New PAC to Defeat Lamar Smith

A political action committee, the Alliance for Internet Freedom, is hoping to defeat Rep. Lamar Smith (R—Inbred) in the Texas Republican primary on May 29th.  This PAC is made up of IT professionals who don’t appreciate Smith’s sponsorship of the Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA).

As you probably remember, SOPA — which was defeated last January — would have basically allowed the government to shut down YOUR blog or website if somebody somewhere said they heard from a friend’s coworker’s roommate that you might have unknowingly linked your blog to another site that might possibly have violated somebody’s copyright.  Or something.

If this asshole came up with an abortional idea like the Stop Online Piracy Act, there’s sure to be more harebrained ideas where that came from.  Let’s hope he gets primaried.

A spokesman for the Alliance for Internet Freedom said:

“The Alliance hopes to give a voice to the techies, bloggers, and IT companies nationwide that we can band together and be just as strong as say the ACLU or NRA.  Since our formation we are working on registering political action committees in California, Ohio, Illinois, and Canada.”

In addition to the Alliance for Internet Freedom, there was already another PAC which was also formed specifically to get rid of Lamar Smith — Test PAC, which is made up of a group of Reddit users.

Believe it or not, the Stop Online Piracy Act isn’t even Lamar Smith’s worst idea.  Last year he sponsored the Drug Trafficking Safe Harbor Elimination Act of 2011.

(I wrote a post about it at the time.)

This law would make it a federal crime for an American citizen to do something in a foreign country which is LEGAL in that country, if the thing he/she is doing is illegal in the United States.  WTF???

Smoking marijuana in Amsterdam — Busted!  Purchasing a drug over the counter in a foreign country, if that same drug requires a prescription in the U.S. — to the slammer!

Lamar Smith has done enough damage already.  Primary the bastard.  Kill it before it multiplies.  (Figuratively.)

January 18th, 2012: The Day the Internet Stood Still

A day without the Internet.  Some of the most heavily used websites will go dark tomorrow.  They will be protesting the Stop Online Piracy Act (H.R. 3261) and the Protect IP Act (S. 968).  Maybe “protest” isn’t accurate.  Tomorrow’s Internet blackout will illustrate what the Internet will become if either of those two abortional laws ever get passed.

Those two bills take terms like “corporate welfare” to a whole new level — bringing the Internet to a grinding halt just so the government can guarantee the profits of a few Hollywood/Media CEOs.

Anyway, tomorrow will be an “interesting” day on the Internet.  Web searches, news gathering, political/social networking, blogging — it’s gonna be some slim pickins.

Here is a list of confirmed participants in tomorrow’s Web Strike.

“Why can’t they just hire a lobbyist like everyone else?”

The above quote is the twenty-first century’s answer to “let them eat cake.”  Here’s the background:

As part of their ongoing protest against the Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA), the hacktivist group Anonymous has published the personal information of two of the most powerful media titans in the U.S.  That would be Time Warner CEO Jeffrey L. Bewkes, and Sumner M. Redstone of CBS and Viacom.

This is part of Anonymous’ “Operation Hiroshima” — the group’s war on high-ranking politicians and media VIPs who are pushing SOPA and its Senate companion, the Protect IP Act.  As you probably know, these two bills would basically bring the Internet to a grinding halt in order to protect the profits of a few Hollywood and music industry CEOs.

Anyway, about the title of this post:  another one of Operation Hiroshima’s targets was a congressman (not named in the linked article).  One of this congressman’s aides, dumbfounded by the level of public anger and the use of such shocking tactics, actually did say:

“Why can’t they just hire a lobbyist like everyone else?”

Why indeed.  That’s exactly what I was thinking earlier today as I was driving my Ferrari from an investors’ meeting to the yacht club.  The above quotation reminds me of a joke I heard a long time ago:

There was a kid from an incredibly wealthy old-money family.  He had the most sheltered pampered life imaginable.  He was now in his mid twenties, having gone to one expensive prep school after another and obtained several college degrees.  And now he was starting his first job — with an advertising agency.  On his first day at work, his co-workers were coming up with an ad campaign, and they decided to run the commercial on the following Sunday afternoon.  And the sheltered kid said “Sunday afternoon?  But nobody will see the ad on Sunday afternoon.  That’s when everybody’s out playing polo.”

OK, so it’s not the most side-splitting joke you’ve ever heard.  But that line always stuck with me as an example of someone being so sheltered inside a magic bubble that he actually thinks everybody else is equally sheltered and pampered.  And now an unknown aide to an unnamed congressman has shown — once again — that you can’t make this shit up.

Media Blackout of Stop Online Piracy Act

Countless blog posts and “non-mainstream” news sites have been warning us relentlessly about the Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA), H.R. 3261.  (The Senate version of the same bill is the Protect IP Act — S. 968.)

This bill is the ultimate example of using a nuclear bomb to kill a mosquito.  In order to be 100% certain that nobody anywhere will ever again distribute or download movies or music without paying, the film and recording industries are willing to destroy the Internet.  Period.  This is NOT an exaggeration.

You can get more information here and here.

Under this proposed law:  If a copyright holder complains that a certain blog or website is infringing on his/her copyright, that website will be shut down.  No questions, no court hearing, nothing.  One complaint — whether valid or not — and the “offending” website will be shut down.  Search engines will be forced to de-list any website that’s been accused of violating the Stop Online Piracy Act.  And if your own blog is even LINKED to a website that’s been accused of piracy — down you go.

This is more drastic than you’ve even imagined.  For example:  if someone complains that their copyright has been violated by a post on Facebook or a YouTube video, that entire website could be taken down.  No more YouTube because somebody somewhere made a complaint?!?!?!

This bill is being pushed through Congress by three small — but incredibly wealthy — organizations:  the film industry, the recording industry and the U.S. Chamber of Commerce.  Search engines and Internet Service Providers — not exactly struggling mom-and-pop companies — are lobbying against this bill.  But they’ve been outspent four to one by the film and recording industries.

This bill is quietly — very quietly! — working its way through Congress, with strong support from both parties.  And there’s no indication that Obama will veto the bill if it reaches his desk.

A few politicians — of both parties — are alarmed by the Stop Online Piracy Act and are trying to fight it or at least water it down.  Paul Ryan has warned that the bill could lead to mass censorship.  Ron Wyden and Darrell Issa introduced a less extreme watered-down version of the bill, but it was defeated in the House.

Again, this bill has been warned about and argued about, all over the Internet, by millions of people.  And yet, you’ve never seen or heard ONE mention of this bill in ANY mainstream publication or website.

Could that be because so many “news” corporations and movie studios are owned by the same people?  Nah — just a coincidence.

A few millionaires are ready and willing to destroy the Internet just to make sure their own profits keep going up and up and up.  And most of the public doesn’t even know about this.  If you would like the mainstream “news” media to take a brief moment away from the Kardashians to warn the public that their Internet access could be gone forever —Please Sign This Petition.