ACTA, the Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement, is a punishing, secretly negotiated copyright treaty that could send ordinary people to jail for copyright infringement. ACTA would establish a new international legal framework that countries can join on a voluntary basis and would create its own governing body outside existing international institution. ACTA has been negotiated in secret during the past few years.
Sounds somewhat worrying to me. ACTA has several features that raise significant potential concerns for consumers’ privacy and civil liberties for innovation and the free flow of information on the Internet legitimate commerce. What is ACTA? document gives details on the agreement. The EU will soon vote on ACTA.
La Quadrature ACTA web page says that ACTA would impose new criminal sanctions forcing Internet actors to monitor and censor online communications. It is seen as a major threat to freedom of expression online and creates legal uncertainty for Internet companies. For some details read La Quadrature’s analysis of ACTA’s digital chapter.
La Quadrature du Net – NO to ACTA video (one side of the view):
The Free Software Foundation (FSF) has published “Speak out against ACTA“, stating that the ACTA threatens free software by creating a culture “in which the freedom that is required to produce free software is seen as dangerous and threatening rather than creative, innovative, and exciting.
ACTA has been negotiated in secret during the past few years. It seem that nobody can objectively tell us what ACTA is going to do. You should oppose it for this exact reason. What exactly it will do is so multi-faceted and so deeply buried in legal speak it requires a book or two to explain.
If you don’t like this you need to do something on that quick. The European Parliament will soon decide whether to give its consent to ACTA, or to reject it once and for all. Based on the information (maybe biased view) I have read I hope the result will be rejection.
Another worrying related thing is Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA). The bill expands the ability of U.S. law enforcement and copyright holders to fight online trafficking in copyrighted intellectual property and counterfeit goods. The bill would authorize the U.S. Department of Justice to seek court orders against websites in U.S. and outside U.S. jurisdiction accused of infringing on copyrights, or of enabling or facilitating copyright infringement. Proponents of the bill say it protects the intellectual property market. Opponents say it is censorship, that it will “break the internet”, cost jobs, and will threaten whistleblowing and other free speech.
I don’t like this SOPA plan at all, because the language of SOPA is so broad, the rules so unconnected to the reality of Internet technology and the penalties so disconnected from the alleged crimes. In this form according what I have read this bill could effectively kill lots of e-commerce or even normal Internet use in it’s current form. Trying to put a man-in-the-middle into an end-to-end protocol is a dumb idea. This bill affects us all with the threat to seize foreign domains. It is frankly typical of the arrogance of the US to think we should all be subject their authority.
749 Comments
Tomi Engdahl says:
Piracy problems? US copyright industries show terrific health
http://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/news/2011/11/piracy-problems-us-copyright-industries-show-terrific-health.ars
Pity the poor people who work in the US “copyright industries.” Battered by a decade of digital piracy and facing even more of it thanks to cheap computers, fast Internet, P2P file-sharing, and online file lockers, the US creative industries teeter on the verge of collapse. You can tell because the industry:
Pays better than most American jobs
Has outperformed the US economy through a horrific recession
Sells record-setting amounts of product overseas, earning more foreign revenue than the entire US food sector or US pharmaceutical companies
The report is bullish on the copyright and creative industries. Nothing in it suggests that radical expansions of copyright power are necessary, though MPAA Vice President Michael O’Leary used the report to argue for them anyway.
Instead, a bipartisan group of legislators last week decided that Internet censorship was necessary to aid these industries; that search engines, credit card processors, and ad networks should be coerced into the fight; and that companies could cut off any site’s US-based payments and advertising without even getting a court order first.
Rights holders who don’t want their works freely distributed should have the ability to enforce that position, but only a true crisis could possibly justify such draconian enforcement measures. For an industry doing so well, it’s an absurd overreach
tomi says:
The article itself has many links to other articles that deal with the same subject.
Check the articles behind the links and you will find a lot of more information.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Google mulls divorcing Chamber of Commerce
http://www.politico.com/news/stories/1111/67603.html
Google is considering ditching the U.S. Chamber of Commerce out of frustration with its support for legislation that would force Internet companies to police websites that peddle pirated movies and fake Viagra.
The rumblings of a defection — a potentially serious blow to one of Washington’s most powerful lobbies — come weeks after Yahoo left the Chamber in October, largely over its support of Sen. Patrick Leahy’s (D-Vt.) online piracy bill, the PROTECT IP Act.
Read more: http://www.politico.com/news/stories/1111/67603.html#ixzz1d6oFoArr
Tomi Engdahl says:
European Court Set To Rule On Crucial Internet Filtering Case
http://torrentfreak.com/european-court-set-to-rule-on-crucial-internet-filtering-case-111108/
Soon the European Court of Justice will have to decide whether an Internet service provider can be forced by a music rights group to proactively filter all of its traffic – both inbound and outbound – for copyright infringements. As detailed in a new paper by intellectual property expert Cedric Manara, the notion is fraught with difficulties and the potential for collateral damage huge.
Tomi Engdahl says:
The Privatization of Copyright Lawmaking
http://torrentfreak.com/the-privatization-of-copyright-lawmaking-111112/
Copyright law strikes a balance between private rights and public interests. Not everyone likes the balance the law sets. Copyright owners complain that it does not adequately protect them from infringement of their works. Critics contend that copyright law tilts too far in favor of the interests of copyright owners and does not safeguard the rights of consumers.
Increasingly, however, copyright law is being privatized. Its meaning and application are determined not by governmental actors but by private parties, and in particular by deep-pocketed copyright owners. Increasingly, the balance between private rights and public interests is set by private lawmaking.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Anti-Hacking Law Criminalizes Most Computer Users, Former Prosecutor Says
http://www.wired.com/threatlevel/2011/11/anti-hacking-law-too-broad/
Tomi Engdahl says:
DOJ: Violating a Site’s ToS Is a Crime
http://yro.slashdot.org/story/11/11/15/1821238/doj-violating-a-sites-tos-is-a-crime
“CNET has obtained a statement to be released by the Department of Justice tomorrow defending its broad interpretation of the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act (CFAA) that defines violations of ‘authorized access’ in information systems as including any act that violates a Web site’s terms of service, while the White House is arguing for expanding the law even further. This would criminalize teenagers using Google for violating its ToS, which says you can’t use its services if ‘you are not of legal age to form a binding contract,’ and turns multiple attempts to upload copyrighted videos to YouTube into ‘a pattern of racketeering’ according to a GWU professor and an attorney cited in the story.”
COMMENT:
Step 1. build fake “terrorist”, “child porn”, or other website
Step 2. TOS disallowing access by members of government, police, any federal, state, or local agency
Step 3. log access and report offenders
Tomi Engdahl says:
Can you sell your imported gadgets? Court guts “First Sale”
http://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/news/2010/07/if-you-buy-an-imported-watch-do-you-really-own-it.ars
“What happens to Netflix, Amazon and eBay,” PK’s Anjali Bhat worries, “if they have to find out where each item was made, whether it has a copyrighted logo made outside the US (if the item itself isn’t a copyrighted work), and then buy licensing rights from the copyright owner if the item was made abroad? That’s an enormous economic burden to put on businesses who follow that model.”
“In an increasingly interconnected world,” the amicus brief concludes, “where the manufacturing of tangible products and knowledge goods can be distributed easily and widely, consumers should be confident that they retain the same rights to their belongings regardless of where those goods or their labeling were produced.”
Tomi Engdahl says:
Busted! DOJ says you might be a felon if you clicked a link or opened email
People don’t always tell the truth online, imagine that, and if the Department of Justice has its way then that would be a criminal offense. In fact, a law professor says that under the Justice Department’s interpretation of the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act, you could be convicted for “Routine and entirely innocent conduct such as visiting a website, clicking on a hyperlink, or opening an e-mail.” You also might be a felon under the anti-hacking law if…
We may be doomed and you are probably a felon if you ever used a fake name online, used a bogus birthday to register on a site, or fibbed about your height or weight on an online dating profile, named a different town or city in a profile, or basically didn’t tell the exact truth anywhere online. Never done that? No problem, then you’re probably busted under the “obtains information” portion of the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act (CFAA). According to George Washington University Professor of Law Orin Kerr, ”
http://www.networkworld.com/community/blog/busted-doj-says-you-might-be-felon-if-you-cli
Tomi Engdahl says:
House Judiciary Committee SOPA Hearings Stacked 5 To 1 In Favor Of Censoring The Internet
http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20111114/23145216770/house-judiciary-committee-sopa-hearings-stacked-5-to-1-favor-censoring-internet.shtml
Apparently the folks behind SOPA are really scared to hear from the opposition.
Why is the Judiciary Committee so afraid to hear the concerns of the wider internet industry?
Furthermore, the “one” against SOPA is going to be Google
Companies throughout the tech and internet industries have expressed concerns. Facebook, Twitter, Mozilla, eBay and over 160 startups have all come out against the bill. This isn’t “just a Google issue.” This is an issue of the entertainment industry trying to change the fundamental legal and technical framework for how the internet has functioned — and in doing so, creating tons of liability and compliance costs for the part of the economy that is growing and has been creating jobs. Just because Hollywood is jealous, doesn’t mean that they should get to use Congress to punish the industry that’s doing well.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Internet Community Shut Out of Stop Online Piracy Act Hearing – Again
https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2011/11/public-shut-out-stop-online-piracy-act-hearings-again
This morning, EFF’s staff and concerned netizens across the country tuned into the live webcast of the House Judiciary Committee’s hearing on the Stop Online Piracy Act (H.R. 3261). At least we tried to. Unfortunately, we were confronted with an incredibly poor webcast stream for much of the hearing. We find it ironic and deeply concerning that Congress is unable to successfully stream video of an event this important to all Internet users, even as they are debating a dangerous plan to change the Internet in fundamental ways and deputize Internet intermediaries to act like content police.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Which tech companies back SOPA? Microsoft, Apple, and 27 others
http://thenextweb.com/insider/2011/11/17/which-tech-companies-back-sopa-microsoft-apple-and-27-others/
http://staff.tumblr.com/post/12930076128/a-historic-thing
We generated 87,834 phone calls to U.S. Representatives in a concerted effort to protect the Internet. Extraordinary. There’s no doubt that we’ve been heard.
So just to keep you updated: The well-intentioned, but immensely flawed “Stop Online Piracy Act” is still in the House Judiciary Committee.
Online Piracy Act Dead? Nancy Pelosi, Darrell Issa Both Come Out Against (Updated)
http://www.thewrap.com/media/column-post/darrell-issa-stop-online-piracy-act-has-no-chance-passage-32869
“Need to find a better solution than #SOPA #DontBreakTheInternet,” the liberal Democratic House leader tweeted on Thursday, in response to a tweeter who asked: “Where do you stand on internet censoring and #SOPA?”
Tomi Engdahl says:
EU Adopts Resolution Against US Domain Seizures
http://torrentfreak.com/eu-adopts-resolution-against-us-domains-seziures-111117/
Starting in 2010, US authorities have used domain name seizures as a standard tool to take down websites that are deemed to facilitate copyright infringement.
The European Parliament has adopted a resolution which criticizes domain name seizures of “infringing” websites by US authorities. According to the resolution these measures need to be countered as they endanger “the integrity of the global internet and freedom of communication.” With this stance the European Parliament joins an ever-growing list of opposition to the Stop Online Piracy Act .
Tomi Engdahl says:
SOPA breaks DNSSEC, and won’t work anyway: Sandia National Labs
Putting a man-in-the-middle into an end-to-end protocol is dumb
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2011/11/20/sopa_breaks_dnssec/
It isn’t actually news as such: while the DoE’s own Sandia Labs has warned that the notorious Stop Online Piracy Act is a threat to the deployment of secure DNS – DNSSEC to its friends – the fragility of the protocol has been discussed for ages.
The problem is this: an end-to-end protocol is the simplest way to ensure that a browsing session isn’t hijacked along the way by a fake DNS record.
“By mandating redirection, PROTECT IP would require and legitimize the very behavior DNSSEC is designed to detect and suppress,” the paper states. “[A] DNSSEC-enabled browser or other application cannot accept an unsigned response; doing so would defeat the purpose of secure DNS. Consistent with DNSSEC, the nameserver charged with retrieving responses to a user’s DNSSEC queries cannot sign any alternate response in any manner that would enable it to validate a query.”
Tomi Engdahl says:
Copyright Isn’t Working, Says EU Technology Chief Neelie Kroes
http://yro.slashdot.org/story/11/11/20/0511214/copyright-isnt-working-says-eu-technology-chief-neelie-kroes
“Against the backdrop of governments and courts around the world ordering ISPs to block file-sharing sites, European commissioner Neelie Kroes has said people have started to see copyright as ‘a tool to punish and withhold, not a tool to recognise and reward. … Citizens increasingly hear the word copyright and hate what is behind it,’ the EU’s digital chief said, adding that the copyright system also wasn’t rewarding the vast majority of artists.”
Every other country has noticed the same thing. What is now holding back is US.
Tomi Engdahl says:
US legislators are urged to drop SOPA
Analysis Slippery laws are bad for the internet
http://www.theinquirer.net/inquirer/feature/2126567/legislators-urged-drop-sopa
A GROUNDSWELL OF OPPOSITION has come out swinging against what people see as misguided US plans to stop copyright infringement in the Stop Online Piracy Act.
SOPA, as the act is more easily called, promises an iron fist approach to dealing with suspected copyright infringers and threatens web site blacklisting and internet subscriber disconnection.
There SOPA is called a pathway to the “Great Firewall of America” in a barb that draws a comparison between the US and the glorious People’s Republic of China.
Massive in its scale, draconian in its nature and with the stealthy backing of technology firms, the bill could be unstoppable. Or it might, that is, if so many people weren’t determined to stop it.
More details can be found at Stop Online Piracy Act
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stop_Online_Piracy_Act
Tomi Engdahl says:
#DontBreakTheInternet: How The Web Became a Political Force vs. SOPA
http://www.pbs.org/idealab/2011/11/dontbreaktheinternet-how-the-web-became-a-political-force-vs-sopa322.html
We take for granted that great things like the Internet exist (and frankly, we should be able to). The problem with the U.S. Congress is that if a tiny, tiny minority of people doesn’t like something (like the open Internet), and they give lots of money to key members of Congress, their opinions suddenly trump the vast majority of citizens, who didn’t realize they’d have to fight for something that’s so obviously great and well-loved. In this case, pro-SOPA groups like Pfizer and the MPAA have given 12 times the amount of money to members of the House of Representatives as web companies and consumer groups
http://blog.bsa.org/2011/11/21/sopa-needs-work-to-address-innovation-considerations/
The idea behind SOPA, as Chairman Smith explained at last week’s hearing, is to remove pirates’ ability to profit from their theft.
Valid and important questions have been raised about the bill. It is intended to get at the worst of the worst offenders. As it now stands, however, it could sweep in more than just truly egregious actors. To fix this problem, definitions of who can be the subject of legal actions and what remedies are imposed must be tightened and narrowed. Due process, free speech, and privacy are rights cannot be compromised. And the security of networks and communications is indispensable to a thriving Internet economy. Some observers have raised reasonable questions about whether certain SOPA provisions might have unintended consequences in these areas.
http://www.bsa.org/country/News%20and%20Events/News%20Archives/en/2011/en-10262011-smithbill.aspx
Tomi Engdahl says:
Wary Of SOPA, Reddit Users Aim To Build A New, Censorship-Free Internet
http://www.forbes.com/sites/andygreenberg/2011/11/23/wary-of-sopa-reddit-users-aim-to-build-a-new-censorship-free-internet/
Users of the social news and community site Reddit don’t like the way the government seems to be muscling in on the Internet. So they plan to build a new one.
Redditors have flocked over the last week to a new subgroup on Reddit.com they’re calling the Darknet Plan–or sometimes Meshnet, as the name seems to still be in flux–with the aim of building a mesh-based version of the Internet that wouldn’t be subject to the control of any corporation or government, with a focus on anonymity, peer-to-peer architecture and strong resistance to censorship.
Google Now Censors The Pirate Bay, isoHunt, 4Shared and More
http://torrentfreak.com/google-now-censors-the-pirate-bay-isohunt-4shared-and-more-111123/
Google’s blacklist prevents the names of sites appearing in their Instant and Autocomplete search services, while the pages themselves remain indexed.
“It’s a lot more subtle than the censorship attempts made possible by the pending PROTECT IP and SOPA bills, but it’s still censorship and it starts small. Google is increasingly becoming a self-righteous Big Brother of the Web. So much for ‘Do no evil’,” Fung told us.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Europe rules your ISP can’t be forced to block pirate sites
http://crave.cnet.co.uk/software/europe-rules-your-isp-cant-be-forced-to-block-pirate-sites-50006227/
Good news from Europe: your ISP can’t be forced to monitor or block you from using the Web. A European court has ruled that record labels and film studios can’t use the courts to instruct your broadband company to track you or try to block you.
“EU law precludes the imposition of an injunction by a national court which requires an Internet service provider to install a filtering system with a view to preventing the illegal downloading of files,” the European Court of Justice ruled.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Horror Show: Hollywood vs. Silicon Valley
To protect copyright, the movie industry favors legislation that would strangle the Internet.
http://online.wsj.com/article_email/SB10001424052970204452104577059894208244720-lMyQjAxMTAxMDIwNzEyNDcyWj.html
Washington regulating the Internet is akin to a gorilla playing a Stradivarius. Yet many legislators are being urged to play by lobbyists for Hollywood, perhaps the most technology-intolerant industry.
The Motion Picture Association of America is the leading proponent for legislative proposals with ostensibly benign titles—the Stop Online Piracy Act in the House and the Protect Intellectual Property Act in the Senate. These bills would go so far to protect copyright that they would strangle the Internet with regulation.
But the most effective solutions to problems caused by technology don’t involve government enforcement.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Feds Seize 130+ Domain Names in Mass Crackdown
http://torrentfreak.com/feds-seize-130-domain-names-in-mass-crackdown-111125/
US authorities have initiated the largest round of domain name seizures yet as part of their continued crackdown on counterfeit and piracy-related websites. With just a few days to go until “Cyber Monday” more than 100 domain names have been taken over by the feds to protect the commercial interests of US companies. The seizures are disputable, as the SOPA bill which aims to specifically legitimize such actions is still pending in Congress.
The fact that the authorities have once again launched a large crackdown on “rogue” websites begs the question why this legislation is needed in the first place. Apparently, the current system already allows for the seizure of domain names, without due process and all the other constitutional issues.
Doesn’t anyone find it a bit fucked up that they hit copyright infringement before going after any other kind of legal infringement. Sites selling drugs, sites organizing terrorist activities. It’s a little preposterous that Copyright Infringement is currently the most heinous international crime.
Tomi Engdahl says:
US judge orders hundreds of sites “de-indexed” from Google, Facebook
http://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/news/2011/11/us-judge-orders-hundreds-of-sites-de-indexed-from-google-twitter-bing-facebook.ars
After a series of one-sided hearings, luxury goods maker Chanel has won recent court orders against hundreds of websites trafficking in counterfeit luxury goods. A federal judge in Nevada has agreed that Chanel can seize the domain names in question and transfer them all to US-based registrar GoDaddy. The judge also ordered “all Internet search engines” and “all social media websites”—explicitly naming Facebook, Twitter, Google+, Bing, Yahoo, and Google—to “de-index” the domain names and to remove them from any search results.
Missing from the ruling is any discussion of the Internet’s global nature; the judge shows no awareness that the domains in question might not even be registered in this country, for instance, and his ban on search engine and social media indexing apparently extends to the entire world.
Lawyer Venkat Balasubramani, writing about the case yesterday, sums it up eloquently: “Wow.”
“I’m sympathetic to the ‘whack-a-mole’ problem rights owners face, but this relief is just extraordinarily broad and is on shaky procedural grounds,” he writes. “I’m not sure how this court can direct a registry to change a domain name’s registrar of record or Google to de-list a site, but the court does so anyway. This is probably the most problematic aspect of the court’s orders.”
Tomi Engdahl says:
Anti-’piracy’ groups fluff figures for gain
Copyright wars are dirty indeed
http://www.theinquirer.net/inquirer/news/2114717/anti-piracy-fluff-figures-gain
A COPYRIGHT COP has admitted that he and others have been paid to boost illegal downloading statistics and create ‘piracy’ scare stories in support of the MAFIAA.
Source: The Inquirer (http://s.tt/14jqb)
Tomi Engdahl says:
SOPA’s most aggressive defender: U.S. Chamber of Commerce
http://news.cnet.com/8301-31921_3-57334409-281/sopas-most-aggressive-defender-u.s-chamber-of-commerce/
There is no more influential business lobby group in the world than the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, which boasts that its “core purpose is to fight for free enterprise” and “individual freedom.”
Which is why the Chamber’s unflagging–even unyielding–support of a controversial copyright bill loathed by Silicon Valley might come as something of a surprise. Not only do critics view the Stop Online Piracy Act as antithetical to the individual freedom the Chamber applauds, but the technology industry has contributed more to economic growth and free enterprise in the last decade than Hollywood has.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Global Chokepoints is an online resource created to document and monitor global proposals to turn Internet intermediaries into copyright police. These proposals harm Internet users’ rights of privacy, due process and freedom of expression, and endanger the future of the free and open Internet.
http://www.globalchokepoints.org/
This site is created and maintained by free speech advocates worldwide.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Expect Some Toning Down of Antipiracy Bills, Says Movie Industry Supporter
http://mediadecoder.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/11/30/expect-some-toning-down-of-antipiracy-bills-says-movie-industry-supporter/
Look for changes in the proposed antipiracy legislation that has giants in the entertainment and technology industries squared off against each other, but nothing extensive enough to please all of the legislation’s opponents. That was the message from Michael O’Leary, the senior executive vice president for global policy and external affairs of the Motion Picture Association of America
Tomi Engdahl says:
Web site blocking is oppressive and won’t work
Column Censorship is evil and can’t win
http://www.theinquirer.net/inquirer/opinion/2129699/web-site-blocking-oppressive-wont
WEB SITE blocking is pressed for on various grounds, all of them bad.
Whether it’s copyright trolls wanting to censor filesharing web sites to extract high prices for their content or the UK Prime Minister wanting to shut down social networks during times of unrest, web site blocking is oppressive by its very nature. In addition, it won’t be effective.
Any attempt to censor the internet delves into dodgy realms as it tries to pull the plug on the very freedom the internet is supposed to provide.
Blocking web sites is futile. It won’t work as the internet is built to interpret censorship as damage and route around it, and internet users have proven their ability to bypass attempts to constrict access and data flow. Even if censorship is attempted, the means to defeat it will always stay ahead of the police state capability to close down communications, without a total shutdown – which commerce cannot afford.
So the government is going to block web sites? It can try, but it will be fighting a losing battle. Censorship of the internet is oppressively draconian and simply will not work, so even to attempt it is pointless.
Source: The Inquirer (http://s.tt/14uWm)
Tomi Engdahl says:
Shocker: MPAA Writes U.S. Anti-Piracy Bill?
https://torrentfreak.com/shocker-mpaa-writes-u-s-anti-piracy-bill-111203/
Over the last weeks “the Internet” has revolted against the pending Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA).
But there are also parties who want to see it passed as soon as possible, the MPAA being one of them.
SOPA language will be changed at the last minute.
Tomi Engdahl says:
http://torrentfreak.com/feds-seize-domains-of-korean-movie-portals-111204/
In total the federal government has now seized more than 350 domains as part of Operation In Our Sites.
Previously these actions have been heavily criticized, as opponents argue they violate due process and several other constitutional rights. Thus far these concerns haven’t held back the authorities from going after piracy and counterfeit related domains.
5 Reasons Why the US Domain Seizures Are Unconstitutional
http://torrentfreak.com/5-reasons-why-the-us-domain-seizures-are-unconstitutional-110312/
Critics ranging from bloggers to individual rights advocates to Senators have rightfully questioned the constitutionality of these seizures.
The most serious constitutional issues with the domain seizures arise because the Government does not provide any notice to the domain owners prior to seizing them. One moment, their normal site is up at their web address, the next moment, all that is up at their web address is a DHS/ICE seal.
Without knowing what they have been accused of or having the opportunity to defend their site, the Government has repurposed the owners’ private property.
ICE also unwittingly made its critics’ point last month when it mistakenly seized the domain names of 84,000 websites. The Government had falsely accused the sites of child pornography. This type of large-scale, disastrous mistake illustrates the constitutional deficiencies of the seizures.
The lack of an immediate opportunity to reclaim a domain is not the only problem.
With a domain name seizure, if a user attempts to access a website, but instead finds himself face-to-face with the DHS/ICE seal, even if the domain is later restored, that user will probably never return to the site.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Lawmakers unveil sensible alternative to SOPA
http://news.cnet.com/8301-13578_3-57339611-38/lawmakers-unveil-sensible-alternative-to-sopa/
SOPA was introduced last month as a supposed corrective to Protect IP, which passed out of a Senate committee in May. Both bills were supposedly aimed at stopping “worst of the worst” foreign Web sites selling unlicensed goods protected by U.S. copyright and trademark. Critics, including much of the technology community, argued that the proposed laws strayed dangerously from that narrow goal, unnecessarily threatening the underlying engineering and openness of the Internet.
The bill, “The Online Protection and Enforcement of Digital Trade” or OPEN Act, provides a narrow and sensible alternative to the Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA) and the Protect IP Act, bills pending in the House and Senate respectively.
OPEN offers a much more focused alternative. The draft bill would make it easier for rights holders to stop rogue sites by filing complaints with the U.S. International Trade Commission.
The ITC already has authority to deal with intellectual-property violations. Under a current procedure, known as Section 337, if the ITC finds that imported goods are violating U.S. intellectual property law, an administrative judge can issue cease-and-desist orders. The judge can also direct U.S. customs and border services to block entry of the goods into the U.S. Preliminary injunctions are also available.
The OPEN Act includes significant safeguards to assure sites being charged with infringement receive notice and an opportunity to challenge any complaints filed with the ITC.
Tomi Engdahl says:
The Good And The Bad Of The New OPEN Bill From Wyden And Issa
from the some-good,-some-bad dept
http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20111209/13013417024/good-bad-new-open-bill-wyden-issa.shtml
First, SOPA was the product of rent-seekers who were talking only amongst themselves and legislators tethered to their campaign contributions. The drafting process was disturbingly closed-door and exclusionary, exactly the kind we wish didn’t take place in our representative democracy.
Second, OPEN is a comparatively svelte 18 pages focused mostly on one core concept, compared to SOPA’s 78 page monstrosity that advanced about a dozen different substantive proposals.
After all, all rightsowners’ arguments are inherently self-interested: it’s in their financial interest to say that they would like to make more money than they are making. It’s also in their interest to bemoan broad sectoral changes in the economy as evidence that someone is capturing money they think they are entitled to
Tomi Engdahl says:
Google chairman says online piracy bill would ‘criminalize’ the Internet
http://thehill.com/blogs/hillicon-valley/technology/198777-google-chairman-says-online-piracy-bill-would-criminalize-linking
An online piracy bill in the House would “criminalize linking and the fundamental structure of the Internet itself,” according to Google Executive Chairman Eric Schmidt.
Schmidt said the controversial Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA) would punish Web firms, including search engines, that link to foreign websites dedicated to online piracy. He said implementing the bill as written would effectively break the Internet.
“If Congress writes a bad law, we all suffer,” Schmidt said.
He compared the proposal to the Web censorship practiced by repressive foreign governments like China
“What they’re essentially doing is whacking away at the DNS system and that’s a mistake. It’s a bad way to go about solving the problem,” Schmidt said.
COMMENT: Protect IP and SOPA are written purely to protect a seriously flawed and ancient business model which Hollywood is practicing. This is being done at the cost of severely damaging the internet which is a backbone of modern america.
Wikipedia Mulls Total Blackout to Oppose SOPA
http://torrentfreak.com/wikipedia-mulls-total-blackout-to-oppose-sopa-111212/
Wikipedia founder Jimmy Wales wants to blank out all pages of the online encyclopedia to oppose the pending SOPA anti-piracy bill in the US. Wales, who has asked the Wikipedia community for input on the idea, fears the bill could seriously hurt the Internet and thinks that blanking out Wikipedia will send a strong message to lawmakers.
Later this week, the Senate’s House Judiciary Committee will vote on the “Stop Online Piracy Act” (SOPA).
Tomi Engdahl says:
House Panel Moving Forward With SOPA
http://yro.slashdot.org/story/11/12/13/0426220/house-panel-moving-forward-with-sopa
The House Judiciary Committee has scheduled a debate and vote on the Stop Online Piracy Act for later this week.
Smith’s proposed amendment would clarify that the bill applies only to foreign websites, not U.S. sites, accused of aiding copyright infringement.
It does not sound at all ok when the US law affect only to other countries. The only Web 2.0 sites in the world can only be from US now?
Tomi Engdahl says:
Wikipedia Debates Strike Over SOPA
http://news.slashdot.org/story/11/12/14/0615207/wikipedia-debates-strike-over-sopa
“Jimbo Wales has suggested that English Wikipedia restrict its services for a period to protest against the anti-piracy SOPA bill in the United States. This follows a similar action by the Italian Wikipedia last month.”
Big Jimbo speaks and it isn’t about something that isn’t feeding his wallet AND IT’S SOMETHING REASONABLE!
I’ll support this. This will provide so much more (negative) publicity to SOPA than anything any other group has done to date. GO JIMBO!
Tomi Engdahl says:
Universal has ‘Tech News Today’ episode yanked from YouTube for reporting on MegaUpload promo video
http://www.theverge.com/2011/12/14/2636680/universal-has-tech-news-today-episode-yanked-from-youtube-for
We’re still not sure what to make of the strange war that’s erupted between file sharing service MegaUpload and Universal Media Group after MegaUpload posted a promo video that appears to feature Kanye West, Kim Kardashian, and others, but we do know that it’s starting to leave some ugly collateral damage…
What makes all of this particularly egregious is that it’s not even clear Universal has the necessary rights to initiate this sort of takedown — the entire dispute between MegaUpload and Universal is about who owns those rights
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Shoot first, ask questions never, over things that are arguably as Fair Use as it gets. It will only get worse from here.
Use of short clips to illustrate a news report is such a classic case of fair use that no rights holder can claim to be unaware that the use is lawful. A takedown request is either grossly incompetent or malicious.
The only way to make these kinds of problems go away is to make it illegal and punishable to claim copyright on something that you do not own the copyright for.
How is this NOT proof of how SOPA will hurt America?!
Google pretty much takes these down as soon as they receive a DMCA complaint notice. Most sites operate the same way.
This is just proof of Universal’s abuse of the DMCA takedown process. A lot of the big rightsholders abuse the hell out of it. Really makes me confirm my belief that SOPA is a very bad idea.
It’s the law, actually. Youtube isn’t allowed to not take the video down. If they did, they could be held liable for the infrinement themselves, and Universal would sue them instead of the original uploader. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DMCA_takedown#Takedown_example
Events like this prove that NOTHING could go wrong if SOPA is passed.
Tomi Engdahl says:
SOPA Undermines the U.S. in Its Negotiations for a Free, Open Internet
https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2011/12/sopa-undermines-united-states-oecd-negotiations-free-open-internet
Yesterday, the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) approved an influential Recommendation on Principles for Internet Policy Making [pdf]. It contains a set of 14 principles intended as a blueprint guiding Internet policy development for its 34 member states and Egypt.
But all is not well on the Internet. In spite of this landmark OECD policy framework, efforts at online censorship and spying abound. Members of the U.S. government itself are attempting to push through legislation measures that would subvert many of the core principles found in this document.
The Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA) and PROTECT IP Act (PIPA) enable online censorship on a massive scale and threaten to break the Internet, all in the name of intellectual property enforcement. These bills could encompass any foreign site accessible from the U.S. They give the U.S. government and individuals the ability to leverage Internet intermediaries to ‘blacklist’ sites accused of copyright infringement.
“The Internet is so powerful in part because no centralized authority governs it and no nation owns it … Instead, a decentralized system of public and private actors collaborates to ensure its function and expansion. What this means is that nations that choose to take a heavy-handed approach to regulating the Internet can reduce its value for every other nation and user.”
SOPA and its counterpart in the Senate, PROTECT IP, would deliver that reduction in value. And the DNS-blocking those bills require would reduce that value not only by undermining critical infrastructure security efforts, but also by contributing to a globally fractured Internet.
This U.S. agenda to defend ‘copyright at all costs’ threatens to undermine the Internet Principles adopted by the OECD yesterday.
Tomi Engdahl says:
An Open Letter From Internet Engineers to the U.S. Congress
https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2011/12/internet-inventors-warn-against-sopa-and-pipa
Today, a group of 83 prominent Internet inventors and engineers sent an open letter to members of the United States Congress, stating their opposition to the SOPA and PIPA Internet blacklist bills that are under consideration in the House and Senate respectively.
When we designed the Internet the first time, our priorities were reliability, robustness and minimizing central points of failure or control. We are alarmed that Congress is so close to mandating censorship-compliance as a design requirement for new Internet innovations. This can only damage the security of the network, and give authoritarian governments more power over what their citizens can read and publish.
SOPA votes derailed by politician’s ‘offensive’ tweet
http://news.cnet.com/8301-31921_3-57343907-281/sopa-votes-derailed-by-politicians-offensive-tweet/
It wasn’t derailed by questions about SOPA’s substance, even though legal scholars and technologists have said it could suppress free speech by virtually deleting Web sites accused of copyright infringement.
How SOPA would affect you: FAQ
http://news.cnet.com/8301-31921_3-57329001-281/how-sopa-would-affect-you-faq/
Q: What’s the justification for SOPA and Protect IP?
Two words: rogue sites.
That’s Hollywood’s term for Web sites that happen to be located in a nation more hospitable to copyright infringement than the United States is (in fact, the U.S. is probably the least hospitable jurisdiction in the world for such an endeavor). Because the target is offshore, a lawsuit against the owners in a U.S. court would be futile.
How would SOPA work?
It allows the U.S. attorney general to seek a court order against the targeted offshore Web site that would, in turn, be served on Internet providers in an effort to make the target virtually disappear. It’s kind of an Internet death penalty.
What are the security-related implications of SOPA?
One big one is how it interacts with the domain name system and a set of security improvements to it known as DNSSEC.
Rep. Dan Lungren, who heads the Homeland Security subcommitteee on cybersecurity, said last week that an “unintended consequence” of SOPA would be to “undercut” the effort his panel has been making to promote DNSSEC.
What will SOPA require Internet providers to do?
“It would cover IP blocking,” says Markham Erickson, head of NetCoalition, whose members include Amazon.com, Google, eBay, and Yahoo. “I think it contemplates deep packet inspection” as well, he said.
Are there free speech implications to SOPA?
SOPA’s opponents say so–a New York Times op-ed called it the “Great Firewall of America–and the language of the bill itself is quite broad. Section 103 says that, to be blacklisted, a Web site must be “directed” at the U.S. and also that the owner “has promoted” acts that can infringe copyright.
Some critics have charged that such language could blacklist the next YouTube, Wikipedia, or WikiLeaks. Especially in the case of WikiLeaks
Web sites including Wikimedia (as in, Wikipedia) charged that SOPA is an “Internet blacklist bill” that “would allow corporations, organizations, or the government to order an Internet service provider to block an entire Web site simply due to an allegation that the site posted infringing content.”
Who supports SOPA?
The three organizations that have probably been the most vocal are the MPAA, the Recording Industry Association of America, and the U.S. Chamber of Commerce
What happens next?
In terms of Protect IP, the Senate Judiciary committee has approved it and it’s waiting for a floor vote.
There are probably enough votes for SOPA be approved by the House Judiciary committee.
Top Internet engineers warn against SOPA
http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/post-tech/post/top-internet-engineers-warn-against-sopa/2011/12/15/gIQAGRV4vO_blog.html
The nightmarish SOPA hearings
http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/compost/post/the-nightmarish-sopa-hearings/2011/12/15/gIQA47RUwO_blog.html
Tomi Engdahl says:
SOPA copyright bill draws fire
http://news.cnet.com/8301-1023_3-57326107-93/sopa-copyright-bill-draws-fire/?part=rss&subj=latest-news&tag=title
Vint Cerf, the legendary computer scientist who’s known as one of the fathers of the Internet for his work on TCP/IP, is the latest technologist to oppose the Stop Online Piracy Act.
http://news.cnet.com/8301-31921_3-57344028-281/vint-cerf-sopa-means-unprecedented-censorship-of-the-web/
Tomi Engdahl says:
SOPA Creator In TV/Film/Music Industry’s Pocket
http://politics.slashdot.org/story/11/12/18/1836249/sopa-creator-in-tvfilmmusic-industrys-pocket
“Representative Lamar Smith, the creator of the Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA), has been consistently receiving donations averaging $50 000 from the TV/Film/Music industry for each of his re-election campaigns for the past ten years. Smith has received roughly half a million dollars from the TV/Film/Music lobby over the past ten years according to opensecrets.org. Check out the source link for a full breakdown of donors to Smith’s campaigns.”
Next
The Dangers Of SOPA In A Nutshell
Politics Buzz An explanation in simple terms of why this dangerous new bill in congress could result in the extinction of sites that are based on user-generated content like YouTube, Reddit, and StumbleUpon.
http://www.buzzfeed.com/willio/the-dangers-of-sopa-in-a-nutshell-460x
WTF is SOPA ? aka The American Government trying to ruin the internet
http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=JhwuXNv8fJM#!
Tomi Engdahl says:
RIAA Scolds Google, Wants Search Algorithm Changed To Fight Online Piracy
http://searchengineland.com/riaa-scolds-google-about-piracy-105254
Saying that Google has a “special responsibility” to fight copyright infringement, the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) has issued a report card that scolds Google for not following through on promises to fight piracy.
Among several requests, the RIAA wants Google to change its search algorithm to favor sites that offer content legally.
Sites that engage in infringing activity should not appear as the first results when searching for what entertainment content to download or stream. This just leads to more piracy and popularity of the site. Rather, whether a site is authorized or unauthorized to make copyrighted works available to the public should be a significant indicator in determining ranking of the result, with unauthorized sites having lower rankings than authorized sites.
And the RIAA isn’t the first to suggest such an idea. It came up early this year in the US House of Representatives during a hearing about online piracy.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Some interesting SOPA related links:
http://yro.slashdot.org/story/11/12/19/1953242/law-professors-on-sopa-and-pipa-dont-break-the-internet
http://www.informationdiet.com/blog/read/dear-internet-its-no-longer-ok-to-not-know-how-congress-works-
http://motherboard.vice.com/2011/12/16/dear-congress-it-s-no-longer-ok-to-not-know-how-the-internet-works
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/12/19/jared-polis-sopa-porn-pornography_n_1158466.html
http://www.stanfordlawreview.org/online/dont-break-internet
http://news.cnet.com/8301-31921_3-57345187-281/senate-will-vote-next-month-on-protect-ip-copyright-bill/
Tomi Engdahl says:
Anti-piracy laws will smash internet, US constitution – legal eagles
Three wise profs warn of looming DNS disaster
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2011/12/20/us_ip_fail_internet_constitution/
Legal experts are warning that the proposed PROTECT IP and the Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA) legislation, currently working their way through Congress, will damage the world’s DNS system, cripple attempts to get better online security and violate free speech rights in the US constitution.
The professors warn that the SOPA legislation is even worse in this regard. “Under SOPA, IP rights holders can proceed vigilante-style against allegedly offending sites, without any court hearing or any judicial intervention or oversight whatsoever… and all of this occurs based upon a notice delivered by the rights holder, which no neutral third party has even looked at, let alone adjudicated on the merits,” they write.
“When we had that last hearing, there wasn’t a single person who could answer the technical questions, and they all admitted that, even though a couple of them still opined,” complained California congressman Dan Lungren.
News of the proposed changes has even reached China, where it is inspiring some bloggers to take the piss out of America for copying the Great Firewall of China.
Tomi Engdahl says:
SOPA hearing is postponed
Won’t happen ’til 2012 now
http://www.theinquirer.net/inquirer/news/2134110/sopa-hearing-postponed
On 16 December, the House Judiciary Committee said that the bill was looking much better after 25 amendments.
The Committee has published a full list of SOPA supporters, and it reads like a Who’s Who of copyright holders and media companies
Tomi Engdahl says:
Coders Develop Ways To Defeat SOPA Censorship
http://tech.slashdot.org/story/11/12/21/0420228/coders-develop-ways-to-defeat-sopa-censorship
The Atlantic reports that one developer who doesn’t have much faith in Congress making the right decision on anti-piracy legislation has already built a workaround for the impending censorship measures being considered, and called it DeSOPA. Since SOPA would block specific domain names of allegedly infringing sites, T Rizk’s Firefox add-on allows you to revert to the bare internet protocol (IP) address (e.g. 194.71.107.15) which takes you to the same place.
Another group called ‘MAFIAAFire’ decided to respond when Homeland Security’s ICE unit started seizing domain names, by coding a browser add-on to redirect the affected websites to their new domains. More than 200,000 people have already installed the add-on. ICE wasn’t happy
Tomi Engdahl says:
All the Companies Supporting SOPA, the Awful Internet Censorship Law—and How to Contact Them
http://gizmodo.com/5870241
MythBuster Adam Savage: SOPA Could Destroy the Internet as We Know It
http://www.popularmechanics.com/science/mythbusters/articles/mythbuster-adam-savage-sopa-could-destroy-the-internet-as-we-know-it-6620300
Make no mistake: These bills aren’t simply unconstitutional, they are anticonstitutional. They would allow for the wholesale elimination of entire websites, domain names, and chunks of the DNS (the underlying structure of the whole Internet), based on nothing more than the “good faith” assertion by a single party that the website is infringing on a copyright of the complainant. The accused doesn’t even have to be aware that the complaint has been made.
Coders Are Already Finding Ways Around SOPA Censorship
http://www.theatlanticwire.com/politics/2011/12/coders-are-already-finding-ways-around-sopa-censorship/46425/
A developer who calls himself T Rizk doesn’t have much faith in Congress making the right decision on anti-piracy legislation, so he’s built a work around for the impending censorship measures being considered: DeSOPA.
Stop Online Piracy Act
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stop_Online_Piracy_Act
How to Sidestep this SOPA Nonsense Entirely
http://gizmodo.com/5870121/how-to-sidestep-this-sopa-nonsense-entirely
The proposed legislation will apparently only block domain names, and not IP addresses. So a coder by the name of T Rizk put together this little hack that will automatically redirect you to the IP address when you enter the URL.
Stay tuned for more updates on the seemingly neverending SOPA saga.
Tomi Engdahl says:
What is SOPA and how does it work? The Stop Online Piracy Act explained
http://www.theverge.com/2011/12/22/2648219/stop-online-piracy-act-sopa-what-is-it
SOPA is a law borne of the blind logic of revenge: the movie studios can’t punish foreign pirates, so they are attacking the internet instead
Here’s what the government can do to foreign websites under even the most narrow reading of SOPA section 102 and PIPA section 3:
Order internet service providers to alter their DNS servers from resolving the domain names of websites in foreign countries that host illegal copies of videos, songs, and photos.
Order search engines like Google to modify search results to exclude foreign websites that host illegally copied material.
Order payment providers like PayPal to shut down the payment accounts of foreign websites that host illegally copied material.
Order ad services like Google’s AdSense to refuse any ads or payment from foreign sites that host illegally copied content.
(These rules don’t apply to domains that end in .com, .net, and .org, which fall under US law — the government has been seizing US domains used for piracy since 2010, and just seized 150 domains last month.)
That’s just the first part. SOPA section 103 and PIPA section 4 require payment processors and ad networks to shut down accounts if they receive the right kind of letter from a copyright owner
Oh, but it gets worse. Much worse. SOPA section 104 offers legal immunity to ISPs that independently block websites that host illegally copied material without any prompting from the government. That’s a major conflict of interest for a huge ISP like Comcast, which also owns NBC — there would be nothing stopping Comcast from blocking a foreign video service that competes with NBC if it could claim it had a “reasonable belief” it was “dedicated to the theft of US property.” And indeed, Comcast is among the companies that support SOPA.
SOPA’s proponents argue that the bill will protect US citizens and corporations from the ongoing theft of property outside our borders; that the law is narrowly tailored to only punish those who profit from illegal content.
SOPA has been deeply criticized by nearly every company that does serious business online, but I’d expect the content industry to push back just as hard as we get closer to the second set of hearings.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Conservatives lining up in opposition to SOPA
http://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/news/2011/12/sopa-faces-growing-opposition-among-conservatives.ars
In his article, Gattuso noted that SOPA would undermine Internet security by delaying the implementation of DNSSEC and by causing Internet users to use offshore DNS servers to circumvent DNS blocks. He also warned that government regulation of search results would be “the first step down a classic slippery slope of government interference that has no clear stopping point.”
Gattuso agrees with Meese that the “stealing” needs to stop, but he argues Congress should deal with the problem “in a way that does not disrupt the growth of technology, does not weaken Internet security, and respects free speech rights.” And he doesn’t think SOPA fits the bill.
In short, the fight over SOPA is less about left versus right than it is about declining industries—Hollywood and major labels—versus the Internet community.
tomi says:
Boycotting SOPA Supporters is All or Nothing
http://www.lockergnome.com/news/2011/12/23/boycotting-sopa/
Go Daddy appears to have reversed course and is listening to customer concerns. Several other companies are still listed as supporting SOPA.
Copyright holders are currently armed with the DMCA as a means of dealing with online copyright infringement. In most cases, a DMCA claim is made against a specific page on a website — not the entire site (unless the entire site is seen to be violating copyright). For user-generated content sites like YouTube, the site itself is indemnified for the actions of its users as long as it complies when a valid takedown notice is provided.
Along with SOPA, the US Senate is working on similar legislation known as the Protect IP Act (PIPA). If enacted, SOPA and PIPA will allow content creators to file claims of copyright infringement against data uploaded by third-party users and hold the hosting sites directly accountable
As we understand it, if this new legislation passes in its current form, any website accused of containing copyright-infringing content (such as a song, article, photo, or video clip) could be blocked by ISPs, de-indexed from search engines, and even prevented from doing business online. All of this can (and will) happen without due process with the burden of proof lying upon the accused to prove their innocence while their site has been effectively removed from the Internet. At the very least, the Internet would change from what we know it as today.
tomi says:
Dutch Parliament: Downloading Movies and Music Will Stay Legal
http://torrentfreak.com/dutch-parliament-downloading-movies-and-music-will-stay-legal-111224/
In an attempt to reduce widespread piracy in the Netherlands, the government there recently introduced a plan that would make downloading movies and music unlawful. However, this proposal was binned yesterday by a motion from the Dutch parliament due to concerns it would restrict the free flow of information, invade the privacy of citizens and invite copyright trolls. Instead, they encourage the entertainment industry to focus their attention on providing authorized alternatives.
Presently, the Dutch see downloading movies and music for personal use as “fair use” and not punishable by law. A massive 30% of the population is said to do so.
One of the main concerns of the parliament is that a download ban would go against the free and open Internet, as it restrict the free flow of information. The motion further states that enforcing such a ban via monitoring would invade the privacy of Internet users.
This report also motivated the Swiss government to keep downloading of music and movies totally legal a few weeks ago.
Swiss Govt: Downloading Movies and Music Will Stay Legal
http://torrentfreak.com/swiss-govt-downloading-movies-and-music-will-stay-legal-111202/
One in three people in Switzerland download unauthorized music, movies and games from the Internet and since last year the government has been wondering what to do about it. This week their response was published and it was crystal clear. Not only will downloading for personal use stay completely legal, but the copyright holders won’t suffer because of it, since people eventually spend the money saved on entertainment products.
Swiss government has been conducting a study into the impact downloading has on society, and this week their findings were presented.
http://www.ejpd.admin.ch/content/ejpd/de/home/dokumentation/mi/2011/2011-11-30.html
Their report begins with noting that when it comes to copying files, the Internet has proven a game-changer.
Distribution method or not, the entertainment industries have opposed all these technological inventions out of fear that their businesses would be crushed. This is not the right response according to the Swiss government, which favors the option of putting technology to good use instead of taking the repressive approach.
Distribution method or not, the entertainment industries have opposed all these technological inventions out of fear that their businesses would be crushed. This is not the right response according to the Swiss government, which favors the option of putting technology to good use instead of taking the repressive approach.
The government report further concludes that even in the current situation where piracy is rampant, the entertainment industries are not necessarily losing money.
The report further states that it is questionable whether a three-strikes law would be legal in the first place, as the UN’s Human Rights Council labeled Internet access a human right.
http://www.epanorama.net/blog/2011/10/26/un-wants-two-thirds-of-the-world-online-by-2015/
http://www.epanorama.net/blog/2009/10/15/1mb-broadband-access-becomes-legal-right-in-finland/
The other side of piracy, based on the Dutch study, is that downloaders are reported to be more frequent visitors to concerts, and game downloaders actually bought more games than those who didn’t. And in the music industry, lesser-know bands profit most from the sampling effect of file-sharing.
Economy Profits From File-Sharing, Report Concludes
http://torrentfreak.com/economy-profits-from-file-sharing-report-concludes-090119/
Tomi Engdahl says:
Cloud based hosting service provider Rackspace has joined the ever expanding list of companies that are opposed to the US Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA).
Why Rackspace Opposes the “Stop Online Piracy Act”
http://www.rackspace.com/cloud/blog/2011/12/24/why-rackspace-opposes-the-%E2%80%9Cstop-online-piracy-act%E2%80%9D/
The SOPA bill, as it stands, is a deeply flawed piece of legislation. It is bad for anyone who uses the Internet, including Rackspace, the more than 160,000 business customers that we serve, and the tens of millions of retail customers that they serve. It is bad for job creation and innovation,’ Napier wrote.
The bill now before Congress would do more harm than good. We’re working to get it amended, so it can target online thieves without hurting innocent users of the Internet.