Read Online The Boy Who Could Change the World by Aaron Swartz - Free Book Online Page B
Authors: Aaron Swartz
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wasnât just introduced by one rogue eccentric member of Congress; it was introduced by the chair of the Judiciary Committee and co-sponsored by nearly all the other members, Republicans and Democrats. So, yes, thereâd be a vote, but it wouldnât be much of a surprise, because nearly everyone who was voting had signed their name to the bill before it was even introduced.
Now, I canât stress how unusual this is. This is emphatically not how Congress works. Iâm not talking about how Congress should work, the way you see on Schoolhouse Rock . I mean, this is not the wayCongress actually works. I mean, I think we all know Congress is a dead zone of deadlock and dysfunction. There are months of debates and horse trading and hearings and stall tactics. I mean, you know, first youâre supposed to announce that youâre going to hold hearings on a problem, and then days of experts talking about the issue, and then you propose a possible solution, you bring the experts back for their thoughts on that, and then other members have different solutions, and they propose those, and you spend a bunch of time debating, and thereâs a bunch of trading, they get members over to your cause. And finally, you spend hours talking one-on-one with the different people in the debate, try and come back with some sort of compromise, which you hash out in endless backroom meetings. And then, when thatâs all done, you take that, and you go through it line by line in public to see if anyone has any objections or wants to make any changes. And then you have the vote. Itâs a painful, arduous process. You donât just introduce a bill on Monday and then pass it unanimously a couple days later. That just doesnât happen in Congress.
But this time, it was going to happen. And it wasnât because there were no disagreements on the issue. There are always disagreements. Some senators thought the bill was much too weak and needed to be stronger; as it was introduced, the bill only allowed the government to shut down websites, and these senators, they wanted any company in the world to have the power to get a website shut down. Other senators thought it was a drop too strong. But somehow, in the kind of thing you never see in Washington, they had all managed to put their personal differences aside to come together and support one bill they were persuaded they could all live with: a bill that would censor the Internet. And when I saw this, I realized: whoever was behind this was good.
Now, the typical way you make good things happen in Washington is you find a bunch of wealthy companies who agree with you. Social Security didnât get passed because some brave politicians decided their good conscience couldnât possibly let old people die starving in the streets. I mean, are you kidding me? Social Security got passed because John D. Rockefeller was sick of having to take money out of his profits to pay for his workersâ pension funds. Whydo that, when you can just let the government take money from the workers? Now, my point is not that Social Security is a bad thingâI think itâs fantastic. Itâs just that the way you get the government to do fantastic things is you find a big company willing to back them. The problem is, of course, that big companies arenât really huge fans of civil liberties. You know, itâs not that theyâre against them; itâs just thereâs not much money in it.
Now, if youâve been reading the press, you probably didnât hear this part of the story. As Hollywood has been telling it, the great, good copyright bill they were pushing was stopped by the evil Internet companies who make millions of dollars off of copyright infringement. But it justâit really wasnât true. I was in there, in the meetings with the Internet companiesâactually probably all here today. And, you know, if all their profits depended on copyright
Now, I canât stress how unusual this is. This is emphatically not how Congress works. Iâm not talking about how Congress should work, the way you see on Schoolhouse Rock . I mean, this is not the wayCongress actually works. I mean, I think we all know Congress is a dead zone of deadlock and dysfunction. There are months of debates and horse trading and hearings and stall tactics. I mean, you know, first youâre supposed to announce that youâre going to hold hearings on a problem, and then days of experts talking about the issue, and then you propose a possible solution, you bring the experts back for their thoughts on that, and then other members have different solutions, and they propose those, and you spend a bunch of time debating, and thereâs a bunch of trading, they get members over to your cause. And finally, you spend hours talking one-on-one with the different people in the debate, try and come back with some sort of compromise, which you hash out in endless backroom meetings. And then, when thatâs all done, you take that, and you go through it line by line in public to see if anyone has any objections or wants to make any changes. And then you have the vote. Itâs a painful, arduous process. You donât just introduce a bill on Monday and then pass it unanimously a couple days later. That just doesnât happen in Congress.
But this time, it was going to happen. And it wasnât because there were no disagreements on the issue. There are always disagreements. Some senators thought the bill was much too weak and needed to be stronger; as it was introduced, the bill only allowed the government to shut down websites, and these senators, they wanted any company in the world to have the power to get a website shut down. Other senators thought it was a drop too strong. But somehow, in the kind of thing you never see in Washington, they had all managed to put their personal differences aside to come together and support one bill they were persuaded they could all live with: a bill that would censor the Internet. And when I saw this, I realized: whoever was behind this was good.
Now, the typical way you make good things happen in Washington is you find a bunch of wealthy companies who agree with you. Social Security didnât get passed because some brave politicians decided their good conscience couldnât possibly let old people die starving in the streets. I mean, are you kidding me? Social Security got passed because John D. Rockefeller was sick of having to take money out of his profits to pay for his workersâ pension funds. Whydo that, when you can just let the government take money from the workers? Now, my point is not that Social Security is a bad thingâI think itâs fantastic. Itâs just that the way you get the government to do fantastic things is you find a big company willing to back them. The problem is, of course, that big companies arenât really huge fans of civil liberties. You know, itâs not that theyâre against them; itâs just thereâs not much money in it.
Now, if youâve been reading the press, you probably didnât hear this part of the story. As Hollywood has been telling it, the great, good copyright bill they were pushing was stopped by the evil Internet companies who make millions of dollars off of copyright infringement. But it justâit really wasnât true. I was in there, in the meetings with the Internet companiesâactually probably all here today. And, you know, if all their profits depended on copyright
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