Politicians back down on piracy law following web protest

Well, that's a BS report.

Didn't think I'd see PC Pro spinning a story.

At the very most, you can say, "Some politicians have changed their declared position to align themselves with their perception of public opinion." There is no evidence that politicians have actually 'backed down' at all, or that the intent of the bills are not to be progressed. Indeed, there is evidence that it is still full steam ahead.

By mbassoc on 19 Jan 2012

@mbassoc

I'd agree that cynicism is warranted but one undeniable benefit to yesterday's action is that it has shown some US politicians who were previously in thrall to the Hollywood vested interests that there are two sides to the piracy story.

I'm sure that it had previously been promoted as a black and white matter with these acts 'obviously' the way to go.

I suspect that a lot of politicians will have had their eyes opened to at least some extent.

By qpw3141 on 19 Jan 2012

Yes, but....

US laws are drafted, written and brought into constute, by money alone. Not as a process of democracy. The US government is not there to represent the interests of the US people, but to represent the interests of US corporations, and by default then, the employees of those corporations (ergo the US public).

So, policy in the US is both written and carried by lobby groups, and those groups fail or succeed solely on the grounds of how much financial backing they have (from corporations) and how much they have to spend (to pay the politicians for their support).

You just need to look at the Mickey Mouse laws that were passed on the back of the Disney Corporations funding pof the laws to see how it works. There are laws in the US that have practically zero support, and even laws that are against the US constitution and have paid to have US Supreme Court Judges rule that the constitution should be set aside in this instance, that have been passed on the back of enough funding.

This is not a good sign at all. It means that the politicians and the lobby groups are positioning themselves to pass this into constute in a manner that cannot be contested by the US public.

By mbassoc on 19 Jan 2012