<story><title>Protect IP Renamed E-Parasites Act; Would Create The Great Firewall Of America</title><url>http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20111026/12130616523/protect-ip-renamed-e-parasites-act-would-create-great-firewall-america.shtml</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>DanielBMarkham</author><text>The key point here, as another commenter pointed out, is &lt;i&gt;they are not going to give up.&lt;/i&gt;&lt;p&gt;You can win a battle here, perhaps rally around your congressman and get it killed, or petition the president to veto it, but it doesn&apos;t matter. They&apos;ll just be back again next year, and the next year, and the next.&lt;p&gt;This is the importance of constitutional amendments: they settle things on a broad scale exactly to prevent this kind of nipping (although it still happens, it just takes much longer time) We need an amendment or two around internet and computer freedom, specifically that computers are extensions of our minds, not machines to play content on, and that the internet is our primary form of political organization and persuasion, not a fancy telephone line.&lt;p&gt;I hate to be all doom-and-gloom, but I think that boat has sailed. The tech community &lt;i&gt;might&lt;/i&gt; get its act together, give up all social causes and form some kind of committee or group to push for such amendments, but I seriously doubt it. Half the community is in bed with big media and the other half are just as concerned with other issues as this one. We are not organized, coherent, or focused.&lt;p&gt;Just saw a great series on PBS, Ken Burns&apos; &quot;Prohibition&quot;. It was all about how focused groups can make big changes -- but it takes a long time. I don&apos;t see the kind of anger and outrage against this as we had against alcohol. Very sad, because this is a lot worse.</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>narrator</author><text>The reason they can continue to relentlessly push for it is because the paid lobbyists who are pushing for it are just doing their day job.  They can spend the rest of their lives at it. The public only has so much spare time.</text></comment>
<story><title>Protect IP Renamed E-Parasites Act; Would Create The Great Firewall Of America</title><url>http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20111026/12130616523/protect-ip-renamed-e-parasites-act-would-create-great-firewall-america.shtml</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>DanielBMarkham</author><text>The key point here, as another commenter pointed out, is &lt;i&gt;they are not going to give up.&lt;/i&gt;&lt;p&gt;You can win a battle here, perhaps rally around your congressman and get it killed, or petition the president to veto it, but it doesn&apos;t matter. They&apos;ll just be back again next year, and the next year, and the next.&lt;p&gt;This is the importance of constitutional amendments: they settle things on a broad scale exactly to prevent this kind of nipping (although it still happens, it just takes much longer time) We need an amendment or two around internet and computer freedom, specifically that computers are extensions of our minds, not machines to play content on, and that the internet is our primary form of political organization and persuasion, not a fancy telephone line.&lt;p&gt;I hate to be all doom-and-gloom, but I think that boat has sailed. The tech community &lt;i&gt;might&lt;/i&gt; get its act together, give up all social causes and form some kind of committee or group to push for such amendments, but I seriously doubt it. Half the community is in bed with big media and the other half are just as concerned with other issues as this one. We are not organized, coherent, or focused.&lt;p&gt;Just saw a great series on PBS, Ken Burns&apos; &quot;Prohibition&quot;. It was all about how focused groups can make big changes -- but it takes a long time. I don&apos;t see the kind of anger and outrage against this as we had against alcohol. Very sad, because this is a lot worse.</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>JoshTriplett</author><text>I agree with you about the persistence problem; the government acts like a rotten two-year-old that keeps trying until it gets its way.  Like a two-year-old, it learns what it can get away with and tries harder each time.  &lt;i&gt;Unlike&lt;/i&gt; a two-year-old, it doesn&apos;t grow up and learn what not to do.&lt;p&gt;We shouldn&apos;t need a constitutional amendment here; the constitution is a whitelist of things the federal government may do, not a blacklist of things it may not do.  While the constitution does sadly include the notion of copyright, it does not include anything allowing regulatory authority over the Internet.</text></comment>