Follow Slashdot stories on Twitter

 


Forgot your password?
Close
typodupeerror
×
Government The Courts The Internet

Parts of SOPA Hiding Inside a Boring Case About Invisible Braces 174

Posted by Soulskill from the sopa-2:-the-revenge dept.
derekmead writes: The most controversial parts of SOPA, an anti-piracy bill defeated in 2012 after a massive public outcry, may end up becoming de facto law after all, depending on the outcome in an obscure case that is working its way through the legal system without anyone noticing.

Next week, the U.S. Appeals Court for the Federal Circuit will hear oral arguments in ClearCorrect Operating, LLC v. International Trade Commission, a case that could give an obscure federal agency the power to force ISPs to block websites. In January, The Verge reported that this very legal strategy is already being considered by the Motion Picture Association of America, as evidenced by a leaked document from the WikiLeaks Sony dump.
This discussion has been archived. No new comments can be posted.

Parts of SOPA Hiding Inside a Boring Case About Invisible Braces More

Parts of SOPA Hiding Inside a Boring Case About Invisible Braces

Comments Filter:

  • Copyright steals creative works. (Score:5, Insightful)

    by headkase ( 533448 ) on Wednesday August 05, 2015 @01:24PM (#50257175)

    Copyright has no clothes is how the saying goes.

    Perpetual copyright - and make no mistake it is that by extension after extension - robs our culture of rich works that never were. If copyright was a sane term like 20 years then after those 20 years new authors could tell new stories in those universes and receive their own 20 year copyright on their flavors. But, no, better to let the tapestry rot away for a few pennies more a year.

    Get a free book on the issues here: The Public Domain [thepublicdomain.org].

  • What did you expect? (Score:1)

    by Anonymous Coward

    Big Money *always* wins. Always. There's nothing that can be done.

    • You could kill those that commit those acts and their family. Then those that replace them. Repeat until a learning effect sets in.

      • Assassination politics.

        http://cryptome.org/ap.htm [cryptome.org]

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by TWX ( 665546 )
        Last time I studied the phenomenon that was called Revolution. Sometimes it turns out the way that you want it to or close enough that life is good (ie, France), and sometimes the process is co-opted by powers that drag everyone down and those who co-opt manage to prop themselves up on top (ie, Russia, China, Zimbabwe).

        I'm mildly curious to watch the ramifications of extremely permissive firearms law combined with a history of giving those most inclined to own them what some cultural trappings would cla

        • Re:What did you expect? (Score:4, Interesting)

          by l0n3s0m3phr34k ( 2613107 ) on Wednesday August 05, 2015 @07:02PM (#50259513)
          Then your going to be partially disappointed. The "elite" have already planned for this "revolution", that's why we're seeing all this Confederate flag crap. They know the situation is getting worse, so they've gotten the population to fight amongst themselves. What SHOULD be is "poor" black citizens and "poor" white citizens should be banding together to defeat their common enemy. Instead they are waving / destroying / fighting over a flag of a failed insurrection. The "poor" whites actually think the GOP is "on their side" since the elites are white too; but they aren't considered human by the ultra-wealthy. Newscorp is involved with both the MPAA and stirring racial tensions.

        • Nothing useful will happen, they'll just go postal on their local boss and fellow co-workers (co-victims) and never address the true source of their pain.

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by Lumpy ( 12016 )

        It worked for the french.

        • It turned out well in the end, but they did go through a period of much violence and killing after their revolution. There was a lot of public fear that those who opposed the revolution were underground, plotting their counter-revolution, building a secret army. In response to this the new leaders started systematically executing anyone judged to show even slight sympathy towards the old aristocracy.

          Revolutions are bloody affairs, even when they work.

    • Re:What did you expect? (Score:5, Interesting)

      by alvinrod ( 889928 ) on Wednesday August 05, 2015 @02:24PM (#50257637)
      Did you expect the people who wanted this legislation to stop wanting it just because it didn't go through the first time? They're always going to keep pushing for it, regardless of how many times it gets voted down, so you're always going to have to keep opposing them.

      Take a look at it from a different angle. Gay people didn't stop pushing for marriage rights just because they had been denied in the past or ballot measures were unsuccessful. Why should you finding it surprising that the people who want SOPA or similar laws would quit just because it didn't work the first time?

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by Kasar ( 838340 )
        Lamarr Smith (R-TX) said he would continue until it was all enacted, and I'm sure there were others who had benefited from the $100 million "donation" campaign that backed it. He did try the Envoy Act, adding new federal employees at every embassy to pursue copyright infringement on behalf of the MPAA.
  • Lawyers gonna weasel.

  • I hereby invoke the "he needed killkin' " laws Texas is alleged to have, and suggest it is both moral and correct in the defense of our rights to shoot every asshole associated with the copyright cartel.

    You're welcome.

    Now get on with it.

    (No, I'm not actually advocating murder)

    • I fail to see why you feel like mentioning murder. Murder is the killing of human beings. What's that got to do with it?

      • Re:Fine, fuck 'em ... (Score:5, Funny)

        by plover ( 150551 ) on Wednesday August 05, 2015 @02:10PM (#50257559) Homepage Journal

        "Why won't sharks attack lawyers? Professional courtesy."
        "How do you stop a lawyer from drowning? Take your foot off his neck."
        "What do you have when you have a lawyer buried up to his neck in sand? Not enough sand."
        "The problem with lawyers is that the actions of 99% of them give the other 1% a bad name."

        Thanks, you've been a wonderful audience. Tip your waiters, they work hard.

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by Jawnn ( 445279 )

        I fail to see why you feel like mentioning murder. Murder is the killing of human beings. What's that got to do with it?

        That whooshing sound is the metaphor that whizzed right past your comprehension. Questionable in taste it may have been, but literal it clearly was not.

      • Murder is the killing of human beings, yes - but we're talking about lawyers here.

      • No, that is HOMICIDE. Murder is illegal, homicide is a general term. Justifiable homicide is a legal concept with a lot of cases behind it.

        What we're looking for here isn't homicide, it's intimidation. Keep them shaking in their boots and make them consider the risks before doing shady stuff. This is happening to the families of US military men right now. [cbslocal.com] If this was a gay family who was being intimidated by some local rednecks it would be headline news across America and protests would be held in ma

    • Re:Fine, fuck 'em ... (Score:5, Insightful)

      by OhPlz ( 168413 ) on Wednesday August 05, 2015 @02:08PM (#50257541)

      Now if someone was to film this hypothetical murder.. which would be longer, the time in prison or the length of the copyright?

      • Trick question ... before the copyright expires the copyright cartel will have bought another extension.

      • Better question:

        If the film was released as a movie, who would serve a longer prison sentence, the killer or the guy who leaked it on TPB?

  • Umbrella SCOTUS ruling required (Score:1)

    by Anonymous Coward

    "Laws and ammendments introduced by stealth are invalid."

  • Comment removed (Score:5, Funny)

    by account_deleted ( 4530225 ) on Wednesday August 05, 2015 @01:30PM (#50257243)
    Comment removed based on user account deletion

    • Re:shit sandwiching (Score:5, Funny)

      by Nidi62 ( 1525137 ) on Wednesday August 05, 2015 @01:45PM (#50257359)

      this, the TPP, pipa, DMCA, you name it and it all shows up buried in some obscure bill about dentures or highway reflector color. In america we could pass legislation on the width of an ear of corn and by the end of the vote it would have legalized nazi bingo parlour strippers and privatized nuclear cheesecake warfare.

      I'm confused. Are they bingo parlor strippers who are members of the Nazi party, or are they just strippers who work in a bingo parlor frequented by Nazis? Because to me this distinction is very important when deciding whether or not they should be legal. And if we privatized nuclear cheesecake warfare, how would we keep a Cheesecake Factory franchise from opening in Tehran?

      • Re: (Score:1)

        by Anonymous Coward

        I'm confused. Are they bingo parlor strippers who are members of the Nazi party, or are they just strippers who work in a bingo parlor frequented by Nazis? Because to me this distinction is very important when deciding whether or not they should be legal.

        Come on dude, never look a gift whore in the mouth.

        • Re: (Score:2)

          by Nidi62 ( 1525137 )

          Come on dude, never look a gift whore in the mouth.

          Shouldn't that be gift whores?

        • I'm not putting my DNA dispenser anyplace I haven't inspected closely.

          • Re: (Score:2)

            by putzin ( 99318 )
            For the right price, you can pay for legislation that would create a new federal agency that would do those inspections for you. And by god, before anyone states it's the lib dems that would be the ones who do it, you could pay either side of the aisle to do it.

            • Re: (Score:2)

              by zlives ( 2009072 )

              as long as those inspections include reach around's for everyone... i for one welcome them.

        • Re: shit sandwiching (Score:1)

          by Anonymous Coward

          How else do you know she swallowed?

      • Comment removed based on user account deletion

    • ...legalized nazi bingo parlour strippers...

      Sorry, I fail to see a problem here, could you elaborate please?

    • Re:shit sandwiching (Score:4, Interesting)

      by Atrox666 ( 957601 ) on Wednesday August 05, 2015 @02:22PM (#50257623)

      We keep running around fighting fires instead of fighting arsonists
      .
      The people who want to maintain the exploitation market (you didn't think it was actual artists getting paid did you?) will just try again and again and win a victory of a thousand cuts eventually. We need to put them in cages at the very least. This is a losing battle the way it's being fought.
      We should pick one of the very sleazy operators like Sony and keep going after them through a multitude of approaches and just keep coming until they no longer exist.
      Make their name a synonym for when the population turns on a corporation and irrevocably crushes it into the dirt.
      Make every corporation on earth fear getting Sony'd.

      The way you've been conditioned to think about conflict are the values of the exploited and defeated population. Greenfield your preconceptions. Fight the dirty fight and win or they will.

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by zlives ( 2009072 )

        they just want more of everyone's money... as long as enough keep paying them this will continue. It really is simple... close your wallet. that's it no other revolution needed.

  • It almost feels hopeless (Score:3)

    by bjdevil66 ( 583941 ) on Wednesday August 05, 2015 @01:35PM (#50257281)

    This kind of potentially critical situation (the gov't being able to filter the internet at the behest of corporate interests) shouldn't require us all rising up and complaining. We elect people that should have our fiduciary interests at heart, and dome of our Congressmen do still care (the "boy scouts"). I know my rep personally and have spoken with him at length about various issues, and he does his best. Too many of them, however, are powerless at the feet of their own political parties and the money that elected them.

    I find myself hoping and praying that somehow, some way, the right decision(s) will get made - but I find myself expecting being more and more cynical about the whole thing. The fundamentals of the system are broken to the point that the Supreme Court is the only truly effective governing body... To channel Jack Nicolson's Joker, "This government needs an enema."

    • Re: (Score:1)

      by Anonymous Coward

      You have fallen into a trap of egocentrism. Implicit in your statements is the expectation that what your desires, (specifically you), deserve to be heard above those of everyone else. The same goes for your sense of what is right.

      There are a lot of people being governed, and they have very diverse views about how things should work. You are just one tiny drop in an ocean.

      Furthermore, some voices *are* louder than others. The richer you are, the more clout you have. People think this is so terrible, bu

      • An evil rich person can govern more effectively (for everyone) than a virtuous but incompetent person any day.

        I'll see you one George Bush and raise you ....

        A Donald Trump.

        • I think Bush is smarter than people give him credit for - he just deliberately acted dumb a lot of the time, because it fit his political image. He ran as an everyman, a typical American - not some elitist science-type who thinks he knows better than the common voter. He never made a big deal of his academic record, he holidayed at the most American of places, and he deliberately styled himself as a Texas cowboy and spoke in common vernacular and accent whenever possible. It was all a carefully crafted imag

          • Re: (Score:2)

            by kqs ( 1038910 )

            Does it matter? Since he turned a budget surplus into huge deficits, started two expensive wars he couldn't end, and helped cause the worst economic recession since WW2, I don't think he qualifies as "governing more effectively (for everyone)".

            Personally I'd go with "weak willed and easily led" rather than "stupid". But it's hard to be sure. "Not competent" seems well supported by facts though.

            • He certainly screwed up. It just wasn't because of a general lack of intelligence. More of a personality flaw: He desired to be a great president, one who would be remembered for his leadership and success. It's hard to be a great president during a time of peace, and he saw a good war as his ticket into the history books - a military victory would surely secure his place of honor. When the 9/11 attack gave him a good excuse, he jumped at the chance.

              • That may explain Afghanistan but not Iraq. "Wanting greatness" doesn't explain or excuse lying to your citizens to start a war, spying on them on (at the time) flimsy-to-nonexistent legal reasons (and similar useful results), or the economic carnage wrought by war and trickle-down economics. Sorry, competent presidents may trip into one of those but not all of them.

    • Re:It almost feels hopeless (Score:5, Insightful)

      by gstoddart ( 321705 ) on Wednesday August 05, 2015 @02:06PM (#50257525) Homepage

      This kind of potentially critical situation (the gov't being able to filter the internet at the behest of corporate interests) shouldn't require us all rising up and complaining. We elect people that should have our fiduciary interests at heart

      When you have a past president [newsmax.com] saying:

      "[Citizens United] violates the essence of what made America a great country in its political system," Carter said. "Now it's just an oligarchy, with unlimited political bribery being the essence of getting the nominations for president or to elect the president. And the same thing applies to governors and U.S. senators and congress members.

      "So now we've just seen a complete subversion of our political system as a payoff to major contributors, who want and expect and sometimes get favors for themselves after the election's over," Carter continued, according to The Intercept. "The incumbents, Democrats and Republicans, look upon this unlimited money as a great benefit to themselves. Somebody's who's already in Congress has a lot more to sell to an avid contributor than somebody who's just a challenger."

      You should know you're fucked.

      The only fiduciary interest these guys have is their own, and your politics are irrevocably for sale.

      Your interests don't fucking matter, unless you have enough money to make a large campaign donation and pay for lobbyists.

      When money == speech, if you don't have money you don't have speech, and your government doesn't give a crap about you.

      America has been an oligarchy for a long time, and it's only getting worse. Why do you think they let the MPAA write laws like SOPA in the first place?

      Because that's who paid for them.

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by Jawnn ( 445279 )

      We elect people that should have our fiduciary interests at heart, and dome of our Congressmen do still care (the "boy scouts"). I know my rep personally and have spoken with him at length about various issues, and he does his best. Most of them, however, are powerless at the feet of their own political parties and the money that elected them.

      TFTFY.
      A U.S. Senator must now spend most of his time (by far) raising funds for is next campaign. The problem is less intense, but by no means insignificant for members of the House. Current law has seen to it that money can buy just about anything in our government. The odds of that changing any time soon are, alas, extremely long.

  • First forcing European countries, NZ/AU, etc. (Score:3)

    by CanEHdian ( 1098955 ) on Wednesday August 05, 2015 @01:36PM (#50257287)
    First strong-arming European countries and down under (this is hidden in news articles as "under enormous pressure", those in the know need no more than that) to adopt web-blocking laws (I think Portugal is the latest with a 6-week end-to-end process?), then later pointing at the "international standards" to get this in the US and Canada as well. Disgusting, how the Copyright Lobby (a/k/a MAFIAA) works.

  • Wait, if the case ... (Score:1)

    by Anonymous Coward

    ... "is working its way through the legal system without anyone noticing", how did You hear about it?

  • Apparently they haven't been ground down... (Score:3, Interesting)

    by Karmashock ( 2415832 ) on Wednesday August 05, 2015 @01:38PM (#50257311)

    ... hard enough yet.

    So far the MPAA has been losing everywhere for years. I don't see this going anywhere.

    Lets say they get ISPs to do one thing or another. So what? Worst case you run your dirty traffic through a VPN.

    This gets nutty enough and large portions of the web will go from the conventional internet to the dark web.

    They need to offer their content on the streaming services and they need to do it at a competitive rate.

    If they can't make money like that then cut production costs. That's all they can do.

    Stopping the piracy isn't going to happen because the communications network is inherently uncontrolled and uncontrollable. The Iranians and the Chinese can't control their network... why would the stupid studios think they could control the US network? Ignorance.

    You can control the system if you control everything. Run the internet like the north koreans and you can lock it down.

    But that won't happen so the whole thing is pointless.

    • 'Dark Web'.. Please save the teenage stuff for the superhero comic books. Your ISP will keep the internet "safe" from the encrypting hoards.

      • I can't tell if you're kidding... TOR is an example of the dark web... anyone that knows anything knows that.

          • ""The Dark Web often confusingly referred to as the Deep Web[2] is the public[3] World Wide Web content that exists on darknets, networks which overlay the public Internet and require specific software, configurations or authorization to access and are often used for illegal or criminal activity. It forms part of the Deep Web, the part of the Web not indexed by search engines.[4][5][6][7] The darknets which constitute the Dark Web include small, friend-to-friend peer-to-peer networks, as well as large, popu

        • Tor? Tell me you're not serious! Big old 'end nodes' sticking up like pustules, just waiting to get popped.

    • MPAA and RIAA both represent distributors, labels, and studios not the actual artist, they are in the business of making money. Studios and labels give artists large advances to cover services they offer then charge outrageous amounts many times their cost for those services like studio time, radio campaigns, distribution, other advertising, etc... and recoup the advance and interest out of meager royalties the artist is paid while collecting a larger portion of the profit from the sales for themselves.

      Indi

    • Not only that, but it's impossible for them to design a better legal distribution mechanism than the illegal (or gray) one already in place. If there's drm, or streaming limits, or even the need to login, it'll always always always be easier to go to pirate bay, search, click, wait, done.

      • That's not true. I think they can make a system that is as good as the free system.

        I think a lot of them are going to need to move to something that looks like a cyberlocker site. Aka the content is there with ad content and they make money on the ads.

        But even requiring a login and a subscription service is okay so long as the fees are reasonable. I mean they either need to bill out the cost of one show to something VERY VERY low or they need to have a comprehensive subscription service that includes all co

        • You're definitely right about the "one roof" thing. I have reasons for not wanting to cut the cord, and one of them is that I'd then have to subscribe to Netflix, Amazon, Hulu, HBO, and so forth.

          • Meh... Amazon or Hulu will take care of most of your needs... then fill the gap with piracy if people are being stupid.

            I make it up to content producers that I really respect. But quite a few of them aren't worth it.

    • So far the MPAA has been losing everywhere for years. I don't see this going anywhere.

      Even if they win, they lose. The only reason Hollywood makes money hand over fist is because they have mindshare - their celebrities and artists are known throughout the world, so everyday people want to watch their movies or hear their songs.

      The Internet drops the cost of the distribution business to near zero. If Hollywood tries to keep a stranglehold on their existing distribution channels, that just creates an op

  • Braces? (Score:5, Informative)

    by wonkey_monkey ( 2592601 ) on Wednesday August 05, 2015 @02:26PM (#50257657) Homepage

    Parts of SOPA Hiding Inside a Boring Case About Invisible Braces

    You could have at least explained the bit in the headline about braces (the teeth kind) in the summary:

    At first glance, ClearCorrect v. ITC looks pretty banal. It’s a case about a 3D printing model file for invisible braces. ClearCorrect, an Invisalign competitor, had a subsidiary in Pakistan create 3D models of braces, which it then sent from Pakistan to the US over the internet. ClearCorrect then 3D-printed the braces in its Texas offices, a move that might infringe Invisalign patents. (The validity of the patents is being disputed in both court and at the US Patent & Trademark Office.)

  • Is this the right case? (Score:3)

    by russotto ( 537200 ) on Wednesday August 05, 2015 @05:12PM (#50258977) Journal

    I've heard of another case were the MPAA was getting an order against "all third parties" to block a website they didn't like. This looks a lot more limited: Align Technologies says ClearCorrect is performing a patented process in Pakistan to evade Align's US Patent, and the ITC is ordering ClearCorrect (not third parties) to stop receiving the models which are supposedly the results of this process. Whether this is or is not within the ITCs jurisdiction, it doesn't look like wide-ranging SOPA-like powers.

Slashdot Top Deals

I have hardly ever known a mathematician who was capable of reasoning. -- Plato

Close