SOPA, The Internet Censorship Bill, Was Lauded By Both Parties In Key House Hearing

[onehandle]

Source: Huffington Post

WASHINGTON -- At a House Judiciary Committee hearing Wednesday, Democrats and Republicans joined together to voice support for legislation that would criminalize much of the activity that occupies the Internet. The bipartisan bill known as the Stop Online Piracy Act would establish major new powers for corporations intent on corralling copyrighted materials -- powers that would lead to big legal bills for start-ups and Silicon Valley giants alike. SOPA's Senate counterpart, the PROTECT IP Act, was already voted out of the Senate Judiciary Committee in September.

Both political parties -- flush with campaign contributions from Hollywood studios and trial lawyers -- are eager to pass the legislation. The Senate version, introduced in May, has broad support, but has been held up by Sen. Ron Wyden (D-Ore.). Without Wyden's hold, the legislation looks certain to pass by a landslide. The House version, introduced last month, was written by House Judiciary Chairman Lamar Smith (R-Texas) and co-sponsored by ranking member John Conyers (D-Mich.).

snip...

Under current practice, copyright owners such as TV networks and Hollywood studios reach out to websites to request that pirated videos be taken down. Under the new regime, they could ask banks, Internet service providers and domain name registrars to stop doing business with websites that they believed were devoted to piracy. They could, for instance, go straight to YouTube's domain registration company and demand that the entire YouTube website be taken down. And if the registrar resisted, the copyright owners would have the legal ability to take the registrar to court.

That move might not be very threatening to major players, like YouTube, with expensive legal teams, but life on the Internet could be made very difficult for smaller companies and start-ups. For lawyers who litigate intellectual property issues, the bill is a godsend, guaranteeing a flood of work, no matter which party wins the case.

Read more: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/11/16/sopa-internet-censorship-online-piracy-house-hearing_n_1098255.html

[iemitsu]

1. this sucks, but thanks for the info.

[ZombieHorde]

2. Most people don't like having their shit stolen.

I'm not saying "don't steal," I am saying the author of the article seems to have troubles with this basic concept.

[MilesColtrane]

4. Indeed, this bill isn't just some corporate sop.

There's a reason John Conyers co-sponsored it and a reason the Teamsters, the AFL-CIO, and all of the following unions support this bill.

Actors’ Equity Association (AEA)

American Federation of Government Employees (AFGE)

American Federation of Musicians (AFM)

American Federation of School Administrators (AFSA)

American Federation of Teachers (AFT)

American Federation of Television and Radio Artists (AFTRA)

American Guild of Musical Artists (AGMA)

Federation of Professional Athletes (FPA)

International Alliance of Theatrical Stage Employes, Moving Picture Technicians, Artists and Allied Crafts (IATSE)

International Association of Fire Fighters (IAFF)

International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers (IAM)

International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers (IBEW)

International Federation of Professional and Technical Engineers (IFPTE)

International Plate Printers, Die Stampers and Engravers Union of North America

International Union of Painters and Allied Trades (IUPAT)

Office and Professional Employees International Union (OPEIU)

Retail, Wholesale and Department Store Union (RWDSU)

Screen Actors Guild (SAG)

Seafarers International Union of North America (SIU)

United Steelworkers (USW)

Utility Workers Union of America (UWUA)

Writers Guild of America, East (WGAE)

[EFerrari]

16. It's a disaster. EFF's statement is here:

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=439x2325048

And here was their action today:

American Censorship Day is this Wednesday — And You Can Join In!

This Wednesday, November 16, the disastrous "Stop Online Piracy Act" (SOPA) heads to the House Judiciary committee. In case you need a refresher, SOPA could allow the U.S. government and private corporations to create a blacklist of censored websites, and cut many more off from their ad networks and payment providers. This bill is bad news, and its supporters are trying to push it through before ordinary citizens realize just how much damage it can cause.

That’s why we're proud to announce that, along with groups like Public Knowledge, the Free Software Foundation, and Demand Progress, EFF is joining Fight for the Future in an initiative called American Censorship Day. We're calling out the representatives responsible for this bill and letting them know that this type of Internet censorship is, as TIME Magazine puts it, “a cure worse than the disease”. In fact, we think it’s much worse.

If you run a website, you too can join in the protest. One easy way is to go to the American Censorship Day website, which Fight for the Future runs, and follow the instructions there to grab their code to embed on your page. On Wednesday, that code will give visitors the chance to write or call their representatives and sign up for future updates from Fight for the Future without leaving your site. Starting Saturday, Fight for the Future will also post instructions on how to “black out” your site logo as a second method of protest.

You should review the details on the American Censorship Day page to make sure it works with your site and complies with its privacy policy. If you can’t take these actions, there are other ways to get involved: spread the word to your friends about how catastrophic this bill could be for Internet freedom, encourage other site owners to participate in American Censorship Day, and sign our petition to stop Internet blacklist legislation!

https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2011/11/american-censorship-day-wednesday-and-you-can-join

[Taverner]

27. Heh...you really think this bill is about artist's rights?

Funny

[EFerrari]

17. You want the same Justice Department that lied to you about

Iraq, torture and assassination squads to filter the internet? God, I don't.

This bill is a piece of cr@p.

[ZombieHorde]

22. I am not saying I want anything, I am saying we shouldn't be surprised when people

dislike their shit being stolen.

The article acts like theft being frowned upon is a new phenomenon.

[freshwest]

3. I wonder if Righthaven's assets went to lobby for this bill. No wonder they haven't closed down.

There may be some specifics that make it different in court, but the principle is the same. It seems our efforts are so scattered we cannot take on this 'bipartisan' congress taking our rights away. And there is no alternative to changing the composition of congress; despite every shiny thing that catches our attention. Some want the congress to get out of the way, but naturally Perry's solution to have less sessions would purportedly give them less power, does nothing except feed the fascism. Damned if we do, damned if we don't.

[Amerigo Vespucci]

5. And here's what could happen to DU...

The bill would also alter the relationship between the government and the basic architecture of the Internet, allowing the Department of Justice, acting on behalf of aggrieved copyright holders, to perform domain name system filtering -- essentially, blocking entire websites in the name of preventing piracy.

Same link as OP.

So if someone posted ANY content...verbal, images, video...on DU, regardless of the source, and it was considered an act of "piracy," down goes DU. Gone.

Doesn't matter if someone posted, for example, a video from YouTube. Under this law, YouTube could be taken down for posting the original, and DU could be taken down for linking to it.

[boppers]

8. Wrong.

"stop doing business with websites that they believed were devoted to piracy" Is the fundamental piece you are missing. Youtube is not devoted to piracy, and neither is DU.

Here's what they're going after:
http://thepiratebay.org/

...Sites whose primary *function* is piracy. Now, if DU was filled with download links to cracked software, ripped movies, that would be different.

[uncle ray]

18. riiight, and the Patriot Act has only been used against terrorists.

you don't, by chance, happen to be in the market for a bridge, are you?

[boppers]

19. Are you in prison?

[Oxalis]

21. They can't do anything to TPB

TPB is based in Sweden.. the best they can do is tell American ISPs to block the site, but TPB only has links to torrents. You can find another link, or again, America can tell ISPs to block every single tracker and shut down ones based in America... Good luck. This bill can only go so far, and there's a million work arounds; VPNs, proxies, etc.

[boppers]

6. Overheated BS puff piece full of technical and legal errors and inaccuracies..

Bill text is here:
http://www.judiciary.house.gov/hearings/pdf/112%20HR%203261.pdf

It's bad enough without making blatantly false claims about it.

[lbrtbell]

7. It's just an excuse to shut down YouTube, Twitter, etc.

Too many videos and tweets exposing police brutality at protests, y'know?

[boppers]

9. Do you believe that youtube and twitter are piracy sites?

Huh. Why is that?

[slay]

11. There are full movies on youtube - uploaded by users. Craig Ferguson's show is posted there every

night. make no mistake - this legislation will have an absolutely chilling effect on the internet and what can be done on it. do you want super rich, super powerful, corporations policing the internet?

[boppers]

12. Well, posting a full movie without copyright rights is already illegal.

It is not, however, the primary purpose of twitter, or youtube, so they should not be affected by this act.

Both of which, BTW, are already "super rich, super powerful, corporations" that police their content. Youtube, for example, is a part of a 198 Billion dollar company. Twitter's a bit smaller, at "only" 4 Billion.


Edit: typo

[slay]

13. Google - owner of youtube - have come out strongly against these bills

but the MPAA and the RIAA can't ever control their greed - they are the big money pushers behind this shit. even Google is worried about the wording of this bill and the far reaching implications. if you don't think this will be a big deal for the internet - you are highly mistaken.

[boppers]

14. I think it's a pretty big deal, but I am annoyed by ignorant speculation.

This is the problem:
http://domainincite.com/docs/PROTECT-IP-Technical-Whitepaper-Final.pdf

Based on what I've seen on my various media sources, it's easier to scare people with falsehoods than educate with facts.

[slay]

15. I hear ya. It's worded in such a way that it's freaking people out - nobody knows what will really

happen. And anything that is pushed by the MPAA and RIAA i REALLY have to take issue with - remember the Napster disaster when the RIAA started suing people? Not good. when only 3% of internet users d/l stuff from non-commercial sites with any regularity - this seems unnecessary - what they should do is just appeal to people - convince people to support the movies and music they love by purchasing them instead of threatening people or certain websites. But no, they always go for the heavy handed shit - show us who's boss and what not. Put us peons in our place.

[Chan790]

25. I believe that those are explicit targets of the clients of the law-firm that wrote the bill.

Why do I believe that? Because they're not lying about it...they're targeting Twitter, YouTube, Google and Facebook. Unapologetically. They've said as much every time they've been asked. I'm in WGA-E and I made it clear how much I disapprove of their support of this bill.

[blackspade]

10. What a crappy piece of legislation.

The fact that these bills 'establish major new powers for corporations ' shows the bills for what they are.
More invasive corporate influence over internet content.
It sets up a separate legal tier based on coersion and threats rather than facts.
This statement alone is troubling; 'they could ask banks, Internet service providers and domain name registrars to stop doing business with websites that they believed were devoted to piracy'.
So it only takes a 'belief' rather than facts and instead of going after the website, they go after the ISP/bank.

Shameful.

[sendero]

20. Washington..

... won't do JACK SHIT about China's WHOLESALE RIP OFF of all American IP but they'll throw your ass in prison.

[Kelvin Mace]

23. Most of America's IP is stolen

because American corporations GIVE it to China. If ipods were built in the U.S., Apple wouldn't see clones of its tech popping up 3-6 months after a device is introduced.

[woo me with science]

24. Will Obama veto these?

If not, why not?

[JCMach1]

26. You think the corporations would let him?

:sarcasm:

[Uncle Joe]

28. On edit, kicked but too late to recommend.

Thanks for the thread, onehandle.