Always strive to learn something useful. --Sophocles

SOPA died when the House said they weren't going to hear it, and Sen. Reid said he won't be advancing PIPA, so maybe the blackout was effective. They seem to have listened to the people saying that the DNS filtering that they wanted to implement was both ineffective and would pretty much break the internet, but that doesn't mean they won't try something else.

Wil Weaton had an excellent writeup about this on his blog. Apparently Hollywood gave Congress as a whole $94 MILLION dollars. That's a lot of influence peddling. I think it guarantees that this legislation will be back in some form or another, some people think that they will try to sneak it through on a piece of "must pass" legislation that doesn't receive much attention that they can pass in the middle of the night. Since there is very little accountability to our elected officials, I can see this happening.

http://www.wired.com/threatlevel/2012/01/pipa-vote-delayed/


Now here's a bit of fun: former Senator Chris Dodd went on Fox New and said basically that these Congresscritters had been bought and they should toe the line. So a petition was started on the White House web site through their We The People system stating the following:

"Investigate Chris Dodd and the MPAA for bribery after he publicly admited to bribing politicans to pass legislation.

Recently on FOX News former Senator Chris Dodd said (as quoted on news site TechDirt), "Those who count on quote 'Hollywood' for support need to understand that this industry is watching very carefully who's going to stand up for them when their job is at stake. Don't ask me to write a check for you when you think your job is at risk and then don't pay any attention to me when my job is at stake," This is an open admission of bribery and a threat designed to provoke a specific policy goal. This is a brazen flouting of the "above the law" status people of Dodd's position and wealth enjoy.

We demand justice. Investigate this blatant bribery and indict every person, especially government officials and lawmakers, who is involved."

The petition needed to get 25,000 signatures by February 20 to be acted on. It got them in two days. So we'll see if the DOJ actually investigates this and if anything comes of it, and it will be interesting to see who in the DOJ starts sweating: there are a number of former MPAA/RIAA/Hollywood lawyers now working for the Feds in DC.

https://wwws.whitehouse.gov/petitions/!/petition/investigate-chris-dodd-and-mpaa-bribery-after-he-publicly-admited-bribing-politicans-pass/DffX0YQv?utm_source=wh.gov&utm_medium=shorturl&utm_campaign=shorturl

http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20120120/14472117492/mpaa-directly-publicly-threatens-politicians-who-arent-corrupt-enough-to-stay-bought.shtml#comments

http://politics.slashdot.org/story/12/01/22/1945243/white-house-petition-to-investigate-dodd-for-bribery

Senator Wyden (D/OR) is filing FOIA requests to get explanations from DHS/ICE on SOPA domain seizures. Specifically cited in the article is a domain, www.dajas1.com, which reviews hip hop music. The RIAA accused them of allowing downloads of pre-release music, when most of those pre-release tracks were provided by music industry executives. It's possible that some of the music was infringing, but it's definite that a lot of it was not. Wyden's issue is that the owner of a seized domain has the right to contest the seizure, but the court records were sealed and inaccessible to dajas1's owner and attorneys. It was finally returned to the owner last week, the Justice Department saying "the government concluded that the appropriate and just result was to decline to pursue judicial forfeiture."

Go Ron! I wish I lived in Oregon so I could vote for him.

http://www.wired.com/threatlevel/2011/12/wyden-domain-seizure/


Two Congressional aides who worked on creating the SOPA legislation, have left Congress to work as lobbyists for the ??AA. "According to Politico, 'A pair of senior Hill aides at the center of a brewing battle between Hollywood and Silicon Valley are packing their bags for K Street, where they’ll work for two of the entertainment lobby shops trying to influence their former colleagues in Congress on the very same issue. Allison Halataei, former deputy chief of staff and parliamentarian to House Judiciary Chairman Lamar Smith (R-Texas), and Lauren Pastarnack, a Republican who has served as a senior aide on the Senate Judiciary Committee, worked on online piracy bills that would push Internet companies like Google, Yahoo and Facebook to shut down websites that offer illegal copies of blockbuster films and chart-topping songs.' Techdirt adds, 'Pastarnack went to the MPAA where she'll be "director of government relations" and Halataei to the NMPA (music publishers and songwriters) where she'll be "chief liaison to Capitol Hill." The Politico article linked above notes that this kind of "revolving door" is all too common. It may not be directly corrupt, but to the public it sure feels corrupt.'""

Congressmen have a non-compete period of time before they can register as lobbyists, I guess the same is not true for aides.

http://yro.slashdot.org/story/11/12/10/226238/two-sopa-writers-become-entertainment-lobbyists


Back to Wyden, "Senator Ron Wyden, an Oregon Democrat, and Representative Darrell Issa, a California Republican, have released a draft version of the Online Protection and Enforcement of Digital Trade (OPEN) Act and posted a copy at KeeptheWebOpen.com. The act is intended to be an alternative to the Stop Online Piracy Act."

http://politics.slashdot.org/story/11/12/08/2321227/draft-alternative-to-sopa-released

Now it's the War on Downloads and any other type of IP infringing. I really like the last two paragraphs:

"While we applaud the idea of installing keyloggers on friends’ computers to see if they are undermining the country’s economic recovery, asking America to be on the lookout for terrorists and intellectual-property infringers at the same time could be confusing.

Say, for instance, you spot an unattended, and possibly counterfeit Gucci bag in an airport? Who do you call first: The Transportation Security Administration or the Justice Department?"

It really ticks me off that the ??AA have such a stranglehold on this administration, but Money Talks and it's getting heard loud and clear.

http://www.wired.com/threatlevel/2011/11/war-on-ip-terror/