PIPA Loses Support From Co-Sponsor Marco Rubio [UPDATED]

@Branthog said:

@Rudyftw said:

@Branthog said:

@Rudyftw said:

Fuck this shit. Im moving to Iceland.

How will that help?

Greenland then? I get them mixed up.

Oh, you're aiming for some place without internet, you mean?

I JUST WANT TO MEET AN ESKIMO. JUST ONCE.

@Wools said:

Thank god, let's hope the bill is dropped.

@Branthog said:

@Evilsbane said:

@patrickklepek said:

@Crono said:

@Branthog said:

@Evilsbane said:

To those who doubted the protest *sticks tongue out*

Yes, congratulations. They've managed to make everyone pretend to pull back temporarily so they can find other insipid ways to push through the same legislation. This same furor was raised during DMCA legislation and it eventually found its way into law. So will this. There may be slight changes, but the meat of the infringement will still exist. All that has been accomplished is that they have realized that they need to be more discreet about this, next time (they figured that only a few engineering nerds would catch on to this and the rest of the population wouldn't bother).

Those people who think anything meaningful and long term has been accomplished are probably too young to understand how these patterns play out. They're the same kids who voted for Obama this past election under the premise that he was finally a non-regular politician. Why, after more than two-hundred years, THAT was going to be the time they finally had someone who wasn't "business as usual". And then they discovered that he was. The same thing will happen this next election (and no matter who wins, they will be the same business as usual figure as every other has been).

It's great that there is enough outcry that it has at least inconvenienced legislators a little bit. But in the end, it's just an inconvenience. And . . . where have these people who suddenly give a damn been the last fifteen years?

You're right. Protests never work. We should never attempt to protest and should just roll over without question. Good post.

If you don't fight, you have no right to complain when rights goes away. Cynicism is a terrible disease.

Damn right there is little we can do in situations like this, we don't have much control over this stuff any small victory is something to be proud of not spat upon.

Let's not confuse political maneuvering for triumphs.

You've done a lot of talking in this thread you seemed well informed what do You propose we do outside of actions like this? Start a war? March on the Capital? Cry in a corner? Most of us have obligations, Families, School, Jobs we don't have the time or knowledge to do much about these things we do what we can for the causes we deem worth our time What in the hell else would you have us do? What Would You Do? What Do You Do? Things like this normally go by without a single thought and for once everyone goes crazy enough to cause even a little bit of change that otherwise wouldn't have happened and you do your best to make it sound like a worthless act Cynicism is a terrible disease and you seem to be infected with it something Awful.

I'm still laughing my ass off at the name "PIPA". If the discussion about the PIPA bill comes to Polish TV and Radio News, they probably wouldn't say "PIPA" on air, as it means something between wuss and explicit name for vagina.

Wait, if I think about it, it fits such an absurd bill.

@Evilsbane said:

@Branthog said:

@Evilsbane said:

@patrickklepek said:

@Crono said:

@Branthog said:

@Evilsbane said:

To those who doubted the protest *sticks tongue out*

Yes, congratulations. They've managed to make everyone pretend to pull back temporarily so they can find other insipid ways to push through the same legislation. This same furor was raised during DMCA legislation and it eventually found its way into law. So will this. There may be slight changes, but the meat of the infringement will still exist. All that has been accomplished is that they have realized that they need to be more discreet about this, next time (they figured that only a few engineering nerds would catch on to this and the rest of the population wouldn't bother).

Those people who think anything meaningful and long term has been accomplished are probably too young to understand how these patterns play out. They're the same kids who voted for Obama this past election under the premise that he was finally a non-regular politician. Why, after more than two-hundred years, THAT was going to be the time they finally had someone who wasn't "business as usual". And then they discovered that he was. The same thing will happen this next election (and no matter who wins, they will be the same business as usual figure as every other has been).

It's great that there is enough outcry that it has at least inconvenienced legislators a little bit. But in the end, it's just an inconvenience. And . . . where have these people who suddenly give a damn been the last fifteen years?

You're right. Protests never work. We should never attempt to protest and should just roll over without question. Good post.

If you don't fight, you have no right to complain when rights goes away. Cynicism is a terrible disease.

Damn right there is little we can do in situations like this, we don't have much control over this stuff any small victory is something to be proud of not spat upon.

Let's not confuse political maneuvering for triumphs.

You've done a lot of talking in this thread you seemed well informed what do You propose we do outside of actions like this? Start a war? March on the Capital? Cry in a corner? Most of us have obligations, Families, School, Jobs we don't have the time or knowledge to do much about these things we do what we can for the causes we deem worth our time What in the hell else would you have us do? What Would You Do? What Do You Do? Things like this normally go by without a single thought and for once everyone goes crazy enough to cause even a little bit of change that otherwise wouldn't have happened and you do your best to make it sound like a worthless act Cynicism is a terrible disease and you seem to be infected with it something Awful.

I didn't say people shouldn't be active and that they shouldn't continue pushing for things like this. I just said that we should put off patting ourselves on the back because "we finally got off our asses and did something civic-minded!" until we finally see true long-term meaningful impact. I'm not saying to quit the race; I'm just saying people need to wait until they've reached the finish line before they all start celebrating their win.

They're counting on people feeling that they've accomplished something here and forgetting all about this, as we do with our modern goldfish memories, so they can find another way to reintroduce this same thing. Don't believe me? Look at ACTA. They knew that people would be fairly irate if they knew about ACTA. So they did it all in secret. They're wishing, at this point, that they'd done this in secret, too. And when we've all become distracted by the next shiny thing, they will.

"Very well, if that is the way the winds are blowing, let no one say I don't also blow."

-- "Diamond" Joe Quimby

@patrickklepek said:

UPDATE 2: And plenty more, according to the Washington Post.

UPDATE: Add Sen. Orrin Hatch (R-Utah) to the pile.

"After listening to the concerns on both sides of the debate over the PROTECT IP Act," he revealed on Twitter, "it is simply not ready for prime time."

--

A number of sites have “gone black” today in protest of the SOPA (Stop Online Piracy Act) and PIPA (Protect Intellectual Property Act), and the latter has just lost one of its co-sponsors in the Senate.

Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla) announced his change of heart on his Facebook page today.

“We've heard legitimate concerns about the impact the bill could have on access to the Internet and about a potentially unreasonable expansion of the federal government's power to impact the Internet,” said Rubio. “Congress should listen and avoid rushing through a bill that could have many unintended consequences.”

Both SOPA and PIPA grapple with mounting concerns by Hollywood and other creative industries about piracy, but both have come under intense scrutiny. The intent of the bills may be sound, but as Rubio puts it, the "unintended consequences" could have a major impact on the way much of the Internet functions today.

Before DNS redirection was removed from SOPA, if a media company believed a website was infringing on its copyright, it could request ISPs redirect the website, essentially taking it offline, until the dispute was resolved. You can see why companies like Facebook and Google would be worried, and why we were keeping a close eye.

“I encourage Senator Reid to abandon his plan to rush the bill to the floor,” he continued. “Instead, we should take more time to address the concerns raised by all sides, and come up with new legislation that addresses Internet piracy while protecting free and open access to the Internet.”

Extra Credits over on Penny Arcade are calling for games journalists and members of the gaming industry to inform the ESA that they'll neither cover nor attend E3 (the ESA's largest source of revenue) until they repeal their support for SOPA & PIPA. (Here's the vid: http://penny-arcade.com/patv/episode/stand-together-the-gaming-community-vs-sopa-and-pipa)

What do you say, GB?

Ha!

Take that!

@Stimpack said:

It's absolutely pathetic to see these people changing their minds at the end. It speaks volumes of their character. These people knew full well what they were doing. They willingly ignored the advice of experts, and traded away the rights of the people in favor of corporations. The only reason any of these people have stepped to the other side, is due to the amount of heat this bill has been generating. Had no one bothered to stand against it, they would happily screw us all.

exactly!

Random people making laws about they don't understand, without the aid of experts whatsoever....

-sigh-

@fuzzy510 said:

@Stimpack said:

It's absolutely pathetic to see these people changing their minds at the end. It speaks volumes of their character. These people knew full well what they were doing. They willingly ignored the advice of experts, and traded away the rights of the people in favor of corporations. The only reason any of these people have stepped to the other side, is due to the amount of heat this bill has been generating. Had no one bothered to stand against it, they would happily screw us all.

God forbid our politicians change their minds based on the viewpoints of their constituents!

I'd have loved for everybody involved to get this right the first time too, but given the choice between introducing and then killing a damaging piece of legislation or being bullheaded and ignoring protests to said legislation, I'll take the former every damn time. You're a fool if you're calling out these politicians for flip-flopping, and you're absurdly paranoid even by my anti-big-government Libertarian standards if you truly think they were trying to intentionally screw over the American public when they introduced the legislation in the first place. And even if you ARE that paranoid, you're a lunatic if you think it's a bad thing that they'd decide not to screw us over.

Are you dense? So long as a politician can get away with screwing over the public, they will. I've said that many of them have turned once this thing started generating heat. If everyone had kept quiet, most of them wouldn't have had issue. Obviously they're going to attempt to save face in light of the public outrage.

God forbid our politicians understand the ramifications of their actions before they decide which side they're on.

Paranoid? You're probably damn right about that one. Apparently politicians screwing over the American people is somehow beyond the realm of possibility in your mind.

I'm voicing my opinion, not getting into a political debate on GiantBomb. We could continue this, but at this point it would be the pot calling the kettle black. It's like sending a hoard of men to die upon a battlefield for land that I don't much care to own. Good day to you, though.

@YOUNGLINK said:

well played RUBIO, if thats your real name

This just in, there's more money on the internet than in the movie/music business, so we'll probably win.

@Branthog: I'm sorry you are so unhappy.

This whole debacle is depressing ... mostly because you practically have the Senate and Congress admitting "We don't actually understand the internet ... but we're pretty sure it's for piracy?" Those who understand it least with the power to change it the most ... scary (but I guess that's true of a lot of things in government)