Topic: SOPA/PROTECT IP (Read 15393 times)

Thad · « **Reply #60 on:** January 13, 2012, 07:11:47 AM »

Leahy blinks on DNS blacklisting.

Which of course doesn't make PIPA a GOOD bill, but it means people in the Senate might actually give a fuck what experts think about basic Internet architecture. Baby steps.

Defenestration · « **Reply #61 on:** January 16, 2012, 09:13:17 AM »

Ding dong the witch is dead.

Now there's just the other one.

Pacobird · « **Reply #62 on:** January 16, 2012, 11:37:34 AM »

lol @ comment thread hysteria from people who don't know how legislatures work

"You mean they can just bring ANOTHER bill to do all this stuff? Man, what happened to America?????"

Bal · « **Reply #63 on:** January 16, 2012, 11:42:01 AM »

Knowing how one of the three (count 'em) branches of government functions is hard work. This is why people tend to prefer dictatorships. At least at first.

Shinra · « **Reply #64 on:** January 16, 2012, 11:50:03 AM »

The fact that the backlash to SOPA was surprising at all to politicians in the House is just another example of why we need term limits and why we should not be letting 60, 70 and 80 year olds decide on policy.

The kind of person who has to have his secretary print out his emails for him is not the kind of person I want deciding the future of the internet.

A² · « **Reply #65 on:** January 16, 2012, 11:52:55 AM »

It's going to be real interesting once there's more Haves than Have Nots in the political system in terms of technical knowledge.

I'm reminded long ago of what someone said on Jack Thompson, and how gamers should be thankful that the most vocal, prolific opponent of it was someone as wildly as incompetent as him.

"What if it was someone intelligent, charming, and knew how things work?"

Shinra · « **Reply #66 on:** January 16, 2012, 12:03:41 PM »

I would hope that once we start getting people in office who know what the fucking internet is, they will be technologically savvy enough to know you can't censor it, you're just wasting public funds and pissing off the electorate.

Pacobird · « **Reply #67 on:** January 16, 2012, 12:06:17 PM »

Quote from: Demosprite on January 16, 2012, 11:52:55 AM

It's going to be real interesting once there's more Haves than Have Nots in the political system in terms of technical knowledge.

I'm reminded long ago of what someone said on Jack Thompson, and how gamers should be thankful that the most vocal, prolific opponent of it was someone as wildly as incompetent as him.

"What if it was someone intelligent, charming, and knew how things work?"

Authoritarian fantasy.

Nobody, no matter how charming or how repugnant, actually knows how enough stuff works to successfully lead a country by his or herself.

Bal · « **Reply #68 on:** January 16, 2012, 12:08:02 PM »

By the time most of the House is computer literate it will be a moot point as the internet will have been renamed The Collective via sub-conscious gestalt derived from everyone's neural interface.

François · « **Reply #69 on:** January 16, 2012, 12:08:24 PM »

I think the idea here is that if Jack Thompson Prime was intelligent, he wouldn't take the same position as Old-n-Busted Jack Thompson.

Shinra · « **Reply #70 on:** January 16, 2012, 12:15:51 PM »

Once genuine intelligence starts entering play you end up going two directions. You're either too enlightened to hold that viewpoint, or you're morally bankrupt enough that you don't care how fucking wrong/stupid it is.

I suspect Jack Thompson, if he was actually a smart man, would be much more interested in the fame and money involved in suing videogame companies, and unlike the Jack we know and love, wouldn't have been stupid enough to repeatedly harass judges until he was disbarred.

A² · « **Reply #71 on:** January 16, 2012, 12:26:33 PM »

Quote from: P. Birdy on January 16, 2012, 12:06:17 PM

Quote from: Demosprite on January 16, 2012, 11:52:55 AM
It's going to be real interesting once there's more Haves than Have Nots in the political system in terms of technical knowledge.

I'm reminded long ago of what someone said on Jack Thompson, and how gamers should be thankful that the most vocal, prolific opponent of it was someone as wildly as incompetent as him.

"What if it was someone intelligent, charming, and knew how things work?"

Authoritarian fantasy.

Nobody, no matter how charming or how repugnant, actually knows how enough stuff works to successfully lead a country by his or herself.

Oh that's a given. I'm more worried at what Shinra mentioned - that once people who knows how this stuff works enter the play, they won't give a fuck and can in fact, fuck people harder and faster. And better. And Stronger.

Pacobird · « **Reply #72 on:** January 16, 2012, 12:28:02 PM »

Smart Jack Thompson could still hold the opinion that free expression in video games is less important than the cohesion of traditional values/family units/etc.* but unless he started by changing the Conventional Wisdom to consider First Amendment rights to free expression only extending as far as purely political speech allows, he'd recognize he was arguing from a position of weakness.

*the truly "dangerous" thing about video games is not that they promote violence but that they promote wholesale rebellion and iconoclasm

Brentai · « **Reply #73 on:** January 16, 2012, 01:07:27 PM »

There's also every chance that most of these guys are PERFECTLY aware that they're espousing terrible ideas, and don't really fucking care, because they're getting paid good money/favors for it.

Hanlon doesn't really hold up when it comes to modern politics, honestly.

A² · « **Reply #74 on:** January 16, 2012, 01:11:24 PM »

Quote from: Brentai on January 16, 2012, 01:07:27 PM

There's also every chance that most of these guys are PERFECTLY aware that they're espousing terrible ideas, and don't really fucking care, because they're getting paid good money/favors for it.

Hanlon doesn't really hold up when it comes to modern politics, honestly.

There's an endless deluge of reports of the 'wacky' things they said during the debates that amounted to "I don't know what this is about and I don't want to know"

Doom · « **Reply #75 on:** January 16, 2012, 02:38:45 PM »

Hey now, all these old dudes clearly know how the god damn Internet works.

Congress IPs tracked for using torrents.

I love the bit about stealing self help book text. So when some sleazeball politician tries to tell you why what he does is a strong, moral stand for America, he probably read it in a book he stole.

Mongrel · « **Reply #76 on:** January 16, 2012, 02:48:32 PM »

Yeah, the Ted Stevens' of the world notwithstanding, "FREE PORN! IN ALL THE COLOURS OF THE RAINBOW!" can drive learning rates in old, dumpy guys that you'd normally associate with teens and tweens.

Pacobird · « **Reply #77 on:** January 16, 2012, 04:29:03 PM »

While I'm sure a few Congressmen are actually guilty of torrenting porn at work I seriously doubt most of these aren't the 22-year-old revolving-door staffers with which DC is overflowing.

Thad · « **Reply #78 on:** January 16, 2012, 05:25:58 PM »

Quote from: Shinra on January 16, 2012, 11:50:03 AM

The fact that the backlash to SOPA was surprising at all to politicians in the House is just another example of why we need term limits and why we should not be letting 60, 70 and 80 year olds decide on policy.

Sonny Bono was young and in his second term when he sponsored the Copyright Extension Act, though.

So is Wednesday's blackout still happening? Seems like it'd be a good idea given that PIPA's still on the table (even though the DNS blacklisting has been removed).

Mongrel · « **Reply #79 on:** January 16, 2012, 07:14:00 PM »

Quote from: P. Birdy on January 16, 2012, 04:29:03 PM

While I'm sure a few Congressmen are actually guilty of torrenting porn at work I seriously doubt most of these aren't the 22-year-old revolving-door staffers with which DC is overflowing.

Oh of course. I'm just saying that older folks can learn if you place the ah... correct incentives in front of them.

News:

Author Topic: SOPA/PROTECT IP (Read 15393 times)