Posted on 11/21/2010 5:15:07 PM PST by NoLibZone
The Combating Online Infringement and Counterfeits Act passed unanimously through the Senate Judiciary Committee this Thursday, but fortunately didn’t get much further. Oregonian Senator Ron Wyden exercised his power to place a hold on pending legislation to stop the bill from traveling to the senate floor, saying that
Deploying this statute to combat online copyright infringement seems almost like using a bunker-busting cluster bomb, when what you need is a precision-guided missile.
His hold will prevent the bill passing out of committee this year; proponents of the bill will have to wait until the next time Congress convenes, and then try to reintroduce the measure.
If passed, the bill would allow the US Attorney General to seek judicial permission to order the shut down of any infringing domain name, where “infringing” means allowing access to anything that they don’t have the rights to. But wait, it gets better! If the site is not located in the US, it would also allow the USAG to get permission to tell ISPs, financial service providers, and advertisers to stop providing service to that domain. And, it would create two lists: one of sites that the AG has ordered taken down, which ISPs, financial services, and advertisers would be required to boycott; and one of sites that the AG has alleged are infringing, the boycotting of which would earn ISPs, financial services, and advertisers immunity from prosecution under the bill.
Regardless of your personal stance on files sharing, if you are a user of the internet, you should be able to see that this bill set an alarming precedent for the way our government responds to civil disputes in the online realm. It also makes no effort to allow otherwise infringing sites to distribute data that does not infringe. Could the bill, for example, allow the AG to shut down YouTube because users upload copyrighted content? Not to mention the potential use of the AG’s new powers for political reasons.
How about lobbyists? Is he in someone’s back pocket?
Frankly, I'm hoping it's one of two things: Either a bias toward protecting private property rights that in this case is simply mistaken, or a trade for a vote that was really important while simultaneously believing that this bill will never make it in its current form.
Either way, we won't know unless he tells us, and even then we may not know.
Inhofe being on the list surprises me.
Ah, you are very wise, Grasshopper.
I was wondering why a RAT like Wyden (he even looks like a rat) would do something like this.
This is going to be done stealthily.
imhfe voted for it, so he’s lumped in with others who voted for it
I agree.
Your right on that one!! Feinstein needs to pack her bags!
Every once in a while that guy really does surprise me. Not often, but it does happen...
Wyden? The senator who supports abortion (100% NARAL rating). The senator who supports homosexual marriage. The senator who favors gun control.
I'm sorry but the wrong stance on these key issues makes Ron Wyden just a typical democrat scumbug in my book. Nothing he does can atone for how he violates Core Conservative Principles.
The “INO” got dropped from all the “R” labels on your list.
I hope to god we get rid of any congressman who is gullible enough to believe that any 'rat sponsored legislation beyond naming a post office building, is innocuous. If it's important enough for them to push it, it's not innocuous.
I’ve found that Wyden has been an enigma during all of his years in D.C., but especially since he’s been a Senator.
I’ll wait to see what happens...
This entire group can put their homes in DC up for sale. They are on the list of goners.
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