Some people oppose CISPA because of fixable issues regarding privacy or overly broad scope, some oppose it because they they think that it'll let the government spy on every URL they visit or allow the MPAA to take down all of Facebook for copyright infringement. According to the latter, CISPA isn't just a bad idea, it's pure malicious evil - the people supporting it need to be defeated so soundly that they never even try to bring it up again.
Unfortunately, that latter group is quite well-represented here on HN.
You make it sound as though those are the only two kind of people on this issue: Those who are reasonable and think CISPA can be fixed, and those who think CISPA is a bill to make spying on every American citizen the legal obligation of every ISP and internet company.
You leave no room for the vast majority of us who believe that the US government already has more than enough authority to spy on people; the government can get a warrant for collecting all of the data they currently want access to. Pretending the government doesn't already have the tools needed to enforce the law is disingenuous. Pretending that this bill is a "reasonable" response to real problems is disingenuous.
It isn't a debate between calm, rational, reasonable people who think the bill is fine (with maybe a tweak or two) on one side, and nutjobs who are paranoid and think like Gene Hackman in The Conversation on the other. There are reasonable people on both sides...but, I question the intentions (and possibly the integrity) of people, particularly people in the tech industry, who support the bill as it stands today.
It shouldn't be surprising that so many people on HN are uncompromising on Internet freedom. It's something we know more than most about, and something we care more than most about.
Actually, I was talking about the difference between rational, principled opposition and irrational, apocalyptic doomsaying. The groups I gave were meant to be examples, not comprehensive enumerations of every possible belief. Based on your reply, I'd consider you part of the first group - you've articulated a reasonable position that's based on your own beliefs and principles, and I can respect that even if I don't agree with it.
It wasn't my intention to offend by excluding or ignoring anyone, and I'm sorry if my post came off that way.
Do you remember the Ecomom story yesterday, where the VP of Sales had no responsibility for ensuring profits were realized, only for ensuring that revenue was high?
That's the kind of problem that CISPA proponents are trying to solve with regard to "cyberspace security". It's not supposed to be another way for the government to obtain information on people or threat groups, for the exact reasons you listed. It's supposed to be a way for the private sector and government to cooperate on network defense, sharing information as necessary to provide a coordinated defense in response, investigate attackers, etc.
Government can't do it alone as the private sector controls the networks and has a lot of the needed expertise. The private sector can't do it alone as they have no legal authority, which is quite deliberately retained with the government (especially in light of what happened to Sunil Tripathi).
There are actually similar arrangements already in place in other areas. For example disaster relief/emergency management has a lot of tie-in between Federal, state, and local governments, DoD, and NGOs such as the Red Cross, all of which have pre-planned responses to various disaster scenarios. But these can be done without changes to the law, which is at least somewhat unclear in the case of coordinated network security.
Now CISPA as it currently stands is dangerous because it still doesn't provide enough privacy protection (especially on the commercial -> government direction), but please don't act like it's just another feeder source for the FBI, as if that were the only possible motive, especially given existing issues such as the Aurora attack on Google.
Everybody and their dog in the industry, as well as the 200 or so companies hit, got the inside scoop on Aurora, and CISPA does nothing to make that easier. You're being fed BS if someone told you that was a CISPA use case.
Reality is, as far as i can tell, tech oriented folks care a lot. "Most of the US" probably doesn't give a shit one way or the other, or worse, would be okay with it.
In a US where a significant percentage of people believe we should be throwing the constitution out the window to 'fight terrorism', you are going to need a bit of evidence to suppor the idea that it's 'most of the US except for a few industries with powerful lobbyists'.
Unfortunately, that latter group is quite well-represented here on HN.