Cory I’m really glad you posted this. Because it will remind us that all of our efforts matter. The people in the beltway operate on the idea, "This is how WE would do it, if we needed to stop something. They assume that Grassroots aren’t real because THEIR grassroots aren’t real. They assume that the only thing that works are big money lobbyists because that is how they work.
Now let’s model how they will use this information. If I was them I would spend money in these ways:
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Keep showering money on legislators and staff. "Sure you voted against SOPA, but did they give you any money for helping them? Will they give you money next year or a good job later? No. We will. Keep that in mind. When day is your next fund raiser Congressman?
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**Hide the next round of actions (**e.g embedding it in trade deals like TPP)
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Get the big players behind them, They assume that if they can get Google and Wikipedia to change their policy they grassroots won’t matter.
4)Co-opt the grassroots with confusing bill names. (American Intellectual Property Protection Act )
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Create their own grassroots group with misleading names. “Americans and Small businesses for Freedom On the Internet” which will be an Industry front group for the SOPA fights supposedly started by a couple of kids at a university that want to make some movies but are thwarted.
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Buy up or Buy out voices. Like the spirits industry ending up turning Carrie Lightner of MADD or the anti-abortion groups got the woman at the heatr of Roe v. Wade to come out against abortion.
So expect big names who were for Net Neutrality to come forward and say, "We were wrong. This is really about “Quality of Service” not about censoring anyone. And "We SHOULD care about Movie piracy. China is taking MY intellectual property now. First they came for the music makers but I didn’t speak up because I didn’t make music, they they came for the movie makers, but I didn’t speak up because I didn’t make movies. Now they are coming for the coders and nobody is there to speak up for me.
They will admit they were wrong and put in suggestions like let’s put into place more transparency and IDs. I’ll start, just like Iron Man and tell everyone who I am. I don’t download movies and music and I’m proud to pay the artists! And then they will start putting pressure on other voices to join them or denounce them. This fractures the community and creates dissent in the ranks. A unified voice is harder to stop, a bunch of factions can be steamrolled."
- Start buying “science” and pushing opinion. This is the climate change trick. When there are experts who disagree then you have a news story. and “The truth lies somewhere in the middle.” the public starts seeing the people against SOPA as against growth, business and for illegal acts. If you can tie the anti-Sopa to them to child porn, rape or vicious terrorists all the better. "What is Tor good for? Men cruising Child PORN! It’s used by terrorists!
Most of these steps are already in motion. This is what they do. When you have Tobacco industry level money flowing into this fight they will use that playbook plus some new tricks like sock puppets and purchased Likes and Followers.
