gwern comments on [Meta] No LessWrong Blackout? - Less Wrong

16 Post author: CaveJohnson 18 January 2012 07:48PM

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Comment author: billswift comment score below threshold [+] (8 children)

Comment author: gwern 18 January 2012 08:39:54PM 20 points [-]

while producing no real benefit

Out of curiosity, how many Congress-critters would have to recant before you would concede 'real benefit'?

Comment author: billswift 18 January 2012 11:02:50PM * 3 points [-]

I'll concede that it was of help, if they don't try to pass one of them, or an equivalent bill, next year after the elections. As I put it in a different HN comment thread:

For now, any way. As soon as it's out of the news, after the elections, they will almost certainly try to pass them, or another similar bill, again. It's a never ending game of Whack-A-Mole. Eventually, one will get through.

ADDED: This is a combination focussed benefit for SOPA/PIPA/RWA supporters, versus a collective action problem for the opposition. While I hate the SOPA/PIPA/RWA trilogy, the reality is they will very probably (>80%) become law within the next three years.

Comment author: billswift 18 January 2012 11:16:21PM 2 points [-]

For those unfamiliar with the RWA, here's Derek Lowe's discussion, Down with the Research Works Act.

Comment author: rwallace 18 January 2012 11:51:07PM 3 points [-]

"The price of freedom is eternal vigilance."

It would be wonderful if defending freedom were a one-off job like proving Fermat's Last Theorem. As it turns out, it's an endlessly recurring job like fighting disease; unfortunate, but that's the way it is. And yes, sometimes our efforts fail, and freedoms are lost or people get sick and die. But the answer to that is to work harder and smarter, not to give up.

Comment author: [deleted] 19 January 2012 02:38:56AM 10 points [-]

it's an endlessly recurring job like fighting disease

Until you eradicate smallpox, or polio, or Congress.

Comment author: David_Gerard 18 January 2012 10:42:25PM * -1 points [-]

Orrin Hatch has apparently recanted (edit: "not ready for prime time"), though for some reason I find it hard to assume good faith.

Comment author: gwern 18 January 2012 10:46:02PM * 0 points [-]

Hatch has a long history, it is true... No doubt his recanting is purely tactical, like the rescheduling of SOPA was. ('not ready for prime time' kind of implies that he would like it to come back when it is ready.)

gwern comments on [Meta] No LessWrong Blackout? - Less Wrong

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