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Al Gore Comes Out Against SOPA/PIPA
- lukejduncan 15y ago"This video has been removed by the user"
- joshuahedlund 15y agoI'm glad the subhead of the article made the joke we were all thinking as soon as we read the title on HN so none of us has to make it. Too bad it sounds like there's no actual proof that he's talking about SOPA/PIPA, although it would be pretty hard to argue otherwise. If true would Gore be the most notable politician to come out against these acts? (As much as some of us might wish otherwise, it's not all that notable for Ron Paul to come out against it.)
- danso 15y agoNo, of the current politicians, Nancy Pelosi is the most notable to come out against it: http://sopaopera.org/P000197/ http://sopaopera.org/P000197/ (entire list at http://sopaopera.org http://sopaopera.org) I'd also argue that Sen. Rand Paul is more prominent than Ron Paul because he's a Senator...at least in terms of real influence. He's 1 out of 100 votes; a filibuster of the Senate variant of SOPA needs 40 votes.
- nextparadigms 15y agoSenator Ron Wyden has already promised a filibuster for PIPA.
- chc 15y agoThe point is that without 40 more people on his side, they can just shut down Wyden's filibuster as soon as it starts.
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- igorgue 15y agoI mean, he invented the internet what else do you expect? :-)
- igorgue 15y agoThere's really no sense of humor here, guys! Downvote me here too! :-)
- fennecfoxen 15y agoPro tip: Humor is better-appreciated when it's FUNNY. :)
- sukuriant 15y agoThat's what she said :(
- scott_s 15y agoYou've been here for over two years, so I'm surprised you haven't learned that HN considers such posts to be noise.
- igorgue 15y agoI know, but I like to tease, thanks for looking at my profile!
- amichail 15y agoShouldn't creative people support SOPA? Is SOPA really a war between creative people and analytical people?
- fennecfoxen 15y agoWhy? It's not like ripping creative people off through piracy/whatever isn't already illegal...
- amichail 15y agoBut copyright enforcement needs to get stronger to give creative people a better chance of making a living from their creative work.
- weaksauce 15y agoTwo scenarios that I can see: Without SOPA: Let's pretend that there is an innovative site that is going to be made in a few years that allows people to submit things to it and sell. This site gives some creative person a chance to make a full living. (this is actually happening now in many places) With SOPA: Two options: Site either does not get created at all because of fear of creating sites that might cross SOPA at some point or this site gets taken fully off the internet because some other user on it posted some sort of infringing material for an indefinite period of time. in either case the creative person is out of luck with respect to making a living from their creative work.
- jiggy2011 15y agoAlthough you could argue that without some piracy control the creative person will just have their content ripped off anyway so can't make a full living.
- weaksauce 15y agoYou can argue that but it's not really true. There are controls already in place. Giving them the ability to take down whole domains without any mediation is way too much power. The world needs checks and balances. The smaller artists will not benefit from this because they are not able to police things at that level. The content producers need to make lawful content delivery a better experience than pirating things. I love steam because it makes things much easier to download, install and keep up to date. It's a better experience all around. I am all for taking down websites that are gross offenders but this legislation is like cutting off your foot because you stubbed your toe.
- jiggy2011 15y agoWhen I first saw the Al Gore headline I immediately thought of South Park and ManBearPig, but that made me think something like southpark (i.e a comedy that's not afraid to get a bit political) might be an excellent way to raise awareness of exactly this issue. Shame the law will probably have passed by the time they make a new season.
- gkoberger 15y agoIt seems likely the people creating South Park (and not just Trey and Matt) would be pro-SOPA. After all, most people in the entertainment sector see it as a threat. (Yes, we may argue that South Park is popular because of the Internet.. but it's entirely likely they'd see it a different way.)
- jiggy2011 15y agoThat is possible. However southpark does not usually represent establishment thinking. I remember they did an episode years ago about Napster and they were quite critical of the RIAA position on it. They would probably have some point like "these laws are bad , but if you don't want people trying to pass them then you should stop pirating stuff"
- holman 15y agoA quick Googling didn't turn up anything, but I'd be shocked if Matt and Trey supported SOPA. Comedy Central, maybe, but not them. Allegedly from the South Park Studios FAQ: (http://www.idealog.us/2006/10/matt_and_trey_w.html http://www.idealog.us/2006/10/matt_and_trey_w.html): > Matt and Trey do not mind when fans download their episodes off the Internet; they feel that it’s good when people watch the show no matter how they do it.
- redthrowaway 15y agoMatt and Trey are actually pretty strong libertarians, so I doubt they'd support it on ideological grounds. Source(s): http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/South_Park_Republican http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/South_Park_Republican http://www.libertarianism.com/pop_celebrity/trey-parker http://www.libertarianism.com/pop_celebrity/trey-parker
- MagicClam 15y agoThe video is no longer working.
- jjoe 15y agoHe's to be commended for making SOPA's "unintended" consequences easy to understand for the masses. He essentially came up with the best argument as to why SOPA should not be passed (i.e. internet censorship in Tunis and Egypt at the height of the Arab Spring).
- tux1968 15y agoStage two of this whole SOPA initiative is telegraphed quietly within the Al Gore speech: "As in all things, some compromise must be possible." I've believed for quite some time that SOPA itself was never really seriously thought to be passable by anyone. Rather just an extreme first salvo to make the next set of oppressive measures seem like a reasonable compromise in comparison.
- cal5k 15y agoAh, herein lies the genius of experienced lobbyists. It's straight from the regulatory capture playbook - in Canada, for example, telecoms know they need to approach the CRTC (which regulates telecommunications) with an extreme list of demands so that they can negotiate down to their desired items while making it seem like a compromise has been reached. I think the only right way to do it is in reverse... start with a list of idealized demands from a citizen/consumer point of view, then let industry push back on the really egregious items until an actual compromise has been reached.
- darasen 15y agoTrevor Strong of the Arrogant Worms thanked me for downloading their music. Of course downloading the music made me a big enough fan of theirs to drive 300 miles to see them in concert as well as buying several CDs there. I also introduced many people to their music. Point being I think many artist are open(ish) about sharing music (for example). It does seem things like SOPA come from far larger groups like the RIAA.