

How SOPA Could Ruin My Life - AdamFernandez
http://www.forbes.com/sites/insertcoin/2011/12/16/how-sopa-could-ruin-my-life/

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stcredzero
What the US government and many other non computer-savvy people in power need
to realize is that _linking is speech_!

One of my first employers was at a public television station. In his mind, he
had to ask the other party permission to link to them. That is thinking of a
link as a physical thing, as if it was a copper wire or a metal house key.
It's not. It's just information. Needing permission to link to something is
exactly like needing permission to talk about something. That shouldn't be. If
we live in a society that believes in free speech, we should all be free to
link to anything we want to!

~~~
blurbytree
Free speech has many exceptions. So no, you shouldn't be able to link to
anything you want to. Just like free speech, there are many exceptions about
what you can link to which are already illegal.

~~~
floppydisk
That's like saying I can't walk out of a public art gallery and go tell a
friend there's a cool landscape portrait by a famous artist hanging on the 3rd
floor. That's linking.

By definition, if it's on the internet, it's public facing and therefore
publicly available knowledge. Linking is simply telling others, hey, look over
here for publicly available information.

Now, if you link to something illegal or perverse, depending on content, that
could result in interest from the authorities but that's because you, the
user, made a personal decision to directly affiliate yourself with that
content via a link. The mere act of linking to publicly available information,
should not in and of itself, be illegal or prohibited.

~~~
shasta
Really? That's the best analogy you could come up with? It's more like a
newspaper printing advertisements that there will be stolen radios for sale or
prostitutes behind the Walmart on Saturday.

~~~
stcredzero
Poor analogy. Unless there are other mechanisms in place, a link doesn't serve
an advertising purpose any more or less than a purely informational one. I
would like for a newspaper engage in activities like exposing fences or street
prostitution. I believe that's called "reporting."

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dethstarr
This is a shakedown by Members of Congress, plain and simple. Internet
companies have made billions of dollars in an unregulated market but have not
paid off Congressmen/Senators through campaign contributions, lobbyists,
creation of significant PACs, 527 committees -- things which all appeal to a
politician's self-interest. Hollywood has outspent internet companies, paid
hundreds of millions of dollars through direct and indirect campaign financing
and actually gives a demonic benefit to the greedy politicians by essentially
paying them off.

If internet companies want to do anything, I think they should get off their
butts and outspend the heck out the idiotic music/movie industry so
politicians can see there is a monetary return from internet companies. To be
naive and think that SOPA will go away because of its inherent stupidity is
wrong. You have to fight.

You have to take action and battle for protection of the internet. You need to
pay Congress the "protection money" in this sickening game of soft-extortion.
Understand that Congress has power, and can exercise it either way, as long as
you appeal to the politicians' self-interest.

It's sad but true.

Save the internet, stop SOPA now!

~~~
snowwrestler
> Internet companies have made billions of dollars in an unregulated market
> but have not paid off Congressmen/Senators through campaign contributions,
> lobbyists, creation of significant PACs, 527 committees -- things which all
> appeal to a politician's self-interest.

This is completely false; Internet companies are regulated by the DMCA, which
provides them safe harbor from private lawsuits related to copyright
infringement. If the DMCA did not exist, they would have been sued into
oblivion by the content companies long ago.

There are a lot of reasons to oppose SOPA but let's not pretend that the
Internet is unregulated.

~~~
dethstarr
> This is completely false; Internet companies are regulated by the DMCA,
> which provides them safe harbor from private lawsuits related to copyright
> infringement

Look, I don't want to get in an argument but the DMCA is a joke. You know it
and I know it. If it really worked, do you really think these idiot music/film
companies would try to pass SOPA? The DMCA is supposed to protect IP and it
doesn't work.

The internet is one of the least-regulated industries in the United States.
Pardon me for saying "unregulated" - but ti basically is. Also, sales taxes
are the exception to the rule right now. Last time I checked -- that's a whole
lot of freedom.

I pride myself on seeing things the way they are and I know -- Congress is
like a legal protection racket. If you actually want to do something, the big
players need to pay the protection money. Hollywood execs paid $91M in
lobbying for SOPA. How much more was paid in other methods of political
support as well?

Our (consumer internet) industry needs to step to the plate. We make a lot of
money but want to pretend we're somehow immune from the idiocy of Washington
-- we're not. Reid Hoffman, Jack Dorsey and Sergey Brin need to wake up and
realize that writing a letter to Congress isn't going to change anything...

Money is the only form of communication that matters in politics.

Let's stand together and fight SOPA now.

~~~
chris11
Media companies dislike the DMCA not because it is a joke, but because it
hasn't eradicated piracy. Unfortunately it would be practically impossible to
stop piracy.

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mindslight
This kind of weak-minded opposition actually makes me think that I'd rather
see SOPA proceed as-is. If SOPA were amended with some provisions for cargo-
cult "due process", most of the corporate opposition would disappear but we'd
still be left with the same broken internet.

> _It’s hard to make a coherent case that you should be able to download a
> full movie or album completely for free_

Actually, it's hard to make a coherent case that it's even possible to police
such downloading when universal computing devices and networks exist. The
internet community needs to wake up and realize that the copyright cartels
(and political groupthink, in general) are their mortal enemies, stop
kowtowing to them, and _write code_ to defend themselves (and push these
realizations to the masses).

~~~
whackedspinach
Exactly. We need to put up some opposition to this in court, but eventually
just decentralize all levels of the internet. The real fight is when using
that code (Namecoin, TOR, etc) is becoming illegal. Then we have a final legal
battle to fight.

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redthrowaway
This is bad. I would have thought the overwhelming stupidity of this bill
would have, if not killed it, then at least signaled its demise by now. The
so-called "nuclear option" of everyone who is opposed to SOPA blacking out
their sites is looking like it might be a necessity.

~~~
marshray
The article was dated a few weeks ago. Hopefully the tide is turning.

