I think that donations are sort of a red herring. As long as the MPAA and RIAA can afford to hire people to live in Washington DC and befriend politicians and explain in detail how SOPA will Create Jobs or whatever you'll have pretty much the same problem. Campaign donations are cheap compared to hiring lobbyists, and just serve to make sure that its the MPAA lobbyist who sees a politician instead of the cement industry's or whoever.
And as long politicians have to vote on a hundred issues a year that could each reward a lifetime of careful study this'll keep happening. We all know SOPA is terrible but most people in the US have no clue. How many laws are made that we're apathetic about, but which we'd be outraged by if we knew more about the issue?
I feel like we really need to either find ways of making sure our politicians have better sources of expertise on hands than the ones provided by industry, or to stop trying to make such complex laws that demand more understanding of the workings of things than our politicians have themselves.
And as long politicians have to vote on a hundred issues a year that could each reward a lifetime of careful study this'll keep happening. We all know SOPA is terrible but most people in the US have no clue. How many laws are made that we're apathetic about, but which we'd be outraged by if we knew more about the issue?
I feel like we really need to either find ways of making sure our politicians have better sources of expertise on hands than the ones provided by industry, or to stop trying to make such complex laws that demand more understanding of the workings of things than our politicians have themselves.