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:
Indian ISP Blocks A Bunch Of Websites To Try To Prevent File Sharing Of A Single Movie
http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20111228/03233017212/indian-isp-blocks-bunch-websites-to-try-to-prevent-file-sharing-single-movie.shtml
TorrentFreak has the story of an Indian court seemingly having no problems issuing widespread ISP blockades in response to a request from movie studio Reliance Entertainment. The reasoning is that Reliance is hoping to prevent the file sharing of its latest movie. But rather than narrowly targeting the file sharing of that movie (or of other Reliance properties), the court ordered complete blocking of a variety of websites including Megaupload and BTJunkie.
t appears to claim that the block page itself is covered by Reliance Entertainment’s copyright. At the very least this implies that the court simply gave Reliance the right to craft the blocked page itself which is quite incredible when you think about it.
Other experts quoted in the Times of India article suggest that perhaps Reliance is misinterpreting a court order, because such broad blocking is not reasonable, nor permitted under the law.
Either way, those in India who use these services for legitimate purposes are up in arms.
Once again it seems like in the desperate attempt to block any and all infringement, you get significant collateral damage. Oh, and apparently the block hasn’t worked…
Tomi Engdahl says:
http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20111228/03233017212/indian-isp-blocks-bunch-websites-to-try-to-prevent-file-sharing-single-movie.shtml
when will the entertainment industries learn to compete with, instead of to kill, the internet?
Well to go with the fire analogy.
You: “The ship is on fire so we need to sink the ship!”
Us: “How about we just use a fire extinguisher on the fire instead of sinking the entire ship?”
You: “Don’t you care that the ship is on fire!! We need to sink it so we can put the fire out and prevent any more fires!”
Us: “Then we will no longer have the ship anyways. Lets use an extinguisher.”
You: “NOOO!! WE MUST SINK SHIP!!!!! NO OTHER WAY WILL WORK!!”
they have blocked dailymotion too , by that reasoning youtube should also be blocked as more illegtimate chunks of movies can be found on YT than Dailmymotion
Tomi Engdahl says:
GoDaddy bows to boycott, now ‘opposes’ SOPA copyright bill
http://news.cnet.com/8301-31921_3-57349913-281/godaddy-bows-to-boycott-now-opposes-sopa-copyright-bill/
Warren Adelman, the company’s chief executive, said today that “GoDaddy opposes SOPA,” meaning the Stop Online Piracy Act, which is facing a House of Representatives committee vote next month.
A GoDaddy spokeswoman confirmed to CNET this afternoon that “we oppose PIPA, as well.” That’s the Senate bill known as Protect IP, which will be debated on the Senate floor January 24.
The idea of boycotting GoDaddy began with a protest thread on Reddit and was aided by Jimmy Wales’ announcement last week that “Wikipedia domain names will move away from GoDaddy.” It inspired GoDaddyBoycott.org, which urged Internet users and companies to “boycott GoDaddy until they send a letter to Congress taking back any and all support of the House and Senate versions of the Internet censorship bill, both SOPA and PIPA.”
Tomi Engdahl says:
SOPA opponents may go nuclear and other 2012 predictions
http://news.cnet.com/8301-31921_3-57349540-281/sopa-opponents-may-go-nuclear-and-other-2012-predictions/
The Internet’s most popular destinations, including eBay, Google, Facebook, and Twitter seem to view Hollywood-backed copyright legislation as an existential threat.
It was Google co-founder Sergey Brin who warned that the Stop Online Piracy Act and the Protect IP Act “would put us on a par with the most oppressive nations in the world.”
Web firms may be outspent tenfold on lobbyists, but they enjoy one tremendous advantage over the SOPA-backing Hollywood studios and record labels: direct relationships with users.
Protect IP and SOPA, of course, represent the latest effort from the Motion Picture Association of America, the RIAA, and their allies to counter what they view as rampant piracy on the Internet,
Wikimedia (as in Wikipedia) called SOPA an “Internet Blacklist Bill.” Wikipedia co-founder Jimmy Wales has proposed an article page blackout as a way to put “maximum pressure on the U.S. government” in response to SOPA.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Comments from http://news.cnet.com/8301-31921_3-57349540-281/sopa-opponents-may-go-nuclear-and-other-2012-predictions/
SOPA is an attack on free speech of Orwellian proportions.
Actually, these bills (like SOPA, PIPA or take your pick) are written by lobbyist for the very corporations that have a special interest in getting laws past that benefit no one else but themselves. The members of Congress are the idiots that pass these laws without realizing the implications, much less understanding what’s in the bill they’re voting for.
The only thing they understand is that it means more money in their coffers so they can get re-elected again.
New tech raises some serious interpretations to laws that are ‘taken for granted’
The last is a sticking point of SOPA – they can penalize the consumers of the forbidden media sites living here in the U.S., but they cannot shut those sites down.
“The SOPA bill affects the entire internet, that’s international, not just the US.”
No it does not. It only effects those in the US attempting to reach websites outside the US that have been deemed to be infringing. Not at all saying the law is a good one, but let us all at least hate it for what it really is.
You’re wrong as wrong can be “a3th3r”; SOPA is written in such a way the entire world could be shut off from websites, and even entire countries could be shut off from the internet.
Walmart too, as well as other big corporations, can have websites shut off, that are critical of them, under the provisions of SOPA, because you mention a company name, your site collects ad revenue, thus you profit from someone’s intellectual property.
Every company and individual that opposes SOPA does so because, if it passes, it will affect their bottom line. Period. Facebook. YouTube. Google. Craigslist. CNET. And of course, the public who absolutely enjoys getting everything they can for free.
But the companies that support SOPA could adapt to save themselves, e.g. taking a slight hit to the bottom line, in order to provide a better server and gets users to do things legally, rather than “force” them to do it legally. EG they could drop DRM, as it only affects customers who purchase media legally,
So many of you believe that this is just about the major record labels and the movie studios. It’s much, much more than that. Copyright infringement affects everyone and anyone that owns intellectual property.
As someone who creates ‘content’ I am completely against SOPA for one simple reason…. there is no Due Process in the bill. Someone only need accuse someone of infringement for the bill to allow a take-down. No proof is required from the accuser and the accused has no recourse or even the opportunity to rebut the accusation.
The SOPA is unconstitutional, and is just an advantage for big media companies like Disney and Viacom. It is bad for everyone else, from big technology companies like Facebook and Twitter to people like me and you.
SOPA is nothing more than the wealthiest 1% trying to wring out more and more profit from the 99%. Only the rich can afford to buy the laws that benefit them.
SOPA is awful law. The courts will laugh it out of existence soon after its passage (and yes…some form of it will pass).
If the sites go dark it could be construed as a terrorist act under National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2012
Tomi Engdahl says:
Presidential Candidate Ron Paul Slams SOPA
https://torrentfreak.com/presidential-candidate-ron-paul-slams-sopa-111229/
They want to take over the Internet,” he said.
Paul says that while SOPA is claimed to stop piracy, it’s mostly going to invade the privacy of citizens and restrict their freedom.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Anonymous will react if SOPA is passed
Will tag the internet with protest messages
http://www.theinquirer.net/inquirer/news/2134306/anonymous-react-sopa-passed
HACKTIVIST GROUP Anonymous has said it will respond if the controversial Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA) is passed into law in the US.
The group has posted a statement in which it reiterated its attitude towards SOPA and its plans to create an internet police state.
“The goal of the so-called ‘Stop Online Piracy Act’ SOPA is to empower litigious U.S. corporations to police the internet, with the ability to act as judge, jury and executioner,” it says.
“SOPA tramples civil rights laws, fair use, freedom of press and freedom of speech. Under SOPA an average person could be arrested, fined, sued and spend time in a federal prison for so little as uploading a video to YouTube or even linking to one. This law further proves the reality of corporate rule and totalitarianism.”
The hacktivist group said that it would react to this, and react strongly. “Our reaction will not be little,” it warns.
Anonymous wants to spread awareness and increase opposition to SOPA while it is still up for debate
Tomi Engdahl says:
Hackers plan space satellites to combat censorship
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-16367042
Computer hackers plan to take the internet beyond the reach of censors by putting their own communication satellites into orbit.
The scheme was outlined at the Chaos Communication Congress in Berlin.
The project’s organisers said the Hackerspace Global Grid will also involve developing a grid of ground stations to track and communicate with the satellites.
“We’re aiming for 100 euros (£84) per ground station. That is the amount people tell us they would be willing to spend,” Mr Bauer added.
Experts say the satellite project is feasible, but could be restricted by technical limitations.
“Hackers are about open information,” Farr added. “We believe communication is a human right.”
He cited the proposed Stop Online Piracy Act (Sopa) in the United States as an example of the kind of threat facing online freedom. If passed, the act would allow for some sites to be blocked on copyright grounds.
Tomi Engdahl says:
The Danger of an Attack on Piracy Online
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/01/02/business/media/the-danger-of-an-attack-on-piracy-online.html?pagewanted=all
After all, SOPA, which stands for Stop Online Piracy Act, sounds like a piece of arcane Internet government regulation — legislation that entertainment companies desperately care about and that leaves Web nation and free-speech crusaders frothing at the mouth. The rest of us? What were we talking about again?
Virtually every traditional media company in the United States loudly and enthusiastically supports SOPA, but that doesn’t mean it’s good for the rest of us.
A NONEXISTENT PROBLEM? Hardly. SOPA is an effort to get at the very real problem of rogue Web sites
WOULD IT FIX THE PROBLEM? Probably not, and even if it made some progress toward reining in rogue sites, the collateral damage would be significant.
WHY ALL THE ALARM? The bill has exposed a growing fracture between technology and entertainment companies. Digitally oriented companies see SOPA as dangerous and potentially destructive to the open Web and a step toward the kind of intrusive Internet regulation that has made China a global villain to citizens of the Web.
WHY THE POLITICAL SUPPORT? That’s partly because entertainment companies have deep and long-lasting relationships inside the Beltway.
“The schism between content creators and platforms like Kickstarter, Tumblr and YouTube is generational,” he wrote in an e-mail.
“It’s people who grew up on the Web versus people who still don’t use it. In Washington, they simply don’t see the way that the Web has completely reconfigured society across classes, education and race. The Internet isn’t real to them yet.”
Whether they know what they are doing or not, lawmakers seem intent on moving forward.
Given both Congress’s and the entertainment industry’s historically wobbly grasp of technology, I don’t think they should be the ones re-engineering the Internet.
COMMENT:
The bill would require technology companies to build the equivalent of the Great Firewall of China, and be at movie studios’ beck and call to block anything deemed injurious (with minimal or nonexistent due process).
Once the infrastructure is in place, it’s hard to imagine it would be limited to protecting Disney, and not used to block inconvenient political speech from sources such as Wikileaks or Occupy Wall Street.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Video game industry still supports anti-piracy bill
http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2011/12/31/video-game-industry-still-supports-anti-piracy-bill-despite-reports/
Despite a flurry of reports suggesting that the world’s largest video game companies have dropped their support for the controversial Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA) — a bill which critics say could break the fundamental structure of the Internet in the U.S. — that assumption appears premature.
The disappearance of these influential corporations sparked a wave of reports that the largest video game makers in the world had dropped their support for the bill. Those reports, however, are not correct.
The Entertainment Software Association (ESA), the gaming industry’s lobby, still officially support SOPA. It’s members include Sony, Nintendo, EA, Microsoft and numerous other gaming companies
More importantly, the ESA signed on behalf of their members an open letter to Congress sent in September (PDF) that strongly urged lawmakers to support SOPA.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Net Companies Consider the “Nuclear Option” To Combat SOPA
http://yro.slashdot.org/story/12/01/02/157217/net-companies-consider-the-nuclear-option-to-combat-sopa
Alec Liu of Fox News reports that Amazon, Facebook and Google are considering a coordinated blackout of the internet to protest SOPA, the Stop Online Privacy Act being debated in Congress.
Will Google, Amazon, and Facebook Black Out the Net?
http://www.foxnews.com/scitech/2011/12/30/will-google-amazon-and-facebook-blackout-net/
No Google searches. No Facebook updates. No Tweets. No Amazon.com shopping. Nothing.
The action would be a dramatic response to the Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA), a bill backed by the motion picture and recording industries that is intended to eliminate theft online once and for all. HR 3261
“Mozilla had a blackout day and Wikipedia has talked about something similar,” Erickson told FoxNews.com, calling this kind of operation unprecedented.
“A number of companies have had discussions about that,” he said.
tomi says:
Why The Movie Industry Can’t Innovate and the Result is SOPA
http://steveblank.com/2012/01/04/why-the-movie-industry-cant-innovate-and-the-result-is-sopa/
This year the movie industry made $30 billion (1/3 in the U.S.) from box-office revenue.
But the total movie industry revenue was $87 billion. Where did the other $57 billion come from?
From sources that the studios at one time claimed would put them out of business: Pay-per view TV, cable and satellite channels, video rentals, DVD sales, online subscriptions and digital downloads.
The music and movie business has been consistently wrong in its claims that new platforms and channels would be the end of its businesses.
Why was the movie industry consistently wrong? And why do they continue to fight new technology?
The movie industry was born with a single technical standard – 35mm film
It was 75 years until studios had to deal with technology changing their platform and distribution channel. And when it happened (cable, VCR’s, DVD’s, DVR’s, the Internet,) it was a relentless onslaught. The studios responded by trying to shut down the new technology and/or distribution channels through legislation and the courts.
But why does the movie business think their solution is in Washington and legislation?
One of the claims that studios make is that they need legislation to stop piracy. The fact is piracy is rampant in all forms of commerce.
But none use regulation as often as the movie studios to solve a business problem. And none are so willing to do collateral damage to other innovative industries (VCRs, DVRs, cloud storage and now the Internet itself.)
What the music and movie industry should be doing in Washington is promoting legislation to adapt copyright law to new technology — and then leading the transition to the new platforms.
Tomi Engdahl says:
SOPA: Bad for Hosting
http://blog.softlayer.com/2012/sopa-bad-for-hosting/
That’s a great goal, and SoftLayer does not oppose the intent of the Act …
The way SOPA tries to address the problem is where we disagree with the bill, so let’s talk about the most pertinent part of the bill for a service provider like SoftLayer. If SOPA were to pass, when a case of infringement is reported, we would have to “take such measures as [we determine] to be the least burdensome, technically feasible, and reasonable means designed to prevent access by [our] subscribers located within the United States to the foreign infringing site that is subject to the order.”
What that means: We would be forced to turn off our customers’ access to a small piece of the Internet.
How are we to do that? Well the “least burdensome, technically feasible, and reasonable means designed to prevent access” are not made clear, but most of the discussions about the bill have focused on changing the way the Doman Name System (DNS) resolves to an “infringing site.” We’d be more or less ordered to break DNS …
And that’s all assuming that the order to suspend access to an “infringing site” is legitimate. Many of the organizations that oppose SOPA have explained possible scenarios where orders could be filed under the guise of preventing copyright infringement. A competing site/business could claim:
“the operator of the site operates the site with the object of promoting, or has promoted, its use to carry out acts that constitute a violation of section 501 or 1201 of title 17, United States Code, as shown by clear expression or other affirmative steps taken to foster such violation.”
In another scenario, a copyright holder could pull the trigger on an order simply at the thought that a user could infringe on a copyright on/via the “infringing site.”
Tomi Engdahl says:
How Spain’s version of SOPA is setting the web on fire
http://gigaom.com/2012/01/04/how-spains-version-of-sopa-is-setting-the-web-on-fire/
While American technology companies battle against the SOPA antipiracy bill, on the other side of the Atlantic the game is changing fast. It’s been a long time coming, but Spanish legislators have finally signed the country’s so-called “Sinde Law,” which targets online file sharers.
Like SOPA, the Sinde Law can force ISPs to block sites, although the extent of the enforcement will only be seen once it comes into effect in March.’
It seems those threats worked, though it has left some accusing the Spanish authorities of cravenly bowing to the wishes of the White House.
But with Sinde now just the latest in a series of legislative crackdowns across Europe — France’s Hadopi law and Britain’s Digital Economy Act both try to tackle similar issues — it seems SOPA may be getting the support it needs, even if it has to go overseas to find it.
Tomi Engdahl says:
‘Mainstream media’ mute in SOPA piracy debate
Self-censorship or edicts from corporate masters?
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2012/01/07/mainstream_media_silent_on_sopa/
An analysis of US television coverage has found a deafening silence among members of the pejoratively tagged “mainstream media” when it comes to coverage of SOPA, the online intellectual property legislation now under consideration in Congress.
Media Matters points out that most TV network owners have declared themselves supporters of the SOPA legislation.
Media Matters points out that most TV network owners have declared themselves supporters of the SOPA legislation.
n contrast with media silence, it’s clear that SOPA is causing major concern in the technology community.
Tomi Engdahl says:
SOPA Makes Strange Bedfellows
http://politics.slashdot.org/story/12/01/08/1439235/sopa-makes-strange-bedfellows
“What do 1-800-Contacts, Adidas, Americans for Tax Reform, Comcast, the Country Music Association, Estee Lauder, Ford, Nike and Xerox all have in common? According to OpenCongress.org, they all have specifically endorsed H.R. 3261, the Stop Online Piracy Act. A total of 158 corporations have signed up in favor of the bill, and only 87 against. $21 Million has been donated to Congressmen who favor the bill, but only $5 Million to those against. Thanks to OpenCongress for these insights. This goes a long way towards explaining why this bill has so much traction, despite all its negative publicity.”
COMMENTS:
And, surprisingly in the “opposing” category (although I must admit this legislation doesn’t strike me as conservative, and it doesn’t seem like it’s supported by the software industry either, it’s almost purely privilege grab by the entertainment industry) :
* Business Software Alliance (also known as Microsoft)
* Brookings Institute
* Competitive Enterprise Institute
The BSA is unsurprising actually. Many of their members (including Microsoft) have online services with user-generated content which could be targeted by the bill.
The majority of citizens don’t know about SOPA and won’t know until it’s too late, because there has been a sort of informal media blackout. Mainstream news coverage is nonexistant.
Not only do most people not care at all about SOPA, even if they did care they would forget about it by the time election season rolled around. Politicians know this, and that is why the DMCA was passed, the Mickey Mouse bill was passed, the PATRIOT act, etc. That is why I have little hope for SOPA or PIPA being defeated
Obama is a singular individual who can kill this bill directly. He has more power over it becoming law than anyone else.
Damn right we need to know what his position on this bill is and why.
I just can’t shake the feeling that when SOPA/PIPA passes, that the Internet will catch fire and rain down torment on ‘our’ elected officials and the content industry.
Perhaps all the shooting in the next revolution will happen online.
Online, there are plenty of websites that will sell you a bag or a shoe that looks just like an expensive brand for a fraction of the cost. SOPA is meant to block access to such websites, which are often hosted offshore where US law enforcement agencies cannot touch them.
On the one hand, I can see the point of view of the designers who are annoyed about the counterfeiting of their product.
Quality is no longer the differentiation though – price is. The relationship has inverted ; a maker no longer puts their mark on something to identify the maker of the product and generate sales, he puts the mark on to increase the perceived value of the product. As some people are no doubt pointing out – a lot of the so-called “counterfeit” product is made on the same production line, from the same materials, by the same workers using the same amount of labour.
There is no difference in the intrinsic value of the product – it’s the same material object with the same properties – so why can Loius Vuitton sell it for more than Mr Chang?
The real counterfeit is therefore the perceived value of the “genuine” product – people are buying fake value. This is not an artisan product made by a skilled craftsman.
China makes the “genuine” ones; then they make “non genuine” of varying qualities, starting from identical, all down to rip-off.
Does these justify blocking of sites? the Bill is a blacklist, how do you fall on it or how do you get out of it is shady at best. Further, the State is not even enforcing it directly (like China or Iran), it passes the responsibility to the ISPs. This means they will rather block in excess rather than infringe the law; and many will be falsely accused and promptly disconnected in fear.
FOR COMPARISION:
The DMCA provides a standardized method for handling alleged copyright infringement, allowing the host to avoid being caught in the cross-fire. This has been abused by infringers, and certainly by people wishing to censor. The DMCA also poses problems for content owners who find themselves playing whack-a-mole with sites that repeatedly allow copyright infringement.
Another problem though is that the DMCA introduced pretty stiff penalties for infringement, yet what happens when a media company, with the presumption that they have legal people who should know better, send pretty obviously frivolous take-down notices. In theory this is perjury, yet how many prosecutions do we see? Out of curiosity, should I receive a malicious take-down notice from an American entity, how would I get a prosecution rolling?
Tomi Engdahl says:
Web site blocking in Finland (this needed court order):
Elisa estää Pirate Bay -osoitteet tästä päivästä eteenpäin
http://nyt.fi/20120109-elisa-estaeae-pirate-bay-osoitteet-taestae-paeivaestae-eteenpaein/
The Helsinki District Court ordered Elisa to prevent access to the Pirate Bay site, 26 October, 2011. The district court based its decision on Copyright Information and Anti-Piracy Association of Music Producers – IFPI Ireland Association to make the application. A similar inhibition has also been applied to other operators. Elisa has appealed against the decision of Helsinki Court of Appeal.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Finnish Operator Required To Block Access To ThePirateBay, Among Others
http://www.arcticstartup.com/2012/01/09/finnish-operator-required-to-block-access-to-thepiratebay-among-others
Elisa, one of the largest internet service providers in Finland, has been forced to block access to The PirateBay for its customers. Elisa issued a press release (in Finnish) on the matter moments ago.
TTVK, the anti-piracy organisation put forth by IFPI Finland, is opposing Elisa in the case. They have also sought a similar decision for other operators and internet service providers in Finland.
While the case is far from clear, this is not a healthy road to go down.
Bad business models and industries under disruption should under no circumstance be protected by law this extensively that seriously deteriorate citizens right to information.
While ThePirateBay shares illegal material, uploaded by its users, there is a ton of legal material as well.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Reddit Founder, DNS Hacker And Other SOPA Critics Will Address Congress In Hearing
http://www.forbes.com/sites/andygreenberg/2012/01/09/reddit-founder-dns-hacker-and-other-sopa-critics-to-address-congress/
Opponents of the Stop Online Piracy Act, the bill that threatens to block large swathes of foreign websites for alleged copyright infringement, have complained that Congress has yet to hear their voice
Now, it seems, the tech industry’s SOPA haters will have their day. The House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform announced Monday that it will hold a hearing on SOPA on January 18th. Among the invited guests are Alexis Ohanian, a founder of Reddit.com, Dan Kaminsky, a well-known security researcher who has worked on security issues in the Domain Name System, and Lanham Napier, the chief executive of Rackspace Hosting. All, with various arguments, have spoken out strongly against the bill.
“We’re going to DC and explaining, ‘Look, we’re here to tell you there are security implications to the work you’re doing that we know you didn’t expect, but are counter to the national security interests of the USA.’” Kaminsky says. “No one intended to break anything [with this bill.] They intended to address a legitimate economic concern. But thanks to the law of unintended consequences, their efforts in DNS filtering run counter to our efforts in DNS authentication.”
Tomi Engdahl says:
http://yro.slashdot.org/story/12/01/15/2138231/white-house-opposes-key-sopa-provisions
‘”While we believe that online piracy by foreign websites is a serious problem that requires a serious legislative response, we will not support legislation that reduces freedom of expression, increases cybersecurity risk, or undermines the dynamic, innovative global internet,” the White House said in a blog post.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Murdoch slams White House over SOPA in Twitter row
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2012/01/15/murdoch_twitter_rant_sopa/
Rupert Murdoch has posted a series of rants on Twitter, accusing the White House of bowing to lobbying pressure over its lack of support for the Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA).
“Piracy leader is Google who streams movies free, sells advts around them. No wonder pouring millions into lobbying.”
Murdoch, who is currently under investigation in the UK over phone hacking by his newspapers, is a longtime critic of what he sees as Google’s role in enabling piracy.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Official White House Response to Stop the E-PARASITE Act. and 1 other petition
Combating Online Piracy while Protecting an Open and Innovative Internet
https://wwws.whitehouse.gov/petition-tool/response/combating-online-piracy-while-protecting-open-and-innovative-internet
While we believe that online piracy by foreign websites is a serious problem that requires a serious legislative response, we will not support legislation that reduces freedom of expression, increases cybersecurity risk, or undermines the dynamic, innovative global Internet.
Any effort to combat online piracy must guard against the risk of online censorship of lawful activity and must not inhibit innovation by our dynamic businesses large and small.
We must avoid creating new cybersecurity risks or disrupting the underlying architecture of the Internet. Proposed laws must not tamper with the technical architecture of the Internet through manipulation of the Domain Name System (DNS), a foundation of Internet security.
This is not just a matter for legislation. 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.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Victory for SOPA Opponents: DNS Blocking Struck From Bill
http://mashable.com/2012/01/13/sopa-dns/
The author of the controversial Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA) announced Friday that he will remove the DNS-blocking provisions of the bill.
SOPA’s interference with the DNS system, which is a sort of phone book for the Internet, was considered particularly onerous by the legislation’s detractors.
“After consultation with industry groups across the country,” SOPA author Rep. Lamar Smith (R-TX) said in a statement released by his office, “I feel we should remove DNS-blocking from the Stop Online Piracy Act so that the [U.S. House Judiciary] Committee can further examine the issues surrounding this provision.”
The change will be considered a victory for SOPA opponents.
BUT: reality they have not yet accomplished the goal, which is to see SOPA in the trash bin.
White House Strangles SOPA, Citing Censorship, Security Concerns
http://www.readwriteweb.com/archives/white_house_strangles_sopa_citing_censorship_secur.php
In a statement on behalf of the Obama administration this morning, a trio of senior officials including the nation’s Chief Technology Officer made clear that any anti-piracy legislation passing the President’s desk would not create risks of censorship, nor would it condone any alterations to the Internet’s domain name system that could invite security dangers.
The statement, which lists all three anti-piracy bills currently under discussion – the PROTECT-IP and OPEN bills in the Senate, and the SOPA bill in the House – is a loud warning shot indicating the President’s lack of support, and likely veto, of any legislation that requires tampering with the structure of the Internet to enable enforcement.
Obama Administration Responds to We the People Petitions on SOPA and Online Piracy
http://www.whitehouse.gov/blog/2012/01/14/obama-administration-responds-we-people-petitions-sopa-and-online-piracy
Thanks for taking the time to sign this petition. Both your words and actions illustrate the importance of maintaining an open and democratic Internet.
Any effort to combat online piracy must guard against the risk of online censorship of lawful activity and must not inhibit innovation by our dynamic businesses large and small.
Tomi Engdahl says:
How the Internet Works (And How SOPA Would Break It)
http://blog.softlayer.com/2012/how-the-internet-works-and-how-sopa-would-break-it/
The Internet: Post-SOPA
You access a device connected in some way to the Internet.
You enter a domain name or click a URL (for this example, we’ll use http://www.softlayer.com since we’re biased to that site).
*The Change*
Before your ISP runs an NS lookup, it would have to determine whether the site you’re trying to access has been reported as an “infringing site.” If http://www.softlayer.com was reported (either legitimately or illegitimately) as an infringing site, your ISP would not process your request, and you’d proceed to an error page. If your ISP can’t find any reference to the domain an infringing site, it would start looking for the name server to deliver the IP address.
SOPA would also enforce filtering from all authoritative DNS provider. If an ISP sends a request for an infringing site to the name server for that site, the provider of that name server would be forced to prevent the IP address from being returned.
One additional method of screening domains would happen at the level of the operator of the domain’s gTLD. gTLDs (generic top-level domains) are the “.____” at the end of the domain (.com, .net, .biz, etc.). Each gTLD is managed by a large registry organization, and a gTLD’s operator would be required to prevent an infringing site’s domain from functioning properly.
If the gTLD registry operator, your ISP and the domain’s authoritative name server provider agree that the site you’re accessing has not been reported as an infringing site, the process would resume the pre-SOPA process.
*Back to the Pre-SOPA Process*
The domain’s name server responds.
The domain’s IP address is returned.
The IP address is reached to get the content for http://www.softlayer.com.
HTML is returned.
Your browser translates the HTML into a visual format.
External file references from the HTML are returned.
The site is loaded.
SOPA does not allow for due process to investigate concerns. If a site is reported to be an infringing site, service providers have to do everything in their power to prevent users from getting there.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Wikipedia’s anti-SOPA blackout will go ahead on Wednesday
http://blogs.ft.com/fttechhub/2012/01/wikipedia-anti-sopa-blackout/#axzz1jhasGbIP
Wikipedia will shut down for 24 hours on Wednesday to protest against SOPA
http://thenextweb.com/insider/2012/01/16/wikipedia-will-shut-down-for-24-hours-on-wednesday-to-protest-against-sopa/
Today (16th January 201), founder of the non-profit behind information archive Wikipedia, Jimmy Wales, announced that the site will go dark for 24 hours on Wednesday in protest of the Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA).
Twitter’s Dick Costolo calls Wikipedia’s SOPA blackout ‘foolish’ [Updated]
http://thenextweb.com/twitter/2012/01/16/twitters-dick-costolo-calls-wikipedias-sopa-blackout-foolish/
Costolo called the comment silly in his Tweet, pointing out that a local issue, even one as willfully stupid as SOPA was no reason to ‘close’ a global business for any length of time. He went on to state that Twitter has been clear in its stance and will continue to be active against SOPA.
tomi says:
Help Stop SOPA/PIPA
http://wordpress.org/news/2012/01/help-stop-sopa-pipa/
Using WordPress to blog, to publish, to communicate things online that once upon a time would have been relegated to an unread private journal (or simply remained unspoken, uncreated, unshared) makes you a part of one of the biggest changes in modern history: the democratization of publishing and the independent web. Every time you click Publish, you are a part of that change, whether you are posting canny political insight or a cat that makes you LOL. How would you feel if the web stopped being so free and independent? I’m concerned freaked right the heck out about the bills that threaten to do this, and as a participant in one of the biggest changes in modern history, you should be, too.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Wikipedia, Craigslist, other sites go black in SOPA protest
January 17, 2012 | 9:16 pm
http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/entertainmentnewsbuzz/2012/01/wikipedia-craigslist-other-sites-shut-down-in-sopa-blackout.html
Following through on their threats to shut down for a day over controversial proposed anti-piracy legislation, a coalition of websites including the hugely popular user-generated encyclopedia Wikipedia went black as midnight struck the East Coast.
Visitors to English-language pages on Wikipedia, found only a headline stating “Imagine a World Without Free Knowledge.” Stating that the proposed SOPA and PIPA anti-piracy bills “could fatally damage the free and open internet,” the message said Wikipedia would be blacked out for 24 hours and asked visitors to contact their congressional representatives, providing a search box to look them up by ZIP code.
Other sites that shut down and displayed similar language
Hundreds of other websites were scheduled to go dark, according to SOPAStrike.com
Tomi Engdahl says:
Microsoft says it opposes SOPA ‘as currently drafted’
http://www.geekwire.com/2012/microsoft-opposes-sopa-bill-as-drafted
Tomi Engdahl says:
A technical examination of SOPA and PROTECT IP
http://blog.reddit.com/2012/01/technical-examination-of-sopa-and.html
I highly encourage you to set some time aside to read this thoroughly. Grab some caffeine, we are going to be here for a while.
The concept of ‘domestic’ versus ‘foreign’ on the internet is complex.
Facilitation of criminal violations
The potential for abuse in this language is painfully obvious. “Facilitation” can often be argued as simply teaching or demonstrating how to do something. Under this definition, a site could be targeted for something as simple as describing how to rip a Blu-Ray. This language also makes it clear that the legislation is not solely targeting sites “dedicated to theft”.
This legislation is aimed at requiring private U.S. entities to enforce restrictions against foreign sites but does nothing against the infringement itself. All of the enforcement actions can and will be worked around by sites focused on copyright infringement.
When the dust settles, piracy will still exist, and the internet in the U.S. will have entered the realm of federal regulation and censorship.
The vague and technology-ignorant language in this pending legislation opens a huge number of doors for different interpretations. When you take this broad language and use it to grant powers to both the Attorney General and plaintiffs like the MPAA and RIAA, you create a system that is begging to be abused. Given the history of abuse of laws like the DMCA, it has become obvious that institutions like the RIAA can and will stretch laws to the breaking point, often while suffering no repercussions.
Entrepreneurs will need to invest in legal counsel to ensure they can properly respond to a PROTECT IP or SOPA order. New sites and products will need to invest precious development time to build-in censorship utilities so that they can remove links to foreign sites.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Don’t censor the web
1/17/2012 09:40:00 PM
http://googleblog.blogspot.com/2012/01/dont-censor-web.html
PIPA & SOPA will censor the web.
PIPA & SOPA will risk our industry’s track record of innovation and job creation.
PIPA & SOPA will not stop piracy.
Because we think there’s a good way forward that doesn’t cause collateral damage to the web, we’re joining Wikipedia, Twitter, Tumblr, Reddit, Mozilla and other Internet companies in speaking out against SOPA and PIPA.
Tomi Engdahl says:
SOPA Is Baaaack!
http://digg.com/newsbar/topnews/sopa_is_baaaack
A few days ago the news broke that the pending Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA) was put on hold until consensus was reached.
Although the announcement was rather vague, some news sites and blogs declared SOPA dead, or “shelved,” or erased from history.
Wishful thinking, because today SOPA is back in full force.
House Judiciary Committee Chairman Lamar Smith just announced that the SOPA markup is expected to continue next month.
Tomi Engdahl says:
The Pirate Bay: PIPA/SOPA Won’t Stop Us!
http://torrentfreak.com/the-pirate-bay-pipasopa-wont-stop-us120117/
The Pirate Bay is no stranger to being censored. Finland, Denmark and Italy are just a few of the many countries where ISPs have been ordered to make the website inaccessible to their users.
But on the horizon looms threats of a different kind, the PIPA and SOPA bills.
Supporters of the pending PIPA/SOPA anti-piracy bills often use The Pirate Bay as a prime example of a website that can be taken out under the new legislation. But is that really the case? The Pirate Bay team has been silent on the issue, until now. As it turns out, the people behind the popular torrent site don’t believe the laws will do much to stop them, but they do fear for the future of the Internet.
For opponents of the PIPA and SOPA bills, The Pirate Bay’s stance is yet even more ammunition to get the pending legislation thrown out completely. When even the biggest target isn’t worried at all, why put the future of the Internet at risk?
“It’s crazy what politicians will do in the name of copyright! They are either totally paid off, stupid or copyright holders. Or all of them – that’s not as uncommon as you might think. The worst part is that it’s so obvious that pretty much everyone in and outside the US, including major corporations, are against this bill,” the Pirate Bay insider said.
Tomi Engdahl says:
A preview of SOPA: Web shut down before my eyes
Hated anti-piracy laws will hit everyone
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2012/01/18/a_preview_of_what_sopa_would_be_like/
Sysadmin blog On Saturday, 7 January, a Canadian DNS host named EasyDNS winked out of existence. This was a preview of what SOPA promises to be like.
Suffering from a massive DDoS, all DNS services provided by EasyDNS simply ceased to function. Metacritic and DSL Reports are two examples of sites that affected me directly.
While frustrating, the DDoS incident is something that your average systems administrator or internet punter can understand.
Yet as you read this, the United States Congress is pondering bills like SOPA and PIPA. Here are two bills, either of which would give businesses in the US the right to do exactly this – and worse – to those same sites we love. Without the requirement of pesky things like due process.
When combined with America’s questionable approach to privacy issues, the US risks losing its leadership position as the place to do business online.
“What the Americans are going to end up doing to themselves is really hamstring the ability of their own industries to compete. It is American businesses and American net users who will get the short end of the stick.”
Tomi Engdahl says:
SOPA, Internet Regulation and the Economics of Piracy
http://www.wired.com/threatlevel/2012/01/sopa-piracy-costs/
Despite the fact that the Government Accountability Office recently concluded that it is “difficult, if not impossible, to quantify the net effect of counterfeiting and piracy on the economy as a whole,” our legislative class has somehow determined that—among all the dire challenges now facing the United States—this is an urgent priority.
No doubt piracy is costing the content industries something—or they wouldn’t be throwing so much money at Congress in support of this kind of legislation.
If we could wave a magic wand and have less piracy, obviously that would be good. But in the real world, where enforcement has direct costs to the taxpayer, regulation has costs on the industries it burdens, and the reduction in piracy they’re likely to produce is very small, it seems important to point out that the credible evidence for the magnitude of the harm is fairly thin.
In short, piracy is certainly one problem in a world filled with problems.
On the data available so far, though, reports of the death of the industry seem much exaggerated.
Tomi Engdahl says:
How Copyright Industries Con Congress
http://www.cato-at-liberty.org/how-copyright-industries-con-congress/
As Carr’s piece suggests, SOPA’s corporate backers have fallen back on new numbers, but they’re still entirely bogus:
The Motion Picture Association of America cites figures saying that piracy costs the United States $58 billion annually. Mark Elliot, an executive from the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, said in a letter to The New York Times that such piracy threatened 19 million American jobs
So, to stay focused on movies, Siwek takes an estimate of $6.1 billion in piracy losses to the U.S. movie industry, and through the magic of multipliers gets us to a more impressive sounding $20.5 billion.
SOPA, recall, does not actually shut down foreign sites. It only requires (ineffective) blocking of foreign “rogue sites” for U.S. Internet users. It doesn’t do anything to prevent users in (say) China from downloading illicit content on a Chinese site. If we’re interested in the magnitude of the piracy harm that SOPA is aimed at addressing, then, the only relevant number is the loss attributable specifically to Internet piracy by U.S. users.
So in a fantasy world where U.S. movie pirates don’t just circumvent blockage with a browser plugin, and SOPA actually stops all online movie piracy by American users, we get a $446 million economic benefit to the United States in the form of movie revenues, and presumably comparable benefits in music and software revenues? Well, no.
As one expert consulted by GAO put it, “effects of piracy within the United States are mainly redistributions within the economy for other purposes and that they should not be considered as a loss to the overall economy.” In many cases—I’ve seen research suggesting it’s about 80 percent for music—a U.S. consumer would not have otherwise purchased an illicitly downloaded song or movie if piracy were not an option. Here, the result is actually pure consumer surplus: The downloader enjoys the benefit, and the producer loses nothing.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Ask Slashdot: What Can You Do About SOPA and PIPA?
http://yro.slashdot.org/story/12/01/18/0834219/ask-slashdot-what-can-you-do-about-sopa-and-pipa
Tomi Engdahl says:
PIPA support collapses, with 13 new Senators opposed
http://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/news/2012/01/pipa-support-collapses-with-13-new-opponents-in-senate.ars
Members of the Senate are rushing for the exits in the wake of the Internet’s unprecedented protest of the Protect IP Act (PIPA).
Google says 4.5 million people signed anti-SOPA petition today
http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/technology/2012/01/google-anti-sopa-petition.html
Tomi Engdahl says:
The Pirate Bay Slams PIPA / SOPA in Public Statement
http://torrentfreak.com/the-pirate-bay-slams-pipa-and-sopa-120118/
If either PIPA or SOPA passes The Pirate Bay is expected to be one of their prime targets.
While this would have most site operators worried, The Pirate Bay is not concerned.
The Pirate Bay: PIPA/SOPA Won’t Stop Us!
http://torrentfreak.com/the-pirate-bay-pipasopa-wont-stop-us120117/
As it turns out, the people behind the popular torrent site don’t believe the laws will do much to stop them, but they do fear for the future of the Internet.
Tomi Engdahl says:
SOPA can try to stop Internet innovation, but it will fail
http://digg.com/newsbar/topnews/sopa_can_try_to_stop_internet_innovation_but_it_will_fail
Dmitry Shapiro tells us how legislation killed a company he founded, that the Internet will continue to invent anyway, and introduces us to his new site MingleWing, which could be easily in SOPA’s clutches.
He does mention that venture capitalists are becoming cautious about this segment. He says he’s been told that SOPA/PIPA have made VCs nervous about investing in companies that have anything to do with user-generated content.
As Shapiro concisely puts it, “Anyone with any sense of what the Internet is knows SOPA makes no sense whatsoever.”
Tomi Engdahl says:
Internet Rejoices: SOPA Is at Death’s Door
http://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2012/01/internet-rejoices-sopa-is-at-deaths-door/251517/
The hated anti-piracy bill may end up in the dustbin, but other threats to a free and open Internet remain live in Congress.
SOPA is not dead, yet, but it’s dying.
The Senate bill — called the PROTECT IP Act — is still live, though it too is foundering.
The copyright wars are just the beta version of a long coming war on computation.
And perhaps the best example of that drive to clamp down on the free exchange online is another bill lurking in the house: the Research Works Act, a bill opponents are calling #SOPAv2,
– the act would make open access to taxpayer-funded research a prerogative not of the authors but of publishers.
As Mike Taylor wrote in The Guardian yesterday, “This is the moment academic publishers gave up all pretence of being on the side of scientists. Their rhetoric has traditionally been of partnering with scientists, but the truth is that for some time now scientific publishers have been anti-science and anti-publication. The Research Works Act, introduced in the US Congress on 16 December, amounts to a declaration of war by the publishers.”
Tomi Engdahl says:
Why the feds smashed Megaupload
http://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/news/2012/01/why-the-feds-smashed-megaupload.ars
Going after Megaupload, one of the most popular sites in the world and one that uses a surprising amount of corporate bandwidth, might seem a strange choice. (As an example of its scale, Megaupload controlled 525 servers in Virginia alone and had another 630 in the Netherlands—and many more around the world.) For years, the site has claimed to take down unauthorized content when notified by rightsholders. It has registered a DMCA agent with the US government. It has created an “abuse tool” and given rightsholders access. It has negotiated with companies like Universal Music Group about licensing content
But the government asserts that Megaupload merely wanted the veneer of legitimacy, while its employees knew full well that the site’s main use was to distribute infringing content. Indeed, the government points to numerous internal e-mails and chat logs from employees showing that they were aware of copyrighted material on the site and even shared it with each other. Because of this, the government says that the site does not qualify for a “safe harbor” of the kind that protected YouTube from Viacom’s $1 billion lawsuit.
Tomi Engdahl says:
EU To Sign ACTA Later This Month
http://yro.slashdot.org/story/12/01/20/0259218/eu-to-sign-acta-later-this-month
At a meeting of Polish Government officials with Polish NGOs and business representatives it was confirmed that the European Union is poised to sign the Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement as soon as January 26th. But all is not lost. The Treaty still needs to be ratified by the Euro Parliament and member states individually. The ratification vote is important, as it is an either-or vote — if not ratified there, ACTA gets rejected in its entirety.
Tomi Engdahl says:
The PirateBay: SOPA PRESS RELEASE
http://digg.com/newsbar/topnews/the_piratebay_sopa_press_release
Over a century ago Thomas Edison got the patent for a device which would “do for the eye what the phonograph does for
the ear”.
Because of Edisons patents for the motion pictures it was close to financially impossible to create motion pictures
in the North american east coast. The movie studios therefor relocated to California, and founded what we today call
Hollywood. The reason was mostly because there was no patent.
So, the whole basis of this industry, that today is screaming about losing control over immaterial rights, is that they
circumvented immaterial rights.
The reason they are always complainting about “pirates” today is simple. We’ve done what they did. We circumvented the
rules they created and created our own.
We allow people to have direct communication between eachother, circumventing the profitable middle man, that in some cases take
over 107% of the profits (yes, you pay to work for them).
SOPA can’t do anything to stop TPB. Worst case we’ll change top level domain from our current .org to one of the hundreds of other names that we already also use. In countries where TPB is blocked, China and Saudi Arabia springs to mind, they block hundreds of our domain names. And did it work? Not really.
Tomi Engdahl says:
SOPA Protests Sway Congress: 31 Opponents Yesterday, 122 Now
http://techcrunch.com/2012/01/19/sopa-opponents-supporters/
Father of the web backs SOPA protests
http://www.smh.com.au/it-pro/business-it/father-of-the-web-backs-sopa-protests-20120119-1q7rm.html
Tim Berners-Lee says US government plan to censor the internet violates human rights.
SOPA: We Can Fix This
http://cscape.wordpress.com/2012/01/19/sopa-how-can-we-solve-this-debate/
While this is a fight about rights for the media, for Silicon Valley its really a fight about an entirely new economic structure that tech firms have built around managing and presenting other people’s content.
The real problem is we have no standards yet to build an intelligent discussion around gray areas. Right now this has become a black and white, for or against, issue.
With SOPA, the problem is everyone is shadow boxing against a massive grey cloud of “evil.”
Let’s try to agree on what “fair use” is before we agree on how to punish people for not being fair.
Tomi Engdahl says:
After Internet blackout, all GOP candidates agree SOPA sucks
http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2012/01/19/after-internet-blackout-all-gop-candidates-agree-sopa-sucks/
Following the protests Wednesday that saw dozens of websites go dark in opposition to federal anti-piracy legislation, the four remaining Republican presidential candidate said the U.S. House’s bill would be a disaster for freedom on the Internet.
“You have everybody who’s technologically advanced, including Google and YouTube and Facebook and all the folks, who say that this is totally going to mess up the Internet, and the bill in its current form is written very badly and leads to a range of censorship that is totally unacceptable,” Gingrich explained. “I favor freedom. And I think we have a patent office. We have copyright law. If a company finds it has been genuinely infringed upon, it has the right to sue.”
Tomi Engdahl says:
SOPA Getting a Face-Lift: How Evil Will It Be?
http://www.wired.com/threatlevel/2012/01/sopa-watering-down/
“He realizes there is going to have to be a lot of changes because of the opposition there has been to it,” Bettesworth said.
Complicating matters further, the Justice Department on Thursday seized the domains and bank accounts of Megaupload, a Hong Kong-based file sharing site, shutting down the site and arresting four of its executives overseas. The men are accused of criminal conspiracy and copyright violations. The indictment of foreigners for violations of U.S. copyright law promptly led many SOPA critics to wonder why the government needs to mandate internet censorship, if criminal laws can already be used to go after alleged offenders.
Tomi Engdahl says:
A Post PIPA Post
http://www.avc.com/a_vc/2012/01/a-post-pipa-post.html
He told me that the Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid was going to pull the PIPA bill in about thirty minutes. He also told me that the technology/Internet community had done a great job fighting the SOPA and PIPA bills and that the fight was over for now. I thanked him for the call and then I told him that we need to find a different way to address the online piracy problem because otherwise the technology community was in for a game of whack a mole with the content industry every year or two with our elected officials getting caught in the middle. He agreed.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Filesonic Kills File-Sharing Service After MegaUpload Arrests
http://torrentfreak.com/filesonic-kills-file-sharing-after-megaupload-arrests-120122/
Filesonic, one of the Internet’s leading cyberlocker services, has taken some drastic measures following the Megaupload shutdown and arrests last week. In addition to discontinuing its affiliates rewards program and not yet paying accrued money to members, the site has disabled all sharing functionality, leaving users only with access to their own files.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Congress puts PIPA and SOPA on back burner
Put down the champagne, protesters, it’s not over yet
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2012/01/20/pipa_sopa_on_hold/
Political leaders have cancelled plans to vote on the SOPA and PIPA legislation currently before Congress, saying more time is needed to examine the issue.
“We must take action to stop these illegal practices,” he said in a statement.
“Supporters of the Internet deserve credit for pressing advocates of SOPA and PIPA to back away from an effort to ram through controversial legislation,” said OPEN Act co-sponsor and trenchant SOPA critic, Congressman Darrell Issa.
But the move also brings attention to the bipartisan Online Protection and Enforcement of Digital Trade (OPEN Act),which would block funds going to foreign piracy websites but not attempt to block them by disrupting the DNS infrastructure.
Given the stunning ignorance shown by the legislature and the Department of Justice on internet matters, having some experts on board might be welcome. But the OPEN Act is far from perfect – there’s nothing on fair use, for example. Nevertheless, it is supported by companies such as Google and Facebook, so has a shot at passing.
Tomi Engdahl says:
SOPA tabled by Rep. Lamar Smith, for now
http://www.theverge.com/2012/1/20/2721418/sopa-bill-withdrawn-by-lamar-smith
It looks like Wednesday’s SOPA Blackout Day should be considered a success: Reuters is reporting that the Stop Online Piracy Act has been withdrawn by its chief sponsor, House Judiciary Committee Chairman Lamar Smith. This comes only hours after Senator Harry Reid announced that next Tuesday’s scheduled vote on the Protect IP Act (PIPA) was going to be postponed. While the SOPA bill is off the table for now, there’s no indication that it’s being completely abandoned — Smith told Reuters that he’s pulling the measure “until there is wider agreement on a solution,” and also said that he has heard the critics loud and clear and is taking their concerns seriously.