The supporters of SOPA/PIPA have repeatedly failed to demonstrate that they have any respect whatsoever for the millions of people who have stood up to oppose these bills. Cary H. Sherman of the RIAA provides another example with this essay. At no point does Mr. Sherman discuss the actual long term consequences of an Internet Blacklist. Instead, he variously accuses the opponents of this legislation of being liars, or people misinformed by liars, or copyright scofflaws, or anarchist computer criminals who perpetrate distributed denial of service attacks: Misinformation may be a dirty trick, but it works... The hyperbolic mistruths, presented on the home pages of some of the world’s most popular Web sites, amounted to an abuse of trust and a misuse of power... ... how many knew what they were supporting or opposing? ... No doubt, some genuinely wanted to protect Americans against theft but were sincerely concerned about how the language in the bill might be interpreted. But others may simply believe that online music, books and movie should be free. And how many of those e-mails were from the same people who attacked the Web sites of the Department of Justice, the Motion Picture Association of America, my organization and others as retribution for the seizure of Megaupload, an international digital piracy operation? Indeed, it’s hackers like the group Anonymous that engage in real censorship when they stifle the speech of those with whom they disagree.
I think that these people actually believe that most of us really are idiots or criminals. It is much easier to believe that than to come to terms with the fact that you really ARE doing something tremendously evil that millions of people, with historically unprecedented levels of access to the full text of legislation and reams of detailed analysis, strongly oppose. If you really understood that - if you really saw yourself objectively - I don't know how the hell you could sleep at night. The fact is that most people understand that once an Internet Blacklist is in place its use will expand, and we do not trust our legislature with that kind of power. Fifteen years ago the US literally passed the Communications Decency Act, which would have put people in prison and fined them tens of thousands of dollars if they ever said words like "fuck" on their blogs! The Senate passed this, the House passed this, and the President signed it into law! Why would any informed person trust THIS government with the power to easily prevent Americans from accessing any site on the Internet, when this government has demonstrated through its actions such total incompetence when it comes to this exact sort of responsibility? SOPA/PIPA are unacceptable because they will have tremendous negative long term consequences for our society. This has been explained, repeatedly, in great detail, but groups like the RIAA and the MPAA refuse to THINK about it because they are too blinded by the profits they think they'll make if these laws are put in place. Perhaps this is naïve, but I’d like to believe that the companies that opposed SOPA and PIPA will now feel some responsibility to help come up with constructive alternatives.
I don't feel any responsibility of the sort. Constructive dialog is not going to happen here until the supporters of these bills demonstrate that they understand WHY they were wrong about this. I haven't bothered looking at OPEN carefully. I don't feel any obligation to help solve these people's problems for them when they have demonstrated an unwillingness to look beyond their petty personal financial interests and consider the greater context of their actions. What Wikipedia Won’t Tell You - NYTimes.com | 
