[LINK] Tim O'Reilly on SOPA/PIPA: Solving The Wrong Problem

[Jan Whitaker]

At 02:14 PM 18/01/2012, Roger Clarke wrote:
>"It is essential that the current round of demands from powerful
>information industry corporations be rejected, and that the excessive
>extensions that they have already been granted be wound back".

Looks like the US Senate is rethinking given the backlash.

"
The PROTECT IP Act continued to suffer serious blows on Thursday as 
both the Senate Majority Leader and the Senate Minority Leader made 
moves that further damaged the anti-piracy bill's chances of passage. 
Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) will not seek to use his 
leverage over other Democrats to ensure the Protect IP Act gets 
enough votes to overcome a filibuster. Meanwhile, Senate Minority 
Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) joined other Republican senators in 
blasting Reid for rushing the legislation to the Senate floor.

Ordinarily, party leaders use their leverage over their members to 
"whip" them into voting in line with the rest of their caucus. But 
<http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0112/71672.html>according to 
Politico, "Reid won't whip Democratic votes for an online anti-piracy 
bill, according to sources familiar with his plans." That means 
Democrats will feel free to oppose the bill without worrying that 
they will be denied future favors by party leaders." More at the 
link: 
http://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/news/2012/01/senate-leaders-of-both-parties-back-away-from-protect-ip.ars

No mention of SOPA, though. Maybe it's not at the same stage in the 
legislative process.
Jan



Melbourne, Victoria, Australia
jwhit at janwhitaker.com
blog: http://janwhitaker.com/jansblog/
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Our truest response to the irrationality of the world is to paint or 
sing or write, for only in such response do we find truth.
~Madeline L'Engle, writer

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