SOPA is Alive
A few years ago, millions of Americans helped stop SOPA, Stop Online Piracy Act, that was supported by MPAA and would have led to censorship across the web. Congress received millions of phone calls and emails in opposition. SOPA didn't pass.
However, over the weekend news broke that MPAA's efforts are still alive and have a new target...Google. And their new path...the states.
In this New York Times article the MPAAs plans to work with one state's Attorney General to continue their censorship fight...Here is a key passage:
The movie association and its member companies, the messages show, have assigned a team of lawyers to prepare draft subpoenas and legal briefs for the attorneys general. And the groups have delivered campaign contributions — with several movie studios sending checks — to Jon Bruning, the Republican attorney general of Nebraska, who was helping push their cause, and who made an unsuccessful bid for governor this year.
In one instance it even appears the MPAA edited a letter on behalf of the MS Attorney General Hood.
Document Letter to Google From Mississippi's Attorney General This document shows revisions to a letter sent to Google by the attorney general of Mississippi, that had been largely drafted by a law firm representing the Motion Picture Association of America. OPEN Document
Here is more from Google's post on this topic:
The MPAA conspired to achieve SOPA's goals through non-legislative means
According to The Verge, "at the beginning of this year, the MPAA and six studios … joined together to begin a new campaign" to figure how it could secretly revive SOPA. It "joined together to begin a new campaign" to achieve wholesale site-blocking by "[convincing] state prosecutors to take up the fight against [Google]." The movie studios "budgeted $500,000 a year towards providing legal support"—and the MPAA later sought up to $1.175 million for this campaign.
All in all it looks like SOPA is still alive and its supporters to censor the internet are also alive and well.
Posted by dustin.miller10 at 11:40 AM
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