Meet the Strange Bedfellows Who Could Stop SOPA 231
jfruhlinger writes "In a political environment that's become very strongly defined by partisan lines, the SOPA debate has offered an unexpected ray of hope: the two main Congressional opponents of the bill are Ron Wyden, an Oregon Senator deemed a 'hardcore liberal' and Darrell Issa, a California Representative who is one of the Obama Administration's fiercest critics. (There are both Ds and Rs in favor of the bill, too.)" (Read more below.)
In the technical rather than political world, opposition seems easier to find: Trailrunner7 writes "A group of engineers, networking specialists, security experts and other specialists deeply involved with the Internet's development and growth have sent a letter to lawmakers criticizing the highly controversial SOPA and PIPA bills and imploring them not to pass the legislation, which they say would stifle innovation and 'threaten engineers who build Internet systems or offer services that are not readily and automatically compliant with censorship actions by the U.S. government.' The letter is signed by a long list of Internet pioneers and other respected figures, including Steve Bellovin, Paul Vixie, Vint Cerf, Jon Callas, Tony Li, Robert W. Taylor, Esther Dyson and Fred Baker, among many others. Both SOPA and PIPA have been criticized heavily by technologists, privacy advocates and security experts who say that not only would the proposed bills make it difficult for companies to create innovative new technologies, but they also would likely not even accomplish the goals their authors' had in mind, namely preventing copyright infringement and content piracy." And (hat tip to Rob Malda), here's the letter itself (PDF).
Re:And if you don't know offhand what SOPA is... (Score:0, Funny)
Or RTFA.
Re:And if you don't know offhand what SOPA is... (Score:5, Funny)
is it the Stop Online Privacy Act?
Re:They're NOT opposed to SOPA (Score:4, Funny)
This summary makes it sound like they're heroes fighting for our freedom or something. In actuality, they're just advocated for their own alternative Online Protection and Enforcement of Digital Trade Act [wikipedia.org] (OPEN). And the only difference between their bill and SOPA is that SOPA will put enforcement in the hands of the Justice Department and OPEN will put it in the hands of the United States International Trade Commission [wikipedia.org], which in practice will make ABSOLUTELY NO DIFFERENCE to most sites being busted.
The only reason Darrel Issa and Ron Wyden are supporting it is because it provides more protection for the Googles, Facebooks, etc. and they're both from states where those companies are big players.
They should rebadge it Digital Online Protection Enforcement.
It would be most fitting.
Re:They're NOT opposed to SOPA (Score:3, Funny)
I take it you vote for cthulhu? By your logic, why vote for the lesser evil. If you are going to vote for evil lets just go all out!
Re:And if you don't know offhand what SOPA is... (Score:5, Funny)
In the same way that cyanide is a cure for over-eating... it just has side effects.
Re:They're NOT opposed to SOPA (Score:4, Funny)
Well, I didn't want to single anyone out by saying "Intern" or "Videographer" or "Babysitter" or "Sheep".