Original post: On Thursday, following a day of widespread online protest over the Protect Intellectual Property Act and the Stop Online Piracy Act, Missouri's senators decided that they didn't want to support the legislation after all. It's a good thing, too, as both Claire McCaskill and Roy Blunt were found to be violating copyrights and photo licenses on their Twitter pages.
Vice magazine reports that as recently as a few days ago, Blunt — a PIPA co-sponsor — was using a photo by semi-professional photographer Walter Rowland as the background image on his Twitter page. Rowland's wife, Linny, told Vice, "[N]o, they weren't given permission." Yesterday, Blunt tweeted (on his page with new background image): "We can find a solution that will protect lawful content. But this bill is flawed & that's why I'm withdrawing my support. #SOPA #PIPA."
McCaskill's offense was slightly less severe.
She used an image of a roadside "Welcome to Missouri" sign that was the work of photographer J. Stephen Conn. His photo was not copyrighted, but he explained to Vice: "I have put the photo in the Creative Commons, which means anyone may use it for non-commercial purposes, however, proper attribution of the photo should be given because it is NOT in the public domain."
McCaskill tweeted Thursday, "I was not a co sponsor of PIPA. I cannot support it in its current form. I will post blog on my Tmblr later to explain. #PIPA."
As of Friday morning, McCaskill has not replaced the photo.
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Ah yes, that moronic argument again. If everyone that was dissatisfied with politics was told "don't complain or you run for office" for office we'd have 50 million candidates for president. Thousands of candidates for congress.
You sir, are an idiot.
@ABE
....so you run for office and grace us with your intelligence.
No, didn't think so.
I'm glad the people's voices are finally being heard. However the fact that it takes this kind of outcry to get these idiots to "change" their minds, and then they boast about withdrawing support, is proof they both need to be voted out of office next go around.
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