> In other words, they did the exact opposite of what the SOPA experience told them they should do.<p>No, from a strategic point of view, they did exactly what the SOPA experience told them they should do. Which is that if a generous contributor wants a possibly controversial bill passed, it has to be done as quickly and as quietly as possible. Or at least quickly enough to leave no time for an opposition movement to gather some serious momentum.
It's time the tech industry got proactive in stopping this.<p>If there was a campaign for statutory licensing for streaming videos (in the same way there are statutory licenses for streaming music) then the MPAA would be forced to play defence instead of constant attack.<p>Remember when SOPA occurred the biggest problem in Washington was that the tech lobby had <i>no counter proposal</i>. It's time to fix that.
Let's think about something for second: The MPAA was originally started way back when in response to threats from Washington about wanting to regulate motion picture content.<p>The intent of the MPAA film ratings system is to be <i>self-policing</i> on the industry the group lobbies for. Obviously time and modernity has seen their raison d'être evolve into something even more self-interested and defensive than for visible public benefit, but why can't Google, Wikipedia et al do something similar?<p>I'm thinking of like campaigns designed to educate people about not just CC, GPL, but all kinds of copyright, attribution norms, and what not.<p>And yeah, Google and the rest should probably include some stuff that is just obviously flagrant piracy in things like Panda updates, filtering mechanisms, etc without being asked. (gasp, horror of horrors, I know)<p>They should NEVER be forced to, but they should be proactive about it, show that they are, and like the MPAA did once upon a time show Washington, Hollywood, and the rights holders they can police themselves fine without Government intervention.<p>Smith can go away tomorrow. The IP lobby is not. These people are embedded into the U.S. DOJ and elsewhere. It's not going to stop.<p>*edits for punctuation, line breaks
From the other thread: "The bill has been held already after two SOPA opponents-turned-cosponsors of this bill withdrew under fire, led by Ernesto Falcon of Public Knowledge and much of the activist anti-SOPA crowd. Total time since word first broke: ~2 days. These things /can/ move quickly, which is why I'm paying attention to it for the startup community.<p>We're engaging with Rep. Issa and Chaffetz's office to express our continued concerns.<p>Contact Troy Stock at Rep. Chaffetz's office $firstname.$lastname@mail.house.gov<p>I don't have a staff contact yet for Rep. Issa's office, but I'll update when I do.<p>I'll note that the startup community fucked up.<p>We had a decent opportunity to knock out Smith in the primary. We failed to engage. We lost $350k, left it on the table, when a PAC approached local organizers, offered the money if we had been able to identify 15,000 potential Lamar Smith opponents in the district. Campaigning 101.<p>We were raising money for ads, and failed to do this basic foundational work, meaning we failed to get the money, which knocked off at least one major incumbent in Texas that day (Silvestre Reyes).<p>As it is, know how much SOPA was worth? Five percentage points, with Lamar going from 83% in '10 to 77% in '12 during the primary.<p>EDIT: Look for an update today from TechDirt, assuming Masnick can confirm on the record our reports that the bill has been held from further action at this time.<p>EDIT2: Also, the IP Attache bill is apparently near-copies of pages 70-78 of SOPA, though I haven't verified this."
Lamer Smith has probably learned that he can get more money out of RIAA/MPAA by almost succeeding than actually succeeding, but I'm a cynic.<p>I seriously doubt his constituents even know what he's up to.
Going to be blunt. We can't keep this up every time a new bill appears. At some point, we are going to get exhausted and he will win. I think it is us who haven't learned anything. Instead of getting upset, we should be focused on funding his opponent and getting him out of office. He is going to do what he is going to do because his electorate is okay with it.<p>UPVOTE this if you believe in changing things or DON't if you want to whine.