Two SOPA post-mortems: one dead-on, one brain-dead

Former New York Times editor makes sense; head of the RIAA not so much

Most of you have probably had your fill of SOPA commentary, just as most of us here in New England would just as soon not hear another word about the Super Bowl.

(No, Wikipedia hasn't forgiven GoDaddy for supporting SOPA)

However, the issue of online piracy and what the government can do about it isn't going away, so I will point you to a pair of columns that are worth reading, one for its bringing clarity to the issue and the other for bringing utter nonsense.  

In the first, former New York Times editor and current op-ed columnist Bill Keller does a good job of speaking for the sensible majority: those who see a need to control online piracy but not at the expense of burning the village.

In the other, Cary Sherman, front man for the Recording Industry Association of America, pitches a temper tantrum worthy of any 4-year-old who's been told he won't be getting another piece of candy. In essence, the head of one of the nation's most a powerful lobbying organizations, notorious for its litigious bullying, argues that those who finally picked themselves up off the ground and gave the RIAA a righteous political ass-kicking fought the SOPA fight unfairly.

It would be laughable if not for the fact that his whiny screed demonstrates as well as anything else could that the RIAA is interested solely in the RIAA, which makes it an entirely unsuitable participant in the dialogue and compromises that will be necessary to reduce piracy in a way that doesn't hurt the Internet.

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