They'll Be Back

I was so pleased to learn that, because of international protests (including the day-long blackouts of Wikipedia, Reddit, and a number of other sites), SOPA has been shelved “indefinitely.”

Here's a just fate for such an awful piece of legislation: Even the House Republicans who had initially supported this trashy law were forced to recant – although I'm sure their original motives for supporting a gut of the First Amendment were totally altruistic as well.

Well, today I saw a YouTube clip of Bill Maher talking about this on what I presume to be his show.

I don't think he has ever made himself look more stupid than with his support for SOPA.

He came across as shallow, of course, but his error here goes deeper: Maher had, by his own admonition, made very little effort to understand the bill and its incredible scope. He didn't know, for example – and he didn't seem to care when a panellist warned him -- that SOPA would have given complainants of any sort the unprecedented ability to have a site shut down merely by saying – not proving in court, mind you, but just by claiming -- that some kind of copyright infringement had taken place there.

These claims could be true, or false, or based on a misunderstanding of FAIR USE. No matter: They would all be treated the same. With SOPA, the burden of proving innocence would fall on site creators and users - some of whom might have to endure court costs merely to defend rights they should already have.

The practical results of SOPA would have been as follows:

**** The US Government, which should be upholding the Constitution, would instead create an office - a legal organ - that exists not to serve The People and protect their rights, but rather to cater to various recording industry pressure groups. In that office, all those who have been accused of copyright violation online would be treated as guilty until proven innocent.

**** The US Government could, under pretext of having its “copyright” violated, pull down sites like Wikileaks – you know, the one with footage of an Apache Helicopter crew firing on unarmed civilians, including a couple of kids.

**** It would piss off the international community even more. The US has squandered pretty much every ounce of sympathy or good will the world once had for it. If the government were to build an Iron Curtain around the internet, that would destroy the businesses of local content providers and ensure the rest of the world leaves America in the cold: The international net would simply route around the damage and stop using US servers or domain names or services.

**** SOPA would violate the First Amendment.

The United States already has copyright laws, as well as a legal process by which a wronged party can sue whomever misused his intellectual property.

At best, then, SOPA was superfluous. At worst – and let's be honest; SOPA was “at worst” pretty much from the outset – it would violate US and international law, as well as encroach upon the legal sovereignty of any nation that permits net business to be done through the United States.

But Maher, like the honey badger, simply didn't give a shit. The way he saw it, SOPA would have helped him, and so therefore it was a good thing.

He complained online piracy had robbed him of this alleged income his movie 'Religulous” would surely have made if only people hadn't had a chance to watch it free before buying.

(Thing is, if Maher had put the movie online and permitted people to watch it for free, he would have made back his cost and more from the ad money as well as from the 'honor tip jar' some filmmakers use.)

I know plenty of people who have watched torrents only to go buy the actual DVD after. Since this usually happens only with good movies, however, then I can understand what worried Maher.

And so despite all he had learned from his guests, Maher's final comment - the last turdlet of that segment, anyway – was this: “People just like to steal.”

(Sez me: Oh, pull your head out of your ass, you dinosaur.)

SO NOW WHAT?

That bill, or something else like it, will be back.

You now know you have the power, if you all act together with a common goal, to stop bad legislation – not only SOPA and its ilk, but future versions of the Patriot Act as well.

As you have all seen, freedom is not free. It requires that people - the people - be willing to fight. We must be willing to fight in court, in the boardroom, through elected representatives, in the streets, and anywhere else we're called to defend free speech, free assembly, free conscience, and a free press; for the right to an attorney, to a fair trial, to humane treatment in custody.

Just because Maher forgot bad legislation also applies to him doesn't mean the rest of us should.

If all you can do is write a letter, do it. If all you can do is donate to a cause you believe in, do it.

Just don't do nothing.