Darrell Issa proposes 2-year ban on Internet legislations, will appear in Reddit AMA today to discuss

Rep Darrell Issa (R-CA) has pretty good credentials as a friend of the Internet, being one of the early Congresscritters to stand up to SOPA and PIPA (though there's the little matter of sponsoring a corporatist bill to limit open access for state-funded research). He's introduced a bill called the "The Internet American Moratorium Act (IAMA)" which proposes a two-year moratorium on Internet-related legislation. Presumably, this would give Internet freedom activists a couple years to prepare an offense game, rather than having to always be reacting to pro-surveillance and pro-censorship proposals from Hollywood and the DHS.

Issa's appearing in a Reddit AMA today at 1030h Eastern to discuss the bill.

The Internet American Moratorium Act (IAMA)

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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Nash Rambler

Asking Congress to pass legislation that wouldn’t allow them to pass other legislation is like asking an alcoholic to install that lock on the liquor cabinet. I just don’t see how this is going to be taken seriously.
- Boundegar
  
  Remember this is Darryl Issa. He may hate censorship, but he is still one of the biggest trolls in Congress. If the President came out in support of grandmothers, he would make it his personal mission to uncover the links between grandmothers and al-Qaeda.
  - jennybean42
    
    Ooh, ooh, I already know this. Grandmothers knit afghans!
    
    (sorry, couldn’t help myself)
  - sgtdoom
    
    Thank you — that’s the same Issa who has an arrest record, and was involved with insurance and arson fraud, but “settled” with the insurance company — whatever that’s supposed to mean (he paid them off so they wouldn’t turn him in to the coppers and the insurance commissioner???).
Eric Sorenson

“Please step away from the Internet.”
lasermike026

I don’t see how avoiding governance is an option. This bill is a non-starter.

And the wild west was great, you could shoot people and get shot!
LinkMan

How does this help the pro-internet activists? If anything, I’d think it would just give the anti-internet people more time to plan out their strategy, and then the pro-internet people would have to respond all lickety split to a deluge of new SOPAs and PIPAs and whatnot.
- ocatagon
  
  It gives the Republicans time to gain a greater majority in the house. Two years perfectly matches their election cycle. It means nobody that just got elected can even think about the internet.
  - Boundegar
    
    Actually, this is one issue – maybe the only one – where Republicans are on the side of the angels. Democrats look out for the little guy, until Big Content tells them not to. There are, of course, exceptions, but our poster boys are the likes of Lieberman and Dodd. Shameful.
    - ocatagon
      
      I don’t think Democrats or Republicans are going to propose anything good for the internet. Remember SOPA was bi-partisan.
    - Snig
      
      Sorry, unquenchable knee jerk response.
      
      Lieberman is not a Democrat.
sqyntz

the establishment wants to hit pause…
hal14450

This man is no friend of the internet just look at his record it’s the typical “GOV’T BAD! HULK SMASH!” rhetoric espoused by politicians who must secretly loathe themselves for being politicians. As I understand it Congress can’t bind it’s ability to make laws without a Constitutional amendment. At worst I see this as a trojan horse attempt to stop any regulatory agencies or the courts from stopping their “Internet Freedom” platform; At best it’s a way to confuse the voting public on the issues that actually affect them while accomplishing nothing.
- septimar
  
  Really? One of the leading opponents of SOPA is “no friend of the Internet”? Listen buddy, you may despise Republicans and/or Libertarians, but your insistence on ideological purity hurts the cause of Internet freedom, which I imagine unites everyone on this site. I am reminded of Socialists who are ineffectual because they don’t agree which kind of socialism is correct.
  
  We need someone like Issa. He isn’t perfect, but he is the best we got.
  - dabe2
    
    Him being a co-sponsor of CISPA and one of the Patriot Act’s biggest cheerleaders doesn’t exactly boost my confidence. He’s far from “the best we got”.
    - septimar
      
      “the best we got” is a relative value, it doesn’t mean he’s good in an absolute sense. Which is the same reason why Leibniz’ “best of all possible worlds” was so woefully misunderstood by Voltaire.
  - Snig
    
    He also doesn’t believe climate change is a problem. Climate change, at the least, has the potential to devastate our power and communication grid as well as food sources. This would negatively impact everyone’s internet experience. If you need an Issa, please keep him to yourself, and keep him away from congress.
ocatagon

If you wait two years you will have another house election, and with Obama in the White House chances are good that Republicans will gain a greater majority, so it would be better for Republicans if they just wait two years to propose any legislation at all, let alone internet legislation.

AND… Zoe Lofgren is working on legislation for domain seizures and copyright reform. This would put all that on hold for two years.
Thorzdad

Make no mistake…Issa is against government legislation and oversight of the internet because he believes corporations (You know…Comcast, AT&T, Charter, Cox, etc.) should be allowed manage their internet services as they see fit, with no pesky neutrality rules.
ObeyMyBrain

A ban on regulation likely includes a ban on net neutrality regulation.
JProffitt71

Everyone should refer to this comment in the AMA: http://www.reddit.com/r/technology/comments/13vtx0/iama_congressman_seeking_your_input_on_a_bill_to/c77rzmk

Essentially the bill is an impractical ban on all regulating everywhere that’s aimed make the Dems look bad when they reject it. According to that commenter at least.

Nonetheless I’d advise caution.
http://www.facebook.com/people/Otis-Farnapple/100000235293358 Otis Farnapple

The reason he is involved is that this bill would limit the ability of states to collect sales tax or the Fed to impose a VAT or flat tax on internet sales.

I buy a lot on the internet, and I would prefer that PayPal or my credit card collect the sales tax and forward it to California rather than my trying to keep track myself. Yes, I use the default option for “use tax” but the collection is too low and puts local stores at a disadvantage.
- http://profile.yahoo.com/TDLKXXF7WKYEKQLYRK4KTUZWPA e
  
  Yeah.. I suspect this as well. Just a backdoor way to try and avoid sales tax on internet purchases. Which frankly it is time to do.
http://twitter.com/ImmortalYawn ImmortalYawn

A turd posting on Reddit, no surprises there…