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Stop SOPA/PIPA (govt censorship of the internet)

Posted 18 Jan 2012 in censorship, social issues, technology, totalitarianism

***UPDATED: Scroll down for more… SOPA isn’t dead yet.***

Stop the government's censorship of the internet

The federal government’s solution to a problem is usually worse than the problem itself.

Many sites are “going dark” today to protest the heavy-handed power grab called SOPA; the “Stop Online Piracy Act.” The proposed legislation would allow the U.S. Justice Department to block sites which are suspected of posting pirated material. This is what countries like China and Iran do to websites which post things their government doesn’t like.

I don't usually post animated GIFs, but this one nails the issue. (via theoatmeal.com)

Just to clarify, SOPA is the legislation making its way through the House of Representatives, PIPA (the “Protect Intellectual Property Act”) is the Senate version. BOTH MUST BE STOPPED. There will be a vote on PIPA next Wednesday. SOPA has been placed on hold due to public pressure, but the discussions will resume in February of this year.

The notion of protecting copyrights and stopping online piracy is a laudable goal. But dealing with it without trampling free speech requires a surgical solution. And, as usual, granting sweeping power to the government is NOT the answer. For instance, if you enjoy posting music videos on Facebook, that would be considered illegal under SOPA and would have to stop. Any social networking sites like Facebook, Google+ or YouTube would have to start prescreening all their content and censoring anything that might result in a forced shutdown by the government.

Gizmodo explains: [emphasis added below]

The beating heart of SOPA is the ability of intellectual property owners (read: movie studios and record labels) to effectively pull the plug on foreign sites against whom they have a copyright claim. If Warner Bros., for example, says that a site in Italy is torrenting a copy of The Dark Knight, the studio could demand that Google remove that site from its search results, that PayPal no longer accept payments to or from that site, that ad services pull all ads and finances from it, and—most dangerously—that the site’s ISP prevent people from even going there.

Perhaps the most galling thing about SOPA in its original construction is that it let IP owners take these actions without a single court appearance or judicial sign-off. All it required was a single letter claiming a “good faith belief” that the target site has infringed on its content. Once Google or PayPal or whoever received the quarantine notice, they would have five days to either abide or to challenge the claim in court. Rights holders still have the power to request that kind of blockade, but in the most recent version of the bill the five day window has softened, and companies now would need the court’s permission.

The language in SOPA implies that it’s aimed squarely at foreign offenders; that’s why it focuses on cutting off sources of funding and traffic (generally US-based) rather than directly attacking a targeted site (which is outside of US legal jurisdiction) directly. But that’s just part of it.

Here’s the other thing: Payment processors or content providers like Visa or YouTube don’t even need a letter shut off a site’s resources. The bill’s “vigilante” provision gives broad immunity to any provider who proactively shutters sites it considers to be infringers. Which means the MPAA just needs to publicize one list of infringing sites to get those sites blacklisted from the internet.

Potential for abuse is rampant.

Fight for the Future explains in a video why SOPA/PIPA will not work:

Here’s an excellent infographic from AmericanCensorship.org which gives a good “Reader’s Digest” explanation (hit the link to see the image at full size).


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UPDATE: Don’t let up the pressure on your representatives. CATO’s Julian Sanchez explains why SOPA and PIPA aren’t dead by a long shot.

With popular sites all over the Internet “going dark” to protest well-intentioned but ill-considered antipiracy legislation, the Stop Online Piracy Act and PROTECT-IP Act are shedding supporters faster than Anthony Weiner on a Twitter spree. But as I explain in a Cato podcast today, neither is dead yet: Rep. Lamar Smith has pledged to continue marking up SOPA next month, and PIPA is still set for a cloture vote next week.

In a huge about-face, given their prior intransigence on this point, both have said they’re prepared to remove, at least temporarily, an onerous and controversial provision to require DNS blocking of accused “rogue sites,” which is an encouraging sign. But if DNS blocking was the worst piracy-fighting proposal on the table, it’s hardly the only one.

The Justice Department and private copyright owners can still seek to have entire foreign sites branded as infringers, triggering an array of remedies that would still deter technological investment and innovation, and still impose serious burdens on American companies and ordinary Internet users. Contrary to the claims of SOPA and PIPA supporters, copyright holders have often been perfectly able to sue the foreign “rogue sites” they cite as evidence new legislation is needed… the problem is that sometimes, they lose. Instead of all that messy litigation, SOPA and PIPA would establish one-sided hearing mechanism that mocks true due process. Any site a single friendly judge deems “rogue” would still be starved of advertising and subscription revenue. American search engines and other “information location tools” would still have to filter their content to redact any links to the shunned site. As Wikileaks has learned, repressive regimes have long known, and the Supreme Court acknowledged in Citizens United, economic regulation can silence speech (and run afoul of the First Amendment) as effectively as overt censorship.

Posted by FullMetalPatriot
12th gen. American, Constitutionalist, Harley-riding Texan, gun owner & NRA member, blogger, illustrator, Florida Gator alumnus. #TCOT

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