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AFL-CIO and Big Content Advocate For SOPA
Weezul writes "Today's House Judiciary Committee meeting on the Stop Online Piracy Act excluded any witnesses who advocate for civil rights. Google's Katherine Oyama was the only witness to object to the bill in a meaningful way. In particular, the AFL-CIO's Paul Almeida advocated for the internet blacklist, saying 'the First Amendment does not protect stealing goods off trucks.'"
Laying all that fibre, installing servers, manning phones at the offices of *AA attorneys, etc.
A feeling of having made the same mistake before: Deja Foobar
LOL! American Freedom!
Seems like the only legal option is to vote these jackasses out of office... but IMO we seem painted in a corner: people won't vote for third party candidates, and both major parties are clearly deep in the pocket of the *IAAs and industry.
What is your position on Captain Picard stationed on the Enterprise replicating the Earl Gray Tea leaves off of your trucks?
Thank you.
The right to download a car.
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> the AFL-CIO's Paul Almeida advocated for the internet blacklist, saying 'the First Amendment does not protect stealing goods off trucks'"
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Why should one be allowed to steal stuff ?
I'm tired of trying to follow the law within reason. They don't want to play nice, neither will I. I'm off to the store to buy a couple of boxes of DVDs and blurays and I'm going to start giving them away to people I know and ask them to pass more forward. I'm going to pirate like there's no tomorrow because even when I try to play nice they want to screw up the internet. We gave them all the tools to do away with what they deemed inappropriate use of their works and now they want more. No more Mr nice guy. You asked for it. I hope you guys do the same. Pirate for people you know. Money is the only language these idiots understand(the *AAs, not your family).
the AFL-CIO's Paul Almeida advocated for the internet blacklist, saying 'the First Amendment does not protect stealing goods off trucks'
He's quite right. It has fuck all to do with SOPA and its associated discussions, but he's right.
LOL! American Denial!
There was also an op-ed by Rebecca MacKinnon in the NY Times: "Stop the Great Firewall of America". Unfortunately behind their paywall, but may be accessible through a Google search?
Here's a site to quickly push a complaint to those who need your votes:
American Censorship.org
Think we can Slashdot it?
"By the time they had diminished from 50 to 8, the other dwarves began to suspect 'Hungry.'" -Gary Larson
"'the First Amendment does not protect stealing goods off trucks'" .... by AFL-CIO members !!!
Yours In Ashgabat,
K. Trout
In particular, the AFL-CIO's Paul Almeida advocated for the internet blacklist, saying 'the First Amendment does not protect stealing goods off trucks'"
That's ok, we're stealing off Tubes, not Trucks.
The governance may not punish imprision or fine a person or entitity without a trial.
so long as the everybody on the blacklist has been found guilty of illegal copyright violation in a trial by jury I'm ok, with that, otherwise the law needs to go.
The AFL CIO leadership has show itself in the last few years to be little more than a group of high-priced whores.
I support the unions. But they suffer from the same leadership crisis our broader society labors under.
the First Amendment does not protect stealing goods off trucks
Yeah, true. But there are several points to consider that I feel make the quoted statement utterly fallacious. First, an accusation of theft isn't immediately punished; guilt has to be proven first. Second, theft of a physical object means that the original owner loses the object. In the case of a piece of digital property, the original holder hasn't lost possession of anything. The content-creation industry's obsession with immediate punishment before investigation doesn't make sense. It violates the due process rights of the accused for no legally-sound reason. It allows for corporate actions to replace proper review by the judicial system....and it's a short-sidedly, seemingly-logical extension of a content-holder's desire to maximize revenue.
It is pitch black. You are likely to be eaten by a grue.
Does anyone else think this was a poor analogy? I thought everyone knew by know that the internet isn't a big truck. It's a series of tubes. Maybe she can come back with an analogy that includes those tubes at the bank drive through or something.
the internet is not a truck. It's a series of tubes.
Solution. Use a botnet to spam every member of congress with pirated pr*n links.
Make the buggers pick one and stick to it. The media should be having a field day with how often they flip backing and forth when it suits their need, but I suspect they are picking sides. Only once that has been defined can a real discussion about how media should be treated could possibly begin.
Why not vote for who you want rather than the lesser of two evils?
Every now and then we try that. The most recent example was in 2000, when enough people voted for Ralph Nader to decide the election.
I will point out that the "lesser of two evils" is a false dichotomy. If you wait for November next year, yeah, that's what it comes to. If you want more choices, get active in the parties -- the people who actually put in the work year in and year out have a lot more leverage than those whose whole involvement amounts to checking a few lines on a ballot.
Lacking <sarcasm> tags,
The Media companies NEED the US gove to pass laws that help them stay alive at the same time the US gov NEEDS US made music and movies to keep the masses entertained while they sneak in censorship laws with each anti piracy bill that is passed.
by TheSpoom (715771) Uncaring Linux user here. I have nothing to add to this but please continue. *munches popcorn*
either. yet paul, you are there, blabbering and whoring for your leash holders.
Read radical news here
Remember the proposed legislation mandating DRM TCPA chips on all computers years ago? Someone on slashdot linked the senate's website and contact info. It died. :-)
So instead of whinning let your senators know how you feel?
Their website is here for the American Slashdot readers. Don't know who your senators are? There is a list here including an email link.
Calling your senator is effective as well.
When contacting your senator do not mention you want to dowload illegal material or that you are just angry and think it is unfair. Mention you work in the I.T. field and are worried about negative implications and liabilitiy risks for non copyrighted or infringement uses that this bill could be abused. Mention it would harm Google's youtube service costing American jobs as they would move overseas. This bill would be costly and could cost American innovation and jobs. Mention we already have existing copyright laws in force and sites like youtube already remove copyrighted or infrindged material in a timely manner and this is nothing but a power grab.
If your senator is a democrats mention your worried about the power grab by the media companies will harm competition. If your senator is a republican mention this would increase government intervention and regulation as it would cost well into the billions of dollars of tax payer money to fund this etc. You all can be creative.
Someone mod this up for the links. I just made it easier for everyone to spend 5 minutes telling your representative how you feel. Remember if you do not pick your voice the RIAA/MPAA will. If all they hear is the RIAA/MPAA then they will vote for the bill as it shows we don't care and like being fucked over. Do your duty.
using Democratic Egalitarian Clubs: http://sociology.ucsc.edu/whorulesamerica/change/science_egalitarians.html
He suggests to run progressive candidates in the primaries.
His big picture:
http://sociology.ucsc.edu/whorulesamerica/change/science_freshstart.html
"The failures of the American left are not in its egalitarian values, but in the means it uses to realize those values. This document suggests the strategies the left could follow in the United States if it took the findings of the social sciences more seriously than it currently does. There are links throughout to other documents on this site that provide greater depth on specific topics, and an annotated bibliography at the end."
A 21st century issue: the irony of technologies of abundance in the hands of those still thinking in terms of scarcity.
I'm just gonna throw this one out there... mostly because it's obnoxious.
http://www.reverserobocall.com/
Politicians robocall you. Now you can robocall them.
Welcome to the Robocall Revolution. We believe that voters should have access to the same technology political groups use to get their message across; so we built a simple web-based robocall tool to literally give citizens back their voice in the political discourse. What better way to exercise your rights to to speech, than to actually speak truth to power?
ReverseRobocall.com provides voters an easy way to communicate with one or hundreds of politicians or political groups using the same technology politicians use, the robocall or automated phone call.
"You want to know how to help your kids? Leave them the fuck alone." -George Carlin
A license gives you bounded permission to use someone else's property. Someone has to have a proprietary interest before they can provide someone else a license, so the "property or license" dichotomy you suggest that someone needs to "pick one and stick to it" is nonsense. For their to be a license, there must be property.
Are they still running with the internet is a truck metaphor?
AFL-CIO no longer represents the workers
Ever since the mid 1980's, AFL-CIO has changed into AFL-CEO
Muchas Gracias, Señor Edward Snowden !
if media piracy was stealing off trucks at red lights in traffic, the law and cops could stop it. like they could stop the Chinese copy shops if China got on board.
the issue is the hearts and minds of the public in the face of a continuous history in recorded media of all kinds of the corporations ripping off the artists, and changing up formats all the time to rip off the customers.
at base is this... a customer can buy a license to use a work for their own purposes... and under fair use provisions of the copyright act, convert that to any other format, as long as they don't sell the copies, and destroy them all if the genuine licensed original is transferred. greedheads want to take that away, and even prevent you from using your licensed copy after X amount of time.
stop that nonsense, and things might change.
NostrilDrippus Predicts! (tm) that artists are going to go on the Internet themselves to peddle their works, and the MafIAA is going to wither and die for their sins.
if this is supposed to be a new economy, how come they still want my old fashioned money?
I thought Ted Stevens established for Congress a long time ago that the internet wasn't a big truck?
...In particular, the AFL-CIO's Paul Almeida advocated for the internet blacklist, saying 'the First Amendment does not protect stealing goods off trucks'" Isn't this guy just incriminating himself of a crime? Isn't that how the Syndicates operate? "Oh, it just fell off a truck". I remember when I lived in a free country where rights and liberties were protected. It is a sad shame our society is heading in such a wrong direction.
It's worth noting that the press (right now) seems to be running headlines to the tune of "Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA) sparks backlash from Facebook, Google". Average folks online get a lot of 'news' from Facebook and the Google news aggregation.
As I understand it, I need only send a "take-down" notice indicating a site is infringing on my trademark. The DNS must then be blocked and the site owner must be notified of the blockage. The site owner may then send a counter-notice claiming it should remain unblocked. If the site owner sends a counter-notice the site is unblocked and the matter is referred to the courts. If the site owner does not respond with a counter-notice the site remains blocked.
If I am correct, what is stopping me from drafting a "take-down" notice stating that I own the trademark for MPAA.org? RIAA.org? whitehouse.gov?
Would this not automatically force the specific site off-line until they produce a counter-notice?
goodbye Internet it was nice knowing you
---Saying gnome 3 is better than windows 8 not so much a compliment as it is damning with light praise.
The text of goates posts.
You can't explain that!
"People don't want to learn linux" hasn't been a valid excuse since '03.
In my country, Brazil, there's a pervasive presence of US and UK music.
We seldom can hear anything outside English and Portuguese. Brazilian music is ok, US and UK not bad, but frankly... there's a world out there.
I've been hearing music online and I must say Hindi and Russian music are very pleasant, Chinese can be surprisingly good (regarding the melody, I have no idea about the lyrics) and Japanese people can actually put out great music in a variety of styles -- since anime shows need a sound track -- some have even better music than plot!
If you have great music, come and open a sales point in Brazil. We love music here and most of us can't understand a single word of English... and yet we love to sing and dance. Come without RIAA and MPAA and we'll love you much, much more. ;-P
Let's make a case before US and UK song owners that RIAA, MPAA, distributors and labels are bad for business; maybe then we can return to good old times when art people were loved for what they used to have: talent.
Is anyone really surprised that a union activist would want to place limits on free speech. Freedom is inconvenient to the socialists.
an ill wind that blows no good
Instead of posting to the choir, do something that matters.
Send a dead-tree fax to your congressman.
Most of them don't give a rat's posterior about volumes of email messages. Send a real fax to your local congresscritter in your own state. Most have their local fax numbers available via their links at http://www.house.gov/representatives/ . Posting here and on other sites frequented by those of us who actually understand how bad the censorship will be won't do ANYTHING. Send a polite fax to your congressman's home (not in DC) office - even congressmen can count faxes.
-Jeff
FTA: 'the First Amendment does not protect stealing goods off trucks'
Doesn't it? And also the ass whooping that follows it, I mean.
When have they ever lost?
It may not be clear to a lot of readers but Google is already considered a bad boy. Not just for "promoting" piracy. The far right wing is angry at Google for several reasons and Glenn Beck has advocated for a boycott of Google. Ie, supposedly it supports homosexual rights, censors right wing news, etc.
So it is no surprise at all that chairman Lamar Smith from the far right wing was so openly hostile to Google during the proceedings.
Do you wish your trolling powers were put to better use than simply trolling the already crappy /. messages threads? If so, there is an opportunity for you on the AFL-CIO blog!
The Christian religion has been and still is the principal enemy of moral progress in the world. -- Bertrand Russell
First time I saw this I thought it said 'Stop Online Privacy Act'. Funny old world, this.
You sure it wasn't the Teamsters? They'd know all about that.
Get off my launchpad!
It's in the Republicans' DNA to attack civil rights and to support their moneyed sugar daddies.
I don't see them holding the House next year so SOPA may well be watered down in a year or so if it passes during this session. Here's to hoping, anyway.
CUR ALLOC 20195.....5804M
Why was the first thing I thought of was mobbed up unions and Robert De Niro in Goodfellas?
Except for ending slavery, the Nazis, communism, & securing American independence, war has never solved anything.
I'd hope the AFL-CIO would shape up if enough members threatened to quit.
Well they've had players quit before. I dont see what the CIO can do about that when keeping players is up to the clubs.
What, we aren't talking about the Australian Football League's Chief Information Officer?
Calling someone a "hater" only means you can not rationally rebut their argument.
Were the one who disperately argue the indiscriminate kill of all non-Federal employee USA citizens.
Hitelers ovens are being stoked.
-
The AFL-CIO is the equivalent of the mafia, and has been for at least 40 years now.
Like any organization, unions are fine until they get too powerful. After they reach a certain size, it's all about the interests of the few people controlling the union - and screw the little guy.
In this case, you can bet there have been some back-room deals between the AFL-CIO and the media companies - and the union leaders have fatter bank accounts as a result.
Enjoy life! This is not a dress rehearsal.
$subject says it all, really.
Bunch of greedy idiots.
Of course there are! Any 'little' person accused of abusing the system will be jailed and/or fined into oblivion, while any important person caught repeatedly abusing the system too much will be told that maybe they shouldn't do that as much, but gently as we wouldn't want to hurt their feelings.
Okay, if that's the analogy, would it be okay to block off streets, put up barbed wire, employ 24/7 helicopter and drone surveillance, stop any and everyone in a city and ask "papers, please", and force people to have a government-issued "fruit license" and purchase receipts to prove that the apple they are carrying is "legal" and not stolen? If people can't do this, then they shouldn't be carrying around potentially "unlicensed" fruit, such as fruit they grew at home themselves.
At what point do the efforts to stop fruit stealing start to intrude on basic rights? Are these guys really saying the sky is the limit for enforcement? Accepting that the principle is to "stop stealing" (leaving aside the distinction that this is copying, not stealing in the conventional sense), even the police dealing with physical stealing have limits placed on what they do, and there is due process to follow if people are accused, arrested, charged, and eventually put on trial. Even accused and eventually convicted criminals still have rights.
Any sane person would find the analogy flawed, or at least a poor fit to what is being proposed. I mean, essentially this law will flip the onus to prove what you have provided is "legal", rather than copyright owners who think their material has been infringed having to show that A) it's their material, and B) that it is improperly used (e.g., "fair use" doesn't apply). If that isn't reversing a century of copyright law principle, I don't know what it. It's going to be hugely disruptive and tilts the equation much too far in favor of content creators rather than users (i.e. even further than it is tilted already).
The internet is not a big truck. It's a series of tubes.
Those damned greedy stupid Republican/Conservative unions...oh.
In Swedish "sopa" means "piece of trash".
The first amendment doesn't block trucks carrying your goods either.
The first amendment doesn't pay for the locks on your trucks.
The first amendment doesn't prevent you from plastering your company logo on the side your trucks.
The first amendment doesn't prevent you from buying the brand of truck you prefer.
The first amendment doesn't apply when someone else tries to block your traffic.
It does apply when someone tries to place duct tape over your mouth and then charge you for the service.
What a maroon.
Would love to send a takedown notice and have all of the congressional pages taken down as a result but if history is any indicator they would bake in an exemption for themselves.
The EFF has a helpful dialog:
https://wfc2.wiredforchange.com/o/9042/p/dia/action/public/?action_KEY=8173
the First Amendment does not protect stealing goods off trucks.
I do agree since one is about speech and the other about stealing 'hard' goods, but what the hell does that have to do with anything based on reality?
---- Booth was a patriot ----
...in about 20 minutes. Just think how the right wing treats unions. I see a lot of people talking a bunch of BS on here. Unions' power to strike is what got USA the 40-hour work week, and overtime pay. Unions helped get coal mine safety, so that killing 20 miners is big news instead of same-old routine of mining. Unions helped pass OSHA - which keeps dangerous tools and methods out of the work place.
It's pretty easy to make a good case that unions are responsible for the rise of the middle class in America, and the lack of union power lately is clearly associated with mis-treatment of workers and the decline of the middle class. Wal-Mart locks over night re-stockers in the store so they can't steal. Then a guy got hurt in a forklift accident, and it took hours to get a manager to open the door so the paramedics could load him into an ambulance. Not a union shop!
There probably are crooks in unions, just like in banks, brokerage houses (Lehman Brother, anyone?) the cops (in NYC they busted cops for illegal gun trading, letting off coke dealers and DUI offenders for small bribes - just like Rio, huh?) and everywhere else in society.
Even doctors sometimes steal from Medicare or any private health insurance company you care to name. The current governor of Florida ran United HealthCare when it was forced to repay hundreds of millions of dollars for phony billing! No one suggests doing away with banks or medicine, why on earth would we do away with the one thing that gives ordinary workers the ability to negotiate one-on-one with managers?
The bill will allow the RNC to shut down union web sites in a heart beat. That's what this is all about, protecting currently powerful political and commercial movers from the threat of the internet to allow people to organize, whether political or commercial. Tallk about a boycott. Drop your web site. Put a fork in you, you're done.