TheGreatWorker
1 HN recommender · recommended in 3 months, 2013–2024
3:01 · 10M views · Sep 1, 2008
The Schoolhouse Rock! cartoon song 'I'm Just a Bill', in which a bill explains how it travels through Congress to become law.
Cited as a classic, catchy explainer of the US legislative process, and half-jokingly as many people's whole civics education.
3 comments from Hacker News
One of the best School House Rocks videos ever is "I'm Just a Bill." this video There are two things missing: 1. Congress can override a Presidential veto with a vote a two-thirds majority in the both chambers. 2. The President can also let a Bill sit for 11 or 12 days (it's really 10, but Sundays don't count.) At that point it becomes law without the President's signature.
A "law" has been finalized, passed by both halves of Congress, and ratified. A "bill" is an incomplete proposal at any stage of this process. There is a catchy song [1] to help everyone remember this. A bill is the same as a pull request that has not yet been merged. So the statement, "The U.S. [has] yet to pass even a basic internet-era privacy law..." is correct. In other words: The American Privacy Rights Act is just a bill, yes it's only a bill, and it's sitting there on Capitol Hill... [1] this video
disclaimer: my understanding of the legislative process is based entirely on Schoolhouse Rock's "I'm Just a Bill" ( this video ). so a citizen's access to a particular DC statute is impossible without that citizen infringing a copyright? I wonder if circumstances such as these would constitute "fair use" (which as i understand it is a valid defense to copyright infringement). also, i'm aware that doing things that would otherwise constitute intellectual property infringement, can be justified by the "Essential Facilities" doctrine--originally an Anti-Trust safe harbor, though it's also been applied to IP. This seems to apply here.