[Foundation-l] How SOPA will hurt the free web and Wikipedia

Thu Dec 15 07:44:02 UTC 2011

On Wed, Dec 14, 2011 at 9:30 PM, Kim Bruning <kim at bruning.xs4all.nl> wrote:

> On Thu, Dec 15, 2011 at 04:04:36AM +0000, Thomas Dalton wrote:
> > On Dec 15, 2011 3:20 AM, "Kim Bruning" <kim at bruning.xs4all.nl> wrote:
> > > That, and remember that it is preferable to stage a protest BEFORE
> > passage of
> > > the bill. :-P
> >
> > I'm not sure about that. If we strike before they pass the bill then we
> are
> > assuming they will pass it. Shouldn't we give them a chance to do the
> right
> > thing? If we think striking is a good idea (and it certainly looks like
> we
> > do) then I would rather we threaten to strike and only actually do it if
> > they do pass the bill.
>
> Same kind of thing as (external) people protesting us going to Israel I
> think. By the time they protested,
> we couldn't change our venue if we wanted to.
>
> "Didn't they know we can't change venue at the last minute? They should
> have voiced their
> objections EARLIER!"
>
> But I'll leave it up to the US politics experts to figure out the best
> timing. ;-)
>
> Maybe we can do something else earlier? (probably best to continue this
> onwiki :-)
>
> sincerely,
>         Kim Bruning
>
>
...but this begs to be answered here :)

I'm not a U.S. political "expert", but I am informed enough to comment on
American process, so my answer is the best protest is before the law is
passed.  Legislation is intentionally slow to be processed and slow to be
overturned.  Once you have a bill passed and signed into law, it takes an
injunction and then years of litigation to over turn it.  It's expensive to
the tune of millions upon millions of legal fees for each passing year, and
it takes many years.  Best to nip it in the bud.

-- 
~Keegan

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/User:Keegan