Law Professors On SOPA and PIPA: Don't Break the Internet 283
An anonymous reader writes "Law professors Mark Lemley, David S. Levine, and David G. Post have just published a piece on the PROTECT IP Act and the Stop Online Piracy Act. In Don't Break the Internet, they argue that the two bills — intended to counter online copyright and trademark infringement — 'share an underlying approach and an enforcement philosophy that pose grave constitutional problems and that could have potentially disastrous consequences for the stability and security of the Internet's addressing system, for the principle of interconnectivity that has helped drive the Internet's extraordinary growth, and for free expression.' They write, 'These bills, and the enforcement philosophy that underlies them, represent a dramatic retreat from this country's tradition of leadership in supporting the free exchange of information and ideas on the Internet. At a time when many foreign governments have dramatically stepped up their efforts to censor Internet communications, these bills would incorporate into U.S. law a principle more closely associated with those repressive regimes: a right to insist on the removal of content from the global Internet, regardless of where it may have originated or be located, in service of the exigencies of domestic law.'"
Lawyers, Judges, Representatives, Senators, ... (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:Lawyers, Judges, Representatives, Senators, ... (Score:5, Insightful)
They do get such opinions. From the following Networks:
CBS, NBC, ABC, etc...
Unfortunately, that's what Congress considers to be Network experts.
Re:Lawyers, Judges, Representatives, Senators, ... (Score:5, Insightful)
If the proponents of this moronic legislation have said (paraphrasing only slightly) "I don't even pretend to understand the technicalities of this law or the arguments against it, but I'm supporting it fully, regardless" then I don't think any opinion from any group is going to help things very much. As depressing as it sounds, I honestly do not believe that there is anything that "the people" can do that will make the slightest difference to whether or not these laws are passed, there's just too much money at stake.
Suggestions on how to fix this, such as this one [informationdiet.com] are all well and good, but they require a massive, sustained public effort over a long time, which will be blocked at every opportunity by the existing lobbyists with a vested interest in the status quo.
Re:Lawyers, Judges, Representatives, Senators, ... (Score:4, Insightful)
That's what the ammo box option is for.
If your lawmakers are passing laws about things they don't understand, and incapable of understanding why they're illegal ... it might be time to remind them that either they should read up on these things, or step aside.
Anybody who votes for a law which is unconstitutional has committed treason, even if they're too stupid to understand that fact.
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Re:Lawyers, Judges, Representatives, Senators, ... (Score:5, Insightful)
The problem is that less than 0.05% of the public cares about SOPA or PIPA. Most people just want to watch The Jersey Shore, football, etc., and then post about it on Facebook. They will not overthrow the government as long as they can still get their cheap entertainment. They will not even get their magazines and clips loaded.
Re:Lawyers, Judges, Representatives, Senators, ... (Score:4, Interesting)
If just 5% of the American public wanted to overthrow the government, an armed revolution would be possible. You do not need overwhelming support, you need enough angry people with guns. The problem is that less than 0.05% of the public cares about SOPA or PIPA. Most people just want to watch The Jersey Shore, football, etc., and then post about it on Facebook. They will not overthrow the government as long as they can still get their cheap entertainment. They will not even get their magazines and clips loaded.
It would not surprise me if the "cheap entertainment" you speak of soon comes to an end. With legislation like SOPA, this only encourages broadcast media corporations to engage in tit for tat patent-style quibbles over copyrights.
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If just 5% of the American public wanted to overthrow the government, an drawn out, bloody civil war would be possible. You do not need overwhelming support, you need enough angry people with guns.
FTFY
Re:Lawyers, Judges, Representatives, Senators, ... (Score:5, Insightful)
> If just 5% of the American public wanted to overthrow the government, an armed revolution would be possible. You do not need overwhelming support, you need enough angry people with guns.
Wouldn't that mean that 95% of the public does not want to overthrow the government, so the overthrowing people are essentially a minority oppressing the majority, making them no better than the system they aim to overthrow?
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You misunderstand, thinking that 100% of the population actually cares.
Call it a hunch from just observing society as a whole, but I'd say those 95% could give even the slightest of two shits about who's in power or what's happening in the world of politics, as long as it doesn't affect the broadcast schedule of their favourite TV shows, their access to Facebook, or their job to pay for the first two.
They'll just vote for whoever the television tells them the most to vote for, or alternatively the party the
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The borrow from the OWS people, surely 5% is a greater majority than the 1% making our decisions for us?
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The problem is that most of the people in favor of revolution are not the kind of people I would want running the show afterwards.
People who want the "right" to oppress their favorite minority.
People who want power for themselves at any cost.
People who don't value liberty and have a corrupt sense of justice.
People who want their religion to be the only religion.
etc.
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Hey it doesn't even take 5% since you didn't predict victory. If you did, you might need a little more than 5% You also seem to be labeling the vast majority of the population stupid because they have different priorities than you. Some probably want to raise their children, or some other thing, before running out in the street shooting guns in the air. Maybe they are saving that type of act
Re:Lawyers, Judges, Representatives, Senators, ... (Score:5, Interesting)
You've got it half right. What we need are the Facebooks and Googles of the world to work together for the common good.
All it would take is one ad campaign in which the first time each U.S. user logged into Facebook on a particular day, they would initially see a bleak, grey-looking Facebook. Every YouTube video on their site, every photo, and every link to every website would be replaced with the words "This content has been removed due to a copyright claim." Superimposed across the top of the screen in large letters would be the words, "If SOPA and PIPA pass, this is what Facebook will look like." Below that would be two links: "Tell me more" and "I don't care about freedom on the Internet. Just take me to Facebook." Either button would reset Facebook to normalcy, but the first button would take you to a Facebook page explaining the laws and why they are bad. At the bottom of the page would be links to email forms for the appropriate congresspeople based on the user's current address.
The key, however, is to do this not just for Facebook, but also for Google image searches, YouTube searches, etc. Every high profile site that is involve in video sharing has to do it on the same day. Such an ad campaign only has to happen once and I can pretty much guarantee that SOPA and PIPA would be buried for years. The hard part is convincing Facebook and Google to work together to put together such an ad campaign and stick their necks out that far in the interest of protecting their users. It's possible, but I'm not holding my breath.
Re:Lawyers, Judges, Representatives, Senators, ... (Score:5, Insightful)
You have guns. They have professional killers with precision attack drones. The possibility of armed revolution just isn't realistic any more. It'd need overwhelming public support, and that isn't coming in the age of television.
"Give the people contests they win by remembering the words to more popular songs or the names of state capitals or how much corn Iowa grew last year. Cram them full of non-combustible data, chock them so damned full of 'facts' they feel stuffed, but absolutely 'brilliant' with information. Then they'll feel they're thinking, they'll get a sense of motion without moving. And they'll be happy, because facts of that sort don't change. Don't give them any slippery stuff like philosophy or sociology to tie things up with. That way lies melancholy." - Fahrenheit 451
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Comment removed (Score:4, Funny)
Re:Lawyers, Judges, Representatives, Senators, ... (Score:4, Informative)
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Re:Lawyers, Judges, Representatives, Senators, ... (Score:4, Interesting)
There is so much wrong in this statement. where to begin ?
First of all I'd like the democratically elected politicians to MAKE the laws instead of passing laws redacted by lobbyist, and private interests groups, and passing only the ones they get paid to pass.
Secondly The average congressman gets 5 TIMES its salary from Lobbyist and private corporations. That's right : the average Senator is 5 times more Goldman Sach's bitch than yours. So please keep your condescending horseshit. Democracy is a very nice ideal but the USA are FAR from ever achieving it.
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Re:Lawyers, Judges, Representatives, Senators, ... (Score:5, Insightful)
Here's the problem with the current situation: it's not that the people for this travesty (and it truly is one) are merely misguided and mistaken. They fully understand that the current legislation will break the Internet, because that is their goal. Let me repeat that, just for emphasis: these senators and representatives fully intend on breaking the Internet and turning it into cable TV.
Why? Isn't the Internet this awesome engine of growth, revolutionizing communications across the world? Yes, but that's not the part that matters. What matters is who makes money off of it, and who screams the loudest.And the people who scream the loudest and who are the most impacted by the Internet are all the old media and power structures. The Internet is their guillotine, and they will do everything they can do stay alive. The easiest way to do this is to influence, subtly or less so, the legislators who ultimately are in charge of how things work in this world.
That's why you hear statements like "I don't understand the technical details, and I don't care". These people truly do not care that they are breaking the Internet, because that is their goal. That's why arguing that the internet will be broken by SOPA and PROTECT IP is a complete waste of time. You want to talk to these legislators? Either pull out bigger donating and campaigning guns than the old media elite, or pull out arguments that counter the ones from the old media: that the current Internet is destroying value, destroying content makers' ability to make money, etc.
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They've used that lame lie before, about not understanding what they're doing. But Congress has plenty of support for these nutty positions. That's why I think we have little choice but to wait for the older generation to pass on. We can't convince them, can't reason with them, and can't buy them. While we wait, just ignore their silly laws as much as is convenient. Pirate with a will! Yank their chains, and enjoy watching them scramble and scream about the supposed evils of copying. I'm guessing tha
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Facebook was invented by the "younger generation" to sell your information to the highest bidder all the while keeping you enthralled with mindless chatter and farmville.
I think I'd prefer the clueless older generation to the clueful newer generation; the older generation is much clumsier at trying to subvert the internet.
Re:Lawyers, Judges, Representatives, Senators, ... (Score:5, Informative)
Re:Lawyers, Judges, Representatives, Senators, ... (Score:5, Insightful)
Your puny open letter is powerless against our massive bribes^W donations.
Maybe if the letter was attached to a large wad of cash it might change some minds in congress, otherwise good luck.
Re:Lawyers, Judges, Representatives, Senators, ... (Score:4, Insightful)
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Maybe the solution is to bribe politicians back. Let's band together and pay for their hookers and fine meals. I mean, if the United States has become a near-naked kleptocracy where the only thing that drives legislation is big wads of cash, why not eliminate any notion of democracy and admit it is a corrupt nation run by vile repugnant people and start buying them off to make right decisions?
Re:Lawyers, Judges, Representatives, Senators, ... (Score:5, Insightful)
If government always works in favor of common citizens is a different matter, but your statement, "government does not exist to serve you," leads only two places: anarchy or a government you expect to only wrong you, and thus a lack of surprise or anger when it does. I consider neither of those options good, so I have to go with you being full of it. If the government is broken, fix it. Throwing up your hands and crying like a spoiled child does nothing.
Re:Lawyers, Judges, Representatives, Senators, ... (Score:4, Insightful)
The problem is that it is a law, written in legaleze. People who do real work cannot make sense of this language (and with good reason, there is little sense that can be conveyed in legaleze).
To properly translate a law into a real, understandable form you either need a trusted professional who is also fluent in legaleze (hah), or a lawyer and a professional who can both understand a common dialect and who are both sufficiently trustable. Since we're trying to live in reality (for a few minutes at least), all we are likely to get are tech professionals who can't understand the law but don't like the parts they can parse, and lawyers who understand what the law says but have no ability to understand the consequences of the law.
For the above reason, I advocate an amendment that only laws written clearly in the dialect of english that teaches have tried to push on me since kindergarden could be enforced. This amendment would equally penalize everyone who is not an english teacher, because the rest of us learned divergent dialects despite the many classes and sentence diagrams.
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Herman Cain, sir, your campaign is over. Please go away.
Not much to do with computer networks (Score:5, Interesting)
You really don't need to know much about the details of TCP/IP, or DNS, to understand these proposed laws.
The idea of these laws is to circumvent the standard law enforcement process.
Re:Lawyers, Judges, Representatives, Senators, ... (Score:5, Informative)
At least, based on what I know of these professors - these professors do have a fairly decent amount of technical knowledge, which is evident in TFA.
In addition, they point out some excellent legal challenges to SOPA/PIPA, which indicate there's a good chance either act would get defeated fairly quickly within the Supreme Court. (See the CDA as an example.)
Re:Lawyers, Judges, Representatives, Senators, ... (Score:5, Informative)
Geez, you really haven't been paying much attention, have you?
An Open Letter From Internet Engineers to the U.S. Congress [eff.org]
Blacklisting Provisions Remain in Stop Online Piracy Act [wired.com]
Congressional SOPA hearings: no opponents of the bill allowed [boingboing.net]
Nov. 15
There is plenty of commentary by tech people out there on the detrimental effects to the internet by SOPA and PRO-IP. Just fucking google it.
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The "network experts" are working for corporations, who are writing the laws. They're too busy trying to hold on to their jobs. They're not going to be able to help us.
We need experts in dismantling large corporations, creating stronger regulations, taking money out of politics, creating laws that are meant to serve people instead of capital.
Unfortunately, many of those experts are busy Occupying v
This will not pass... (Score:2)
Re:This will not pass... (Score:5, Informative)
1) It's unfortunately looking very likely these will pass.
2) Death warrant or not, you have to follow the law
3) If it passes, the article points out some good legal challenges that will likely cause the act to be struck down by the Supreme Court as unconstitutional.
Re:This will not pass... (Score:4, Interesting)
4) The SCOTUS makes blatantly unconstitutional decisions all the time. They're every bit as corrupt as Congress, if not more so.
Re:This will not pass... (Score:4)
...the Supreme Court is the recognized final authority on what is constitutional and what isn't.
Sort of. In theory they're also the final authority over whether 5+3=9 since if you get sued and there is a disagreement over the math of the settlement they're the last appeal you get. However, it seems a bit silly to say that their ruling in itself makes a mathematical statement true or untrue. They're the judges of constitutionality, but the fact of constitutionality is what it is regardless of what any individual believes.
Also - they're just have one of many roles in the system of checks and balances. I'd say that the executive branch has more power in reality to determine whether something is constitutional, since they're the ones with the guns. They can choose to not uphold a constitutional law, or just quietly break a constitutional one.
Ultimately the whole system only works if everybody is aligned on the basic principles of democracy and liberty. If you have that then the rest is just process. If you don't have that, then the process really is just about how people get oppressed.
Oh shocking (Score:5, Insightful)
US Congress proposes bill that violates Constitution. News at 11.
Libertarians (and truly conservative conservatives, not just the "gays are bad, m'kay" kind) have been warning this was the inevitable end of the gradual expansion of US government that has been happening over the last 60-odd years. And look! It's happening. Already happened actually (in the form of the TSA). Of course, both parties are on the gravy train now. Except Ron Paul and Ron Wyden and a handful of others. And I doubt they can stop it.
The end of any government that continually expands in power (and money) and never grows smaller is tyranny and repression, and it always has been. Thousands of years of history back this up. Only way to stop it in the US is cut it's funding and authority. And I mean cut: as in, halve it over 5 years. More would be ideal. And of course restore the state rights back to the states. Never happen of course. If you'll excuse me, I'm gonna go think about where I want to live instead in 5-10 years.
Re:Oh shocking (Score:5, Insightful)
If you'll excuse me, I'm gonna go think about where I want to live instead in 5-10 years.
The only problem being that, if you follow the money, most first and second world countries are under the control of the same tyrannical forces. See the IMF, World Bank, and other related cretins. Do you really want to live in Iran or some third-world banana republic?
Unfortunately, this time the tyranny is a worldwide occupation. So you might as well just go all in and stand up on the side of freedom and liberty now, for tomorrow it will be too late.
TSA? (Score:3)
Wow, you're go-to example of government invasiveness is the TSA. Not warrentless wiretapping. Not powers of indefinite military detention. Not the criminal prosecution of journalists. Nope.
I'm always shocked when I meet a person who believes dangerous government authority is a low-paid government employee sneaking a peak at your caboose when you fly on a commercial airlines.
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In the sense that that government employee is violating the Fourth Fucking Amendment of the Constitution, yes, it is rather dangerous to let pass. Just because you can come up with more violations of our Constitutional rights doesn't invalidate the parent's point at all.
Don't be such an asshole next time.
Re:Oh shocking (Score:4, Insightful)
Oh bullshit. This is the inevitable result of the expansion of anti-science, anti-reality thinking that has overtaken our country in the past thirty years. We don't check to see if laws actually *work* anymore—we just pass them because they address "emergencies" that are declared in the press to justify them. We don't even read them. We just pass them.
The kind of magical thinking that you're complaining about, where people pass new laws and hope that will make things better, is certainly stupid, but the kind of magical thinking you're engaging in is just as stupid. Your argument is more of the same: "just cut the government's income and force it to ..?" What, exactly? This is just more ignorant hand-waving. It is just pure mental laziness to imagine that some easy thing you can do will make everything all better.
What we have to do if we want anything to change is to stop arguing over subtle points of ideology and start punishing legislators who pass stupid laws, and rewarding legislators who pass good laws. We have to start paying attention to whether laws that are passed work, and repealing the ones that don't. We have to make reason and thinking the basis for passing laws, and not prejudice and ignorance. This means we have to pay attention—we actually have to spend some of our precious time studying what the government is doing, and what our representatives are doing, and letting them know that we are paying attention, and that we will punish them if they allow any of the various forms of corruption to flourish, whether it's regulatory capture, simple cronyism, or the kind of contracting that often happens where the contractor promises the world for a really big hunk of money, takes and spends the money over time, and then eventually says "well, I guess it isn't working, sorry."
When we let this kind of crap continue and never factor it into who we vote for, we have only ourselves to blame.
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That is so very not true. And the reason why it's not true is because you are making the mistake of taking the legislators at their word. They are putting this law into effect because they have been paid off by big media companies. Sure, they're using poor reasoning. But that's not because they're so clueless that they don't understand good reasoning. It's because their stated reasons for wanting it passed aren't their actual reasons--of course their stated reasons won't make sense, they're really doin
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When, other than the Civil War, have US soldiers ever taken part in a large scale action on American civilians? Also, what would be the POINT of such an action? Suppose we had a civil war. Suppose the establishment "won" this war. Do you think anything would be left of this country except tattered pieces? What's the point of fighting if that's going to be the outcome? Is the government controlled by capitalist lobbying interests or is it not? You think the people who are left over after the slaughter of mil
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And it's been the conservatives that have been usurping Constitutional right and expanding government power way faster than any liberal or progressive
Indeed, which is why it is more logical for liberals and lefties to promote states rights. That way, we get to have our hippie utopia with lesbian marriages and free dope for all right here and now; and who cares about Jesusland?
Copyright length (Score:2)
Re:Copyright length (Score:4, Interesting)
I've thought of a clever solution to the copyright problem.
Make a law that makes copyright longevity equal to the life expectancy of an American.
So you wanna make copyright last longer? Raise the standard of living.
That's great. What about OPEN? (Score:5, Informative)
There's a rival proposal in the House called the Online Protection & ENforcement of Digital Trade Act [keepthewebopen.com], or OPEN, which claims to be better than SOPA/PIPA but does similar things in a different way. I suspect it's better to do nothing at all than approve any of these bills, even OPEN, but it's hard to say because OPEN doesn't get as much coverage. It would be nice if OPEN were included in the discussion in the future.
Re:That's great. What about OPEN? (Score:4, Insightful)
Hilarious that it's named OPEN, but I guess Newspeak bill names aren't even novel anymore.
I wish Senators/Representatives read Slashdot (Score:5, Insightful)
I am heartened by the overwhelming list of experts and public figures who have come out against these bills. However I can't help but feel that the Senators and Representatives who are debating it will never know. Slashdot's catalog of evidence against SOPA and PROTECTIP may as well be invisible to them. These people are trying to regulate something like the Internet but could never be found in a place where real experts have these discussions. How frustrating.
Re:I wish Senators/Representatives read Slashdot (Score:5, Insightful)
Well, if the "the overwhelming list of experts and public figures" would donate millions to Congressional reelection campaigns, maybe Congress would listen. It's not Congress's fault that they didn't put their money where their mouths were, now is it?
Re:I wish Senators/Representatives read Slashdot (Score:4, Interesting)
Maybe if we all wrote them a letter on the back of a US$10 bill they'd notice.
Re:I wish Senators/Representatives read Slashdot (Score:5, Insightful)
You're missing a few zeros in your suggestion.
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Not all Senators and Representatives can be technically illiterate, can they?
Does anyone know of any that are more receptive, they could get the word out then among their peers.
It wouldn't matter (Score:2)
Politicians only care about who is contributing to their campaigns. They don't give hoot about whether is right, or wrong, or smart, or stupid.
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Congressmen and Senators can only hear the voices of people who are shoving huge piles of cash at them. You can't just point them at an expert. There must be a huge pile of cash sitting next to the expert.
I'm not wealthy enough to afford corruption in this country. Mexico, on the other hand...has affordable corruption.
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Donate money to EFF or ACLU. I am sure at least one of them is working against this crap. I can't think of another way to make a difference - writing letters certainly does nothing (other than getting a
Let me explain something (Score:5, Insightful)
From the viewpoint of the people proposing and supporting the law, if it breaks the Internet, too bad.
In their view, nothing is more important than the principle of them controlling their copyrights. If it takes the destruction of the Internet, so be it.
I imagine if buggy whip manufacturers would have had a better lobby 100+ years ago, they would have lobbied for laws that would have forced motorists to always keep a buggy whip in their car.
Well ladies and gentlemen, record, film, game, and software companies do have better lobbyist. And they're not afraid to use them.
Re:Let me explain something (Score:5, Insightful)
Quelle surprise (Score:5, Insightful)
The proponents of these bills consider the breaking of the 'Net a feature, not a bug. They won't be happy until it's been reduce to nothing more than pay-per-view TV v2.0.
Cheers,
b&
Exactly! (Score:3)
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Wrong assumption (Score:5, Insightful)
The incumbent politicians do not want extraordinary growth and free expression. If your argument starts with that position, you have already lost them.
Is it just me... (Score:5, Insightful)
Am I way off? Has our country been in a situation like this before where all the powers-that-be seem to be working together for their benefit, at the expense of everyone else's freedoms, liberties, and way of life?
Please tell me I'm wrong...
Re:Is it just me... (Score:4, Funny)
I'm not that good of a liar, sorry. :(
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Has our country been in a situation like this before where all the powers-that-be seem to be working together for their benefit, at the expense of everyone else's freedoms, liberties, and way of life?
Sadly, yes, it's been exactly this way for a while. But previous administrations and corporate heads were much smarter at hiding the fist inside a velvet glove. It's just becoming more nakedly obvious in recent years, as the number of media companies have shrunk, the Internet grassroots has risen, and the outsourced, dematerialised, copyright-based US economy has started seriously wobbling.
The 1980s Reagan years were filled with government and media collusion and outright scandal (Iran-Contra, Reagan saying
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Man. you know your history, it is a rare thing, only if the rest of (300 millions -1) Americans were just like you....just imagine......
Not that I want to reinforce a stereotype, but I'm not an American. :)
Re:Is it just me... (Score:5, Insightful)
It's just you. It's been like this for at least 100 years, and very close to it for 200+. We've been through most of this foolishness before, and we'll do it again. It tends to happen in 50-80 year cycles, as that's about how long people live. Go read about the 1920s, and you'll see much of the same fiscal foolishness. We've actually gotten better at controlling it, but that just means we are ratcheting up the foolishness to the breaking point a bit slower.
It's entirely likely that without the great depression and the advent of the use of Keynesian economics, we would likely see 25%+ unemployment and massive governmental collapse. Instead, we've held steady in return for a huge debt. Unfortunately, it will really take us 10-20 years to dig ourselves out, but as soon as the collapse-panic is over, we expect to see progress/growth. All we've really done is started to set ourselves up for a second collapse where we don't have the ability to borrow our way out of a major correction.
I just hope I have the forethought to avoid losing my retirement savings when it happens.
Re:Is it just me... (Score:5, Insightful)
Yes, our country has been in this situation before. Regulatory capture is a well-known problem. Read up on Teddy Roosevelt and the trust-busters. Read up on the robber barons. Read up on social darwinism. Read up on the suppression of the communist party in the 1930s (whether or not you think communism is bad, the way the communist party was suppressed was definitely anti-American). Read up on McCarthyism. Then read up on the Pullman Strike, and Hoovervilles, and the New Deal, and the civil rights movement.
The pendulum swings back and forth. I wish it would just stay on "social justice,' but it doesn't, because people get complacent and let things decay until they get bad enough that they feel like they have to do something. This is that time. People feel like they have to do something now. Don't be without hope. Stop thinking you are powerless. Stop trying to hit me, and hit me. Er, sorry, that just slipped out.
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Oh, and read up on the Triangle Shirtwaist fire and its aftermath.
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This is really a gross oversimplification. Even your use of the terms "right" and "left" is absurdly simplistic.
What I believe is that people should generally be free to do what they want if it doesn't hurt anyone else. When what they do does hurt others, they shouldn't be allowed to do it. And then I believe that a happy society has some social services that have to get paid for. The most basic of these is a system of courts and records so that we can keep track of who owns what and who agreed to wh
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It does feel a bit like 1930s Germany, doesn't it?
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The Internet vs. Cable TV (Score:5, Insightful)
For the past few years, the RIAA and MPAA have been working hard to undermine and destroy peer-to-peer networking on the Internet, because it does not fit into the distribution model they are comfortable with. In the view of the mainstream media, the corporations and the politicians that support them, people are supposed to pay for things, and they are not supposed to assist in the distribution chain unless they are being paid to do so. The idea that computing resources or communication resources can be shared is antithetical to the old media barons, because they want to be the center of the universal. To them, distribution costs are paid for by copyright holders, who recoup those costs by selling copies of entertainment in its various forms.
What they want, in other words, is the Cable TV system. They like the way that cable works -- a relatively small number of head ends that distribute the entertainment, which can easily be policed for violations. Set-top boxes are designed to prevent users from stepping outside the bounds of what the copyright holders demand. Restrictions on distribution can be negotiated with a small number of entities that control the entire network.
They want to break the Internet, so that they can rebuild it. They want a star architecture for the network. They want to routers that block access to "rogue websites." DRM was pioneered by Cable TV and its cousin, satellite (see: HBO). They want the same thing to happen on the Internet, which means they need to recreate the entire network to better suit that purpose.
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Stop consuming their media and start creating your own original media. No use of music, video or images that YOU didn't create.
In the face of that SOA and PIPA are toothless.
Except that UMG and the rest of big content will use their newly found, unchecked power to suppress that original media.
They've already been using extant enforcement capability to destroy access to other people's work (to say nothing of the public domain) where possible. SOPA / PIPA will make "where possible" become "everywhere, all the time."
SCOTUS (Score:5, Insightful)
If anyone like RIAA wants to be dicks about it, it'll go to the Supreme Court and be defeated there.
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What reason do you have to believe that the SCOTUS respects the Constitution any more than Congress does?
Politicians will take this as an argument Pro (Score:2, Informative)
The political system is being closed. Read Naomi Wolfe, watch her on Youtube. Read Glen Greenwald at Salon.
The consequences of this law are fully intended by all parties.
There is no other important issue in the next election, as there will be no other meaningful elections if this process isn't stopped.
The only candidate who supports the Constitution and its guarantees of Civil Liberties is Ron Paul. If he isn't elected, there is a gulag in our futures.
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you'd see someone in the office who will be even more communist than Obama
Zombie Dwight Eisenhower perhaps? He was pretty hardcore commie, by 2011 standards.
Possible to preserve stability and security? (Score:2)
Looking at how long it's taking to roll out IPV6, I'm guessing this won't happen in a hurry (especially considering the political[international] complications).
Alternatively they could just break the internet!
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Do you really think Time Warner or Comcast would waste any time deploying the equipment needed to follow SOPA or PIPA? If it means giving everyone a new cable modem, you bet that everyone will get new cable modems. A lot of ISPs would benefit from SOPA and PIPA, because they also own TV channels and other businesses that
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benefit? That's a pretty funny word.
I don't think you understand what taking away advertising and eyes is for. hint: it doesn't benefit them, they just think it does.
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What about the other horrible bill (Score:4, Informative)
Awesome Law! (Score:4, Insightful)
As one of the people who don't live in the USA, who gets annoyed from time to time with the USA hegemony in technology, I'm quite pleased to see the US destroy its tech lead through _amazingly_ stupid law. Awesome! If the rest of us wanted to make the US a place that nobody can afford to start an internet-based business, this law would be pretty good way.
Keep up the good work guys.
Dear Congress... (Score:3)
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2 Questions (Score:2)
Why hasn't an Occupy style movement been started over this? If it was coordinated better they could get their message out clearer with a lot of Media coverage.
How long until the rest of the world says FU USA and starts working on ways to remove their dependence on USA for the functioning of the internet?
Extra-judicial enforcement (Score:4, Insightful)
Breaking the net lets them control the net... (Score:5, Insightful)
Which is the goal of the corporate oligarchy that passes for government these days. Frankly, most of the world's corporation-governments would be happiest if the internet was a restricted, monitored, toll-road. Of course, the flaw in this plan is the million geek army. Telling millions of technically savvy engineers what to do with their toys is very unlikely to be successful in the long run. It just means that the open source pirate internets arrive faster.
Not that this matters to a congresscritter. They just take their fee for passing the stupid law and move on down the road to retirement and the little secret Swiss bank accounts set up for them by the RIAA and friends as a reward.
It will happen eventually - then what? (Score:2)
Evnetually the government or big business will push something like this through. They will seize control. So, what can be done? Is there an alternative, like a homebrew, grassroots equivalent?
SOPA has nothing to do with copyright. (Score:5, Insightful)
SOPA is about control. The web is the one area that the powers that be do not fully control, this legislation provides the mechanism to accomplish that, in much the same way that the true intention of the PATRIOT act was to strip away other rights in the name of security.
Wake up people.
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SOPA has everything to do with copyright. Copyright, however, also has everything to do with control.
I fucking told you so (Score:4, Insightful)
"Copyright and computers aren't compatible", I said. "the only way for them to co-exist is for them to break all the computers", I said.
"Pish-tosh," said the naysayers. "You just want free stuff."
"No, really," said I, "I can prove it with math."
"Poppycock." said the naysayers. "What about the needs of the artists? Don't they deserve to be paid for all their hard work?"
"If the artists want to ensure that they get paid for something that can exist on a computer, I helpfully suggest they get paid before doing the work. Y'know, like all really successful creators already do," I helpfully suggested, citing advance payments in the music, movie, and book publishing industries, every single dollar of which already, ultimately, comes from the consumers of said products.
"Otherwise, I suppose they can depend on donations borne of gratitude, which, if you think about it, is really just payment to produce the next work anyway. Either way, though, a copy of a file on a computer is effectively valueless, so selling copies of files on computers is a broken business model. Mark my words, if they try to make this broken business model work, it will have to be by outlawing functioning computers."
"Stuff and nonsense," opined the naysayers. "I shall heed no more of your scurrolous lies. Away with you!"
And so, here we are, about to join China and Iran in the glorious future of online freedom. Naysayers, kindly go fuck yourselves in the eye. I can provide an excellent array of online sources for Yoga instruction and melon-ballers if this proves too difficult for you.