The Other McCain

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Et Tu, Blackburn?

Posted on | December 22, 2011 | 5 Comments

by Smitty

Early last month I was singing the praises of Rep. Marsha Blackburn, who was taking a bold stand against Net Neutrality and FCC over-reach at the Defending the Dream summit.

Via Instapundit, we discover that the legacy media are funding the Stop Online Piracy Act in a big way.

The bill, known as SOPA, would strengthen and extend the penalties for online copyright violations, and could force websites hosting pirated content to come down or prevent search engines from sending users their way. Legacy media companies stand to benefit if there’s less unlawful movement of their content on the web, like pirated movies and songs for download.

Some of the nation’s top tech companies — Facebook, Google and Microsoft, among others — have spoken out against the bill while media companies have pushed to defend it. SOPA’s companion legislation in the Senate, the PROTECT IP Act, is on hold.

I thought that Rep. Blackburn sounded quite educated on the technical aspects of Net Neutrality. Maybe she can enlighten us on how the First Amendment is less important than media profits. I don’t see where her fellow Defending the Dream summit panelist Seton Motley has commented on SOPA.

Category: Instapundit, Tennessee

Comments

5 Responses to “Et Tu, Blackburn?”

  1. Anonymous
    December 22nd, 2011 @ 1:56 pm

    Sounds like someone needs a primary challenge.

  2. Edward
    December 22nd, 2011 @ 3:06 pm

    SOPA is one of my litmus tests. 

    You vote for SOPA, I vote you out.

  3. Adjoran
    December 22nd, 2011 @ 3:57 pm

    Congress has been in the pocket of the entertainment industry.  They have bastardized intellectual property laws, twisting them into unrecognizable caricatures.

    There is something perverse about a system under which if you spend $50 million researching, inventing, testing, and bringing a new life-saving drug to market, you only own the exclusive rights to it for 14 years (starting from the moment of approval, not manufacture or sale), but the image of a cartoon mouse is protected for 75 years after the death of the artist who drew it.

  4. Edward
    December 22nd, 2011 @ 5:28 pm

    Especially since that cartoon mouse has earned more money than any drug made.

  5. Mickey White
    December 22nd, 2011 @ 6:12 pm

    Why does Marsha Want Congress to Regulate the Internet? Why not just say NO FEDERAL branch  (the FCC and congress and the federal courts  included)  has any authority to decide or rule on any aspect concerning the Internet?

    BUT Marsha Blackburn did Vote FOR: Patriot Act Reauthorization, Electronic Surveillance, Funding the REAL ID Act (National ID), Foreign Intelligence Surveillance, Thought Crimes “Violent Radicalization and Homegrown Terrorism Prevention Act, Warrantless Searches, Employee Verification Program, Body Imaging Screening, Patriot Act extension; and only NOW she is worried about free speech, privacy, and government take over of the internet?

    Marsha Blackburn is my Congressman.
    See her “blatantly unconstitutional” votes at :
    http://mickeywhite.blogspot.com/2009/09/tn-congressman-marsha-blackburn-votes.html
    Mickey