SOPA - what is it. Pros? cons?

serpretetsky

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Stop Online Piracy Act

What is the SOPA bill?
What are the pros and cons of it?

Also, why are so many people against it?
I tried reading the actual bill, and it seemed to only reference dns and internet providers in fighting piracy specifically. It doesn't seem like the bill has any effect on anything that doesn't deal with piracy. What am i missing?

Is it because it grants the government power to inspect data at will? Or it something else?
 
In a basic sense, you know how they use DMCA/Copyright complaints to take down videos on Youtube and other sites?

With this, they could get the DNS name of Youtube blocked until the offending content is removed. The WHOLE domain. This is FAR to much power for it to even exist.

Also GoDaddy domains are exempt from this possible take down. Why? GoDaddy helped write the bill. This right here proves the bill is flawed and being used as a tool.

I'm not even one to get involved in politics, but this bill is ridiculous to me - especially the GoDaddy stuff.
 
Its a bit that gives far too much power to copyright holders and corporations that feel whatever content of there's is being shown in a negative light that they will (if the bill passes) have the ability to not only block but take down the content and with no restriction on time. Its worded so broadly that it will be abused ..extensively.

This is probably the worst internet censorship bill that's been introduced so far , despite the fact that its being sold as an "anti-piracy" bill. Also the MPAA is the actual creator of the bill.
 
Here are some cons.

• Assign liability to site owners for everything users post, without consideration for whether or not the user posted without permission. Site owners could face jail time or heavy fines, and DNS blacklisting.
• It would require web services like YouTube, Facebook, and Twitter to monitor and aggressively filter everything all users upload.
• It would deny site owners due process of law, by initiating a DNS blacklisting based solely on a good faith assertion by an individual copyright or intellectual property owner.
• It would give the U.S. government the power to selectively censor the web using techniques similar to those used in China, Malaysia and Iran. The Great Firewall of China is an example of this type of embedded, infrastructural internet censorship.

Are there enough pros to offset that?

As far as I know, the MPAA had it's hands on creating this bill. Enough said.
 
Pros:
The "big dogs" get shit tons of power.

Cons:
Takes away any freedom from being fucked over for something you're not responsible for. By making you responsible for it.

:(
 
Copyright people already have a lot of power, this will give them even more power. Yet another situation where the 1% gets what they want and the 99% get the shaft.
 
This plus the past efforts to make streaming a felony should make everyone call/write/annoy your congressperson to stop trying to mess with things they don't understand.

ICE/DHS is already hijacking domains that they can, basically acting as an enforcement arm for RIAA, MPAA, and other large copyright holding groups. There is zero fact checking involved, so even blogs that mention or link to a site have been taken down, and some blogs that promote only their own music have also been taken down. These new bills give them even more power with less evidence required.

Here is a decent (longish) article outlining a lot of issues. First few paragraphs are more about protecting a failing business model, however later on some more important points are made. Sum up:

Monster cable lists ebay, craigslist, etc as infringing websites, and would have the authority to hijack those domains, and force the owners to fight to get access back.

Some artists have personal websites, completely separate from their corporate websites. Those personal websites (some being more popular than the corporate) are seen as infringing, and will get shut down.

It doesn't work. There already are plugins that bypass current and future domain seizures. However having the precedent of getting passed but not working will just mean they will have more power to govern the internet to make their takeovers more successful.

Internet is not US jurisdiction. Other countries have different laws about copyright and ownership, however these bills will circumvent other countries laws and give the US the ability to hijack foreign websites. This is already an issue in cases like this. UK student is having to fight being extradited to the US for charges because his website linked to copyrighted material. It is not hosted in the US, did not host copyrighted material, and did not break UK law, but US wants him here to file charges.
 
Copyright people already have a lot of power, this will give them even more power. Yet another situation where the 1% gets what they want and the 99% get the shaft.

Google and other large companies are against it, I dont know if I would call that 1% vs 99%. Though, I am not arguing against you, the bill gives too small of a group too much power.
 
"If a criminal had counterfeit goods in a bank safe deposit box, SOPA would allow the legitimate IP owner to shut down the entire bank and all of the branches without notice, search warrant, or due process."

Close. Remember there is no judicial oversight in the proposed law. A better analogy might be

"If an IP ownser suspected a person had counterfeit goods in a safe deposit box, SOPA would allow that IP owner to shut down the entire bank and all of the branches without notice, search warrant, or due process."

Just as we've seen with the DMCA, you don't have to make a legitimate claim to cause a lot of damage. It's been abused countless times. And copyright isn't a cut and dry process, there is fair use, prior art, etc...

Read this: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Happy_Birthday_to_You
Now go google "happy birthday to you happy birthday dear" There are 2.1 million web sites that contain the lyrics or other renditions of a copyrighted song. Time Warner could literally shut them all down by sending form letters.
 
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