That’s interesting. I initially parsed “copyright enforcement law simply is not a highly-charged partisan issue for the overwhelming majority of people in the United States” as meaning that it’s almost universally agreed to be bad. That reading was reinforced by “A few individuals may strongly identify as[...] fans of copyright law” (if it had been “fans or opponents” maybe that would have straightened me out). I’m pretty sure that most people who have been directly affected by some kind of copyright enforcement mechanismor copyright enforcement law did not enjoy the experience, and I am sceptical that they are a tiny minority.
Of course, positions on copyright and its enforcement in general are entirely distinct from positions on SOPA, PIPA, ACTA, et al. (as evinced by the many anti-SOPA statements that begin with announcements of approval of copyright enforcement in general).
In any case, I quite agree—especially after seeing the development of this thread—with your main point that LW is part of the community in which strong opinions on the present topic are ubiquitous. (I don’t know about opinions on copyright and its enforcement in general.) But to be more precise, we are part of the community in which the opinion that SOPA is bad is ubiquitous—like many other opinions, such as that elaborate theological arguments are a waste of time. That isn’t enough to make it controversial, and that’s why I thought perhaps we could discuss it rationally. But of course we are afraid, and perhaps that fear is more salient and more immediate than the fear of various existential dangers and similarly scary things we discuss.
That’s interesting. I initially parsed “copyright enforcement law simply is not a highly-charged partisan issue for the overwhelming majority of people in the United States” as meaning that it’s almost universally agreed to be bad. That reading was reinforced by “A few individuals may strongly identify as[...] fans of copyright law” (if it had been “fans or opponents” maybe that would have straightened me out). I’m pretty sure that most people who have been directly affected by some kind of copyright enforcement mechanism or copyright enforcement law did not enjoy the experience, and I am sceptical that they are a tiny minority.
Of course, positions on copyright and its enforcement in general are entirely distinct from positions on SOPA, PIPA, ACTA, et al. (as evinced by the many anti-SOPA statements that begin with announcements of approval of copyright enforcement in general).
In any case, I quite agree—especially after seeing the development of this thread—with your main point that LW is part of the community in which strong opinions on the present topic are ubiquitous. (I don’t know about opinions on copyright and its enforcement in general.) But to be more precise, we are part of the community in which the opinion that SOPA is bad is ubiquitous—like many other opinions, such as that elaborate theological arguments are a waste of time. That isn’t enough to make it controversial, and that’s why I thought perhaps we could discuss it rationally. But of course we are afraid, and perhaps that fear is more salient and more immediate than the fear of various existential dangers and similarly scary things we discuss.