SOPA fighters handily fund billboard outside Lamar Smith's office

Holmes sez, "A crowd-funded, Texan-themed billboard for Lamar Smith (R-TX) is currently emblazoned across the Texas sky. The billboard says 'Don't Mess with the Internet', and it just took flight this morning right outside the San Antonio offices of SOPA-sponsor Lamar Smith. The crowdfunding campaign went so well that in just two days in March we raised enough for two billboards, so there's one in up in Austin too (on 'Lamar Blvd', appropriately enough). There’s even a t-shirt, available from Breadpig, Reddit co-founder’s philanthropic merch site. Proceeds support Fight for the Future and its latest project, the Internet Defense League."

SOPA author Lamar Smith (R-TX) gets a crowd-funded billboard... right outside his San Antonio office. (Thanks, holmesworcester!)

I write books. My latest is a YA science fiction novel called Homeland (it's the sequel to Little Brother). More books: Rapture of the Nerds (a novel, with Charlie Stross); With a Little Help (short stories); and The Great Big Beautiful Tomorrow (novella and nonfic). I speak all over the place and I tweet and tumble, too.

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moneycone

People in Lamar’s district are as dumb as Lamar himself. Sadly, the billboard won’t change a thing.
einsteinatthemall

I know it’s a play on the phrase “Don’t Mess with Texas” but I think the slogan “Don’t Mess with the Internet” is a little bit wimpy, if not exasperating. Does anybody really think a billboard with this sort of lukewarm catch-phrase on it will sway the thinking of a hardened Texas Republican? Yes, sloganeering can be effective, but first one needs a good slogan and maybe more than two billboards in a state the size of Texas.
Paul Renault

Wow, if that star was yellow, it’d be an Acadian flag.
http://pulse.yahoo.com/_OAUXAA362EXWLYVMPJOKLFB5JQ Incipient Madness

The problem is that Smith’s district is gerrymandered not just to be solid Republican, but also to deny more liberal voters in the suburbs of Austin and San Antonio any chance at getting representation that matches their interests.

They’ve done this to every urban area in Texas.
David Smith

I donated to this effort, and I’m very disappointed by this billboard. I can imagine plenty of uninformed motorists reading this billboard and saying, “Uh… what?” The goal was to unseat Lamar Smith and I just don’t see this billboard helping to accomplish that goal.
- senorglory
  
  yeah, who doesn’t want to support the internet, whatever the heck that means. too ambiguous.
- http://halfbakedmaker.org Robert Baruch
  
  It sounded like their target was Lamar himself.
Rindan

That’s like saying about the backlash Lord Doom got when he tried to pass a bill to stop all crime. His one strike and I feed your entrails to the dogs drown your spouse, and sell your children into slavery law probably would have drastically reduced the number of crimes committed and end the scourge of jay walking.

Lamar Smith is getting backlash because he tried to screw the Internet in the name of preventing people from copying movies. That is like chopping off your arm to scratch an itch. He is an idiot and deserves to be tossed out of office.