So the Tweedledum and Tweedledee of copyright maximalist legislation, SOPA and PIPA, have been halted in their passage through the US legislative process. Of course, they're not dead, but are sure to return, zombie-like, either as modified versions of the current texts or new ones that turn out to be exactly the same as the old ones at their heart. However, the unprecedented action by the Net world to get the message across that these bills were not fit for purpose does mean that our attention can swivel back to somewhere else where bad things are happening: ACTA.
On Open Enterprise blog.
Although it would be great to think that "the Internet" (or presumably all "the people" that make up the Internet) moved the U.S. Congress to drop SOPA (and PIPA), it's more likely that the strength of the online fight against the legislation was due to the large organizations the run things here.
ReplyDeleteWithout their support, it's not as likely that an online movement will succeed.
Anthony
Killing SOPA and PIPA: Did "The People" (or You?) Really Make a Difference?
well, I agree they helped; but arguably the critical one was wikipedia, which is a non-profit dedicated to building a knowledge commons through collaboration...so in a sense it is part of the Internet world
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