I find the events surrounding these bills really extraordinary. Obviously there are powerful interests on both sides of the bills, but the way the Internet was used to push people into opposition may be the beginning of something new.
Re Politics & the TOS: I'm trying to discuss the mechanics of the way people were rallied, not the validity of their cause - but this is one of those rare occasions where politics may have a direct effect on how we make our living on the web.
Hmm, I'll try to tread lightly on the politics. What Wikipedia and Google have are bully pulpits - lots of users, eyeballs and hangers-on, and bully pulpits are very effective against Bills that have trouble standing up to public scrutiny and are being purposely rammed through a legislative body fast in the hope that nobody will notice.
Google probably could have just tried to fight this with their own lobbyists, and probably did, but in the end they and their allies had to resort to a public appeal.
I expect this to happen more often, but I'm not sure how long it will remain effective before cause fatigue sets in with the public.
Reddit started the idea, pressured some congressmen directly, then cajoled Wikipedia to join in a boycott. G just sort of aligned itself as it got to be a certainty that some sort of uprising was going to happen. I'm expecting some sort of payback from the politicians who clearly had their asses handed to them yesterday. While this was a populist victory, I keep reminding others that it was something of a perfect storm. The issue wasn't really piracy but the 'potential for future censorship' being carried out by those who have already shown their ham-handedness many times over the past few years. Even Grandma knew better than to trust them and I think THAT was the key factor. The other part was that the major players on the other side are all held in contempt by the general public. I mean, really, congressmen, lobbyists, RIAA --you'd have to throw in a few pedos to make it any worse.
>I expect this to happen more often, but I'm not sure how long it will remain effective before cause fatigue sets in with the public
That's just it. If it is overused, it won't be useful.
Maybe someone stateside can help me with this. Was SOPA/PIPA just the result of decisions being made by ill-informed people, or was the whole thing as corrupt as it looked from here?
It smells.
"Why is it that when Republicans and Democrats need to solve the budget and the deficit, there's deadlock, but
when Hollywood lobbyists pay them $94 million dollars to write legislation, people from both sides of the aisle line up to co-sponsor it?"
–Reddit Founder Alexis Ohanian on CNBC
"In short, piracy is certainly one problem in a world filled with problems. But
politicians and journalists seem to have been persuaded to take it largely on faith that it's a uniquely dire and pressing problem that demands dramatic remedies with little time for deliberation. On the data available so far, though, reports of the death of the industry seem much exaggerated." -Cato Institute
http://www.cato-at-liberty.org/internet-regulation-the-economics-of-piracy/
<added>
Our own Government Accountability Office
"
Three widely cited U.S. government estimates of economic losses resulting from counterfeiting
cannot be substantiated due to the absence of underlying studies."
http://www.gao.gov/products/GAO-10-423
>I'm expecting some sort of payback from the politicians who clearly had their asses handed to them yesterday.
Maybe this: http://techland.time.com/2012/01/19/feds-shut-down-megaupload-com-file-sharing-website/
Anonymous returns fire....
http://techcrunch.com/2012/01/19/anonymous-megaupload-department-of-justice/
<added>
Black March:
http://i.imgur.com/0rvY1.jpg
"Protest schemes that don't cost the participants any inconvenience, hardship or money remain the most popular, despite their ineffectiveness." --Snopes
>smells
The reek would drop a hog at 500 yards.
IMO Fox, NBC and ABC TV networks are underreporting everything about SOPA/PIPA and the backlash because they are owned by the very companies that back those bills. The electronic press has been co-opted by their entertainment industry owners. Dangerous.
>I expect this to happen more often, but I'm not sure how long it will remain effective before cause fatigue sets in with the public
Reminds me of a quotation attributed to the Composer Hector Berlioz - "The effectiveness of the Orchestral Bass Drum is in inverse proportion to its use."
>> TV networks are underreporting everything about SOPA/PIPA and the backlash
wheras over here it was for some reason the lead news item that wikipedia were going black for a day, in fact, had wikipedia not joined in, then I suspect only about .1% of brits would have known anything about it.
>had wikipedia not joined in
Over here, reddit had actually brow-beaten individual congressmen into (seemingly) withdrawing support in the days prior to declaring a boycott. It was that individual success that led reddit corporate to officially join in and decide to do the blackout. Then the members started pushing for other allied sites to join and it spread from there. I'm sure there were concurrent movements elsewhere that brought in, say, Lolcats & BoingBoing but I'm not familiar with them. Anyway, even with reddit's limited success, IMO it was Wikipedia that made the first big impression on the general public, then G. Mullenberg added momentum but it was already rolling when he threw in his support. I never saw much mention of WP being involved until well after the fact.
I think that the major difference Wikipedia's involvement made over here is that is gave the dumber ends of the media an easy to grasp handle on the story. Suddenly the story became prime time.
When you have LOLcats against you, you just better fold.
>you just better fold
"Heaven has no rage like love to hatred turned, Nor hell a fury like an interweb without cats."
>cats
This is making the rounds today.
http://imgur.com/NRUa1
http://www.vice.com/en_uk/read/lamar-smith-sopa-copyright-whoops
This puts the numbers in perspective:
http://www.ubergizmo.com/2012/01/sopa-protest-day-the-largest-digital-protest-ever-infographic/