Serious question: Did this protest today do a damn bit of good?

[Archae]

SOPA and it's bastard kid in the Senate are not dead.

The people who so desperately want SOPA are throwing millions of $$$ around.

Call me cynical, but I have my doubts.

[annabanana]

1. Oh they will try again.. when they think we're

not paying attention. But I can hear DC backpedaling from here.

[dimbear]

2. Maybe not dead yet, but congresscritters running for cover.

Got their attention.

[seabeyond]

3. maybe if google had done more than just covered their name. think what would have happened if

google was down today.

[ohheckyeah]

9. Google's

"protest" was about the wimpiest protest I've ever seen. It was just damn pathetic but not surprising.

Even Wordpress had a plugin that would redirect blogs to the SOPA protest page so many Wordpress blogs were down.

[seabeyond]

19. it was pretty bad. after seeing du down (i didnt know beforehand), when i saw google covered

i figured google was down, too.

lol

nope

[The Straight Story]

4. SOPA, PIPA lose support from lawmakers on Capitol Hill amid blackout (Six U.S. lawmakers)

http://www.washingtonpost.com/business/six-us-lawmakers-abandon-anti-piracy-bills-as-google-protests/2012/01/18/gIQAzBHz8P_story.html?tid=pm_business_pop

[pnorman]

23. SOPA info---Thanks I needed that!

n/t

[JI7]

5. early on in the day i think there were 3 supporters who changed their minds

and are now against it.

but it certainly brings attention. places like DU can get those who are already involved in politics to use what they would already do on this issue.

but Google, Craigslist, WIki etc are sites used by non political types who don't follow politics at all . so i think those were the ones that probably will make a big difference.hopefully.

[peacebird]

6. I think the outcry shook Congress to their core. They did NOT expect this. We may not have stopped i

But the bills are on life support.... And the congress is walking around stunned.

[SecurityManager]

7. Bans happened

Unthinking youths of thousands of internet gaming/music/entertainment sites today lost all rights to post in forums.

Most of these forums carry no political talk warnings hell even some hunting forums I visit were banning people left and right.

Thanks "going dark" I am a moderator of one and 16 separate emails I had to explain SOPA was indeed a political subject.

[NCTraveler]

8. I think that it elevated the issue to a level....

I think that it elevated the issue to a level that frightens a lot of people in congress. The protest increased coverage and education about the issue. That can never be a bad thing.

[bigwillq]

10. It seems like some lawmakers are going to change their minds

That's pretty good, and it seems like it's because of today's ban.

[Raine]

11. According to Rachel it did. Rachel said

that several Senators dropped their support of the bill.

[ddeclue]

12. well it scared the be-Jesus out of Marco Rubio...

His Senate website melted down!

[TalkingDog]

13. Here's your answer: PIPA support collapses, with 13 new Senators opposed

http://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/news/2012/01/pipa-support-collapses-with-13-new-opponents-in-senate.ars

The newly-opposed Senators are skewed strongly to the Republican side of the aisle. An Ars Technica survey of Senators' positions on PIPA turned up only two Democrats, Ben Cardin (D-MD) and Jeff Merkley (D-OR), who announced their opposition on Wednesday. The other 11 Senators who announced their opposition on Wednesday were all Republicans. These 13 join a handful of others, including Jerry Moran (R-KS), Rand Paul (R-KY), Mark Warner (D-VA), and Ron Wyden (D-OR), who have already announced their opposition.

Marco Rubio, a freshman Republican Senator from Florida who some consider to be a rising star, withdrew his sponsorship of the bill, citing "legitimate concerns about the impact the bill could have on access to the Internet and about a potentially unreasonable expansion of the federal government's power to impact the Internet." He urged the Senate to "avoid rushing through a bill that could have many unintended consequences."

snip

The partisan slant of the defections is surprising because copyright has not traditionally been considered a partisan issue. Before Wednesday's protests, PIPA had 16 Republican co-sponsors and 23 Democratic ones. The bill lost a quarter of its Republican sponsors on Wednesday, while we know of only one Democrat, Ben Cardin (D-MD), who dropped his support.

Those who dropped their support were most likely bolstered by strong opposition from conservative think tanks and blogs. On Tuesday, the influential Heritage Foundation announced that it would include SOPA and PIPA as a key issue on its voter scorecard. And the popular conservative blog redstate.com, whose founder threatened to mount primary challengers to SOPA supporters last month, has been hailing Senators who come out in opposition.

[joshcryer]

15. Nice. Good job everyone.

I felt bad for calling Mark Udall's office only to be told that he was against SOPA: http://markudall.senate.gov/?p=blog&id=1909

[Yo_Mama]

14. At the very minimum it alerted millions to the legislation

Whether that will prove effective in stopping it is another question, but it was probably a very highly effective way to get the message across.

[Luminous Animal]

17. Yep. The protest catapulted the issues to the MSM news.

[PeaceNikki]

16. Yes.

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/01/19/technology/web-protests-piracy-bill-and-2-key-senators-change-course.html?_r=1

[treestar]

18. I don't think any of us even know what the problem is

There are conclusions like "limits free speech," but so far I've seen nothing from the bill. Another "death panel" case very possibly.

The main problem is that it would cost you-tube and others too much:

http://money.cnn.com/2012/01/17/technology/sopa_explained/index.htm

Sites like YouTube, which publishes millions of user-uploaded videos each week, are worried that they would be forced to more closely police that content to avoid running afoul of the new rules.
"YouTube would just go dark immediately," Google public policy director Bob Boorstin said at a conference last month. "It couldn't function."

[Stinky The Clown]

20. The fat lady is still taking lozanges for her pipes, expecting to sing soon.

I think We The People may have won this one. More senators shifted today, including some bill sponsors. Given the wide support - left AND right - among ordinary people, this was a Storm-in-Training that the Vanguard of Cowards (aka the Senate) didn't want to face. Even that fuckwad from South Carolina. Jim DimWit, said he's against it.

[RoccoR5955]

21. The ONLY way that anything good happens in the world

Is when people get off their asses and do something. This was something today. They got over four million people to sign petitions against these bills. If we keep up the heat on them, they will have no choice but to kill the bills.
It's just how things are done. They either buy the politicians until people get up and start throwing fits, then the elected officials start listening.
Haven't you been following the current political dialogue, and OWS?

[blogslut]

22. Yes.

However, we should always be vigilant and stand against these oppressive, greedy cudgels aimed at Internet freedom. Clueless legislators will forever be swayed by the fear-filled buzzwords spoken by greedy lobbyists and corporate fund-monsters. SOPA and PIPA will be reconfigured and introduced again.