As she joined a parade of lawmakers ditching an internet piracy bill, New Haven U.S. Rep. Rosa DeLauro issued a challenge to grassroots technophiles who used newfound political power to help scuttle it.
DeLauro issued the challenge in a meeting in her office earlier this week with members of Occupy New Haven. She repeated it following a press release on an unrelated topic at New Haven’s Union Station Thursday, as she also made official her opposition to the Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA).
“We need to scrap the current legislation. We need to start from the beginning to ensure [we can] protect small companies” and innovators and “at the same time do something about piracy,” DeLauro said.
The SOPA proposal before the U.S. House (and a similar Senate measure called the Protect Intellectual Property Act), once headed for victory with the backing of major movie studios and recording companies, would have forced internet service providers to shut down websites accused of spreading pirated movies or music. (Read more about it here.)
A lobbying effort by tech companies like Google and Facebook — dubbed “Silicon Valley vs. Hollywood” —convinced lawmakers like DeLauro that while the proposal had noble goals (fighting piracy, protecting intellectual property), it posed a mortal danger to the freedom of the Internet. And that it would shut down innovative and law-abiding websites large and small without due process. SOPA now seems headed for defeat.
A massive “netroots” campaign by web users also contributed to the bills’ newly precarious state. The proposal generated 2.4 million tweets and protest black-outs by websites, among other mass web actions.
At Union Station Thursday, DeLauro compared that netroots campaign to the Middle East “Arab Spring” protests. Young tech-savvy people used their expertise and numbers to affect the political process, she noted.
“The grassroots are speaking. It allows a new voice,” DeLauro said.
She called on web protesters to use that voice constructively.
“I spoke to some of the young people who came to my office [from] Occupy,” she said. “They were interested in this bill. I said to them, ‘You understand the technology more so than many of the people who are currently serving.’ It is a new technology. It is a technology of the young people who are engaged. I said, ‘You ought to make your voices heard. But not from the extreme. But from how we can make sure we can maintain the innovative spirit, the entrepreneurial spirit … Also understand the piracy aspect of it, which is not right. You can have an impact …
“‘Don’t buy into just what an argument is. Use what your knowledge is of this technology and bring to bear and explain to people so you can make recommendations for how to meet these goals. You can do that because you understand it.’”
That appeal went over well with one of the three New Haven Occupiers who crashed her office, Josh Smith.
Smith was part of a group of Occupiers who went to D.C. Tuesday “to protest a lot of things, including getting money out of politics, protesting the fact that we don’t have a voice in government. So we brought a voice to Washington.”
Smith and two fellow New Haven occupiers showed up at DeLauro’s office unannounced. An aide said she was too busy to meet, Smith said. But then DeLauro emerged and greeted them.
“She just came out and talked to us for 10 or 15 minutes. We had a good discussion,” Smith said.
He confirmed the message she gave them. He called her challenge “a fair critique. We do have to protect intellectual property. However, we definitely can’t do it at the expense of our rights.”
So Smith posted a notice on the Occupy New Haven Facebook page asking people to help him find constructive solutions to meet DeLauro’s challenge. He did his own poking around and came up with this link to a proposal called the OPEN Act (for Online Protection & Enforcement of Digital Trade). Backers of the OPEN Act claim it would address piracy by interrupting the money flow to foreign websites devoted to pirated material, but protect legitimate websites from unfair shutdowns. It would have the U.S. International Trade Commission conduct investigations into copyright infringement claims. SOPA would have the U.S. Justice Department swiftly obtain court orders to force search engines to stop linking to websites accused in such claims.
“It seems like a good start,” Smith said.
A Coincidental Canine Convergence
Paul Bass Photo
Connecticut U.S. Sen. Richard Blumenthal also came out against SOPA when asked at the Union Station event Thursday. He and DeLauro were at the train station to back proposals in both houses of Congress to restore a tax credit train commuters lost this month. Commuters used to be able to deduct $230 a month from their tax bill for using mass transit or van pools. Now they can deduct only $125 a month. Meanwhile, train fares have risen.
Blumenthal and DeLauro noted that a similar tax deduction on parking costs for commuters who drive to work has remained at $240 a month. They argued that the disparity creates a perverse incentive — to drive to work instead of use mass transit, thereby clogging highways further, polluting the air more, and using more fossil fuels.
Blumenthal and DeLauro didn’t need to worry about any bombs going off to disrupt their press conference. A total of five law-enforcement bomb-sniffing dogs lay within feet of the two politicians as they spoke. Their handlers said they were there for different reasons.
State Trooper Matthew Raymond said he was there with Krista because state police “happened to be in the area” and decided to help protect the senator.
So did Trooper Sean Connelly and his dog, Viking.
Corky was in the care of Amtrak Officer James Forsyth. Forsyth said he was there for a training exercise.
Fellow Amtrak cop Joe Agnellino said he and his K‑9 Roxy were on their regular shift patrolling Union Station. Since they were around the premises, they decided to lend their presence to the press event in the lobby.
Patty the bomb-sniffing pooch was in the company of Metropolitan Transit Authority Bob Baile, who said they were on regular patrol at the station.
“There’s obviously something going on,” one train traveler remarked upon entering the lobby with a companion, “with all these dogs here.”
Thank you for speaking candidly with us, Congresswoman DeLauro. This is what democracy looks like! I was very, very excited to go down to Washington and engage in the political process, as well as work with others to make our voices heard.
Hopefully we can take the OPEN Act or something similar to it and comb through it to the best of our abilities as citizens, innovators, and others who work daily with technology, and come up with ideas to help combat piracy and protect our American rights and freedoms at the same time.
If you are interested in helping us make this happen, please contact Occupy New Haven online or come to one of our General Assembly meetings on Sunday afternoons or Wednesday nights. (There are Friday meetings, but the Friday meetings are not very well-attended.)
Also: I love Union Station. Thank you to all our state representatives in government who fight for our transit system. It is much appreciated and will help us grow our economy as transit-oriented development continues in Connecticut.