulation need to become essentially special interests themselves (by which Johnson doesn’t mean caricatures of shady back-room lobbyists, but rather active constituents lobbying their cases on issues like SOPA).

The tech community’s libertarian roots have generally kept the industry far from Washington, as has the long-held belief that good technology can always innovate its way around government regulation. But that time is over. There’s just too much commerce taking place on the Internet now. The Internet has become too important to escape Washington’s intervention.

“This is the point where it’s time for the tech community to understand that they have to participate,” Johnson said. “And by participate, I mean meeting with a member of Congress, calling a member of Congress on the phone. It means wearing a suit and tie and looking like a professional, not showing up in a hoodie, and blue jeans and flip-flops in the halls of Congress. And it means running for office, too.”

It also means recognizing that automated form letters aren’t an effective means of advocacy in Washington.

All of this is terribly important, Johnson believes, because the disconnect between technology and government is becoming one of the most important problems the country faces (right up there, he says, with health care and climate change). The definition of literacy is evolving. Eventually, people who say, “I’m not a computer person” will be as disconnected from society as someone who says today, “I don’t know how to read.” And we can’t afford for those people to be elected officials and government employees charged with regulating technology.

Techies often talk about a concept called Moore’s law, a rule-of-thumb about computer chips that in essence says that technology becomes half as expensive and twice as fast, every 18 months. In applying this idea, Johnson makes his own prediction that you could walk into any government office and see two computers on every desk: one, about a decade old, that’s assigned to the government employee, and another one, much newer, that the employee brings in from home to actually do her job.

“Those two computers are an example of government being disconnected from Moore’s law, while the rest of society is connected to Moore’s law,” Johnson said. “As technology advances, you’ll see that gap between those two computers get further and further apart. And if government can’t acquire and use technology to the fullest extent, how is government going to regulate and understand technology? We’re looking at a future where we may all be in flying cars, but our government employees are driving around in Buicks.”

 

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Nintendo, EA, Sony Pull SOPA Support - Platform Nation


I honestly don’t see how even the notion of passing SOPA is still around. It seems to be that when something is technology-related and Google thinks it’s a bad idea, you should listen. I’m not saying Google should be the grand arbiter in every facet of your everyday life, but SOPA and PIPA have been a classic case of the informed versus the empowered.

Just read this letter from the Internet’s top engineers and try to tell me there’s any good reason for SOPA to pass.

It seems, though, that more and more are becoming informed. The Business Software Alliance, a trade group representing software makers like Apple and Microsoft, pulled their support last month (while still commending the idea of the bill) and now Nintendo, Electronic Arts, and Sony Electronics have also backed out.

As Joystiq points out, though, Sony/ATV Music Publishing, Sony Music Entertainment, and Sony Music Nashville still show up on the list of supporters. If you’re still unsure about SOPA, look at the list of those in favor and those against and decide if you’d rather be on the side of the MPAA, RIAA, and L’Orèal or the side of Facebook, Twitter, and the EFF.

This impending blackout should frighten everyone a bit, so contact your local representative. It’s not too late!

 

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Go Daddy has been hurt so much for supporting SOPA that it has "offically" become an "opposer" of SOPA.

But I don't care because they had EVERY INTENTION to pass that law just to help their blind greed. I hope they go bankrupt.

GoDaddy backpedals some more: now officially opposes SOPA

The GoDaddy vs. The Web saga has come to a head. After a Reddit boycott went viral and the domain registration site earned the ire of the Internet, GoDaddy has officially switched its stance, claiming it opposes SOPA.

Originally, the hosting and domain name service endorsed the new Internet regulations in the interest of fighting Web piracy. Unfortunately the Website’s users didn’t share the sentiment. Their content would suffer at the hands of this legislation, which takes generous liberties redefining pirated material.

To put out this original fire, GoDaddy changed its position on SOPA, claiming that it had no position on the bill. Apparently, that wasn’t good enough and thousands of users took their business elsewhere. Now in an effort to truly extinguish the mounting bad press, the company says it has joined the hoard of other Web-based companies (including the likes of Facebook, Tumblr, and Wikipedia) as anti-SOPA.

“GoDaddy opposes SOPA because the legislation has not fulfilled its basic requirement to build a consensus among stake-holders in the technology and Internet communities,” CEO Warren Adelman said in a statement yesterday. “Our company regrets the loss of any of our customers who remain our highest priority, and we hope to repair those relationships and win back their business over time.” You’ll even be greeted by the message below when you try to move your domains.

domain transfer

GoDaddy admitted to a spike in domain transfers, which piled up over the course of the week. Will this mea culpa be enough to slow down the mutiny? The general consensus surrounding the boycott was that this was the straw that broke the camel’s back, and that users were anything but devoted prior to the site’s pro-SOPA stance.

The episode is reminiscent of Netflix, with the exception that Netflix has been a generally well-regarded company. GoDaddy, on the other hand, is linked to sleazy ads and elephant hunting. And competitor services quickly jumped at this opportunity, offering discounts in honor of “Dump GoDaddy Day” as well as donations to the Electronic Frontier Foundation for transferred accounts.

While the Internet never forgets, GoDaddy is likely to recover. Like we said, it’s not as if the company has been a saint all along, and there are plenty of users who only care about affordability. Still, it’s reputation has taken another beating, and GoDaddy has been thoroughly warned that it can’t act against its account holders’ interests.

 

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Why GoDaddy Hasn't Earned My Forgiveness | PCWorld Business Center

GoDaddy has publicly flip-flopped to opposing the SOPA legislation in the wake of a boycott effort that saw thousands of domains transferred away from the registrar in retaliation for its support. Now that GoDaddy switched sides, it seems reasonable to put things in the past and return to business as usual, but there is still something bugging me about the GoDaddy situation.
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Todd Wasserman wrote an article on Mashable saying it’s time to give GoDaddy a break. Wasserman says, “Now that Go Daddy has unequivocally opposed SOPA, haters are still up in arms because the company seems to have only done it because its business was at risk. Wasn’t this the point?”

[Click to enlarge] SOPA website messageIt's nice that GoDaddy flip-flopped, but the fact is that it originally supported SOPA -- and that is unforgivable.Wasserman is right. The whole point of the boycott effort was to exert pressure on GoDaddy by impacting its bottom line and forcing it to shift its position on the SOPA legislation. Mission accomplished.

It doesn’t seem fair to get angry at GoDaddy for supporting SOPA, and then continue the backlash even after it has switched to opposing it. But, if you stop and consider the fact that GoDaddy was supporting the legislation in the first place, there is reason to be upset still.

What is disturbing is that GoDaddy supported it in the first place -- and that had there not been a consumer backlash that materially impacted its bottom line -- the domain registrar would be happy to infringe on the civil liberties of its customers. There are two serious concerns I have with the fact that GoDaddy backed SOPA.

First, why? I understand why the RIAA, MPAA, Nintendo, EA, and others in the entertainment content industry would love to wield draconian power to shut down sites at will without any actual cause or justification, but what does GoDaddy have to gain? As evidenced by a blog post from David Rusenko, one of the co-founders of Weebly.com, GoDaddy is already shutting down domains on a whim even without the SOPA legislation.

Second, The right thing is the right thing, and integrity is doing the right thing even when you think nobody is watching. Reversing course and opposing SOPA in response to a boycott is not the same thing as having never supported it.

It reminds me of when I go shopping for a car and a salesman tells me, “This is absolutely the best deal I can give you…but if you get a better deal somewhere else, let me know and I’ll beat it.”

Um, no. If I find a dealership willing to make me a better deal, I am going to do business with that dealership. Why would I come back and do business with you, if you’re only willing to give me the best possible deal under duress?

What GoDaddy did was support a bill that violates civil liberties and threatens the future of he Internet as we know it -- the Internet that GoDaddy relies on for revenue. Supporting the bill demonstrates a major lack of understanding of how the Internet works, and a serious disregard for customers.

I’m sorry if I am not impressed that GoDaddy dropped its support for SOPA under duress. I’d rather do business with a domain registrar that didn’t have the audacity (stupidity) to support SOPA in the first place.

As a final side note, though, I don’t agree with singling out GoDaddy. Every company that had a part in creating or backing this ridiculous legislation, and the politicians that are pandering to lobbyists by pushing it forward should all be held accountable.

And, any organization or individual that flip-flops should be praised, but that praise should come with a healthy dose of skepticism because they aren’t acting out of integrity – they’re acting out of self-defense. There is no guarantee they won’t also support the next Internet-crushing legislation that comes along if they think they can do it under the radar without facing the backlash.

 

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Breaking: Namecheap to Double Donation to EFF if 25,000 Transfers Are Made Today | Elliot's Blog

I just posted an article about the success of Namecheap’s Move Your Domain Day, announcing that as of 1:30pm EST, over 10,500 domain name transfers were initiated to the company. As of this update, the number of transfers is now well over 11,000, and I just received some news from Namecheap CEO Rick Kirkendall.

According to Kirkendall, “We are ecstatic at the response we have received from the internet community. The internet is speaking and we’re proud to facilitate that and at the same time help a wonderful organization such as EFF in their fight against SOPA. That being said, if we hit 25k transfers today, we’ll double our donation to EFF.”

The company has now pledged to donate $50,000+ to the Electronic Frontier Foundation if they receive 25,000 or more domain transfers today. Broken down, the company will donate $2.00 per domain transfer if over 25,000 transfers are made before the end of the day today using transfer code SOPASucks.

As I predicted before, I think they will do it. Spread the news. EFF needs the financial support.

 

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Hackers Said to be Planning to Launch Own Satellites to Combat Censorship | PCWorld

Hackers reportedly plan to fight back against Internet censorship by putting their own communications satellites into orbit and developing a grid of ground stations to track and communicate with them.

The news comes as the tech world is up in arms about proposed legislation that many feel would threaten online freedom.

According to BBC News, the satellite plan was recently outlined at the Chaos Communication Congress in Berlin. It's being called the "Hackerspace Global Grid."

If you don't like the idea of hackers being able to communicate better, hacker activist Nick Farr said knowledge is the only motive of the project, which also includes the development of new electronics that can survive in space, and launch vehicles that can get them there.

Farr and his cohorts are working on the project along with Constellation, a German aerospace research initiative that involves interlinked student projects.

You might think it would be hard for just anybody to put a satellite into space, but hobbyists and amateurs have been able in recent years to use balloons to get them up there. However, without the deep pockets of national agencies or large companies they have a hard time tracking the devices.

To better locate their satellites, the German hacker group came up with the idea of a sort of reverse GPS that uses a distributed network of low-cost ground stations that can be bought or built by individuals.

Supposedly, these stations would be able to pinpoint satellites at any given time while improving the transmission of data from the satellites to Earth.

The plan isn't without limitations.

For one thing, low orbit satellites don't stay in a single place. And any country could go to the trouble of disabling them. At the same time, outer space isn’t actually governed by the countries over which it floats.

The scheme discussed by hackers follows the introduction of the controversial Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA) in the United States, which many believe to be a threat to online freedom.

As PC World's Tony Bradley put it, the bill is a combination of an overzealous drive to fight Internet piracy, with elected representatives who don't know the difference between DNS, IM, and MP3. In short, SOPA is a "draconian legislation that far exceeds its intended scope, and threatens the Constitutional rights of law abiding citizens," he wrote.