Here there be busy little lame ducks
Posted: November 19, 2010 Filed under: legislation | Tags: web censorship 26 Comments
Wired has the latest atrocity passed in a Senate Committee during the lame duck session. Women can’t get fair pay practices but we can sure get more violations of our civil rights.
On Thursday, the Senate Judiciary Committee unanimously approved a bill that would give the Attorney General the right to shut down websites with a court order if copyright infringement is deemed “central to the activity” of the site — regardless if the website has actually committed a crime. The Combating Online Infringement and Counterfeits Act (COICA) is among the most draconian laws ever considered to combat digital piracy, and contains what some have called the “nuclear option,” which would essentially allow the Attorney General to turn suspected websites “off.”
COICA is the latest effort by Hollywood, the recording industry and the big media companies to stem the tidal wave of internet file sharing that has upended those industries and, they claim, cost them tens of billions of dollars over the last decade.
The content companies have tried suing college students. They’ve tried suing internet startups. Now they want the federal government to act as their private security agents, policing the internet for suspected pirates before making them walk the digital plank.
No one says that stealing people’s creative and intellectual effortss isn’t wrong and bad for artists, musicians, and writers. It is illegal in most places outside of China. However, do we have to go as far as shutting down people’s websites–as Wired calls it–“based upon a vague and arbitrary standard of evidence, even if no law-breaking has been proved”?
Wired provides a list of sites that could potentially go dark. They include:
… Dropbox, RapidShare, SoundCloud, Hype Machine and any other site for which the Attorney General deems copyright infringement to be “central to the activity” of the site, according to Electronic Frontier Foundation, a digital rights group that opposes the bill. There need not even be illegal content on a site — links alone will qualify a site for digital death. Websites at risk could also theoretically include p2pnet and pirate-party.us or any other website that advocates for peer-to-peer file sharing or rejects copyright law, according to the group.
In short, COICA would allow the federal government to censor the internet without due process.
Sounds like we need to start writing Congress Critterz again.
peej
Carissa
bostonboomer
ecocatwoman
mablue2
peggysue22
quixote
skydancingguestblogger
Mona (aka Wonk the Vote)
Sky Dancing 
Sounds like we need to start writing Congress Critterz again.
if only they could read…
I guess that’s what aids are for …
I think the aides can’t read either. However, they can, and do, send out a pre-printed pre-written form letter as a response, so you know the Congress Critter is on the job!
I’m being harsh, I do get form letters from my Rep. from time to time, but most often I don’t. Instead, I get one tailored to what I wrote about, and my letter has obviously been read. I do NOT get such responses from my Senators. There it’s a form letter vaguely addressing the subject about which I am concerned.
OT – what is this latest spate of emails (spam) I’ve been getting about “The Biggest Scam in History” about how the privately owned Federal Reserve bank is ripping off the taxpayers?
There seems to be a conservative effort and a libertarian effort especially to take down the Federal Reserve bank. I’ve been trying to publish a series of articles showing how these things are based on fallacies and not actual thought but it’s getting hard to debunk all the stuff that’s coming down.
Rand Paul and Sara Palin–like either of them know of what they speak–seem to have taken it up. If you got to my inflation thread yesterday you’ll see a link to MOJO that talks about how they’re all riled up. I think, frankly, they own gold and they want to boost the price of it.
Isn’t Ron Paul going to be in charge of the House committee that oversees the Fed now? Or was that just alarmist stuff I was reading. I know he supposedly wants to disband the Fed.
I’m not sure about all the committee assignments to be perfectly honest.
This is so funny.
Remember when the sexism directed at Hillary was no big deal? Nancy might have been more “historic” as speaker if she hadn’t taken impeachment off the table and believed that God sent Obama.
I think a lot of Boehner’s emotional state has to do with alcohol.
Probably. I think the color of his cheeks and nose have to do with booze.
That woman was (is) such a disappointment to so many women.
She had a huge majority in the house, all she needed to do was really push for the right thing to get done. Problem is there was all that crap about trying to get bipartisan support and pressure from the White House to do things their way. I wish I knew what went on behind the scenes when she kept having to scale back stuff. Seems like she could’ve fought some of it.
Nancy is not unlike any other poliltical player: she loves the power! Once tasted it is difficult to avoid.
But to be honest, I would rather watch Nancy any day than Boehner. I never had to guess if she had indulged in a 3 martini lunch but with him I have a feeling he pours it over his morning corn flakes.
Talk about maudlin! This guy makes Glenn Becklook like a sissy by comparison when it comes to turning on the waterworks.
I have a friend who drinks too much and, sober or otherwise, will cry at the ‘drop of a hat’.
I do think he’s a heavy drinker and I feel that’s part of his emotionality problem. I also think it’s what gives him his complexion that weird look when he uses the spray on tan. All that ruddy red.
I wish Pelosi had supported Hillary rather than Obama, but…
All these people who criticize her for not being perfect in every way, well, let them eat Boehner.
She supported Obama far more than he merited, and he kicked her in the teeth, took her for granted, did not support her, and he deserves what he gets, in my view.
I didn’t expect her to be perfect when she said impeachment was off the table, I wondered what the heck went on in that meeting. I also thought she’d support a woman – that bright, strong leader of a woman we have in Hillary.
In some ways it was hard to tell what we got with Pelosi, she did all these backroom things and recently didn’t get much out front media attention. I’d like to know more about what she did do frankly. I guess I haven’t really thought about it much until now, but how much is a House Leader supposed to buck their President/Party Leader? I always found it odd she didn’t tell Obama not to negotiate with himself and save it for the Republicans. Maybe a lot of it was more on Reid’s shoulder since the really Democratic stuff got yanked out by the Blue Dawgs in the Senate and she just had to go get every one to sell out to get agreement with them.
That is true. Democratic stuff got “yanked” by the senate.
and…support goes both ways…Obama coulda/shoulda given her a little support. He didn’t.
I saw this on TGW
http://guerillawomentn.blogspot.com/2010/11/nancy-pelosi-when-man-holds-job.html
“I was the first woman speaker. It didn’t get that much play. And I’m not a publicity seeker, so it was OK with me. Boehner, before the election, they had him on the cover of Newsweek. Now he’s on the cover of Time, and women are coming to me and saying, ‘Is the job less important when a woman holds it?’
“My point is that when a man holds the job, the press seems to view it as more worthy of that kind of attention. But when a woman — even though it was historic — holds the job, they view it as less important. We have to dispel the notion that it’s not as big a job when a woman has it.”
Where the hell was this kind of comment when Hillary was constantly being ripped apart because she has breast and a vagina?
Speaking of Congresswomen in hot water … Maxine Waters Ethics hearing got postponed because of new evidence.
and DDay at FDL has a tinfoil hat theory up about it … I know how we all love our tinfoil around here.
Interesting. I’m inclined to believe this theory in some ways. Maybe that her performance at the hearing on foreclosure fraud either impressed, or scared, many of those that will ‘try’ her, and so they called for a postponement.
When Nancy Pelosi became Speaker of the House I was thrilled, even knowing zero about her, as I weren’t much into US politics at the time. But a woman in that position – Yay!
Then came the big disappointments, first with the “Impeachment is off the table” and later the 2008 election.
But two scenes stand out to me. One is Pelosi greeting Obama after his speech at the Convention, she – literally on her toes – heaved herself up and, beaming, pressed her bosom against him.
The second was at Obama’s State of the Nation. Shaking hands, Pelosi grabbed his hand with both hers and for a moment it looked as if she would either put it on her chest or put it to her lips and kiss it.
Fortunately she did neither, but the school girl-like adoration she displayed then – and whenever she’s beside him – was and is in my opinion both unnecessary and undignified.
Pips, yes. We saw that kind of display repeatedly from Pelosi and Obama….YUCK.