> With all the opinions and attention being thrown around the internet, what is the real chance this will go through?
I made a comment about this yesterday and in that comment referenced the "Dear Internet" blog post: this is the problem, the mindset that making a lot of noise on the Internet is going to sway Congress is dead wrong. What makes you think Congress has any idea whatsoever that there are throngs of people on the Internet who vehemently oppose it? You already know Congress is seemingly incompetent when it comes to writing legislation about the Internet so what makes you think they'd be any more knowledgable about opinions on the Internet? The short answer is: they aren't. You should be worried and you should seek traditional means (write, call, get in touch with your rep and senators) of ensuring your opinion on the matter is understood. Our best bet is to encourage the education of Congress about the Internet so we can get favorable legislation passed because as it sits, no it's not so insane (in their eyes) that Congress won't pass it.
This relies on the assumption that congress cares what the people think. As long as the people don't pay large campaign contributions their voices are thoroughly meaningless to their 'representatives'.
As long as bribery is legal (by jumping through hoops and not calling it bribery) the big corporate interests, the ones who've already got sweet deals from government, are unstoppable.
Our democracy is the problem. The idea of voting once every so often for a representative means that we only get one very vague control into the system every few years whereas a company bribing politicians gets literally millions of times more power.
This is exactly the problem. No one thought the DMCA or COPA or CIPA or CDA would pass either. They all did. They didn't pass because they were good for the country, they passed because of the considerable lobby weight behind them.
SOPA and PIA are getting the same treatment. While it may be true that we still have a chance to influence our legislators, it's important to keep in mind that the lobbies haven't really started to work on members outside of the congressional committees yet either.
I made a comment about this yesterday and in that comment referenced the "Dear Internet" blog post: this is the problem, the mindset that making a lot of noise on the Internet is going to sway Congress is dead wrong. What makes you think Congress has any idea whatsoever that there are throngs of people on the Internet who vehemently oppose it? You already know Congress is seemingly incompetent when it comes to writing legislation about the Internet so what makes you think they'd be any more knowledgable about opinions on the Internet? The short answer is: they aren't. You should be worried and you should seek traditional means (write, call, get in touch with your rep and senators) of ensuring your opinion on the matter is understood. Our best bet is to encourage the education of Congress about the Internet so we can get favorable legislation passed because as it sits, no it's not so insane (in their eyes) that Congress won't pass it.