Conservatives, Bloggers Stepping Up to Speak Out Against SOPA
- Posted on December 27, 2011 at 6:28pm by
Liz Klimas
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The Stop Online Piracy Act, which supporters say would prevent copyright infringement on the Internet while opponents state it would lead to Internet censorship, is steadily gaining opposition by the conservatives, even though their party initiated the bill.
SOPA is a House bill introduced by Rep. Lamar Smith (R-TX) and supported by many private conservative organizations, such as Chamber of Commerce and Americans for Tax Reform, according to Ars Technica. Ars Technica reports that The Heritage Foundation’s James Gattuso and Erick Erickson, editor of the RedState, have recently voiced concerns about “unintended consequences” and the “slippery slope” that SOPA could lead to:
Gattuso’s stance is notable because Heritage has traditionally supported strong enforcement of copyright law. As former US attorney general Edwin Meese put it in a 2005 article for Heritage, “stealing is stealing, and it must stop.”
Gattuso agrees with Meese that the “stealing” needs to stop, but he argues Congress should deal with the problem “in a way that does not disrupt the growth of technology, does not weaken Internet security, and respects free speech rights.” And he doesn’t think SOPA fits the bill.
Erickson also opposes SOPA, and he is taking a more activist approach to the issue. In a Thursday blog post, he pledged to recruit primary challengers to run against conservatives who support SOPA.
“I love Marsha Blackburn (R-TN). She is a delightful lady and a solidly conservative member of Congress,” he wrote. However, because Blackburn is a SOPA cosponsor, Erickson pledged to “do everything in my power to defeat her in her 2012 re-election bid.”
Politico has other conservative bloggers voicing their opinions against the bill:
“If either the U.S. Senate’s Protect IP Act (PIPA) & the U.S. House’s Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA) become law, political blogs such as Red Mass Group [conservative] & Blue Mass Group [liberal] will cease to exist,” wrote a blogger at Red Mass Group.
[...]
“Of course, restrictions of results provided by Internet search engines amount to just that: prior restraint of their free expression of future results. Google and others, under SOPA, are told what they can or can’t publish before they publish it. Kill. The. Bill,” conservative blogger Neil Stevens argued at RedState.
Politico also reports that some of the corporate support for the bill is backing down. Last week, the domain registry GoDaddy.com lost more than 70,000 customers in a protest against its support for the bill, according to CNET. The domain hosting site has since changed its position on the bill.
Earlier this month, the House Judiciary committee was set to vote on the bill, but delayed said vote till the new year. Both Google and Wikipedia’s CEOs have spoken out strongly or considered strong action with their sites to protest SOPA.
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Louzon
Posted on December 31, 2011 at 12:48amI found this video that gives some very interesting background info on the bill. http://bit.ly/rFK4bz When you see which businesses are pushing it, it will scare you even more.
Report Post »dregstudios
Posted on December 28, 2011 at 8:47pmTwo frightening pieces of controversial legislation, SOPA and The NDAA only go to further stifle our Constitutional Rights without the approval of the Americans, just as the Patriot Act was adopted WITHOUT public approval or vote just weeks after the events of 9/11. A mere 3 criminal charges of terrorism a year are attributed to this act, which is mainly used for no-knock raids leading to drug-related arrests without proper cause for search and seizure. The laws are simply a means to spy on our own citizens and to detain and censor public opinion without trial or a right to council. You can read much more about living in this Orwellian society of fear and see my visual response to these measures on my artist’s blog at http://dregstudiosart.blogspot.com/2011/09/living-in-society-of-fear-ten-years.html
Report Post »xxkeepitsurrealxx
Posted on December 28, 2011 at 8:00pmstop Obama now before it’s to late!!!
Report Post »Delores at CH WV
Posted on December 28, 2011 at 2:45pmWe already have laws to deal with the issue of copyrights and patents. If the law needs updating, then, make the changes to fix this issue for those rights. Why does Congress think they have to make new laws to solve the same past problems?
Or, is Congress in league with the people who want to put our Constitution aside? I think the Constitution is very clear . . .Freedom of Speech. By giving any man/woman the right to shut down these Internet sites using the excuse of copyrights, patents and protecting us is a lame excuse to take other freedoms away. No one person should control the “kill switch” on the world’s freedoms that were given by GOD. I thought that We the People made important decisions; not a group in Congress whom are out to change the world with their International Agenda.
Congress needs to spend more time to reverse their mistakes in giving the President and future Presidents the right to become a Dictator. We no longer have a Justice Department or can rely on Homeland Security forces to protect us. They are all too busy fighting over money and power in the Elitist positions in government.
It is past time for Congress to do their jobs and stop these over-reaching policies and spend some time on creating non-government jobs and taking back our Justice and Security systems so most of us can sleep at night. I remember living under the Soviet Union threats. Now, Americans live under the threat from our US Justice/Security forces.Great Job!
Report Post »merchantsailor
Posted on December 28, 2011 at 3:43pmSorry It will be more than an election to change what has happened or will happen. These laws and regulations are coming faster and faster and we are being criminalized for every thing we do.
Report Post »11:11
Posted on December 28, 2011 at 11:51ami can understand that some bills are initiated in good intentions but they never remain that way and end up seizing liberties, the govt needs to mind their own ,they’ve got enough on their plate, how about focusing on the socialist in the wh and the downward spiral this country is headed
Report Post »SamIamTwo
Posted on December 28, 2011 at 7:15amYep, best to keep the Govt on cruise control…no need for more regulations…More regs simply causes a train wreck…tweak the outdated regulations and/or remove regs, remove govt agencies!!
A new law pops up, you then have to create a NEW regulation that meets the “INTENT” of said law, develop policies and procedures for implementation of the regulation, develop a method of tracking successful implementation, tweak it and employee thousands of more employees…train wreck!!!!!!
Report Post »SamIamTwo
Posted on December 28, 2011 at 7:17amUse the existing bloody law and tweak the existing bloody federal regulation with the existing employees!!!! That is, if it is really that important…
Report Post »Al J Zira
Posted on December 28, 2011 at 6:49amThe Stop Online Piracy Act, which supporters say would prevent copyright infringement on the Internet while opponents state it would lead to Internet censorship, is steadily gaining opposition by the conservatives, even though their party initiated the bill.
So the Republican Party is now another name for Progressives. I think we need to redefine the parties. They should be called the Progressive and the Conservative parties. This would show the contrast and help weed out the Rhinos.
Report Post »loriann12
Posted on December 28, 2011 at 7:19amLook up guided democracy. That is what America is becoming. The government pretends we have free elections, when in fact, they use propaganda and manipulation to get in office people who won’t make any changes. Party doesn’t matter anymore. They’re all establishment and doing everything they can to wear us down. Why do you think the nomination for President now takes about 2 years. They figure we will just vote for who they want us to so we can shut them up about all the political ads.
Report Post »grannyrecipe
Posted on December 28, 2011 at 5:24amThe internet is not public domain. When a person goes to a website on the internet they are experiencing nothing more than a private phone call with pictures. The Government should not be in the business of regulating ANYTHING about it. The internet is not like public airways or public streets. 99% of internet activity occurs on privately owned servers. Don’t let them get anywhere near regulating anything about our privacy (the internet) There are laws already that deal with piracy, child porn etc..they can use those laws to prosecute.
Report Post »TheePolitinator
Posted on December 28, 2011 at 5:24amlooks like 56k and private servers are making a come back.
Report Post »Wilbur D Pig
Posted on December 28, 2011 at 2:36amThey can sue you out of existance! That has worked well for scaring a bunch of MP3-pirating teens. Sure there are still issues with foreign contries, but perhaps some private company sanctions would help. Sure 1.2 billion Chinese consumers are a nice prize for any company, but if they are gonna reverse engineer everything and not abide by trade agreements, then I say we refuse to cater to them. Protect private property rights or no Chinese Google for you. If that is too hard a pill to swallow for your company, then consider having your intellectual property stolen a part of doing business in China.
Report Post »Jaycen
Posted on December 28, 2011 at 1:57amHey Liz Klimas,
I‘m not sure if you’re aware, but there is no “Conservative Party”. Perhaps you, like many leftist media commentators, unintentionally (yuk yuk) improperly conflated the Republican Party with Conservatism or Conservatives.
Perhaps you’ve never noticed a Liberal Republican, or a Conservative Democrat? It might be relatively rare, especially in the later case, but both happen. Please don’t feed into the Leftist meme that conservative=Republican and liberal=Democrat. If you’re willing to believe that, then you might believe anything, like Tea Party=Racist.
THIS is why I’ve stopped coming to The Blaze for my news. The site has taken a decidedly Left-ward slant.
Report Post »piper60
Posted on December 28, 2011 at 12:42amSOPA=Big Brother. Period.
Report Post »scrapadapolis
Posted on December 28, 2011 at 12:42amActually all government agencies have the back door codes provided to them by their counterparts in government.What do you think they do all day unbotch servers.Not crack software codes.
Report Post »jtm45
Posted on December 28, 2011 at 12:34amsopa lf passed, will be just the begining of “infringment” censorship just look how every state has infringed on the 2nd amendment,like chicago,where you still can not own a gun or nyc where only the mayor can.
Report Post »Ghandi was a Republican
Posted on December 28, 2011 at 12:34amExactly how is this going to stop foreign offenders? Screew Hollywood anyway- they are all for redistribution except when it come to their own perceived pockets! We already have the laws!
Report Post »jcannon98188
Posted on December 28, 2011 at 2:33amBecause under SOPA the US Government would demand that ALL ISP’s operating in the USA follow this rule in all countries that they operate. Considering how there are only 7 Major ISP’s and most operate in America it will pretty much censor the entire internet.
Report Post »The-Monk
Posted on December 28, 2011 at 12:15amThe “insider trading” Congress is worried about people stealing? Who’d a thunk it? I wonder how many of them have illegal software on their computers?
Report Post »Apple Bite
Posted on December 28, 2011 at 12:39amHa! HAHAHAHAHAHA!
According to an article from Maximum PC…
“According to TorrentFreak, it’s not just a file here and there, but over 800 copyrighted works being downloaded on U.S House IP addresses. YouHaveDownloaded.com doesn’t even track the vast majority of downloads online, so the actual number could be much higher. The pirated content runs the gamut from self-help books, to TV shows, to porn. Yes, some congressional aids have been busy indeed.”
Report Post »Maximum PC- Dec 27, 2011
http://www.maximumpc.com/article/news/us_house_downloading_torrents_while_pushing_sopa