
Stop SOPA, save the Internet - CodeMage
http://boingboing.net/2011/11/11/stop-sopa-save-the-internet.html
======
jxcole
Do you remember when the Italians shut down Italian wikipedia because the
Italian government was going to pass something stupid? Since this legislation
would make it possible to sue wikipedia in the united states, it would make
sense for wikipedia to shut down in the US in protest to this bill.

~~~
redthrowaway
I was going to say that Wikipedia content is licensed under CC BY-SA, but
that's just wrong. There's tons of fair use content, and plenty of quotes
pulled from various sources. This really could pose an existential threat to
them were someone to get it into their head to shut them down.

edit: On second (third?) thought, why just Wikipedia? SOPA threatens youtube,
facebook, and just about every other site with user-generated content. Why not
a Universal Blackout Day, with every site that could be threatened by SOPA
displaying the same message warning about its dangers and directing users to
contact congress and the white house?

~~~
bgentry
There is already an organized movement for this, American Censorship Day:
<http://americancensorship.org/>

All we need is committment from a few of the major web properties to get this
issue some momentum in the mainstream media. Facebook, Google, Twitter,
YouTube.. Where are you when we need you?

I posted a story on it yesterday but it didn't get momentum:
<http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=3231343>

~~~
marquis
Even if they just changed their landing page, and said 'this is an example of
what you'll see if SOPA passes.' I would commit to this.

------
asolove
Ok, you've convinced me. Now what? I have time and money, so give me a call to
action dammit.

~~~
feralchimp
Somewhere, someone is buying stock in Kenwood and Icom on the theory that
amateur packet radio is about to make a giant comeback. :)

I wonder how feasible it would be for private citizens to wire up an
alternative U.S.-wide internet out of above-ground fibre and ethernet.

I bet we could get Cambridge/Somerville MA pretty well hooked together, at
least. Comms to the Bay Area may involve flying backpacks of DVDs back and
forth, though. Get ready for some latency.

~~~
urza
I predict the rise of Tor in the next decade. After that.. maybe a new free
(as in speech) physical layer..

Something in the line of recently mentioned darknet maybe
[http://arstechnica.com/open-source/news/2011/11/the-
darknet-...](http://arstechnica.com/open-source/news/2011/11/the-darknet-plan-
netroots-activists-dream-of-global-mesh-
network.ars?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=rss)

------
sycren
So.. The great firewall of America, Seems only 2 years ago when Obama was
defending the freedom of the internet.
[http://www.time.com/time/world/article/0,8599,1939572,00.htm...](http://www.time.com/time/world/article/0,8599,1939572,00.html)

I'm surprised that there isn't a huge rally on sites like 4chan and reddit
which would be hit the most..

~~~
sixtofour
He wasn't defending the internet, he was fighting a hearts and minds campaign
against China.

~~~
sycren
Direct quote from linked article: "I think that the more freely information
flows, the stronger the society becomes, because then citizens of countries
around the world can hold their own governments accountable." He also spoke
frankly about the benefits of individual freedoms when saying, "We do not seek
to impose any system of government on any other nation," before adding that
unrestricted access to information and political participation are not
principles held by the United States but "universal rights."

Read more:
[http://www.time.com/time/world/article/0,8599,1939572,00.htm...](http://www.time.com/time/world/article/0,8599,1939572,00.html#ixzz1diiu3tmz)

While you might be right, I still read into it as a huge U-turn in thoughts
and policy. I hope it will not affect the UK, but inevitably it will in some
form or other.. probably as an extension to ACTA :(

~~~
sixtofour
I'm sorry, I've dried out to a hard, cynical husk in my old age. Yes, he did
say those things, but I still say he didn't care jack about internet freedom,
these were convenient rocks to throw at China. Any rock would have sufficed.

And if the administration's actions now don't reflect what was said before,
it's just coincidence.

Did he actually take _action_ at any time to defend internet freedom, or did
he merely speak?

The administration today, and congress, are opposing internet freedom by their
actions. An example for the administration is their defense of the law that
says any email on an internet server older than six months is considered
abandoned, and they therefore have a right to look at it without a warrant.

The only thing that counts for me is action, and that only lasts until the
next hostile act.

~~~
sycren
I agree with you, I meant that from outside America it just seems rather
pathetic, I hope it doesn't pass. Its a bit like the UK Digital Economy act
that went through in 2010 which is similar to the French HADOPI law. How is it
in the public's best interest?

I do find it ironic though that the US argues that the great firewall of China
makes doing business with US companies difficult while supporting this bill
that will do the same with local/national companies.
[http://www.tomshardware.com/news/Internet-China-Great-
Firewa...](http://www.tomshardware.com/news/Internet-China-Great-Firewall-
censorship,13767.html)

------
jmtame
"On September 22, 2011, a letter signed by greater than 350 businesses and
organizations — including names such as NBCUniversal, Pfizer, Ford Motor
Company, Revlon, NBA, and Macmillan — was sent to Congress encouraging the
passage of infringing website censorship legislation this year."

"Opponents of the bill include tech giants such as Google, Yahoo!, and eBay,
as well as human rights organizations such as Reporters Without Borders, the
Electronic Frontier Foundation, and Human Rights Watch." [1]

I've lost respect for the companies in the first paragraph, and have gained
some for the companies in the second.

[1] <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stop_Online_Piracy_Act>

~~~
redthrowaway
Netflix appears to be in the first category, as well. They would do well to
clarify their position. The last thing they need is more bad press in the tech
world.

~~~
sukuriant
I strongly agree. Though if I had to guess (I DO NOT WORK FOR NETFLIX), I
would imagine that they're trying to stay on the good side of their content
providers, since they're the ones keeping Netflix in business.

I can see where there coming from, but cannot take the same stance as them.

------
jrockway
I'm looking forward to this bill passing. As soon as we drive normal internet
activity underground, there will no longer be any stigma to being underground.
Everything will be encrypted and hidden to people that don't "know the key",
and Hollywood and the government will be the last people to know the key.
Reading BoingBoing and downloading the latest Hollywood crap will look exactly
the same to everyone monitoring the Internet except the person actually doing
the downloading, ushering in a new era of freedom.

Just like there are no laws regulating the sale of illegal drugs (and the
market is flourishing), soon we will have an Internet that the government
can't censor. Illegal is the new legal.

~~~
stephth
Be careful what you wish for. This is not Tron or the Matrix where hacking
against the system takes you to magical adventures. Censorship sucks no matter
how you look at it.

And I don't get your drug analogy. Buying drugs legally means you know what
you're buying, you can easily track the quality and strength like you would
for your favorite brand of coffee. You can know where it comes from, who
worked on it, if it is sustainable. You can use drugs legitimately, you don't
need to hide. You can be open about it with people, and share how it has a
place in your life. Illegal drugs on the other hand have none of this. The
only thing you can do is build a relationship with a good dealer and cross
fingers that the quality will stay the same most of the time. And there's
obviously no way it hell you will trace the product back to its production.
You can even go to jail for using it. And the unreliability of the product
makes the experience unsafe, unpredictable, unhealthy, and dangerous. How is
that "freedom"?

Edit: Seeing how popular the parent comment is, I urge readers to think twice
about it. The parent comment's "looking at the bright side" stance is a coward
and lazy attitude. Sorry for being harsh but it's true. It's much easier to
invent yourself a wicked reason why it would work for your own individual
best, put your mind at ease and just sit back instead of going through the
mental effort of worrying about this and putting the energy to stand up for
everybody's rights.

~~~
mhb
How are you able to see how popular the parent comment is?

~~~
stephth
It was #1 (and ~ one hour old) when I commented, and stayed #1 for a couple
hours, in a highly popular thread (3 hours old and almost 400 votes at the
time I believe). My comment stuck as the top child with just a couple votes,
hence all children had a low voting count. So I assumed the parent was #1
amongst dozens of other comments thanks to its individual number of votes.

I kept an eye on this because its popularity is unsettling to me. I don't
usually miss the vote counters but in situations like this one I really do.

------
marquis
I'm not a US resident but I've donated to the EFF. U.S. policy dictates what
happens for many other countries and it's not acceptable to have such policies
become mainstream. <http://eff.org>

------
keeptrying
Why isnt there a crowdsourced lobbying startup? Essentially everyone votes on
a particular topic and also donates money for that cause. If the cause
collects enough money its sent to a non profit which actually has some
lobbying clout to fight the battle on Capitol hill.

Teh startup can take a small %age and ensure that people can quickly swarm
together and effectively beat shit bills like this.

Is there a problem with this idea?

~~~
anigbrowl
There have been several attempts, and they usually quickly turn into
nonprofits or PACs themselves. They tend to reflect particular points of view
because people who want socialist-type policies are unlikely to use a
crowdsourcing mechanism that's already popular with, say, the Tea Party crowd.

I have often wondered why someone doesn't just set up Republican and
Democratic versions of the same service, with appropriate color schemes and so
on.

~~~
keeptrying
So imagine it being a marketplace. When some bill needs to be beaten and a lot
of money collects then the voters can select which lobbying firm to give it
to.

And this would lead to them getting the money and having to prove what they
are doing with the money.

So its like a marketplace connecting lobbyists to constituents.

~~~
anigbrowl
Organizations like the EFF already lobby on this sort of topic. There's no
secret sauce or suitcases of cash involved; lobbyists are just people who know
how to sell policies to politicians.

Personally, I'd say that the the best way to move forward on this is to
publicly write large checks to the EFF (with whom I am not affiliated, btw).
Inventing a new market mechanism for this purpose is equivalent to saying that
you don't understand how the existing marketplace works. This isn't something
you can simply automate away, for the same reason that government by
plebiscite is not historically effective.

------
darkane
I wouldn't argue against contacting your representative, but I'm curious: Has
there ever been a documented occasion where a politician actually switched
their stance based on e-mails, letters, phone calls, or anything other than a
significant amount of money? I've never received a response from my local or
state representatives that wasn't a convoluted and cordial "fuck you."

~~~
cynest
This. My representative (Adam Schiff) is one of the cosponsors. I find hard to
believe that anything a lowly college student can say will seriously affect
his chances of changing his vote.

~~~
Lukeas14
As a Pasadena native I've always known Adam Schiff to be very open to
communication with his constituents. However, I can't recall him ever changing
his position based on complaints. Also, his district contains cities that
employees of several major studios (Universal, Disney, Dreamworks) call home
which may help to explain his position.

~~~
Natsu
Remember, he's a politician. He can change just how hard he works to pass the
bill based on how many people will hate him if it passes, even if he never
flips.

That said, feel free to replace him in the next election, if possible.

------
dhimes
In case anybody is interested, this looks like the bill [pdf]
<http://judiciary.house.gov/hearings/pdf/112%20HR%203261.pdf>

EDIT: Here's the TOC:

Sec. 1. Short title; table of contents.

Sec. 2. Savings and severability clauses.

    
    
                    TITLE I—COMBATING ONLINE PIRACY
    

Sec. 101. Definitions.

Sec. 102. Action by Attorney General to protect U.S. customers and prevent
U.S. support of foreign infringing sites.

Sec. 103. Market-based system to protect U.S. customers and prevent U.S.
funding of sites dedicated to theft of U.S. property.

Sec. 104. Immunity for taking voluntary action against sites dedicated to
theft of U.S. property.

Sec. 105. Immunity for taking voluntary action against sites that endanger
public health.

Sec. 106. Guidelines and study.

Sec. 107. Denying U.S. capital to notorious foreign infringers.

    
    
            TITLE II—ADDITIONAL ENHANCEMENTS TO COMBAT INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY THEFT
    

Sec. 201. Streaming of copyrighted works in violation of criminal law.

Sec. 202. Trafficking in inherently dangerous goods or services.

Sec. 203. Protecting U.S. businesses from foreign and economic espionage.

Sec. 204. Amendments to sentencing guidelines.

Sec. 205. Defending intellectual property rights abroad.

------
babarock
I'm not a US citizen.

1) To what extent am I really going to get affected by such a bill?

2) Is there anything I can do to prevent it?

~~~
holmesworcester
Hey, I'm one of the protest organizers. Here's how it affects non-US citizens:

1) Links to any blacklisted site will get removed from US search engines,
directories, and maybe even blogs through lawsuits. Google, Twitter, maybe
even HackerNews.

2) Your non-US site can get blocked to all US users (ouch) and lose most of
its search / social traffic (see #1)

3) Non-US sites can get cut off from US-based payment processors and
advertisers. This will push sites you use into bankruptcy, and discourage
others from starting.

4) Hollywood and (I'm ashamed to say it) US trade representatives and
embassies will be busy convincing other countries to pass similar laws. If
this law passes, that process goes better.

5) Countries that want cover for their own internet censorship regimes will be
able to say "The US does it". Russian politics in particular loves these
(sometimes false, sometimes not) equivalencies as excuses for anti-democratic
measures.

As for how you can prevent it, if your run a site or product with content in
English, your site has American visitors, potentially lots of them. Same goes
for just spreading the word on social networks.

Participate in American Censorship Day and direct them to call their reps!

~~~
damncabbage
_5) Countries that want cover for their own internet censorship regimes will
be able to say "The US does it"._

This is what I am most worried about. (America says "Jump", Australia asks
"How high?")

~~~
westbywest
From my limited recollection, Australia has tended to implement such
restrictions even more aggressively than the US legislation/policies they took
inspiration from. So the 2nd-order trickle down effect could be worse in
Australia, and presumably other countries.

------
keeptrying
If you are a US citizen, you can take action right here:

[https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2011/10/sopa-hollywood-
finally...](https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2011/10/sopa-hollywood-finally-gets-
chance-break-Internet)

------
toshiblue
You can go to OpenCongress.org and "vote". They'll help you find your
congressional district representatives and draft/email a letter to each for
you.

<http://www.opencongress.org/bill/112-s968/show>

------
fragsworth
I don't expect this bill to pass as it is. Enough large, powerful corporations
should be against it (most Internet companies).

Much more likely: the major provisions will be added as riders to a bill that
passes in haste, to get a few congressional votes.

------
fredleblanc
So this bill seems to target any link on your website. Let's say that you have
a blog that allows for people to post things as comments using a service like
DISQUS. Could one request essentially take down the entire DISQUS service?
Same with Facebook comments that are becoming more and more popular: could one
request take down something like Facebook?

~~~
hessenwolf
Or a whois site, linking to every domain on the internet?

------
seagreen
Someone should make a short list of "best practices" for contacting your
representatives. For instance, is there an easy way to set up a second google
voice number so you don't end up getting called a million times during
election season? And does anyone have apps to recommend for finding your
representatives phone numbers, such as songrabbit's below?

------
simius_
[https://wwws.whitehouse.gov/petitions#!/petition/stop-e-
para...](https://wwws.whitehouse.gov/petitions#!/petition/stop-e-parasite-
act/SWBYXX55)

[https://wfc2.wiredforchange.com/o/9042/p/dia/action/public/?...](https://wfc2.wiredforchange.com/o/9042/p/dia/action/public/?action_KEY=8173&);

------
sneak
The Internet != USA. If America wants to shoot itself in the foot w/r/t one of
their only competitive advantages in the global marketplace, I say:

Let them.

Think of how fast that will accelerate the solution!

------
megamark16
I just emailed my representative and senators. I also called my representative
and left a message with a very confused sounding secretary/intern/lackey. You
should too. Do it. Do it now.

------
simius_
Response from Maria Cantwell:

Thank you for contacting me about the internet streaming of copyrighted
material. I appreciate hearing from you on this issue, and sincerely regret
the delayed response.

On May 12, 2011, Senator Leahy (D-VT) introduced S. 968, the Preventing Real
Online Threats to Economic Creativity and Theft of Intellectual Property
(PROTECT IP) Act. Under current federal law, U.S. law enforcement officials
and holders of copyrights, trademarks, and patents, have limited legal
remedies available to combat internet websites that are registered in foreign
countries but operate in the United States by selling products, services,
and/or content that violates U.S. intellectual property law. If enacted, the
proposed legislation would create an expedited process for the Department of
Justice and intellectual property rights holders to shut down through a court
order these websites by targeting, the owners and operators of the Internet
site, if known, or the domain name registrant associated with the Internet
site.

The proposed legislation would require the Department of Justice to
demonstrate to the Court that the Internet site accessed by the domain name is
"dedicated to infringing activities." Such a website would have no other
significant use other than engaging in, enabling, or facilitating infringing
activities. Once a court order is issued, domestic operators of domain name
servers would be required to effectively prevent online users from accessing
the infringing Internet site. Providers of online information location tools
would be required to take technically feasible and reasonable measures to
remove or disable access to such an Internet site, including not providing a
hypertext link. Finally, financial institutions involved in online
transactions and Internet advertising companies would be prohibited from doing
business with any Internet site subject to a Court order under the
legislation. Intellectual property rights holders can take Internet payment
and advertising companies to court if they believe these companies are not
complying with the law. This legislation was reported out of the Judiciary
Committee on July 22, 2011, and is awaiting action by the full Senate.

While I am supportive of the goals of the bill, I am deeply concerned that the
definitions and the means by which the legislation seeks to accomplish these
goals will hurt innovation and threaten online speech. Please be assured that
I will keep your thoughts in mind should I have the opportunity to vote on
this or similar legislation regarding intellectual property rights.

Thank you again for contacting me to share your thoughts on this matter. You
may also be interested in signing up for periodic updates for Washington State
residents. If you are interested in subscribing to this update, please visit
my website at <http://cantwell.senate.gov>. Please do not hesitate to contact
me in the future if I can be of further assistance.

~~~
mvzink
There's nothing I want more from a politician's response than a simple, "Yeah,
you're right, this shit sucks."

~~~
fredwilson
a response like that would make me a fan and a contributor for life

~~~
wmougayar
That makes a lot of sense. We need more responses like that.

------
ck2
If you thought bogus, automated, DMCA takedowns on youtube were bad, you
haven't seen anything yet if this passes.

------
russell
Wondering , who the hell are these people who write such laws, I Googled John
Conyers. In the results was a story that his wife had been sentenced to
Federal prison for bribery. I hope this is the nadir and the only way forward
is up, but I'm not hugely optimistic.

------
Macha
I reckon people here are the most likely to know, so sorry for the slight
derailment, but..

I am Irish, with a .com site hosted on servers in the UK. How does this affect
me? I'm sure the US still claims a lot of influence over .com so it probably
does some way.

~~~
5l
The US authorities can already seize domains under their jurisdiction (as to
whether or not the process is legal, I think the jury is still out on that).
This includes .com/.net/.org/.us.

Google 'ICE domain seizures'.

------
DenisM
Get involved by writing your representative and making sure your facebook
friends know about this:

[https://wfc2.wiredforchange.com/o/9042/p/dia/action/public/?...](https://wfc2.wiredforchange.com/o/9042/p/dia/action/public/?action_KEY=8173&);

------
therandomguy
1\. Can Google pay $1mn to each senator and buy them out? 2\. Can/will Obama
veto this?

------
wyck
In all honesty at this point I don't care. It's part of the evolutionary cycle
of the internet, the laws cannot keep up with both the demand and the
technology, close one door and several others open up.

------
Garbage
This might not be the best way to say, but whenever I see the patent and IP
situation in US, I fell very happy that I live in India.

------
artursapek
Are there enough lawyers and courthouses to take on this potential mass of
extra stupid lawsuits?

------
HilbertSpace
Who are the Congressmen and Senators for the bill?

What is the WH position?

What are the chances of passage and signing?

