This is amusing as SOPA would lead to the shutdown of sites like Twitter:
A marathon debate today in the House of Representatives on the Stop Online Piracy Act wasn’t derailed by procedural questions, even though not one hearing had been held on how the law would actually work.
It wasn’t derailed by questions about SOPA’s substance, even though legal scholars and technologists have said it could suppress free speech by virtually deleting Web sites accused of copyright infringement.
Instead, today’s markup of SOPA in the House Judiciary committee was derailed by a snarky post on Twitter.
The tweet in question came from Rep. Steve King (R-Iowa), a pro-gun, anti-abortion conservative who wrote that: “We are debating the Stop Online Piracy Act and Shiela Jackson [sic] has so bored me that I’m killing time by surfing the Internet.”
In case you’ve forgotten, Congress is still trying to censor the Internet in a misguided effort to end online piracy. Unfortunately, it seems this bill will reach the floor of Congress.
What else would one think coming from Sheliea Jackon' lips ?
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseHa ha ha, snark snark.
Twitter could not be more comprehensively irrelevant to debates over online piracy.
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseEloris,
If a copyright holder complains that "a website" is hosting copyrighted materials without authorization, they can file a complaint under SOPA and have the site blacklisted by Internet service providers. That could mean Twitter (or YouTube, or a much smaller web business) is effectively shut down without due process. Twitter has the money to hire lawyers to get a restraining order and appeal. Lots of Web businesses don't.
Assurances that a law is not *intended* to do what its words allow never convince me that it won't be used that way.
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