0:00:01.120,0:00:07.140 AARON SWARTZ: So, for me, it all started with[br]a phone call. It was September—not last 0:00:07.140,0:00:11.620 year, but the year before that, September[br]2010. And I got a phone call from my friend 0:00:11.620,0:00:18.020 Peter. "Aaron," he said, "there’s an amazing[br]bill that you have to take a look at." "What 0:00:18.020,0:00:24.680 is it?" I said. "It’s called COICA, the[br]Combating Online Infringement and Counterfeiting 0:00:24.680,0:00:29.770 Act." "But, Peter," I said, "I don’t care[br]about copyright law. Maybe you’re right. 0:00:29.770,0:00:33.219 Maybe Hollywood is right. But either way,[br]what’s the big deal? I’m not going to 0:00:33.219,0:00:38.339 waste my life fighting over a little issue[br]like copyright. Healthcare, financial reform—those 0:00:38.339,0:00:44.160 are the issues that I work on, not something[br]obscure like copyright law." I could hear 0:00:44.160,0:00:48.879 Peter grumbling in the background. "Look,[br]I don’t have time to argue with you," he 0:00:48.879,0:00:53.440 said, "but it doesn’t matter for right now,[br]because this isn’t a bill about copyright." 0:00:53.440,0:01:00.440 "It’s not?" "No," he said. "It’s a bill[br]about the freedom to connect." Now I was listening. 0:01:02.039,0:01:05.230 Peter explained what you’ve all probably[br]long since learned, that this bill would let 0:01:05.230,0:01:10.260 the government devise a list of websites that[br]Americans weren’t allowed to visit. On the 0:01:10.260,0:01:14.580 next day, I came up with lots of ways to try[br]to explain this to people. I said it was a 0:01:14.580,0:01:19.800 great firewall of America. I said it was an[br]Internet black list. I said it was online 0:01:19.800,0:01:24.810 censorship. But I think it’s worth taking[br]a step back, putting aside all the rhetoric 0:01:24.810,0:01:30.200 and just thinking for a moment about how radical[br]this bill really was. Sure, there are lots 0:01:30.200,0:01:35.010 of times when the government makes rules about[br]speech. If you slander a private figure, if 0:01:35.010,0:01:39.920 you buy a television ad that lies to people,[br]if you have a wild party that plays booming 0:01:39.920,0:01:45.360 music all night, in all these cases, the government[br]can come stop you. But this was something 0:01:45.360,0:01:49.370 radically different. It wasn’t the government[br]went to people and asked them to take down 0:01:49.370,0:01:54.650 particular material that was illegal; it shut[br]down whole websites. Essentially, it stopped 0:01:54.650,0:02:00.320 Americans from communicating entirely with[br]certain groups. There’s nothing really like 0:02:00.320,0:02:04.320 it in U.S. law. If you play loud music all[br]night, the government doesn’t slap you with 0:02:04.320,0:02:08.950 an order requiring you be mute for the next[br]couple weeks. They don’t say nobody can 0:02:08.950,0:02:13.700 make any more noise inside your house. There’s[br]a specific complaint, which they ask you to 0:02:13.700,0:02:18.260 specifically remedy, and then your life goes[br]on. 0:02:18.260,0:02:22.049 The closest example I could find was a case[br]where the government was at war with an adult 0:02:22.049,0:02:26.069 bookstore. The place kept selling pornography;[br]the government kept getting the porn declared 0:02:26.069,0:02:30.879 illegal. And then, frustrated, they decided[br]to shut the whole bookstore down. But even 0:02:30.879,0:02:36.150 that was eventually declared unconstitutional,[br]a violation of the First Amendment. 0:02:36.150,0:02:42.060 So, you might say, surely COICA would get[br]declared unconstitutional, as well. But I 0:02:42.060,0:02:46.980 knew that the Supreme Court had a blind spot[br]around the First Amendment, more than anything 0:02:46.980,0:02:52.909 else, more than slander or libel, more than[br]pornography, more even than child pornography. 0:02:52.909,0:02:57.400 Their blind spot was copyright. When it came[br]to copyright, it was like the part of the 0:02:57.400,0:03:01.739 justices’ brains shut off, and they just[br]totally forgot about the First Amendment. 0:03:01.739,0:03:05.459 You got the sense that, deep down, they didn’t[br]even think the First Amendment applied when 0:03:05.459,0:03:10.439 copyright was at issue, which means that if[br]you did want to censor the Internet, if you 0:03:10.439,0:03:16.120 wanted to come up with some way that the government[br]could shut down access to particular websites, 0:03:16.120,0:03:20.819 this bill might be the only way to do it.[br]If it was about pornography, it probably would 0:03:20.819,0:03:25.029 get overturned by courts, just like the adult[br]bookstore case. But if you claimed it was 0:03:25.029,0:03:28.069 about copyright, it might just sneak through. 0:03:28.069,0:03:32.060 And that was especially terrifying, because,[br]as you know, because copyright is everywhere. 0:03:32.060,0:03:35.459 If you want to shut down WikiLeaks, it’s[br]a bit of a stretch to claim that you’re 0:03:35.459,0:03:39.779 doing it because they have too much pornography,[br]but it’s not hard at all to claim that WikiLeaks 0:03:39.779,0:03:44.019 is violating copyright, because everything[br]is copyrighted. This speech, you know, the 0:03:44.019,0:03:49.040 thing I’m giving right now, these words[br]are copyrighted. And it’s so easy to accidentally 0:03:49.040,0:03:53.969 copy something, so easy, in fact, that the[br]leading Republican supporter of COICA, Orrin 0:03:53.969,0:04:00.969 Hatch, had illegally copied a bunch of code[br]into his own Senate website. So if even Orrin 0:04:01.169,0:04:05.840 Hatch’s Senate website was found to be violating[br]copyright law, what’s the chance that they 0:04:05.840,0:04:12.010 wouldn’t find something they could pin on[br]any of us? 0:04:12.010,0:04:17.750 There’s a battle going on right now, a battle[br]to define everything that happens on the Internet 0:04:17.750,0:04:22.710 in terms of traditional things that the law[br]understands. Is sharing a video on BitTorrent 0:04:22.710,0:04:28.460 like shoplifting from a movie store? Or is[br]it like loaning a videotape to a friend? Is 0:04:28.460,0:04:33.620 reloading a webpage over and over again like[br]a peaceful virtual sit-in or a violent smashing 0:04:33.620,0:04:39.780 of shop windows? Is the freedom to connect[br]like freedom of speech or like the freedom 0:04:39.780,0:04:41.979 to murder? 0:04:41.979,0:04:47.430 This bill would be a huge, potentially permanent,[br]loss. If we lost the ability to communicate 0:04:47.430,0:04:52.590 with each other over the Internet, it would[br]be a change to the Bill of Rights. The freedoms 0:04:52.590,0:04:56.900 guaranteed in our Constitution, the freedoms[br]our country had been built on, would be suddenly 0:04:56.900,0:05:02.270 deleted. New technology, instead of bringing[br]us greater freedom, would have snuffed out 0:05:02.270,0:05:08.020 fundamental rights we had always taken for[br]granted. And I realized that day, talking 0:05:08.020,0:05:14.490 to Peter, that I couldn’t let that happen. 0:05:14.490,0:05:20.000 But it was going to happen. The bill, COICA,[br]was introduced on September 20th, 2010, a 0:05:20.000,0:05:24.919 Monday, and in the press release heralding[br]the introduction of this bill, way at the 0:05:24.919,0:05:31.919 bottom, it was scheduled for a vote on September[br]23rd, just three days later. And while, of 0:05:32.020,0:05:35.849 course, there had to be a vote—you can’t[br]pass a bill without a vote—the results of 0:05:35.849,0:05:40.050 that vote were already a foregone conclusion,[br]because if you looked at the introduction 0:05:40.050,0:05:45.210 of the law, it wasn’t just introduced by[br]one rogue eccentric member of Congress; it 0:05:45.210,0:05:50.080 was introduced by the chair of the Judiciary[br]Committee and co-sponsored by nearly all the 0:05:50.080,0:05:55.039 other members, Republicans and Democrats.[br]So, yes, there’d be a vote, but it wouldn’t 0:05:55.039,0:05:59.699 be much of a surprise, because nearly everyone[br]who was voting had signed their name to the 0:05:59.699,0:06:01.990 bill before it was even introduced. 0:06:01.990,0:06:07.110 Now, I can’t stress how unusual this is.[br]This is emphatically not how Congress works. 0:06:07.110,0:06:10.389 I’m not talking about how Congress should[br]work, the way you see on Schoolhouse Rock. 0:06:10.389,0:06:15.289 I mean, this is not the way Congress actually[br]works. I mean, I think we all know Congress 0:06:15.289,0:06:20.580 is a dead zone of deadlock and dysfunction.[br]There are months of debates and horse trading 0:06:20.580,0:06:24.199 and hearings and stall tactics. I mean, you[br]know, first you’re supposed to announce 0:06:24.199,0:06:28.139 that you’re going to hold hearings on a[br]problem, and then days of experts talking 0:06:28.139,0:06:32.139 about the issue, and then you propose a possible[br]solution, you bring the experts back for their 0:06:32.139,0:06:35.759 thoughts on that, and then other members have[br]different solutions, and they propose those, 0:06:35.759,0:06:39.129 and you spend of bunch of time debating, and[br]there’s a bunch of trading, they get members 0:06:39.129,0:06:43.169 over to your cause. And finally, you spend[br]hours talking one on one with the different 0:06:43.169,0:06:46.919 people in the debate, try and come back with[br]some sort of compromise, which you hash out 0:06:46.919,0:06:50.689 in endless backroom meetings. And then, when[br]that’s all done, you take that, and you 0:06:50.689,0:06:55.259 go through it line by line in public to see[br]if anyone has any objections or wants to make 0:06:55.259,0:07:01.219 any changes. And then you have the vote. It’s[br]a painful, arduous process. You don’t just 0:07:01.219,0:07:05.949 introduce a bill on Monday and then pass it[br]unanimously a couple days later. That just 0:07:05.949,0:07:07.539 doesn’t happen in Congress. 0:07:07.539,0:07:13.229 But this time, it was going to happen. And[br]it wasn’t because there were no disagreements 0:07:13.229,0:07:16.810 on the issue. There are always disagreements.[br]Some senators thought the bill was much too 0:07:16.810,0:07:20.620 weak and needed to be stronger: As it was[br]introduced, the bill only allowed the government 0:07:20.620,0:07:24.340 to shut down websites, and these senators,[br]they wanted any company in the world to have 0:07:24.340,0:07:30.360 the power to get a website shut down. Other[br]senators thought it was a drop too strong. 0:07:30.360,0:07:33.400 But somehow, in the kind of thing you never[br]see in Washington, they had all managed to 0:07:33.400,0:07:38.710 put their personal differences aside to come[br]together and support one bill they were persuaded 0:07:38.710,0:07:45.120 they could all live with: a bill that would[br]censor the Internet. And when I saw this, 0:07:45.120,0:07:50.249 I realized: Whoever was behind this was good. 0:07:50.249,0:07:55.749 Now, the typical way you make good things[br]happen in Washington is you find a bunch of 0:07:55.749,0:07:59.550 wealthy companies who agree with you. Social[br]Security didn’t get passed because some 0:07:59.550,0:08:04.439 brave politicians decided their good conscience[br]couldn’t possibly let old people die starving 0:08:04.439,0:08:08.789 in the streets. I mean, are you kidding me?[br]Social Security got passed because John D. 0:08:08.789,0:08:12.789 Rockefeller was sick of having to take money[br]out of his profits to pay for his workers’ 0:08:12.789,0:08:17.870 pension funds. Why do that, when you can just[br]let the government take money from the workers? 0:08:17.870,0:08:22.370 Now, my point is not that Social Security[br]is a bad thing—I think it’s fantastic. 0:08:22.370,0:08:26.860 It’s just that the way you get the government[br]to do fantastic things is you find a big company 0:08:26.860,0:08:32.669 willing to back them. The problem is, of course,[br]that big companies aren’t really huge fans 0:08:32.669,0:08:36.219 of civil liberties. You know, it’s not that[br]they’re against them; it’s just there’s 0:08:36.219,0:08:38.200 not much money in it. 0:08:38.200,0:08:42.849 Now, if you’ve been reading the press, you[br]probably didn’t hear this part of the story. 0:08:42.849,0:08:46.240 As Hollywood has been telling it, the great,[br]good copyright bill they were pushing was 0:08:46.240,0:08:50.240 stopped by the evil Internet companies who[br]make millions of dollars off of copyright 0:08:50.240,0:08:55.279 infringement. But it just—it really wasn’t[br]true. I mean, I was in there, in the meetings 0:08:55.279,0:09:00.500 with the Internet companies—actually probably[br]all here today. And, you know, if all their 0:09:00.500,0:09:04.420 profits depended on copyright infringement,[br]they would have put a lot more money into 0:09:04.420,0:09:10.200 changing copyright law. The fact is, the big[br]Internet companies, they would do just fine 0:09:10.200,0:09:13.810 if this bill passed. I mean, they wouldn’t[br]be thrilled about it, but I doubt they would 0:09:13.810,0:09:19.380 even have a noticeable dip in their stock[br]price. So they were against it, but they were 0:09:19.380,0:09:23.800 against it, like the rest of us, on grounds[br]primarily of principle. And principle doesn’t 0:09:23.800,0:09:28.800 have a lot of money in the budget to spend[br]on lobbyists. So they were practical about 0:09:28.800,0:09:31.980 it. "Look," they said, "this bill is going[br]to pass. In fact, it’s probably going to 0:09:31.980,0:09:36.709 pass unanimously. As much as we try, this[br]is not a train we’re going to be able to 0:09:36.709,0:09:40.779 stop. So, we’re not going to support it—we[br]couldn’t support it. But in opposition, 0:09:40.779,0:09:45.430 let’s just try and make it better." So that[br]was the strategy: lobby to make the bill better. 0:09:45.430,0:09:49.010 They had lists of changes that would make[br]the bill less obnoxious or less expensive 0:09:49.010,0:09:53.100 for them, or whatever. But the fact remained[br]at the end of the day, it was going to be 0:09:53.100,0:09:56.600 a bill that was going to censor the Internet,[br]and there was nothing we could do to stop 0:09:56.600,0:09:58.959 it. 0:09:58.959,0:10:03.570 So I did what you always do when you’re[br]a little guy facing a terrible future with 0:10:03.570,0:10:10.570 long odds and little hope of success: I started[br]an online petition. I called all my friends, 0:10:12.250,0:10:15.930 and we stayed up all night setting up a website[br]for this new group, Demand Progress, with 0:10:15.930,0:10:22.230 an online petition opposing this noxious bill,[br]and I sent it to a few friends. Now, I’ve 0:10:22.230,0:10:26.040 done a few online petitions before. I’ve[br]worked at some of the biggest groups in the 0:10:26.040,0:10:32.209 world that do online petitions. I’ve written[br]a ton of them and read even more. But I’ve 0:10:32.209,0:10:37.889 never seen anything like this. Starting from[br]literally nothing, we went to 10,000 signers, 0:10:37.889,0:10:44.889 then 100,000 signers, and then 200,000 signers[br]and 300,000 signers, in just a couple of weeks. 0:10:45.050,0:10:48.910 And it wasn’t just signing a name. We asked[br]those people to call Congress, to call urgently. 0:10:48.910,0:10:53.449 There was a vote coming up this week, in just[br]a couple days, and we had to stop it. And 0:10:53.449,0:10:56.980 at the same time, we told the press about[br]it, about this incredible online petition 0:10:56.980,0:11:01.399 that was taking off. And we met with the staff[br]of members of Congress and pleaded with them 0:11:01.399,0:11:04.660 to withdraw their support for the bill. I[br]mean, it was amazing. It was huge. The power 0:11:04.660,0:11:11.420 of the Internet rose up in force against this[br]bill. And then it passed unanimously. 0:11:11.420,0:11:16.560 Now, to be fair, several of the members gave[br]nice speeches before casting their vote, and 0:11:16.560,0:11:20.110 in their speeches they said their office had[br]been overwhelmed with comments about the First 0:11:20.110,0:11:24.630 Amendment concerns behind this bill, comments[br]that had them very worried, so worried, in 0:11:24.630,0:11:29.230 fact, they weren’t sure that they still[br]supported the bill. But even though they didn’t 0:11:29.230,0:11:32.480 support it, they were going to vote for it[br]anyway, they said, because they needed to 0:11:32.480,0:11:37.100 keep the process moving, and they were sure[br]any problems that were had with it could be 0:11:37.100,0:11:42.589 fixed later. So, I’m going to ask you, does[br]this sound like Washington, D.C., to you? 0:11:42.589,0:11:47.120 Since when do members of Congress vote for[br]things that they oppose just to keep the process 0:11:47.120,0:11:53.250 moving? I mean, whoever was behind this was[br]good. 0:11:53.250,0:11:58.870 And then, suddenly, the process stopped. Senator[br]Ron Wyden, the Democrat from Oregon, put a 0:11:58.870,0:12:04.250 hold on the bill. Giving a speech in which[br]he called it a nuclear bunker-buster bomb 0:12:04.250,0:12:08.430 aimed at the Internet, he announced he would[br]not allow it to pass without changes. And 0:12:08.430,0:12:13.800 as you may know, a single senator can’t[br]actually stop a bill by themselves, but they 0:12:13.800,0:12:19.000 can delay it. By objecting to a bill, they[br]can demand Congress spend a bunch of time 0:12:19.000,0:12:24.899 debating it before getting it passed. And[br]Senator Wyden did. He bought us time—a lot 0:12:24.899,0:12:28.060 of time, as it turned out. His delay held[br]all the way through the end of that session 0:12:28.060,0:12:32.050 of Congress, so that when the bill came back,[br]it had to start all over again. And since 0:12:32.050,0:12:35.899 they were starting all over again, they figured,[br]why not give it a new name? And that’s when 0:12:35.899,0:12:39.850 it began being called PIPA, and eventually[br]SOPA. 0:12:39.850,0:12:45.800 So there was probably a year or two of delay[br]there. And in retrospect, we used that time 0:12:45.800,0:12:50.740 to lay the groundwork for what came later.[br]But that’s not what it felt like at the 0:12:50.740,0:12:55.199 time. At the time, it felt like we were going[br]around telling people that these bills were 0:12:55.199,0:13:00.870 awful, and in return, they told us that they[br]thought we were crazy. I mean, we were kids 0:13:00.870,0:13:04.620 wandering around waving our arms about how[br]the government was going to censor the Internet. 0:13:04.620,0:13:09.470 It does sound a little crazy. You can ask[br]Larry tomorrow. I was constantly telling him 0:13:09.470,0:13:13.230 what was going on, trying to get him involved,[br]and I’m pretty sure he just thought I was 0:13:13.230,0:13:20.230 exaggerating. Even I began to doubt myself.[br]It was a rough period. But when the bill came 0:13:20.509,0:13:24.449 back and started moving again, suddenly all[br]the work we had done started coming together. 0:13:24.449,0:13:28.009 All the folks we talked to about it suddenly[br]began getting really involved and getting 0:13:28.009,0:13:32.420 others involved. Everything started snowballing.[br]It happened so fast. 0:13:32.420,0:13:36.690 I remember there was one week where I was[br]having dinner with a friend in the technology 0:13:36.690,0:13:41.860 industry, and he asked what I worked on, and[br]I told him about this bill. And he said, "Wow! 0:13:41.860,0:13:48.860 You need to tell people about that." And I[br]just groaned. And then, just a few weeks later, 0:13:49.649,0:13:53.100 I remember I was chatting with this cute girl[br]on the subway, and she wasn’t in technology 0:13:53.100,0:13:58.110 at all, but when she heard that I was, she[br]turned to me very seriously and said, "You 0:13:58.110,0:14:05.110 know, we have to stop 'SOAP.'" So, progress,[br]right? 0:14:05.509,0:14:12.509 But, you know, I think that story illustrates[br]what happened during those couple weeks, because 0:14:13.470,0:14:17.690 the reason we won wasn’t because I was working[br]on it or Reddit was working on it or Google 0:14:17.690,0:14:22.509 was working on it or Tumblr or any other particular[br]person. It was because there was this enormous 0:14:22.509,0:14:28.980 mental shift in our industry. Everyone was[br]thinking of ways they could help, often really 0:14:28.980,0:14:33.440 clever, ingenious ways. People made videos.[br]They made infographics. They started PACs. 0:14:33.440,0:14:38.250 They designed ads. They bought billboards.[br]They wrote news stories. They held meetings. 0:14:38.250,0:14:43.649 Everybody saw it as their responsibility to[br]help. I remember at one point during this 0:14:43.649,0:14:47.389 period I held a meeting with a bunch of startups[br]in New York, trying to encourage everyone 0:14:47.389,0:14:51.360 to get involved, and I felt a bit like I was[br]hosting one of these Clinton Global Initiative 0:14:51.360,0:14:54.620 meetings, where I got to turn to every startup[br]in the—every startup founder in the room 0:14:54.620,0:14:58.079 and be like, "What are you going to do? And[br]what are you going to do?" And everyone was 0:14:58.079,0:15:00.199 trying to one-up each other. 0:15:00.199,0:15:05.029 If there was one day the shift crystallized,[br]I think it was the day of the hearings on 0:15:05.029,0:15:09.870 SOPA in the House, the day we got that phrase,[br]"It’s no longer OK not to understand how 0:15:09.870,0:15:15.319 the Internet works." There was just something[br]about watching those clueless members of Congress 0:15:15.319,0:15:19.209 debate the bill, watching them insist they[br]could regulate the Internet and a bunch of 0:15:19.209,0:15:24.130 nerds couldn’t possibly stop them. They[br]really brought it home for people that this 0:15:24.130,0:15:30.410 was happening, that Congress was going to[br]break the Internet, and it just didn’t care. 0:15:30.410,0:15:35.680 I remember when this moment first hit me.[br]I was at an event, and I was talking, and 0:15:35.680,0:15:40.089 I got introduced to a U.S. senator, one of[br]the strongest proponents of the original COICA 0:15:40.089,0:15:45.089 bill, in fact. And I asked him why, despite[br]being such a progressive, despite giving a 0:15:45.089,0:15:49.860 speech in favor of civil liberties, why he[br]was supporting a bill that would censor the 0:15:49.860,0:15:56.100 Internet. And, you know, that typical politician[br]smile he had suddenly faded from his face, 0:15:56.100,0:16:01.079 and his eyes started burning this fiery red.[br]And he started shouting at me, said, "Those 0:16:01.079,0:16:05.279 people on the Internet, they think they can[br]get away with anything! They think they can 0:16:05.279,0:16:09.690 just put anything up there, and there’s[br]nothing we can do to stop them! They put up 0:16:09.690,0:16:13.990 everything! They put up our nuclear missiles,[br]and they just laugh at us! Well, we’re going 0:16:13.990,0:16:17.899 to show them! There’s got to be laws on[br]the Internet! It’s got to be under control!" 0:16:17.899,0:16:24.170 Now, as far as I know, nobody has ever put[br]up the U.S.'s nuclear missiles on the Internet. 0:16:24.170,0:16:30.129 I mean, it's not something I’ve heard about.[br]But that’s sort of the point. He wasn’t 0:16:30.129,0:16:34.970 having a rational concern, right? It was this[br]irrational fear that things were out of control. 0:16:34.970,0:16:40.279 Here was this man, a United States senator,[br]and those people on the Internet, they were 0:16:40.279,0:16:47.240 just mocking him. They had to be brought under[br]control. Things had to be under control. And 0:16:47.240,0:16:52.480 I think that was the attitude of Congress.[br]And just as seeing that fire in that senator’s 0:16:52.480,0:16:58.069 eyes scared me, I think those hearings scared[br]a lot of people. They saw this wasn’t the 0:16:58.069,0:17:01.990 attitude of a thoughtful government trying[br]to resolve trade-offs in order to best represent 0:17:01.990,0:17:08.990 its citizens. This was more like the attitude[br]of a tyrant. And so the citizens fought back. 0:17:12.419,0:17:16.949 The wheels came off the bus pretty quickly[br]after that hearing. First the Republican senators 0:17:16.949,0:17:21.839 pulled out, and then the White House issued[br]a statement opposing the bill, and then the 0:17:21.839,0:17:26.449 Democrats, left all alone out there, announced[br]they were putting the bill on hold so they 0:17:26.449,0:17:32.200 could have a few further discussions before[br]the official vote. And that was when, as hard 0:17:32.200,0:17:38.289 as it was for me to believe, after all this,[br]we had won. The thing that everyone said was 0:17:38.289,0:17:41.840 impossible, that some of the biggest companies[br]in the world had written off as kind of a 0:17:41.840,0:17:48.840 pipe dream, had happened. We did it. We won. 0:17:51.289,0:17:56.990 And then we started rubbing it in. You all[br]know what happened next. Wikipedia went black. 0:17:56.990,0:18:03.059 Reddit went black. Craigslist went black.[br]The phone lines on Capitol Hill flat-out melted. 0:18:03.059,0:18:06.980 Members of Congress started rushing to issue[br]statements retracting their support for the 0:18:06.980,0:18:12.400 bill that they were promoting just a couple[br]days ago. And it was just ridiculous. I mean, 0:18:12.400,0:18:16.980 there’s a chart from the time that captures[br]it pretty well. It says something like "January 0:18:16.980,0:18:21.440 14th" on one side and has this big, long list[br]of names supporting the bill, and then just 0:18:21.440,0:18:26.880 a few lonely people opposing it; and on the[br]other side, it says "January 15th," and now 0:18:26.880,0:18:31.539 it’s totally reversed—everyone is opposing[br]it, just a few lonely names still hanging 0:18:31.539,0:18:33.320 on in support. 0:18:33.320,0:18:40.320 I mean, this really was unprecedented. Don’t[br]take my word for it, but ask former Senator 0:18:40.690,0:18:47.510 Chris Dodd, now the chief lobbyist for Hollywood.[br]He admitted, after he lost, that he had masterminded 0:18:47.510,0:18:52.870 the whole evil plan. And he told The New York[br]Times he had never seen anything like it during 0:18:52.870,0:18:59.120 his many years in Congress. And everyone I’ve[br]spoken to agrees. The people rose up, and 0:18:59.120,0:19:04.049 they caused a sea change in Washington—not[br]the press, which refused to cover the story—just 0:19:04.049,0:19:09.130 coincidentally, their parent companies all[br]happened to be lobbying for the bill; not 0:19:09.130,0:19:14.280 the politicians, who were pretty much unanimously[br]in favor of it; and not the companies, who 0:19:14.280,0:19:19.130 had all but given up trying to stop it and[br]decided it was inevitable. It was really stopped 0:19:19.130,0:19:26.130 by the people, the people themselves. They[br]killed the bill dead, so dead that when members 0:19:28.870,0:19:33.710 of Congress propose something now that even[br]touches the Internet, they have to give a 0:19:33.710,0:19:40.710 long speech beforehand about how it is definitely[br]not like SOPA; so dead that when you ask congressional 0:19:41.400,0:19:46.880 staffers about it, they groan and shake their[br]heads like it’s all a bad dream they’re 0:19:46.880,0:19:53.880 trying really hard to forget; so dead that[br]it’s kind of hard to believe this story, 0:19:55.390,0:20:01.679 hard to remember how close it all came to[br]actually passing, hard to remember how this 0:20:01.679,0:20:08.679 could have gone any other way. But it wasn’t[br]a dream or a nightmare; it was all very real. 0:20:08.990,0:20:15.870 And it will happen again. Sure, it will have[br]yet another name, and maybe a different excuse, 0:20:15.870,0:20:21.190 and probably do its damage in a different[br]way. But make no mistake: The enemies of the 0:20:21.190,0:20:26.679 freedom to connect have not disappeared. The[br]fire in those politicians’ eyes hasn’t 0:20:26.679,0:20:32.320 been put out. There are a lot of people, a[br]lot of powerful people, who want to clamp 0:20:32.320,0:20:37.070 down on the Internet. And to be honest, there[br]aren’t a whole lot who have a vested interest 0:20:37.070,0:20:42.640 in protecting it from all of that. Even some[br]of the biggest companies, some of the biggest 0:20:42.640,0:20:46.730 Internet companies, to put it frankly, would[br]benefit from a world in which their little 0:20:46.730,0:20:51.539 competitors could get censored. We can’t[br]let that happen. 0:20:51.539,0:20:57.010 Now, I’ve told this as a personal story,[br]partly because I think big stories like this 0:20:57.010,0:21:01.840 one are just more interesting at human scale.[br]The director J.D. Walsh says good stories 0:21:01.840,0:21:06.630 should be like the poster for Transformers.[br]There’s a huge evil robot on the left side 0:21:06.630,0:21:12.470 of the poster and a huge, big army on the[br]right side of the poster. And in the middle, 0:21:12.470,0:21:17.870 at the bottom, there’s just a small family[br]trapped in the middle. Big stories need human 0:21:17.870,0:21:22.710 stakes. But mostly, it’s a personal story,[br]because I didn’t have time to research any 0:21:22.710,0:21:29.120 of the other part of it. But that’s kind[br]of the point. We won this fight because everyone 0:21:29.120,0:21:35.929 made themselves the hero of their own story.[br]Everyone took it as their job to save this 0:21:35.929,0:21:39.779 crucial freedom. They threw themselves into[br]it. They did whatever they could think of 0:21:39.779,0:21:46.450 to do. They didn’t stop to ask anyone for[br]permission. You remember how Hacker News readers 0:21:46.450,0:21:53.190 spontaneously organized this boycott of GoDaddy[br]over their support of SOPA? Nobody told them 0:21:53.190,0:21:58.380 they could do that. A few people even thought[br]it was a bad idea. It didn’t matter. The 0:21:58.380,0:22:05.380 senators were right: The Internet really is[br]out of control. But if we forget that, if 0:22:05.970,0:22:10.620 we let Hollywood rewrite the story so it was[br]just big company Google who stopped the bill, 0:22:10.620,0:22:14.610 if we let them persuade us we didn’t actually[br]make a difference, if we start seeing it as 0:22:14.610,0:22:19.220 someone else’s responsibility to do this[br]work and it’s our job just to go home and 0:22:19.220,0:22:25.539 pop some popcorn and curl up on the couch[br]to watch Transformers, well, then next time 0:22:25.539,0:22:32.539 they might just win. Let’s not let that[br]happen.