On Liberty
I rarely delve into politics on this blog. The reason for this is that I aim primarily for this blog to be informative and interesting, and politics is usually neither.
There are times, however, when the laws being considered and passed by the United States government need to be talked about. Such is the case with two pieces of legislation that have received widespread notoriety in the past few weeks: The Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA) and the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA).
SOPA is the latest bill being considered (currently by the house) to put an end to content theft. The bill gives authority to the government to unilaterally block or take down sites that are infringing on copyrighted content. Sounds OK right? Except that current copyright law already provides clear guidelines for displaying or posting copyrighted content. I am sure we have all seen that video on Youtube that used to be there, but was removed because it violated copyright law. So why do we need another law? When asked about the justification for the new law, Chris Dodd (former senator and now head of the Motion Picture Association of America) equated the rights granted the government to the same rights taken by the Chinese government in blocking “illegal” sites there. His quote: ”When the Chinese told Google that they had to block sites or they couldn’t do [business] in their country, they managed to figure out how to block sites.” We are now apparently patterning our laws after a country that has no concern for civil liberties at all. Furthermore, the current iteration of SOPA will hold companies liable for content posted by their users. That means, for instance, that Youtube would be legally liable if I post a bootlegged copy of Death Blow (obscure Seinfeld reference), or if I post a video of me singing “Don’t Stop Believing.” If that seems crazy to you, it’s because it is. The members of Congress feign ignorance and chuckle and chortle about “they aren’t nerds” and “don’t really understand the internet.” It does not seem to stop them from trying to pass asinine, overreaching laws about the subject, however. The reason for this law is clear: Content producers are shoveling money into the pockets of legislators as fast as they can. I think we can all agree that copyrighted content deserves protection, a protection that already exists. We have witnessed the witch hunt taking place by the RIAA, where anyone sharing music is a target of jail time and huge fines. The ambiguity in SOPA will allow the government to have wide-sweeping authority to define “illegal” sites and will cripple technical innovation on the internet. Thankfully yesterday the committee adjourned without a vote and has not scheduled a new date for the vote. We have a temporary victory.
The second, and potentially far worse, breach of liberty is the NDAA, which was passed yesterday by the Senate by a vote of 86-13. The NDAA is passed every year to fund the defense department of the United States. Included in this year’s bill were a few provisions that should scare the living daylights out of every US citizen. These provisions allow for the capture and indefinite detention without due process of American citizens who are suspected of terrorism. The language of these provisions was drafted by none other than John McCain, former Republican presidential candidate, and was drafted and passed in closed committee. I took the time this past week to write to one of the North Carolina senators, Kay Hagan, about her support of this bill. An excerpt of her response is below. The bolding highlights are mine.
“I understand your concerns regarding a number of provisions relating to the detention of terrorists captured by the United States government. I carefully considered these provisions while the legislation was debated on the floor. While I agree that the provisions in the bill are not perfect, I believe they represent a significant improvement over the original version passed by the Armed Services Committee in June. Furthermore, I supported three amendments offered by Senator Diane Feinstein to make reasonable modifications that would have clarified the applicability of the provisions in the bill. While two of those amendments failed by votes of 45-55, the Senate did adopt an amendment from Senator Feinstein to ensure that the bill does not affect existing U.S. law or authorities relating to the detention of U.S. citizens, lawful resident aliens, or any person captured or arrested in the United States. On December 1, 2011 the Senate passed the NDAA by a vote of 93-7.”
What is interesting about the above is that the Feinstein amendments mentioned above were not, so far as I can tell, included in the final version of the bill that passed yesterday. Also interesting is how, apparently, the standard of acceptable law is now that it must be better than the last version, not law that actually makes sense. President Obama had originally promised to veto this bill and has now backed away from that pledge. It appears that the bill will be signed in its current form.
The consideration and passage of these two bills has me deeply concerned. The government is usurping power at an alarming rate, and our ability to speak out is now threatened in real ways on two very important fronts.
I would urge you to get engaged. The cynical view is that there is nothing you can do. There is too much power, and too much money, coalescing in Washington. I know, because it’s a view I share often. However, the price of doing nothing is becoming higher and higher. Check out people like Buddy Roemer, Larry Lessig, and others that have real ideas on how things can be fixed, and get behind someone that values personal freedom. Don’t vote for anyone currently running for President. They are all cut from the same cloth. It will take nothing short of revolution by evolution to reverse our course.
With liberty and justice for all.