"87,000 telephone calls" to congress. That's great!
What Damage Will S.O.P.A. Do to the Internet?
(41 posts) (8 voices)-
Anonymous
UnregisteredSOPA, or the Stop Online Piracy Act, is another one of those bills that sounds like it's going to do something mildly positive but, in reality, has serious potential to negatively change the internet as we know it.
It puts power in the hands of the entertainment industry to censor sites that allegedly "engage in, enable or facilitate" copyright infringement. This language vague enough to encompass sites you use every day, like Twitter and Facebook, making SOPA a serious problem.
This means that if Lifehacker happened to have an article or two that could be interpreted as piracy-friendly, our domain could be blocked so it's unaccessible by visiting lifehacker.com. What the bill can't do is block numeric IP addresses, so you could still access Lifehacker, or any other site that could be censored, if you knew that address. This is important because it means this bill can't do much to stop downloaders of pirated content. If a domain name is blocked, everything will still work via the numeric IP address.
but excellent at censoring any web site capable of providing its users with the means of promoting pirated content or allowing the process. This includes sites like Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, Tumblr, and many more. If it's possible to post pirated content on the site, or information that could further online piracy, a claim can be brought against it. This can be something as minor as you posting a copyrighted image to your Facebook page, or piracy-friendly information in the comments of a post such as this one. The vague, sweeping language in this bill is what makes it so troubling.http://www.theregister.co.uk/2011/10/11/verisign_asks_for_web_takedown_powers/
Posted 13 years ago # -
Anonymous
UnregisteredTalking simply about facts and expressing no opinion!
Hi hotdoge, if you read previous posts, the whole point is that all numeric US IP addresses would be removed from DNS servers worldwide apart from in China and the US, and US DNS servers would be obliged to ensure that the numeric IP addresses of any US or non-US blocked site wasn't accessible. I agree though that technically if this happened and nothing else , you could use a non-US DNS server and hence via the numeric IP address access the site from the US. But there are several buts involved. As the US would be firewalled by the rest of the world, first you'd have to get some sort of internet access outside of the US which might be virtually impossible, and secondly it would be all too easy for the US government to set their own DNS servers on the few remaining pipelines in and out of the US (as indeed China do) to trap and stop access to the numeric IP addresses blocked. They'd just link the IP addresses blocked to a US Gov message; site blocked, so if it went through it might only be the proliferation of mirror sites springing up that US citizens could access until they got blocked too.
It would give anyone or any company the right to takedown and get any US site blocked by a copyright claim, and it might be years before the courts could deal with it with the possible influx of thousands of cases daily! So very many websites might vanish daily either never to be seen again, or to reappear years later!
I think big companies have realized and woken up to the fact takedowns could hit them too, and very frequently!
Posted 13 years ago # -
Anonymous
Unregisteredhttp://www.nzherald.co.nz/technology/news/article.cfm?c_id=5&objectid=10779778
NZ websites can join 'blackout' protest against US internet laws
Website and app designer Jack Mahoney has adapted the protest against the Stop Online Piracy Act bill for a New Zealand audience, hoping to raise awareness about how the American law could affect Kiwi businesses.
and you can be in New Zealand and they come for you like the fbi did for Dotcom
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=10780514
Posted 12 years ago # -
Not going to post my opinion on any events(probably get banned) but this pretty much sums it up... To the tune of "American Pie". Surprised it hasn't got shut down.
The Day The LOLcats Died - #SOPA #PIPA Protest Song - YouTube - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1p-TV4jaCMk
Just found this: Internet, listen up. ACTA is scarier than both PIPA and SOPA, and it will be signed soon. Do your part : politics - http://www.reddit.com/r/politics/comments/oquda/internet_listen_up_acta_is_scarier_than_both_pipa/
Say NO to ACTA - YouTube - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=citzRjwk-sQ
Posted 12 years ago # -
Anonymous
Unregisteredhttp://www.zdnet.com/blog/government/dear-congress-guess-what-we-already-have-copyright-laws/11097
http://www.zdnet.com/blog/btl/filesonic-shutters-another-file-sharing-site-bites-the-dust/67670
File-sharing site FileSonic has announced that it is has disabled “all sharing functionality”, and that its service can “only be used to upload and retrieve files you have uploaded personally”.
Posted 12 years ago # -
Anonymous
Unregisteredhttp://www.v3.co.uk/v3-uk/news/2154317/european-court-justice-rule-legality-acta
European Court of Justice to rule on legality of ACTA
The European Commission (EC) will ask the European Court of Justice (ECJ) to rule on the legality of the controversial Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement (ACTA).
Commissioner Karel De Gucth said he and 22 other commissioners were seeking to clarify whether ACTA was compatible with intrinsic European rights.
"We are planning to ask Europe's highest court to assess whether ACTA is incompatible with the EU's fundamental rights and freedoms, such as freedom of expression and information or data protection and the right to property in case of intellectual property," he said.
The ACTA treaty has been subject to intense scrutiny and protests for several weeks after 22 European nations signed up to the agreement, with several now backing out on the deal, admitting they had not fully understood the implications of the proposed legislation.
De Gucth said while the EC has already given its backing to the treaty it was important it was given legal scrutiny.
“Copyright protection can never be a justification for eliminating freedom of expression or freedom of information. Blocking the internet is never an option.
Posted 12 years ago # -
Anonymous
Unregisteredhttp://www.itworld.com/cloud-computing/265662/sopa-not-dead-backroom-dealings-underway-now
SOPA not dead: backroom dealings underway now - April 06, 2012, 10:13 AM —
Posted 12 years ago # -
Anonymous
Unregisteredhttp://www.v3.co.uk/v3-uk/news/2170999/passes-controversial-cispa-despite-obama-veto-threat
The US House of Representatives has shrugged off a veto threat from president Barack Obama to pass the controversial Cyber Intelligence Sharing and Protection Act (CISPA).
The Republican-controlled House passed the bill by a margin of 248 votes to 168 and it will now go before the US Senate.
The bill is intended to allow federal officials to collect a variety of internet data, ostensibly to ward off potential terrorist attacks.
But the legislation has proved hugely divisive, with many critics arguing it will let the authorities spy on citizens' communications and pass sensitive user data to the government without any safeguards, such as the need to get a warrant.
Online rights group the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) has vowed to step up its campaign against CISPA when the legislation goes in front of the Senate.Posted 12 years ago # -
Anonymous
UnregisteredMozilla is first major tech company to denounce CISPA
While most Silicon Valley companies are keeping quiet about their thoughts on the cybersecurity bill, Mozilla speaks up.
Despite big name tech companies -- such as Facebook, Microsoft, and Oracle -- supporting the controversial Internet surveillance bill that passed in the House last week, Mozilla has come out against the legislation.
"While we wholeheartedly support a more secure Internet, CISPA has a broad and alarming reach that goes far beyond Internet security,"https://secure.avaaz.org/en/stop_cispa/?slideshow
Right now, the US Congress is sneaking in a new law that gives them big brother spy powers over the entire web -- and they're hoping the world won't notice. We helped stop their Net attack last time, let's do it again.
Posted 12 years ago #
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