Online Piracy vs. censorship

[salvarsan]

The intent of the Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA) is not as professed, but is to implement a China/Syria-style censorship infrastructure without due process or legal recourse.

No amount of contrary innocent protestation from elected representatives can assure me otherwise since our congress critturs are self-admittedly technologically ignorant as well as having a disappointing history of protecting citizens' rights.

In the lengthy list of SOPA supporters, I found Gibson, Fender, and Peavey.

Rickenbacker and DiMarzio, two of the most litigious gear companies we know of, don't support SOPA.

Foremost in opposition to SOPA are Google, Facebook, and eBay -- companies whose business relies on an open internet.

I moved my salvarsan.org domain out of GoDaddy who, because of SOPA support, has lost 37,000+ domains in the last three days.
Hover.com is one of many who provide instructructions for transferring your domain name to a new registrar.

[Chris Klein]

Go Daddy No Longer Supports SOPA

Looks to Internet Community & Fellow Tech Leaders to Develop Legislation We All Support

SCOTTSDALE, Ariz. (Dec. 23, 2011) - Go Daddy is no longer supporting SOPA, the "Stop Online Piracy Act" currently working its way through U.S. Congress.

"Fighting online piracy is of the utmost importance, which is why Go Daddy has been working to help craft revisions to this legislation - but we can clearly do better," Warren Adelman, Go Daddy's newly appointed CEO, said. "It's very important that all Internet stakeholders work together on this. Getting it right is worth the wait. Go Daddy will support it when and if the Internet community supports it."

Go Daddy and its General Counsel, Christine Jones, have worked with federal lawmakers for months to help craft revisions to legislation first introduced some three years ago. Jones has fought to express the concerns of the entire Internet community and to improve the bill by proposing changes to key defined terms, limitations on DNS filtering to ensure the integrity of the Internet, more significant consequences for frivolous claims, and specific provisions to protect free speech.

"As a company that is all about innovation, with our own technology and in support of our customers, Go Daddy is rooted in the idea of First Amendment Rights and believes 100 percent that the Internet is a key engine for our new economy," said Adelman.

In changing its position, Go Daddy remains steadfast in its promise to support security and stability of the Internet. In an effort to eliminate any confusion about its reversal on SOPA though, Jones has removed blog postings that had outlined areas of the bill Go Daddy did support.

"Go Daddy has always fought to preserve the intellectual property rights of third parties, and will continue to do so in the future," Jones said.

From GoDaddy's Website. http://www.godaddy.com/newscenter/re...ws_item_id=378

[big_teee]

We may need things Tightened up to a degree, but at What Cost.
We don't need more spying on the public, and more Patriot Act!
IMHO, any bill that is being Jammed down our throats by big Bizz and the GOP, I'm already probably against!
We will wait and see and Keep and Eye on what develops.
Sounds like GoDaddy is learning the Same Lesson that Bank of America learned, when so many started closing Accounts!
Terry

[salvarsan]

GoDaddy reversed its public support of SOPA only after 31000 domains fled it, but the policy defects are unchanged.

GoDaddy's practice is to delist any domain at the first complaint, irrespective of the complaint's merit, and without notifying the domain owner.

That is to say that what SOPA would codify in bad law is already common business practice: no due process and no recourse.

Bon appetit.

[Possum]

If you're doing a full time business I would recommend against one of these "build your own website" store fronts. You are always going to be at the mercy of their policy decisions, and the larger a company becomes the more irrational and stupid they become. Its like trusting Facebook with your career. Wife and I host our websites on Pair.com and have been there for almost 18 years now. No problems ever. You will either have to build your own site and learn how to do it, to produce a finished designed site with coding, or you're stuck with companies like GoDaddy. There are software packages though that can build simple websites that most can use. Best though to hire a professional in your area, someone who has been in business for a long time, has a long portfolio of good looking websites, that you can call if something goes wrong with your website. Some can build a site for you that you can do updates yourself. This way you can host your site on a server that isn't run by social media rules, and no one is going to mess with.

[David Schwab]

That is to say that what SOPA would codify in bad law is already common business practice: no due process and no recourse.

There's another thing going on also. Back when W was in office, the RIAA made a public statement when Bush held up his iPod, and when asked what he was listening to, said the Beatles. The spokeswomen from the RIAA then went on to say he was breaking the law because the Beatles was not yet available for digital download, and that copying your record or CD collection to your computer and iPod is the same as pirating the music! This is of course a lie.

This is nonsense for two reasons; fair use laws state you can make a copy of the sound recording for your own personal use. This includes making a mix tape. Fair use laws also state that you can make a copy and give it to your brother or a friend, as long as you don't charge money for it. Also backing this up is the Audio Home Recording Act of 1992 (AHRA), which states (section 1008, a "Prohibition on certain infringement actions"):

No action may be brought under this title alleging infringement of copyright based on the manufacture, importation, or distribution of a digital audio recording device, a digital audio recording medium, an analog recording device, or an analog recording medium, or based on the noncommercial use by a consumer of such a device or medium for making digital musical recordings or analog musical recordings.

Private, noncommercial copies by consumers using "digital audio recording devices" are explicitly protected by §1008.

But, any chance they get, the RIAA will try to say otherwise. So we need to be sure that some amendment to §1008 isn't going to be snuck in, like the stuff that was piggy backed on the Digital Millennium Copyright Act and the Patriot Act.

If they have their way, then soon it will be illegal to tale out free movies and music from the Public Library!

[salvarsan]

The music companies have always tried to monetize popular culture as far back as sheet music in post-civil war America.
Prosecuting someone for selling bootleg sheet music is laughable in today's world but the tools for production have been limited until the last decade.

Several things need to happen before the media companies stop their assault on fair use, and I think it will start with a populace that understands jury nullification, a process by which the jury tells the court that the Law is wrong and that they will not convict. By this strategy, the 19th Amendment was overturned when juries refused to convict their neighbors for alcohol consumption.

Personally, I feel that any group that would criminalize ordinary behavior should be tortured profoundly, hanged, disemboweled, and decapitated.
...but I mean it in a positive life-affirming way.

[tedmich]

the preferred business model in the US is wringing as much $ as possible out of the 99%, music, insurance, education, healthcare, housing; they are coming for you. The derivative/hedge fund market operates with an extremely low overhead; no herds of lawyers to do hostile takeovers etc. they need blood from somewhere else and while the 99% doesn't have much they can't fight back to any great extent.

[rdrr]

One thing that anyone and everyone can do about things like this is to contact there representatives about how they feel about the bill and then encourage, persuade, tie up a beat until they do it, everyone else they know to do the same. Your first reply will most undoubtably be a standard form letter response were some intern looks at what your talking about chooses response x form letter and puts your name at the top of it to make you feel special. You then repsond making sure they know you think their form letter that doesn't have a clear stament of their position on the matter is complete and utter BS and start taking them to task on the matter. I've done this on a few other matters and eventually received a 3 page had written letter from one of my reps actually outlining his position on a matter . This is the only way for your average citizen to really make their voices heard and only takes a few minutes do, so your obviously online right now, go and do it.

[LtKojak]

Personally, I feel that any group that would criminalize ordinary behavior should be tortured profoundly, hanged, disemboweled, and decapitated.

You forgot crucified head down and burned alive at the stake.

Of course, with all due respect!

[J M Fahey]

It does contain some hair rising paragraphs:

Sec. 104. Immunity for taking voluntary action against sites dedicated to theft of U.S. property.

Means, if an "enraged Citizen" (who may be a undercover agent) drops a couple hand grenades inside the offending Company´s office, he won´t be prosecuted. Nice.

Sec. 202. Trafficking in inherently dangerous goods or services.

Define inherently dangerous.
Hammers are intrinsecally dangerous.
Can they take action agains those who sell/publicize/explain how to use them?

(1) FIRST AMENDMENT- Nothing in this Act shall be construed to impose a prior restraint on free speech or the press protected under the 1st Amendment to the Constitution.

Notice the careful wording: they don´t say that this Law "imposes a prior restraint on free speech or the press" , they can at will, it *exactly* means that *you* can´t say it does (even if it does so)
Kafkian/Orwellian double talk (take your pick)
Definition of "construed":

con·strue (kn-str)
v. con·strued, con·stru·ing, con·strues
v.tr.
1. To adduce or explain the meaning of; interpret: construed my smile as assent. See Synonyms at explain.
2. Grammar
a. To analyze the structure of (a clause or sentence).

So just by writing this post, explaining or analyzing what this law means, I´m already a Felon.
I´ll go to the tailor to have him make a nice orange suit for me.

[StarryNight]

so why are all these companies in support of sensoring the internet? What are they trying to protect?

[David Schwab]

so why are all these companies in support of sensoring the internet? What are they trying to protect?

They think they are losing money to piracy. It's mostly the Motion Picture Association of America, and Sony. So they want to block websites like the Pirate Bay.

Actual research shows that very little money is lost to piracy, and in fact the target age group that downloads stuff for free the most, also buys more music and stuff.

What they are trying to do it implement a firewall, like the one in China, and also to remap DNS servers to block certain blacklisted domains. But once they have that in place, they can block news sites and all kinds of stuff... like in China.

Stop Online Piracy Act Vote Delayed | Threat Level | Wired.com

[StarryNight]

this guy did his homework :

[salvarsan]

They think they are losing money to piracy. It's mostly the Motion Picture Association of America, and Sony. So they want to block websites like the Pirate Bay.

Actually, it's about control. Production costs have fallen so drastically that any small group of capable people can produce and distribute an album/video/movie/book independently without using MPAA/RIAA/big publishing. Historically used to overcharging for product and seeing their entitlement threatened, they want to put barriers in place to maintain their oligopoly.

When you understand that total cost of production for an music CD is under $10,000 when you buy off-the-shelf hardware, perform in the garage, record in the adjacent bathroom, and mix down at leisure in the office or on a coffee table, then you understand that you don't need Sony. This describes Jennifer Batten's 2002 Momentum CD as best I can remember.

SOPA and PIP are the ragings of giants as they wither into irrelevance.