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Stop more than SOPA, demand INTERNET FREEDOM bills

11 points by Joakal ↗ HN
It's simple. Demand the complete opposite. Demand SOPA to be replaced with INTERNET FREEDOM related bills.

Stopping SOPA is delaying the inevitable; they'll keep doing it until there's protest fatigue and it'll be easier to make compromises that will still lead to less internet freedom (SOPA Lite)[0]. Especially when they'll keep presenting such bills to less internet freedom.

[0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Door-in-the-face_technique

3 comments

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nextparadigms
Yes, this is exactly what I was thinking, too. Stopping SOPA will only be temporary. They will remake the bill and try again either by end of this Congress or with the next one. There need to be some definite laws that protect the Internet - without compromise. And these laws should stop any SOPA-like law dead in its tracks.
Joakal
Here's a list of past attempts to control the internet:

The Commercial Felony Streaming Act. Makes illegal streaming a felony recently: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bill_S.978

Combating Online Infringement and Counterfeits Act. It's an attempt to confiscate domain names legally. Now re-entered as PROTECT-IP: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Combating_Online_Infringement_...

Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement. Not a bill but an international discussion behind closed doors rumoured to get foreign governments to adopt three strikes, etc. USA says details can't be released due to 'national security reasons': https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anti-Counterfeiting_Trade_Agre...

DMCA. There's no protection for people who wish to share music freely as civil judges ask "How much damages did you suffer when <abusive company> took your free music down?" and many USA attorneys refuse to touch DMCA abuses: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Digital_Millennium_Copyright_A...

There's still more.

tobylane
Who will lobby for it? No company cares anywhere near as much as Disney, the music labels and so on. Even if a clever, up to date congressman did get a sensible bill written, it'd be completely weakened by the time the others were done with it, before it was law.