Internet Censorship

[Prophet]

Before yall UKers, Canadians, and other folk outside of the U.S. dismiss this as if it won't affect you, let me give yall a fair warning: the following bills, the PIPA, SOPA, and S. 978, will effectively fuck over many of the U.S. based social networks, search engines and other websites yall use, such as Google/Youtube, Twitter, Facebook, tumblr, etc. etc.

This will effectively also, be the collective end of businesses that rely on the Internet if these things pass, as Google and the many other companies will be forced to come to a halt, since there is no possible way for human beings working to deem whether something is in violation of copyright laws to physically go through all of the trillions of content being submitted to the Internet every day

Some essential sources for yall:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Protect_IP_Act

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stop_Online_Piracy_Act

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bill_S.978

http://stopcensorship.org/

http://www.wired.com/threatlevel/2011/11/wyden-pipa-filibuster/

http://www.wired.com/threatlevel/2011/11/blacklist-bill-analysis/

^I'd post more, but yall get the picture there. Lastly, I'm gonna post a video of a person who is staunchly opposed to these bills and will explain it in layman's terms for yall:

Jq5w0UmpMm4

[Prophet]

http://fightforthefuture.org/pipa/

[Phlyarologist]

Fucking America.

[idk]

I don't think Anon will let this happen without a fight. It is true that piracy is becoming a large nuisance, but anti-piracy protection is a much better investment than straight up fucking over internet culture. Then again, I doubt the guys who are making these bills fully grasp the scope to which cultures have been created using the internet. To them it's something they use to read the news, but to people like me, it's a connection to entire cultures based on memes and other forms of repetition, norms, ideas, etc.

[mandude]

I refuse to believe something like this could happen and continue to stay in effect.

[idk]

Oh, but it can.

[mandude]

It may happen, but do you really think people will sit down and take it without doing anything about it?

[idk]

I don't, as I said above. I really think Anon won't let this pass without a fight.

[Ripplemagne]

We let Nancy Pelosi happen...

[idk]

But (sadly) a lot more people care about tumblr than politics.

[Prophet]

http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20111126/23150116902/ny-times-la-times-both-come-out-against-sopa-pipa.shtml

http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20111127/14274716903/european-court-justice-says-isps-cannot-be-forced-to-be-copyright-cops.shtml

http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20111127/22391516905/ex-riaa-boss-ignores-all-criticisim-sopapipa-claims-any-complaints-are-trying-to-justify-stealing.shtml

http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20111123/00002616879/why-public-is-willing-to-rally-against-sopapipa-not-it.shtml

[case]

This hasn't passed yet has it? Why is stuff like this getting proposed under Obama, I thought he was supposed to be on our side? And he hasn't done anything much about Wall Street excess either. Obama seems pretty useless

[Prophet]

http://torrentfreak.com/kaspersky-dumps-anti-piracy-group-in-sopa-protest-111205/

http://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/news/2011/12/sopa-on-the-ropes-bipartisan-alternative-to-net-censorship-emerges.ars - A bipartisan effort to counter the shit that are SOPA and PIPA. This would put everything in the hands of the ITC (International Trade Commission) rather than the government.


This hasn't passed yet has it? Why is stuff like this getting proposed under Obama, I thought he was supposed to be on our side? And he hasn't done anything much about Wall Street excess either. Obama seems pretty useless

Obama is a puppet yo, and anyone who thought he was actually going to be the savior of the United States (and to a lesser extent the world) was extremely misguided and led astray from reality

He was propped up by corporations, and he had actually received the most campaign "donations" from corporations/Wall Street than any presidential candidate in history. He also bailed corporations out during his presidential campaign, which is also another reason why he hasn't done anything about Wall Street excess

Also, you have to remember that a good chunk of the do nothing Congress that was under Bush are still holding seats in the House and Senate to this day, which is also another reason why shit like this is being up for debate

as of now, it's been put on hold while the ragtag group of sane senators and representatives counter that shit, but there is still a huge possibility that the MPAA, the RIAA, and many of the other supporters of these bills will try to meddle and rush this bill through by "coercing" those who are in doubt of these bills much like how Obama took Kucinich up on Air Force One and by the time the plane ride was over, Kucinich was all for the terrible healthcare bill Obama was trying to rush through

http://motherjones.com/mojo/2011/12/barack-obama-fundraiser-every-five-days-2011

[Ripplemagne]

Could you please define "Wall Street excess"?

[Prophet]

http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20111208/14521817014/mpaa-boss-if-chinese-censor-internet-without-problem-why-cant-us.shtml

The MPAA is getting pretty desperate, it seems. MPAA boss Chris Dodd was out trying to defend censoring the internet this week by using China as an example of why censorship isn't a problem (http://www.variety.com/article/VR1118047080). It's kind of shocking, really.
"When the Chinese told Google that they had to block sites or they couldn't do [business] in their country, they managed to figure out how to block sites." Is that really what Chris Dodd wants the US government to aspire to? To setting up its own Great Firewall?

His other comments were almost as ridiculous:
"How do you justify a search engine providing for someone to go and steal something?" he asked rhetorically in a recent interview at the Society of Motion Picture and Television Engineers conference. "A guy that drives the getaway car didn't rob the bank necessarily, but they got you to the bank and they got you out of it, so they are accessories in my view." But that completely misunderstands and misrepresents the situation. Google isn't the driver. Google is the car manufacturer. Do we sue Ford as an accessory?

It's this sort of ridiculousness that makes it so difficult to take Dodd and the MPAA seriously in these discussions.

[Giggle Monster]

Oh gawd. Yes, let's be more like China, of all places. That "state capitalism" is all the rage, dontcha know.

[Ripplemagne]

So, the question of the day is, when has Chris Dodd not been a clown?

[Prophet]

It's crunch time now, my homies

the very fate of the Internet could be decided this week:

http://mashable.com/2011/12/13/sopa-tech-protests/

[idk]

I don't get why people in the entertainment industry seem to be spending more on lobbying rather than anti-piracy measures... I think the porn industry is actually doing more. I remember reading that most modern anti-piracy measures put in place were created by the porn industry. Let me dig it up.


•Digital-rights management software. Like the music and film industries, the adult-entertainment industry has grappled with digital piracy.

Playa Solutions, the company started by former movie producer Tucker, has developed software that wraps digital content in a high-tech force field of sorts. When the user presses play on a video clip, for instance, a computer system that controls the content is electronically notified. The system asks for a payment or lets viewers see the clip if they agree to watch ads. The process has tested successfully in the adult industry and has drawn interest from music and movie companies, Tucker says.

[Prophet]

http://www.bricoleur.org/2011/12/overbroad-censorship-users.html

The harm that does to ordinary, non-infringing users is best described via a hypothetical user: Abe. Abe has never even so much as breathed on a company’s copyright but he does many of the things typical of Internet users today. He stores the photos of his children, now three and six years old, online at PickUpShelf* (http://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=1972227005391162265#SOPASTAR) so that he doesn’t have to worry about maintaining backups. He is a teacher and keeps copies of his classes accessible for his students via another service called SunStream that makes streaming audio and video easy. He engages frequently in conversation in several online communities and has developed a hard-won reputation and following on a discussion host called SpeakFree. And, of course, he has a blog called “Abe’s Truths” that is hosted on a site called NewLeaflet. He has never infringed on any copyright and each of the entities charged with enforcing SOPA know that he hasn’t.

And yet, none of that matters. Under SOPA, every single one of the services that Abe uses can be obliterated from his view without him having any remedy. Abe may wake up one morning and not be able to access any of his photos of his children. Neither he, nor his students, would be able to access any of his lectures. His trove of smart online discussions would likewise evaporate and he wouldn’t even be able to complain about it on his blog. And, in every case, he has absolutely no power to try to regain access. That may sound far-fetched but under SOPA, all that needs to happen for this scenario to come true is for the Attorney General to decide that some part of PickUpShelf, SunStream, SpeakFree and NewLeaflet would be copyright infringement in the US. If a court agrees, and with no guarantee of an adversarial proceeding that seems very likely, the entire site is “disappeared” from the US internet. When that happens Abe has NO remedy. None. No way of getting the photos of his kids other than leaving the United States for a country that doesn’t have overly broad censorship laws.

[idk]

I'm so glad I'm leaving the USA next month.

[Prophet]

TwwMh_ior10

Sonic says....that's NO GOOD

[Ghosthustler]

Oh gawd. Yes, let's be more like China, of all places. That "state capitalism" is all the rage, dontcha know.

I'll have you know that the world of Eastern capitalism is inventive and prosperous.

[Prophet]

Good news for the opposition yo:

http://news.cnet.com/8301-31921_3-57344469-281/sopa-vote-well-theres-always-next-year/

[Jinxieminx]

Naw, they're resuming the committee on the 21st, I think it is. The People who're pro-SOPA pulled the date forward.

[Prophet]

^they just updated that info today, so you're correct on that

http://www.pcworld.com/article/246500/congress_to_resume_sopa_hearings_next_week.html

[Prophet]

They got pwned until January yo:

http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/post-tech/post/sopa-online-piracy-bill-markup-postponed/2011/12/20/gIQA6s7a7O_blog.html

Also, British rapper Dan Bull made a nice anti-SOPA song right here yo:

1w6GtwOvnWM

Firstly, it threatens the future of the internet, which is something far more valuable both commercially and socially than the entertainment industry ever has been, or ever will be.

Secondly, creativity is all about interpreting and re-imagining what you see and hear around you. The idea that creativity exists in some kind of vacuum, and that you're not a real artist unless you can make something "completely original" is not only stupid, it contradicts the most fundamental axioms of how the universe works. Everything is influenced by something else. If we want a richer cultural landscape, we should embrace remixes, embrace mashups, and embrace sharing, not cling to ideas as pieces of property.

Thirdly, the internet is an amazing new forum for free speech and holding those in power us to account. The idea that governments and even private corporations can police the internet and decide what people on a global scale are allowed to say and hear is tyrannical.

[idk]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y7DkrsCCQ_A&feature=player_embedded

[Prophet]

What YOU need to know about SOPA in 2012 yo:

http://www.readwriteweb.com/archives/what_you_need_to_know_about_sopa_in_2012.php

[Prophet]

Godaddy supports SOPA, Jimmy Wales and wikipedia say sayonara yo:

https://twitter.com/#!/jimmy_wales/status/150287579642740736

[mandude]

GoDaddy have since withdrawn their support. Too little too late, though.

http://www.godaddy.com/newscenter/release-view.aspx?news_item_id=378

[Prophet]

Word yo

they lost 21,000 domains:

http://tech.pnosker.com/2011/12/26/sopa-pip-explained-godaddy-loses-21000-domains-and-stops-supporting-sopa/

[idk]

But due to the growing community of opposition to the bill, coupled with a boycott of Go Daddy, forced the web hosting company’s CEO Warren Adelman to make a public announcement stating that it would end its support of the bill until the time “when and if the Internet community supports it.”

Wow, nice job basically saying that he only withdrew the support for money, and not because he actually disagrees with SOPA.

[Prophet]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_organizations_that_support_the_Stop_Online _Piracy_Act - didn't realize the Fraternal Order of Police, the Concerned Women of America, and the Congressional Fire Services Institute are so concerned with piracy yo

http://www.eventhubs.com/news/2012/jan/04/capcom-confirms-support-stop-online-piracy-act/ - Stay classy, Capcom

[andrea17]

if anyone dares get rid of youtube........................

anyone..........................

[Prophet]

The government dares, andrea

anyway, Reddit and wikipedia are planning a January 18th "internet blackout," with many other smaller sites joining

no word on whether or not Google, Facebook, and Twitter will participate in this yet; if they do I'd imagine that they won't shut down, but they'll do something to get some more awareness in regards to SOPA and PIPA's intentions

[Prophet]

http://news.cnet.com/8301-31001_3-57359403-261/who-is-winning-sopa-read-rupe-murdochs-twitter-feed/

Now that SOPA's been (temporarily) shelved, corporations and organizations in favor of this bill are salty at Obama for "betraying them" for the anti-SOPA advocates yo

[White Knight]

Why not just pass a bill to stop the use of money, or cars, or fucking telephones and TV? Let's see how everyone reacts to that.

Goddamned retards in the government, I tell you. Watch out, Senator, don't leave the house without your safety helmet!

[idk]

I don't get why people in the entertainment industry seem to be spending more on lobbying rather than anti-piracy measures...

And I think I found the answer to that.


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y7DkrsCCQ_A

Interesting plan. Kickstarting a massive piracy trend, letting it hit big, and then proposing a law that would allow easy collection of money from lawsuits. Bling bling.

[Prophet]

Victory, for now yo:

http://www.forbes.com/sites/johngaudiosi/2012/01/16/obama-says-so-long-sopa-killing-controversial-internet-piracy-legislation/


The growing anti-SOPA (Stop Online Piracy Act) support that has swept through the gaming and Internet community found a very big ally today. With websites like Reddit and Wikipedia and gaming organizations like Major League Gaming prepared for a blackout on January 18th – the same day that the House Judiciary Committee hearing on HR 3261was scheduled in Washington, DC – President Barack Obama has stepped in and said he would not support the bill. SOPA has been killed, for now. Much to the chagrin of Hollywood, the Entertainment Software Association (which has been a backer of the bill from early on), and Internet domain company GoDaddy.com (which lost many accounts as a result of its support for the bill); SOPA has been shelved. The Motion Picture Association of America, one of the bill’s largest sponsors, is expected to regroup.
California congressman Darrell Issa, who has been opposed to the bill from the beginning, praised the Internet action that has swept like a virus across the Web the past week.
“The voice of the Internet community has been heard,” said Issa. “Much more education for members of Congress about the workings of the Internet is essential if anti-piracy legislation is to be workable and achieve broad appeal.”
But there remains another similar bill, Protect IP (the Enforcing and Protecting American Rights Against Sites Intent on Theft and Exploitation Act), that poses a problem for gamers and Internet users. This legislation is scheduled to go before the Senate on January 24th.
Both SOPA and Protect IP attempt to combat online piracy by preventing American search engines like Google and Yahoo from directing users to sites distributing stolen content. Both bills also would enable people and companies to sue if their copyright was infringed. Obama has come out against both bills, which killed SOPA and puts pressure on senators come January 24th. The full White House response can be read here (http://www.whitehouse.gov/blog/2012/01/14/obama-administration-responds-we-people-petitions-sopa-and-online-piracy).
“Any provision covering Internet intermediaries such as online advertising networks, payment processors, or search engines must be transparent and designed to prevent overly broad private rights of action that could encourage unjustified litigation that could discourage startup businesses and innovative firms from growing,” said The White House. “We expect and encourage all private parties, including both content creators and Internet platform providers working together, to adopt voluntary measures and best practices to reduce online piracy.”
Just like piracy itself, this debate isn’t over. Expect more bills to move forward, although the wording in future legislation is expected to be more narrowly focused in an attempt to appease the current administration. But given the current economic climate and the upcoming Presidential election, there could be a different administration entering The White House soon, changing the landscape for these types of bills.

[Prophet]

Victory, for now yo:

http://www.forbes.com/sites/johngaudiosi/2012/01/16/obama-says-so-long-sopa-killing-controversial-internet-piracy-legislation/


The growing anti-SOPA (Stop Online Piracy Act) support that has swept through the gaming and Internet community found a very big ally today. With websites like Reddit and Wikipedia and gaming organizations like Major League Gaming prepared for a blackout on January 18th – the same day that the House Judiciary Committee hearing on HR 3261was scheduled in Washington, DC – President Barack Obama has stepped in and said he would not support the bill. SOPA has been killed, for now. Much to the chagrin of Hollywood, the Entertainment Software Association (which has been a backer of the bill from early on), and Internet domain company GoDaddy.com (which lost many accounts as a result of its support for the bill); SOPA has been shelved. The Motion Picture Association of America, one of the bill’s largest sponsors, is expected to regroup.
California congressman Darrell Issa, who has been opposed to the bill from the beginning, praised the Internet action that has swept like a virus across the Web the past week.
“The voice of the Internet community has been heard,” said Issa. “Much more education for members of Congress about the workings of the Internet is essential if anti-piracy legislation is to be workable and achieve broad appeal.”
But there remains another similar bill, Protect IP (the Enforcing and Protecting American Rights Against Sites Intent on Theft and Exploitation Act), that poses a problem for gamers and Internet users. This legislation is scheduled to go before the Senate on January 24th.
Both SOPA and Protect IP attempt to combat online piracy by preventing American search engines like Google and Yahoo from directing users to sites distributing stolen content. Both bills also would enable people and companies to sue if their copyright was infringed. Obama has come out against both bills, which killed SOPA and puts pressure on senators come January 24th. The full White House response can be read here (http://www.whitehouse.gov/blog/2012/01/14/obama-administration-responds-we-people-petitions-sopa-and-online-piracy).
“Any provision covering Internet intermediaries such as online advertising networks, payment processors, or search engines must be transparent and designed to prevent overly broad private rights of action that could encourage unjustified litigation that could discourage startup businesses and innovative firms from growing,” said The White House. “We expect and encourage all private parties, including both content creators and Internet platform providers working together, to adopt voluntary measures and best practices to reduce online piracy.”
Just like piracy itself, this debate isn’t over. Expect more bills to move forward, although the wording in future legislation is expected to be more narrowly focused in an attempt to appease the current administration. But given the current economic climate and the upcoming Presidential election, there could be a different administration entering The White House soon, changing the landscape for these types of bills.

[Prophet]

GET READY YALL, TOMORROW'S THE BLACKOUT OF THE INTERNETS yo:

bntOfQJpihA

[mandude]

Which sites are going down? I think I'll only be affected by Wikipedia.

[Prophet]

Which sites are going down? I think I'll only be affected by Wikipedia.

Wikipedia, Reddit, and a couple of lesser sites are going down, but sites like Google, Twitter, Facebook, craigslist, etc. etc. will be trying to get awareness out in regards to SOPA and PIPA as well through their own methods

[mandude]

Hmm, I can't imagine Reddit going down will be any use. Anyone who uses Reddit should already be pretty aware of what's going on.

[Prophet]

It's begun yo

Wikipedia is blacked out, and Google has a big ass censor on top of its name on its front page

[diabloprimeevil]

wiki is blacked out but you can still use it if you know how just needs a few tweeks. Google doesnt have anything wrong for me could you post a screen cap?

[Prophet]

Google is still functioning just fine, it just has the black censor bar on top of its logo that redirects to information about SOPA and PIPA

oh, btw yall, SOPA's back:

http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20120117/13254717438/lamar-smith-mpaa-brush-off-wikipedia-blackout-as-just-publicity-stunt.shtml

http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20120117/12563317437/its-baaaaaaaaack-lamar-smith-says-sopa-markup-to-resume-february.shtml


Okay. A few months back, I wrote up what I called "the definitive" post on why SOPA & PIPA were very bad bills (http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20111122/04254316872/definitive-post-why-sopa-protect-ip-are-bad-bad-ideas.shtml). Some things have changed since then, so I thought it might be useful to do an updated post on the subject. On top of that, one of the key claims by supporters of these bills is that those of us opposed have been spewing false claims to increase the hysteria. While it's true that there is some misinformation making the rounds, I've seen no evidence that it's limited to the anti-SOPA/PIPA crowd. In fact, it appears to be worse on the part of supporters. While some anti-SOPA/PIPA folks may be misinformed about the specifics, they are at least speaking honestly. The pro-SOPA/PIPA forces appear to be deliberately misstating the facts.

So, let's look at the facts. PIPA & SOPA are (now) very similar bills, both with significant problems. In fact, the remaining "differences" in the bills each have serious problems (http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20120105/14322117291/which-is-worse-sopa-pipa-answer-both.shtml), which is why neither bill is a "better" bill, since both are terrible. The claimed purpose behind these bills is to give both law enforcement and private individuals/companies tools to go after "foreign" websites that are offering infringing (either copyright or trademark) content. The bills offer two ways to do this: via the Attorney General taking action against the sites, or via a "private right of action," in which copyright or trademark holders take direct action themselves against a site they believe is dedicated to infringement.

The bill does require a half-hearted attempt to "contact" the operators of the sites being accused, but if the AG or rightsholders feel they can't reach the owners, they can then go directly after "the site" itself (an "in rem" process, rather than an "in personam"). Following a (literally) one-sided court hearing, a judge can then put the accused site on what is effectively a blacklist. If it's the AG bringing the action, it means that search engines or (under PIPA) "information location tools" -- a broad term that covers an awful lot of the internet -- have to magically figure out ways to block any and all links to the site in question. If it's either the AG or private rightsholders, then payment processors and ad networks would be forced to stop doing business with the sites on the blacklist.

Under both bills, the definitions of what is a "site dedicated" to "infringement" or "theft of US property" are pretty broad and open to abuse. While supporters of the bills love to insist they're narrowly tailored, a simple look at PIPA shows that's wrong. It notes that you can be dedicated to infringement if the key service you offer facilitates infringement. Think about that for a second. Pretty much every user generated content site or communication tool... or... computer, can "facilitate" infringement. Now, supporters of the bill insist that most sites are safe because the bill says that there's "no significant use other than... enabling or facilitating" infringement. But, again, note they're not saying that it has no significant use other than infringement. It says no significant use other than enabling or facilitating infringement. That's pretty much the entire internet there. A site may only rarely be used to infringe, but its primary function can still 'facilitate' infringement.

In addition, SOPA has an anti-circumvention rule, which makes it incredibly risky to provide any kind of service that that accidentally gets you around the blacklist. (VPN provider? Too bad!) Even worse, the anti-circumvention provision is not limited to foreign sites.

The "only impacts foreign sites" claim is also a red herring (http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20120116/01350817412/lies-nbcuniversals-rick-cotton-about-sopapipa.shtml). It's a favorite of the pro-PIPA/SOPA folks, but it's a lie. While the current bill targets foreign sites, all of the remedies and enforcement require compliance by domestic sites. That's costly. I recognize that policy analysts, lawyers, lobbyists and politicians who have never actually run a business think this stuff is simple, but for those of us who actually run companies, this is terrifying. We now have to worry about staying in compliance with a broad law that's almost impossible to comply with in any realistic manner. In our debate yesterday, the US Chamber of Commerce's Steve Tepp insisted that there was "no liability" for any domestic site. This is ridiculous. What he meant was no direct monetary liability. Leave it to an out of touch policy guy to think that it's only a liability if there's the potential to cost you money in court. The liability is in the possibility of being dragged to court over this. It's in the possibility of facing additional punishment/sanctions for failing to obey an impossible-to-obey court order to cut off certain users. That is a tremendous liability.

There are additional provisions that are troubling, including SOPA's inclusion of "felony streaming" provisions, that could lead to jail time for those who lip synch over songs and put that up in a YouTube video, or those who embed infringing YouTube videos on their own site. PIPA does not have that directly, but there is a companion bill in the Senate that has similar things.

So why, specifically, are these two bills so bad:



They will not do anything to solve the problem. This is the biggest point. In the past 35 years, dating back to the 1976 Copyright Act, the legacy content industries have gone back to Congress an astounding sixteen times and gotten them to expand copyright law in some form or another to deal with their own inability to adapt. That's just about every two years. And what has any of it done to reduce the amount of infringement? Nothing. Absolutely nothing. But now this is suddenly the magic bullet?

More to the point, multiple studies have shown that "piracy" is almost always a "service" issue -- in that people resort to infringing options when no good options exist. A detailed four-year study on this issue around the globe found, consistently, that infringement was never an "enforcement" issue -- but exclusively a business model issue (http://piracy.ssrc.org/the-report/). Provide services that give people what they want, and watch piracy decline. Lots of people have shown the industry how this works, and they still ignore it. A perfect example is how Valve Software saw lots of piracy in Russia -- a hotbed of infringement -- and used that as free market research to establish a presence in Russia (http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20111023/22062816484/just-as-valve-shows-that-you-can-compete-with-piracy-russia-russia-starts-cracking-down-piracy.shtml), which is now a huge moneymaker for them. Not by "enforcing" against infringers, but by offering a better legitimate service.
Putting massive liability and compliance costs on startups will hinder the most necessary innovation and jobs. As described above, these bills work by making tech companies responsible for creating/policing the blacklist. That's expensive and daunting. Many startups won't even bother to work on innovative services because the legal fees will just be too high. Others will simply start elsewhere. At a time when startups are the only net creator of jobs these days, do we really want to burden them all with significant new compliance costs and liability? These bills are jobs and innovation killers.
These bills go against American principles of freedom of speech. Over 100 law professors (http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20111115/17382616784/over-100-lawyers-law-professors-practitioners-come-out-against-sopa.shtml) -- including one of the most respected Constitutional scholars, Laurence Tribe -- have made this point repeatedly (http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20111208/15442917016/constitutional-scholars-explain-why-sopa-protect-ip-do-not-pass-first-amendment-scrutiny.shtml). Creating a blacklist is not where the US should be going -- and it specifically goes against (http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20111209/03035217018/just-as-us-govt-was-giving-back-blog-it-illegally-censored-over-year-hillary-clinton-speaks-out-against-internet-censorship.shtml) our messaging to other countries on the importance of an open internet and basic internet freedoms. Sure, supporters of the bills will point out that censoring "political speech" is different than censoring sites that have some infringing content, but that ignores reality. We've seen oppressive regimes abuse copyright law (http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20100912/12440610969.shtml) to oppress dissidents. SOPA & PIPA give those regimes the perfect cover story for doing more of that: just claim they violated copyright law, and the US says it's just dandy to censor and suppress speech.
The immunity provisions in the bill sneak through broad powers by pretending they're "voluntary." Supporters insist that these bills will only be used against the worst of the worst. But they're purposely ignoring the broad immunity provisions in the bill -- and the history of similar immunity provisions. The immunity provisions basically say that, if you become aware of a site that may be infringing, you will get full immunity if you take the actions prescribed in the bill (i.e., cutting them off). As we've seen with the DMCA, such a grant of immunity means that if you hear of a site that is accused, you are very, very likely to cut them off, just to make sure you retain that immunity. Why risk it otherwise? Only a few sites may stand up to the worst abuses. The rest will want to make sure they don't have any future legal fight and will quickly cut the site off -- at which point there's no real recourse.
These bills will be abused. Just like every copyright law that's been passed. It's common knowledge that the DMCA is widely abused to take down content that is not infringing. But, at least with the DMCA it's targeted at specific content. With SOPA, entire sites will be taken down. Supporters insist that a "court reviews" these, and so there's no worry there. Tell that to Dajaz1.com, the blog that was incorrectly seized and censored (http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20111208/08225217010/breaking-news-feds-falsely-censor-popular-blog-over-year-deny-all-due-process-hide-all-details.shtml) for over a year with no due process under existing law (something we should definitely be revisiting). How can we say the new law won't be abused when the old law is already regularly abused?

This is not a "theoretical" problem. This is not a "hypothetical" issue. These are not exaggerations. This is what's in the bill today. And it's all a huge problem.

Yes, the DNS blocking provisions of the original bills made these even worse, but delaying (http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20120112/18452517396/dont-be-fooled-leahy-is-not-removing-dns-blocking-provisions-merely-delaying-them.shtml) (not removing) these provisions doesn't fix all of those other problems.

As for some of the misinformation -- including the claims that SOPA would be used to take down US sites -- well, that's the supporters' own damn fault. They pushed to make SOPA so bad that that absolutely was the case with the original bill, and only changed after massive pushback from the online community. If they hadn't pushed to include that in the first place, perhaps this wouldn't be an issue. But, really, worrying about the takedown of American sites is an issue that's separate from SOPA/PIPA... in that it's already allowed under US law. Just witness the Dajaz1 case we mentioned above... and worry about the fact that we didn't have this day of protest before the ProIP Act was approved, which sneakily allowed that to happen.

These bills do not solve the problem, because they're targeting the wrong problem. And, to make matters worse, they do so in a way that creates tremendous collateral damage. This is no way to regulate.

[Prophet]

A couple more updates, my homies:

http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20120118/09090217454/supreme-court-chooses-sopapipa-protest-day-to-give-giant-middle-finger-to-public-domain.shtml

http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20120118/11484617455/denial-mpaa-pretends-that-no-big-sites-have-joined-sopapipa-protests.shtml

http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20120118/08023217453/protest-via-plugin-facebook-users-bring-fight-to-lamar-smiths-website.shtml

http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20120118/01464317448/disney-refused-invitation-senator-feinstein-to-meet-with-tech-companies-over-pipasopa.shtml

http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20120117/18231617441/translating-chris-dodds-sanctimonious-bluster-internet-protests-into-english.shtml

[Prophet]

This comes from Senator Ron Wyden, one of the first people in Congress to speak out against the shittiness of SOPA and PIPA:


January 18, 2012

Innovators, Speakers, Thinkers, and Agents for Change
The World Wide Web

Dear Friends:

Today thousands of websites have chosen to voluntarily go offline or modify their home pages with public service information. Some have called this a stunt. I say it’s a brave and poignant reminder that we can’t take the Internet for granted.

The Internet has become an integral part of everyday life precisely because it has been an open-to-all land of opportunity where entrepreneurs, thinkers and innovators are free to try, fail and then try again. The Internet has changed the way we communicate with each other, the way we learn about the world and the way we conduct business. It has done this by eliminating the tollgates, middle men, and other barriers to entry that have so often predetermined winners and losers in the marketplace. It has created a world where ideas, products and creative expression have an opportunity regardless of who offers them or where they originate.

Protect IP (PIPA) and the Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA) are a step towards a different kind of Internet. They are a step towards an Internet in which those with money and lawyers and access to power have a greater voice than those who don’t. They are a step towards an Internet in which online innovators need lawyers as much or more than they need good ideas. And they are a step towards a world in which Americans have less of a voice to argue for a free and open Internet around the world.

Proponents of these bills say these arguments are overblown, but I say any step towards an Internet in which one person’s voice counts more than another is a step in the wrong direction. These are bills that should give us pause. These are bills that should be studied and debated. Congress should consult experts and consider alternatives and make 100% sure that any step it takes to police the Internet doesn't change the Internet as we know it. This is why I put a hold on the Protect IP Act and its predecessor over a year ago and introduced a bipartisan alternative last month.

The Senate, however, has scheduled a vote for Tuesday, January 24 at 2:15 PM to override my hold and move the Protect IP Act towards passage. This will be the deciding vote that determines whether PIPA and SOPA move through the Congress or are turned back for more sober discussion.

We are up against a group of the biggest, most powerful, well-funded and well-organized interest groups in Washington. No one thought millions of Internet users would speak up or that those voices could overcome the power of these interests. Today you showed that the Internet is not just a platform for ideas, commerce, and expression, but also for political action that will defend those principles. Your voices must continue to be heard.

Thank you for standing up for what’s important, for continuing to speak out and for demonstrating that we should always stand up for what we think is right regardless of the odds. This is an opportunity to reshape the way Washington operates, not just responding to narrow interests but hearing the voices of millions of Americans whose rights and livilihoods are affected by our actions.

Sincerely,

Ron Wyden
United States Senator

The fight goes on, ladies and gentlemen

[Prophet]

http://www.reddit.com/r/technology/comments/old7e/sopa_is_back_it_has_not_been_shelved_and_its/c3i9fqe


It's not a waiting game, it's a game of poker. Lamar Smith has a royal flush and few people know it.

SOPA may pass. It may not. He doesn't care, and it doesn't matter. The MPAA and RIAA started working on their legislative strategy to pass a new anti-piracy bill in late 2010. SOPA was designed to raise the noise. Everyone is playing right into the entertainment industries hand. The lobbyists are laughing manically at the ignorance of the mob. Even Wikipedia and reddit have played into it.

What people don't know about is the ace: H.R.1981, the Protecting Children From Internet Pornographers Act of 2011 which is lying in wait. It's not complete. You see, PCIP is not contestable because it's about protecting children. They can, and very well might, copy and paste the full text of SOPA to the end of PCIP. That's the backup. That's the deal that was struck with entertainment industry lobbyists. We will try to push this anti-piracy bill. It probably won't work. Don't worry, we can pass it under an anti-child pornography bill.

There are two things which no Congressman will risk supporting: terrorism and child pornography. There can be no opposition, no discussion. Any anti-piracy law can ALWAYS be reframed as an anti-child pornography bill and it will pass, without even discussion. It will have the full support of the House (minus Ron Paul), the full support of the Senate, and most importantly the full support of the American people. NO ONE wants to risk being called a pedophile.

The entertainment industry has finally caught up with technology. They understand how it works. It took them 15 years, but they know what DNS is. They are going to exploit a fundamental problem with the way DNS is centralized and there is nothing that can be done to stop it. They have found an error in the very architecture of the Internet. The solution, from a free speech standpoint is not to fight it politically. The solution is the fix the error.

We must move to a decentralized system of DNS. It is not impossible. It requires some new thinking and a re-architecture of some web services, but it must be done if we want the Internet, as we know it today, to exist in 5 or 10 years.

MC Hammer at an anti-SOPA rally:

CjfyJsZLhsI

[White Knight]

Satan save us all.

[Prophet]

BREAKING NEWS YO:

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/01/20/technology/indictment-charges-megaupload-site-with-piracy.html


The federal authorities on Thursday announced that they had charged seven people connected to the Web site Megaupload, including its founder, with running an international criminal enterprise centered on copyright infringement on the Internet. According to a grand jury indictment, Megaupload — one of the most popular “locker” services on the Internet, which lets users anonymously transfer large files — generated $175 million in income for its operators through subscription fees and advertising, while causing $500 million in damages to copyright holders.
Four of the seven people, including the site’s founder Kim Dotcom, born Kim Schmitz, have been arrested in New Zealand, the Justice Department and Federal Bureau of Investigation said on Thursday; the three others remain at large. The seven — who a grand jury indictment calls part of a “Mega Conspiracy” — have been charged with five counts of copyright infringement and conspiracy, the authorities said.
The charges, which the government agencies said represented “among the largest criminal copyright cases ever brought by the United States,” come at a charged time, a day after online protests against a pair of antipiracy bills being considered by Congress — the Stop Online Piracy Act, or SOPA, in the House, and the Protect I.P. Act, or PIPA, in the Senate.
The indictment was handed down by a grand jury in Virginia two weeks ago, but was unsealed on Thursday, and stems from a federal investigation that began two years ago.
The Megaupload case touches on many of the most controversial aspects of the antipiracy debate.
Megaupload and similar locker sites, like Rapidshare and Mediafire, are often promoted as being convenient ways to legitimately transfer large files — a recent promotional video had major stars like Will.i.am of the Black Eyed Peas singing Megaupload’s praises. But they have become notorious among media companies, who see them as abetting copyright infringement on a large scale by giving people easy, but unauthorized, access to movies, music and other content.
Megaupload is currently engaged in a lawsuit with Universal over the promotional video and Universal’s efforts to have it removed from YouTube.
As part of the crackdown on Megaupload, 20 search warrants were executed in nine countries, including the United States. About $50 million in assets were also seized, as well as a number of servers and 18 domain names, the authorities said.
Ira P. Rothken, a lawyer for Megaupload, said in a phone interview on Thursday afternoon that he had not yet seen the indictment, but he added: “Clearly we have due process concerns. This was done without a hearing.”


http://rt.com/usa/news/anonymous-doj-universal-sopa-235/


After a Department of Justice-executed raid today on the file sharing site Megaupload, hackers aligned with the online collective Anonymous have shut down the websites for both the DoJ and Universal Music Group, the largest record company in America.

Both universalmusic.com and justice.gov went down on Thursday afternoon, less than hours after it was revealed that Megaupload had been brought down by federal authorities and four people linked to the site, all outside of America, were arrested and charged with a conspiracy related to copyright infringement.

“It was in retaliation for Megaupload, as was the concurrent attack on Justice.gov,” Anonymous operative Barret Brown tells RT on Thursday afternoon.

Brown adds that “more is coming” and Anonymous-aligned hacktivists are pursuing a joint effort with others to “ damage campaign raising abilities of remaining Democrats who support SOPA.”

[White Knight]

And everyone always harps about how Anonymous is evil.

[idk]

I've been following it for the past couple of hours.

http://twitter.com/AnonDaily
https://twitter.com/#!/anonops
https://twitter.com/#!/AnonymousIRC
https://twitter.com/#!/YourAnonNews

[mandude]

Come on people. The second amendment isn't just about owning guns...

[White Knight]

Pew.

Pew pew.

[phaggot]

http://torrentfreak.com/kaspersky-dumps-anti-piracy-group-in-sopa-protest-111205/

http://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/news/2011/12/sopa-on-the-ropes-bipartisan-alternative-to-net-censorship-emerges.ars - A bipartisan effort to counter the shit that are SOPA and PIPA. This would put everything in the hands of the ITC (International Trade Commission) rather than the government.



Obama is a puppet yo, and anyone who thought he was actually going to be the savior of the United States (and to a lesser extent the world) was extremely misguided and led astray from reality

He was propped up by corporations, and he had actually received the most campaign "donations" from corporations/Wall Street than any presidential candidate in history. He also bailed corporations out during his presidential campaign, which is also another reason why he hasn't done anything about Wall Street excess

Also, you have to remember that a good chunk of the do nothing Congress that was under Bush are still holding seats in the House and Senate to this day, which is also another reason why shit like this is being up for debate

as of now, it's been put on hold while the ragtag group of sane senators and representatives counter that shit, but there is still a huge possibility that the MPAA, the RIAA, and many of the other supporters of these bills will try to meddle and rush this bill through by "coercing" those who are in doubt of these bills much like how Obama took Kucinich up on Air Force One and by the time the plane ride was over, Kucinich was all for the terrible healthcare bill Obama was trying to rush through

http://motherjones.com/mojo/2011/12/barack-obama-fundraiser-every-five-days-2011are you sure you weren't an obama supporter?

[Prophet]

http://www.wired.com/epicenter/2012/01/irelands-sopa/


Ireland is soon to have a law similar to SOPA passed that would give music and movie companies the power to force Irish ISPs to block access to sites suspected of having copyright infringing material on them.

Irish citizens won’t have a chance to lobby their democratic representatives because there won’t be a vote on the law — snappily named “S.I. No. of 2011 European Communities (Copyright and Related Rights) Regulations 2011″ — in the Irish Parliament. Instead the law is being enacted by ministerial order because it is being prepared in the form of a Statutory Instrument.

The law could mean that judges can order Irish ISPs — such as Eircom and UPC — as well as mobile networks to block access to social networking sites where an individual user has shared infringing material.

The legislation was prepared in response to a court decision that ruled that although the rights of EMI were being breached by internet providers letting its copyrighted works be shared for free, the law didn’t have any way of addressing the situation — something that European law requires. It was hoped that the legislation might appease rights holders, but that hasn’t stopped the record label from filing a lawsuit against the Irish government for failing to clamp down on music piracy.

An early draft of the law said that the copyright holder can apply to the high court for an injunction against the person who provides the facilities that are used by third parties to infringe their copyright.

If they are deemed to be infringing copyright, the Irish courts will be able to issue an injunction against ISPs and other companies that provide the facilities that might be used to infringe copyright — this could mean social networks such as Facebook and YouTube or video hosting sites and forums.

The wording of the early draft of the law is a little vague, but T. J. McIntyre, an Irish legal expert and lecturer, believes the potential penalties could be extreme.

He says in a blog post: “At a minimum this will probably allow courts to require ISPs to block access to alleged infringing sites (such as the Pirate Bay). Over and above that it becomes impossible to say — the language is so vague it might, for example, allow a court to require an ISP to introduce a three strikes system or to block certain ports. However, once copyright plaintiffs get hold of this power you can expect it to be pushed to its absolute limit.”

Websites deemed to be hosting the infringing content may not even be given notice that they are going to be blocked. This happened in a case in 2009 where Eircom was ordered to block The Pirate Bay.

This sort of approach to legislation could make it harder for Ireland to attract digital businesses. This could prove particularly problematic given that Ireland is trying to position itself as a hub for cloud computing.

For more information about the piece of legislation, visit StopSopaIreland.com.

[mandude]

As far as I know, it's illegal to make ISPs block websites in Europe, so even though it's not put to the vote by EP now, I can't imagine it will stay long before they get involved and repeal it, which they will have the right to do after the signing.

Then again, politics in Ireland is a massive joke anyway.

[Prophet]

politics in all countries seem to be massive jokes now yo

the fight goes on in Europe over ACTA:

http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20120203/10091517652/bulgarian-mps-wear-anonymousguy-fawkes-masks-to-protest-acta.shtml

[Prophet]

SOPA's back, back again:

vxUOyNzBePA