So yesterday’s poll “What to Do About SOPA?” was just a little bit one-sided. The score so far? 78% say kill it outright, 20% say try to fix it first, and 2% don’t know or don’t care. What about passing it? That would be zero, and it may be the most lopsided result I’ve managed to collect in the various polls I’ve put out there over the years.
Now, this was not a sample of the overall electorate, nor was it even a scientifically sound polling of the telecom and internet infrastructure sectors. But the margin was such that I think we can safely say that the percentage of people who build, run, and depend on today’s communications infrastructure really don’t think SOPA (and PIPA probably) are a particularly good idea.
As for the blackouts, am I the only one who found those to be really annoying? I depend on many of the sites that were blacked out for information on a daily if not hourly basis. I’m working on a project that hopefully will re-test the forum idea in a new form, synthesized with a revamped jobs board and events calendar, and perhaps a whitepaper library. But yesterday I was stopped cold because I could get to the WordPress Codex. And let’s not even talk about going cold turkey when it comes to Wikipedia. Yeesh, I wish it wasn’t as successful a protest as it seems to have been, I really don’t want them to do it again.
But supposedly all the uproar has dozens of the bill’s sponsors doing the Romney two-step. Ah well, if there’s one thing Congress knows how to do, it’s to not do anything. I figure they’re back on track now.
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I think we are a long way from the endgame. Even liberal, informed politicians like Al Franken are heavily dependent on big media companies for campaign finances and … well… for media coverage. I think the folks who participated in the blackout or otherwise oppose sopa/pipa have to put dollars and offers of media coverage on the table for these politicians.
No one in any internet poll voted for SOPA, because the people that want to pass SOPA haven’t tried to get public support. They bypass the middleman and lobby directly to our representatives.