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Comment by toyg | Hacker News Reader

I don't think he was outmatched. If anything, he came out as a young, smart, polite guy running a successful business at the forefront of innovation -- the best America can offer, really.

Cotton came out as the rich, smiling shark that he is, which makes smart people dismissive of anything he has to say. His very first line "let's make a step back: we are talking about jAAAAAbs" sounds like something any two-faced lying politician would say. He did get more airplay, because he was incredibly rude, but I don't expect anything less from an executive of the network that is producing the show in the first place (it was actually kinda ballsy for Hayes to tell him he was flat-out wrong).

So, all in all, I don't think Alex should change much in his presentation; the only mistake he made, I think, was that he was too eager to push the "piracy is a service problem" soundbite before he had actually explained why that is the case.

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Disagree. I think Cotton clearly won the debate. His "The law only affects foreign companies involved in wholesale piracy" talking point is persuasive and was never refuted.

It was an ambush tactic -- he introduced a complete lie among his talking points, and dared everyone else to refute it. The next time around, anti-SOPA spokespersons will fire back on this point "with chapter and verse". Considering we're still quite far from the decisive votes, seeing the pro-SOPA camp already forced to resort to outright lies is comforting, they clearly have nothing else to show.

But HOW is his talking point a "complete lie"? It is amazing to me that nobody either on that interview or in this comment thread can clearly and succinctly point out how the NBC exec was lying.

Section 102:

(a) DEFINITION.—For purposes of this section, a foreign Internet site or portion thereof is a "foreign infringing site" if—

(1) the Internet site or portion thereof is a U.S.-directed site and is used by users in the United States

The term foreign used in this case is quite misleading.

I think you misunderstood this. Let me rephrase the above definition to make it easier to parse:

"A foreign infringing site is a FOREIGN SITE for which it is true that (1)... (2)... (3)..."

FOREIGN SITE is defined in section 101 as "an Internet site that is not a domestic Internet site".

DOMESTIC INTERNET SITE = "an Internet site for which the corresponding domain name or, if there is no domain name, the corresponding Internet Protocol address, is a domestic domain name or domestic Internet Protocol address". It is open to interpretation whether a site with a US and non-US domain is a domestic site.

It is open to interpretation whether a site with a US and non-US domain is a domestic site.

Exactly. There is a lot in this bill which is open for interpretation.

And the main point Alexis did make was that companies should compete with the pirates on quality of service. So now the only real piece on SOPA in the MSM has the anti- camp associated with some Hippy sounding bullshit... which the clearly anti-SOPA host argued against.

The issue should be framed as not just blocking access to foreign sites, but as blocking Americans from talking about them.

it was only never refuted because Cotton simply wouldn't allow it to be. Any time someone tried to explain why, he would interrupt and say "That's not true, you're wrong."

To me, that made him a clear loser.

Cotton came out as the rich, smiling shark that he is, which makes smart people dismissive of anything he has to say.

Most people, by definition, are closer to average or dumb. This war unfortunately requires convincing large numbers that SOPA is a really, really bad idea.

I don't want to disparage the masses with words like "dumb" but your comment does touch on a very important fact. The masses are moved by simple, but powerful themes. Cotton understands this and used it to his advantage. In my opinion, anti-SOPA debaters should stick to "Do we want to become like China?" ...and use it over and over and over.

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