The Senators who voted to censor the internet.

[Valkysas]

http://www.techdirt.com/articles/201...internet.shtml

So, anyone from your state on that list? Anyone you voted for? Anyone you'll be sending angry letters to?

[Riotsword]

Re: The Senators who voted to censor the internet.

Al Franken???

****ing traitor.

[Big Rick Cook]

Re: The Senators who voted to censor the internet.

Yaaaaaay, Coburn of Oklahoma is a dick.

[Shard]

Re: The Senators who voted to censor the internet.

Man. That's a weird ****in' list.


Feinstein, Whitehouse, Franken, Schumer agreeing with Sessions, Coburn, Cornryn, Hatch, Grassley, and Specter?

[Valkysas]

Re: The Senators who voted to censor the internet.

The bill was passed to stop piracy, but it's pretty much just a gateway for censoring anything the government feels is objectionable. I guarantee they aren't even thinking about establishing a hypothetical line that shall not be crossed.

[Bon]

Re: The Senators who voted to censor the internet.



Idiots.

[Goufunaki]

Re: The Senators who voted to censor the internet.

Dianne Feinstein -- California

That whore!

[LunarWingCloud]

Re: The Senators who voted to censor the internet.

If I'm not seeing this wrong I didn't see anyone from Massachusetts, thankfully.

[Cutter De Blanc]

Re: The Senators who voted to censor the internet.

My senators don't care what I have to say.

[Mcardy]

Re: The Senators who voted to censor the internet.

Franken and most of the other Senators probably voted this way so they could look "tough on piracy" while knowing full well this bill will never become a law due to the lame-duck session ending so soon.

Tons of politicians do this for bills in the same vein as this so they don't have to see negative ads about them in the future saying "AL FRANKEN ENDORSES INTERNET PIRACY."

Still, not a cool thing to do, but seeing as nothing is going to happen with this law--You have to imagine that these guys also knew that.

[Hrafn]

Re: The Senators who voted to censor the internet.

Al Franken???

****ing traitor.

That was my initial impression. It's surprising, in that of all people you would really think an entertainment personality would not be pro-censorship (though admittedly, I don't know the specifics of this bill, so I can't say just how pervasive this censorship was going to be). He certainly didn't take long to go full-fledged douche, did he? It was a pretty short trip for him, though.

[orius]

Re: The Senators who voted to censor the internet.

The bill was passed to stop piracy, but it's pretty much just a gateway for censoring anything the government feels is objectionable. I guarantee they aren't even thinking about establishing a hypothetical line that shall not be crossed.

Some of these senators probably aren't even tech savvy enough to really understand the implications. More like the industry experts probably went before the panel, wrung their hands about how they needed this or it would cost American jobs, and the senators approved it. The only one there I had any control over was Specter, but he got booted out in the spring.

[Valkysas]

Re: The Senators who voted to censor the internet.

No, I bet they understand the implications. "we can block stuff we don't like from the internet".

If by chance this does go all the way (which I don't see happening), I have no doubt sites like wikileaks won't be on their way to being blocked.

[Sampson]

Re: The Senators who voted to censor the internet.

Franken and most of the other Senators probably voted this way so they could look "tough on piracy" while knowing full well this bill will never become a law due to the lame-duck session ending so soon.

Tons of politicians do this for bills in the same vein as this so they don't have to see negative ads about them in the future saying "AL FRANKEN ENDORSES INTERNET PIRACY."

Still, not a cool thing to do, but seeing as nothing is going to happen with this law--You have to imagine that these guys also knew that.

I think its a lot more damning to run an ad that says "XYZ supports censoring the internet" as evidenced by this very topic. A lot of people pirate, and those that don't, don't really care.

[Mcardy]

Re: The Senators who voted to censor the internet.

True, but you have no idea if the Senator's campaign staff believes that. I had a friend intern for my crappy Senator Ben Nelson--It goes on all the time, mainly because the point of it is "stem this from becoming a big issue," and thus at this moment it looks like "pro-piracy" can be used against "us", maybe later that will change, but we need to stymie this.

Or maybe I'm watching too much "The Thick of It..."

edit: not to mention the glaringly obvious problem of who these people are trying to reach. To them, you are someone who votes 50% of the time--whereas if you told older people who aren't familiar with internet piracy (who also vote a much larger % of the time than your demographic) that Al Franken liked promoting "STEALING FROM AMERICAN CORPORATIONS", then yes, its probably a good move since no one would probably dare challenge a Senator on a vote that is a) purely symbolic, and b) can be so easily framed as pro-capitalism. If you don't vote "yes" you possibly risk 2012 Election Fox News "Al Franken loves to steal from hard working Americans"

Do you really think Republicans will start campaigning on net-neutrality? There is no way in hell that happens unless for some strange reason they start embracing things like climate change being a legitimate issue. Like I said, it is stupid, but I understand why these vulnerable democrats voted that way. (Remember Franken won by less than 1000 votes)