What is SOPA and PIPA?
from left to right: Hamish Chandra, Micah Schaffer, Alexis Ohanian, Rep. Jason Chafferz, Christian Dawson, Leah Belsky
I just finished listening to 12+ hours of day one of the House Judiciary Committee Markup of H.R. 3261, the Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA), and I have the scars to prove it. It was a brutal day of legislating. Four Congressmen, Reps. Issa, Lofgren, Polis and Chaffetz, stood out as having a firm grasp on the Internet and its complexities, and spoke eloquently about the dangers of SOPA. They weren’t being listened to by the Chairman, who is intent on bringing this dangerous, job-killing, security-killing, and frankly terrible bill to the House floor.
At the same time, I got to announce that the Save Hosting Coalition sent a letter to the Senate—signed by 275 Internet executives—opposing PIPA, with a similar letter on its way opposing SOPA. Both of these letters were huge accomplishments for a normally fragmented industry.
In the wake of all that, I wanted to get back to basics and try to give you an easy-to-understand overview of what SOPA is, where it is, why you should care and what you should do to stop it from becoming law. I tried to make it “non-technical” so if you are reading this and you are technical, pass it along to your friends who aren’t, but want to better understand the threats at hand.
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SOPA, PIPA and the Fight to Save the Internet
from left to right: Hamish Chandra, Sen. Jerry Moran, Alexis Ohanian, Christian Dawson, Leah Belsky, Micah Schaffer
Yesterday I got to be part of something huge. I spent the day on Capitol Hill as an advocate for small business on the Internet, and met with Congressmen and Hill staffers to discuss the impact of two pieces of legislation currently making their way through Congress: the PROTECT-IP Act (PIPA) in the Senate and the Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA) in the House. And today I get to report huge progress in our fight to protect a fair, competitive Internet in America.
As the story is always told, it’s impossible to beat big money in politics, and SOPA and PIPA are most definitely backed by big money — very big money. But with no funding whatsoever, we have been able to get our message across, and we’ve been able to bounce a few painful rocks off of Goliath’s noggin on this one. He hasn’t fallen over yet, but we managed to get him reeling a little. For those who want the breaking news, I’ll cut to the chase right away.
The status of PIPA, as of yesterday, was that it was likely to pass in the Senate if it were allowed to come up for a vote, but that Senator Ron Wyden of Oregon was holding it up through procedural means, something he couldn’t keep up alone forever. Yesterday, among the people we addressed were Senator Jerry Moran (R – KS) and senior staffers for Senator Maria Cantwell (D-WA). We explained our major concerns about what PIPA would do to the Internet economy. Sen. Moran was a former sponsor of PIPA, but he listened intently to our concerns. Today I am extremely proud to announce that Moran, Cantwell — as well as Senator Rand Paul (R – KY) — have issued a letter to Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid joining Ron Wyden in his hold on allowing PIPA to come to a vote in the Senate. That doesn’t end our battle, but it is a huge bipartisan step in the right direction!
Zen and the Art of Taking Risks
Ready. Fire. Aim. Repeat.
That’s right — I said “Ready. Fire” — and then aim. Then start over.
For those of you who’ve read a business management book in the past decade or so, this might not be a new concept. But for those who are just getting their sea-legs as a small business, it’s the kind of advice that can save your business, too.
What “Ready. Fire. Aim.” really signifies is the growing prominence of beta culture within many tech companies. Whether it’s marketing, sales, or development, our beta culture — and the risks we take with each new release — speed up things like research and development while ultimately making a release better.
If you’re developing a product or service, getting something together that people can see and try as soon as possible is the best thing you can do. If your product sucks, tell them not to bet their business on it yet. Be truthful and set expectations properly — but for goodness sake show them something!
3 Lessons We Can Learn from the Resurrection of Palm
Palm Lives After All
If you follow the tech industry, it was hard to miss HP’s recent acquisition of Palm, Inc.
The Sunnyvale based smartphone maker was in serious trouble after its seemingly meteoric rise from a very similar grave in January of last year. Palm was on the ropes, its wonderful webOS platform overshadowed by ineffective marketing and distribution. The company’s audacious reentry into a space dominated by Google, RIM, and Apple seemed to be a lost cause.
Then HP, probably the most bland hardware manufacturer in the world, came to the rescue. The marriage of the two seems like the perfect solution, Palm will invigorate the stale HP brand with a fresh new mobile operating system that is light years ahead of HP’s own offerings, and HP provides the firm with the financial footing and market share to take some serious – and expensive – risks.
So what can small online businesses learn from this soap opera? Here are a few things that stuck out for me.
Sales. Evolved: Georator On Becoming a Web Retailer
Editors Note: This is part of our ongoing series of customer profiles right here on the ServInt Source. Want to take part? Tell us your story!
Handle With care
Here’s a quick lesson in electrical engineering that you should never attempt.
Take an old hair dryer from the U.S., preferably something pre-1985, and plug it into a Chinese power outlet. After a small explosion, you’ll have experienced the difference in international power grids first-hand.
While there are many reasons for this, one of the primary causes of these issues is related to the different voltage and frequency standards all over the world. In North America and Japan, 60hz is the norm, while in much of the rest of the world 50hz is the standard. Large ships such as naval vessels and cruise liners, commercial and military airplanes, and even some small research facilities use the 400hz frequency.
While that might not mean a lot to us end-users, it means a lot to the countries with different electrical frequencies that often produce electrical equipment for export. For example, how many of our consumer electronic products are made in China? Devices that convert one frequency into another are an important tool in the manufacturing process, helping manufacturers ensure the products they are making are safe to use and fully functional when they arrive at your friendly neighborhood electronics store.
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