On Wednesday, January 18, the forces of liberty gained a major political victory over the entrenched meddlers in Congress. The owners of a handful of popular Internet sites joined together to protest SOPA/PIPA. They blacked out their sites and provided information on the threat to Internet liberty this bill posed.
Before the day was over, a majority of our elected representatives were doing a superb imitation of the captain of the grounded Italian cruise ship. They abandoned ship as fast as he did, and for the same reason. (Note: the reason was not that they had slipped and fallen into the lifeboat, then to be carried to safety against their will.)
A few weeks before, the Senate version of the House's SOPA (Stop Online Piracy ACT) bill, called PIPA, was unanimously passed by the Senate Judiciary Committee. PIPA stands for the Protect IP [Intellectual Property] Act. It was non-controversial at the time. It was on a well-greased skid to passage.
Let us not be naive. SOPA/PIPA is a payback for to the entertainment industry's generous support of PACs and campaign donations. For a list of who got how much, click here.
The tide is turning against all of the political Establishments on earth. A year ago, the Internet brought down a tyrant in Algeria. More followed.
The Web, the social media, YouTube: they cannot be stopped. Ask Chris Dodd.
The terms of engagement have changed. The bonehead Congressman who confiscated the cell phones of his town hall audience could not keep the videos off YouTube. Shortly after the video was posted, he backed down. I wrote about this here. These people are slow learners. Their old habits die hard. But the Internet is educating them, one by one.
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