Lessons from a political battle

Is there anything of value to be learned from congress' recent actions related to the Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA) and the Protect IP Act (PIPA)? There are important lessons, depending of course, on who and what you choose to believe.

The context

Hollywood and its lobbyists were pushing hard for passage of SOPA and PIPA. A large amount of money is at stake. According to one estimate, the entertainment industry alone loses about $50 billion per year to online piracy (theft). Opponents of SOPA and PIPA had argued without success that the bills were too draconian because they would (i) unduly limit free speech on the internet and (ii) cripple websites like Wikipedia and YouTube.

U.S. Army Sgt. Crystal Cornejo et al. on presence patrol

Kabul Afghanistan - February 2012 

After large protests led by Wikipedia, Rise of the Center and other websites, House Judiciary Committee Chairman Lamar Smith said his committee postponed consideration of SOPA "until there is wider agreement on a solution." Senate leader Harry Reid, D-NV, said, "There is no reason that the legitimate issues raised by many about this bill cannot be resolved. Reid asked PIPA's author, Sen. Patrick Leahy, D-VT, to continue working with stakeholders on the bill "to forge a balance between protecting Americans' intellectual property, and maintaining openness and innovation on the Internet."

Smith also said, "I have heard from the critics and I take seriously their concerns regarding proposed legislation to address the problem of online piracy. It is clear that we need to revisit the approach on how best to address the problem of foreign thieves that steal and sell American inventions and products." Darrell Issa, R-CA, who is working on his own alternate online piracy bill said, "Supporters of the Internet deserve credit for pressing advocates of SOPA and PIPA to back away from an effort to ram through controversial legislation," Issa said. "Over the last two months, the intense popular effort to stop SOPA and PIPA has defeated an effort that once looked unstoppable but lacked a fundamental understanding of how Internet technologies work.

F/A-18C Hornet takeoff from USS Carl Vinson

Arabian Gulf - February 22, 2012

The lessons

Lessons number 1 & 2: If Issa's assertion that the SOPA and PIPA legislation lacked a fundamental understanding of how the internet works, then congress is arguably incompetent to know when legislation that lobbyists bought and paid for is good, bad or indifferent. If Issa's assertion is incorrect, then why did congress stop progress on implementing SOPA and PIPA? That implies that congress stopped because too many people complained after the internet protests. Either way, congress screwed up. One the one hand, lobbyists backed by mountains of money were going to get what they had bought until the public got irate and complained. One lesson is that lobbyists backed by a lot of money can and will try to buy most or all of what they want from congress. Another is that congress very likely is incompetent and cannot assess on its own what makes sense for the public interest and what doesn't.

Lesson number 3: If Reid's comment that the public protests against SOPA and PIPA did in fact raise "legitimate issues", then why weren't those issues addressed in the first place? If Smith's comments that he takes concerns of SOPA and PIPA opponents seriously and needs to "revisit the approach", then what changed his opinion? Why did it take a massive outpouring of public protest to get congress' attention? The lesson here is that lesson 1 & 2 above are basically true and correct.

Army firefight with Taliban

Kunar province, Afghanistan - March 2011

Lesson number 4: This is a hard one to take, but someone has to say it. To force congress to reconsider SOPA and PIPA, it took an unusual and rare effort to get enough public attention for opponent's complaints to be taken seriously. But in the long run, the public will not be able to defend itself nearly as well. Special interest money behind all kinds of legislation won't go away. Not ever. The public can't rise up and complain like this every day, which is what it would take to bludgeon congress into fairly considering public concerns.

It may be the case that for now, the public interest will be at least partially vindicated on the issue of dealing with online theft of intellectual property. It is arguable that what happened before the public rose up and complained, congress was simply conducting business as usual, i.e., it was serving special interests regardless of adverse impacts on the public interest. The lesson is that congress generally serves special interests with money before it serves the public interest. This is just another garden variety example of the corruption of congress by special interest money.

What is real and what is spin?

Or, do those lessons misrepresent reality? Did everything work fine up until the day the public complained? Were public complaints a mistake of some sort? Is the public wrong? Some people in congress think the public is full of baloney on this issue. For example, Senator Leahy criticized the senate for stopping progress on the legislation calling it a "knee-jerk reaction to a monumental problem." Maybe the problem is monumental, but does that necessarily mean that legislation to address the problem has to serve special interests without regard to public complaints? Leahy obviously thinks so.

U.S. Marine feeding Mac

Helmand province, Afghanistan - April 2011

Do you hear that public? You are full of baloney. Sit down and be quiet so the heroic senate can do its work in peace. Is Leahy's version of reality the real situation, are lessons (opinions) expressed here the reality or is it something else entirely? Is special interest money irrelevant in this matter? Look at what people in congress said in public and what the public had to overcome to get their attention. Think about it a bit and then decide.


And, while you are thinking and deciding, consider why on Earth congress did not act until the level of theft got to $50 billion/year. Was the level of intellectual property theft zero in 2010 and $50 billion in 2011? Of course not. Not by a long shot. Reaching that level took years and years. Where was our selfless, stalwart congress before then? Waiting for Hollywood's cash payments before their majesties, e.g. the imperial Leahy, deigned to take the matter up?


Congress isn't just broken. Corruption and incompetence are the real descriptors. Democrats and Republicans in congress can't defend our standard of living (something complained of here before). One can argue and defend the proposition that congress serves whoever pays them enough, even if that means they betray our standard of living.