Yesterday was a whirlwind for pretty much the entire Internet. We didn’t black out, but we did vent a little bile over the Motion Picture Association of America whining about how nobody likes them and nobody wants them to make money.
But it worked: A lot of people who had no idea were suddenly made vividly aware of what precisely was going on. And once voters learn they’re getting hoodwinked, well, politicians run for the hills.
To the tune of PIPA, SOPA’s equally awful Senate version, with thirteen Senators withdrawing their support. Five of them, in fact, were former sponsors of the bill.
Just as surprising for political types was who headed for the exits — they were almost exclusively Republicans, including major party power players like Jim DeMint, sometimes knocked around as a last-minute Presidential candidate for 2012, Roy Blunt, the number three man in the GOP Senate power structure, and Orrin Hatch, a rabid anti-piracy advocate with a lot of heft himself.
So, let’s review: Obama will veto SOPA if it gets through, and the people who hate Obama have officially walked away from the Senate version. We can chalk this one up as a win for the Internet and a big fat screw you to the MPAA and the RIAA, who shouldn’t be blaming piracy for their problems anyway.
Oh, and also the Supreme Court decided works in the public domain could be forced back into copyright. Oh well, two steps forward, at least.
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