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Thursday, January 19, 2012

I Agree With Kos

Politico on PIPA and SOPA:
Leo Hindery [has warned] Obama might have reason to worry about his entertainment industry fundraising base... The television, movies and music industries donated more than $9 million on Obama last election, according to Center for Responsive Politics, and more than 70 percent of the industries’ donations to federal candidates from employees and political action committees have gone to support Democrats in recent years.
dKos replies:
[H]ow many people are lining up behind the pro-PIPA/SOPA forces? How many regular Americans are fighting alongside the studios? How many petition signatures has the MPAA and RIAA gathered from its customers? The answer is none. There isn't an industry more disdainful of its audience than these self-styled "content producers" (as if they're the only ones producing content). And [when] they aren't busy trying to kill new technologies like the VCR (and the internet), or pre-accusing their customers of being criminals by flashing that insulting FBI warning before every video that they've bought, or suing teenagers and parents for posting videos of their babies dancing to commercial music, then they're working the congressional backrooms to screw the broader public.... Here's the deal, Mr. Fucking Hollywood—don't donate more money. Take your $9 million and shove it up your ass.... Hollywood dinosaurs can whine and cry about how "unfair" it is that everyone hates your fucking guts, and you can weep about how the issue has become "political," as if it wasn't already political the moment you demanded PIPA and SOPA in exchange for millions of dollars in political contributions. Hollywood isn't alone in demanding services for campaign contributions. The Republicans, after all, are owned outright big Big Oil, Pharma and other major corporate interests. But I don't expect good responsive government out of the Republicans. I do expect it from our side.
Here's to the real content providers, the internet Occupied the Media ages ago, peer to peer! All the creative people, all the funny people, all the imaginative people are already on the side of the Democrats, who gives a shit what the suits think in their sinking ships? dKos can raise nine million in a couple weeks, fer cryin out loud! I agree with Kos, it's high time for the Democrats to tell the self-appointed elite-incumbent "content providers" (skimmers, censors, middle-men, vulgarizers, falsifiers all) to shove it if their contributions come with the usual corrupt strings attached. Contact your congress critters if you have not already done so and insist they repudiate PIPA and SOSA. Believe me, even Big Media will be fine without it.

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