
Why SOPA endangers America's Internet leadership - llambda
http://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/news/2011/11/why-sopa-endangers-americas-internet-leadership.ars
======
epenn
While I certainly acknowledge everything that America has done for the
Internet from its beginning up through now, it's long since established itself
as a global institution. As such, shouldn't the faculties in charge of running
it be global institutions as well?

The premise of the article seems to be that America needs to be careful lest
it lose its current Internet dominance. I'm an American myself and I'm very
proud of the fact that we initiated something as amazing as the Internet.
However, is it fair for us to hold that dominant position in perpetuum? The
Internet is a global community.

(edit: spelling, structure)

~~~
wmf
I don't think SOPA has much to do with Internet governance. It doesn't
contemplate any changes to IP addressing, DNS, or BGP. It doesn't really
attempt to reach outside the US. (ACTA is another matter.)

 _shouldn't the faculties in charge of running it be global institutions as
well?_

This has been discussed in great length elsewhere, but I'll give a few points.
While in principle _of course_ the whole world should have a say in Internet
governance, in reality all the specific proposals that I've seen are about
making the Internet worse in some way. The good thing about ICANN is that it's
so ineffectual and slow-moving that it can't cause much damage.

Consider the global telephone network which is regulated by the ITU, an
organization that appears to be 100% captured by telcos, many of whom are
national PTTs that make AT&T look friendly. Right now the ITU is trying to
figure out how to take control of the Internet from ICANN so they can
"recognize local values" (i.e. censorship) and make everything much more
expensive by e.g. eliminating settlement-free peering.

------
Vivtek
This headline alone has made me reconsider my hatred for SOPA.

~~~
wink
Yeah, as bad as SOPA sounds, if the main reason against it is to have the
internet even more centralized in the USA (think ICANN, DNS root servers)...
poof, the worldwide support suddenly vanished.

------
HilbertSpace
An old remark was, "Never argue with someone who buys ink by the barrel", of
course, meaning that never argue in print with a newspaper.

Well, now there should be an update: "Never argue in public with a community
that communicates at a trillion bits per second.", of course, meaning that
it's not wise for someone in Congress to anger most of the US users of the
Internet.

So, just from these two remarks, SOPA and bills like it should have little
chance of passage.

Indeed, there have been remarks in the technical news that in the last week or
so the SOPA proponents backed into an "Internet buzz saw".

Or, what community could hope to beat the US Internet users in ability to
collect good data on both FAQs and fine details about SOPA, get names, phone
numbers, and office addresses of SOPA proponents in Congress, and make phone
calls and send e-mail messages and letters either on paper or via FAX? I can
believe "buzz saw".

I have not wanted to fire all my political ammunition against SOPA yet because
I fear that showing all the leading arguments against SOPA will, yes, result
in the death of SOPA but also in the rise, as a phoenix, of Son of SOPA with
new dangers and, net, just as dangerous.

But from what I have seen in just a little investigation, e.g., as in

<http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/8003799.stm>

with

    
    
         Page last updated at 14:29 GMT, Friday, 17
         April 2009 15:29 UK
    
         Court jails Pirate Bay founders
    

apparently existing copyright law, in this case in Sweden, and routine legal
action have been sufficient actually to put in jail all of the founders of
Pirate Bay not 'on the lam". And, Pirate Bay didn't actually host any movies
or recorded music but just had links to Torrent sources.

So, it sounds to me like existing copyright law is close to strong enough for
the purposes of the MPAA/RIAA.

Actually, being able actually to lock up the Pirate Bay founders sounds to me
like the current copyright law is already too strong, that is, too much
weakening of freedom of the press and freedom of speech: To see this, an
analogy would be to lock up authors of crime and spy novels because they
provide information that a criminal might use. Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, Dame
Agatha Christie, and Tom Clancy did nothing violent but did provide
information that might let others be violent; Pirate Bay sent no movies or
music but did provide information that would let others receive such. Heck, it
sounds like with the position of the MPAA/RIAA we should also lock up authors
of books on physics, chemistry, and engineering because such books can be used
to build a wide range of weapons.

Gee, let's see: Via Google we should be able to find an effective recipe for
classic gun powder. One of the key ingredients is saltpeter, that is,
potassium nitrate (KNO3). Hmm .... There it is: Can buy it 5 pounds at a time
at Amazon. Now, as I recall, all we need is some sulfur and charcoal. So, by
the standards of the MPAA/RIAA, we should lock up the founders of Google and
Amazon?

My father used to buy ammonium nitrate (NH4NO3) in small pellets in 100 pound
bags. He used it as a lawn fertilizer, and the results were dramatic: The
grass turned dark green, got dense, and jumped; we had to mow the grass about
every other day; Mom was proud to have the greenest lawn in the neighborhood!
Ammonium nitrate was readily available if only because a few miles into the
country people were growing cotton, and NH4NO3 did similar things for cotton.
But, as we should expect from all that nitrogen, NH4NO3 can be one heck of an
explosive. Just ask some of the people in Galveston, TX! And apparently if mix
NH4NO3 with fuel oil, then can pull down some buildings. So, by the standards
of the MPAA/RIAA we should lock up the founders of lawn and garden stores and
heating oil suppliers?

I'm against stealing copies of movies, recorded music, etc., but I'm not for
shooting the Internet in the gut, and shooting the Internet in the gut IS what
the MPAA/RIAA with SOPA would do. Protection of books and music have had to
evolve with technology from the printing press, music recording, radio, TV,
tape recorders, CD and DVD burners, VCRs, set-top boxes, Blockbuster, Netflix,
etc. and, net, will have to continue to evolve.

Net, I don't condone improper use, don't want to hurt the Internet, don't have
easy answers for all of the concerns of the MPAA/RIAA, but wish them well; a
reasonable solution should be possible without shooting the Internet in the
gut. If not, then I'm sorry MPAA/RIAA: The Internet, PDF files, etc. have
seriously hurt publishing on paper, but those publishers didn't shoot the
Internet in the gut; your business model might have to evolve.

Efforts of the MPAA/RIAA to shoot the Internet in the gut did and will
encounter a "buzz saw".

------
maeon3
To see how sopa hurts us, you have to open the third eye and see what was
destroyed when a government has the ability to crush anything on the worldwide
internet. A theoretical Web site, say in Africa, which allows citizens across
the world to be part of a new nation which has no central authority. No
president, czar, Congress or representatives. A radical new nation. One where
the hive dictates the course, not the elite.

If USA can crush this idea from growing in Africa because they can block it in
the USA on account everyone in California wants to join it... A threat to
national security. A new system that is pulling away us citizens.

We are harmed when this 10x better system dies quietly in the night, having
been choked of support by the elite protecting the powers that be.

