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Can I express shock for a moment: first, Mike Lee voting against the defense appropriation bill, then Jason Chaffetz moving to put this on hold. I'm so used to Utah politicians like Hatch and Bennet that it is incredibly surprising to be proud of my state's representatives for a change.
Just to note that the provision granting immunity to banks who pre-emptively blacklist "illegal" sites also breaks the contract law system...

The next step is will be... robbers are allowed to break into anyone's house and take their money - well as long as the robbers "think" the people are terrorists/counterfeiters/bad-people... (and as long as the robbers are ... cops).

The next step is will be... robbers are allowed to break into anyone's house and take their money - well as long as the robbers "think" the people are terrorists/counterfeiters/bad-people... (and as long as the robbers are ... cops).

Uh, that was the previous step: https://www.google.com/search?q=asset+forfeiture

Correct... I just couldn't think of any further next-next steps...
Reading this, it's tempting to think that if one wants to stop a piece of internet regulatory legislation, one need only play the "internet security" card:

"It will make the country vulnerable to 'cyber attacks'."

And suddenly the bill has insurmountable opposition.

Perhaps the DNSSEC snake oil salesmen will make an appearance.

It's the highly promoted use of constant DNS lookups (ICANN business model) that creates the insecurity in the first place. Promote a problem and then sell a solution for it. Brilliant.

I'm no expert, but this really sucks that we've reached this point. Can we just come up with a better bill? Why does it have to be this one that every media corp wants to go through.
We don't need a better bill. There's no reason to create any new internet piracy bill. We already have a copyright act, and the DMCA, and international treaties on intellectual property rights.

SOPA doesn't make anything that isn't already illegal illegal. It just creates new ways to shut down anyone the film and music industries want to shut down, without even having to prove infringement. It has no public support because it's a ridiculous, unneeded proposal.

SOPA should simply be voted down and the congress should move on to some real business, not creating new laws at the behest of their campaign contributors.

Thank you so much for clearing that up with me. I do agree with corporations having the copyright act and the DMCA to protect their intellectual property rights.
Delayed... till Wednesday.

I can hear the glass that was the internet shattering from the future.

Mike Masnick: 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.techdirt.com/articles/20111216/11102617108/sopa-m...

I'm actually trying to get a Congressional Gallery pass for Wednesday, to see the session in person.

Although it looks like if I do, I can't live-blog/tweet it, as you can't bring anything electronic into the gallery. That makes watching it on CSPAN a little more appealing.

even if the security claims are "overstated," that's about the only argument that congressmen have paid attention to. If I was a congressman who only worried about getting re-elected, I certainly wouldn't want to be known as one of the men who "voted to censor the internet" by my opponents next election.
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Did Congress just realize they could manufacture a few extra days for the media companies to bump up their contributions?
Or not http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20111216/11102617108/sopa-m... "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."