
Scribd Protests SOPA By Making A Billion Pages On The Web Disappear - csmajorfive
http://techcrunch.com/2011/12/21/scribd-protests-sopa/
======
Erwin
This doesn't seem to be working for me, when I visit some of Scribd's varied
completely legitimate content.

Like this 288 page book, found in seconds on Google (does Kernighan still work
there?) , which I guess must be in public domain, right?
[http://www.scribd.com/doc/59247191/PRENTICE-HALL-The-C-
Progr...](http://www.scribd.com/doc/59247191/PRENTICE-HALL-The-C-Programming-
Language-Second-Edition)

Just how much of Scribd's value comes from books like this?

~~~
snowmaker
Are you outside of the US? Reluctantly, we decided to target the animation to
US users because there is unfortunately little that foreign citizens can do to
stop SOPA.

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jerhewet
Serious question, here. How difficult would it be for anti-SOPA corporations
and supporters to block congressional IP addresses?

Assumption (possibly incorrect) on my part that it would be fairly easy to
identify blocks and ranges of congressional IP addresses, and that it would be
legal to block them in the first place.

------
ghshephard
I've never really understood how SOPA will deal with websites that are
indisputably multi-use. I don't think anyone could, with a straight face,
argue that Scribd doesn't have a significant amount of non-copyright
infringing use (unlike Napster, which was close to 99%+ copyright infringing
by volume) - thought it does have a significant component of copyright
infringements that rights holders are always having to stamp out with DMCA
takedown requests.

So - what to do with sites like Scribd, post SOPA? Just blacklist the entire
site because it gets a lot of DMCA requests?

What do the SOPA proponents (do we have _ANY_ of those on HN, I really would
love to be educated by them) have to say about that?

~~~
tedunangst
I think we have arrived here, in some part, because of how much some sites
relied on safe harbor provisions. They were added to protect a host which had
a tiny bit of inadvertent infringing material. But people have been (ab)using
that as a free pass to deliberately host copyrighted things until they get
caught. If everybody claims to be indisputably multi-use, the net effect is
that no one is.

Since the DMCA appears to have failed (in the eyes of copyright holders), and
since that failure appears in large part to be due what they consider a
loophole, don't be surprised if the next round of legislation is not going to
include the loophole.

If you don't want the government regulating your business, a little preemptive
self regulation often goes a long way.

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evanlong
We as the internet should do everything in our power to mute Congress.
Encourage Twitter and Facebook other social networks to shutdown their
accounts for a day. Show them that their laws impact them as well.

------
jritch
There are sooo many factors about this that its hard to make a point that
covers everything, and its had to stay partial when explaining your point.
From reading the comments etc and various reports about SOPA, it seems
everyone is going on about the music companies rather than the artists they
represent. IMO the music companies are the ones who have been making the money
off of someone else's talent for a long time now, perhaps taking more than
their fair share. Do I feel sorry for the profit driven record labels? No I
don’t. Its no coincidence that all of the richest artists in the world are the
ones who have built their own record labels and cut out the middle man, and
hats off to them, the ones with the talent are the ones who should make the
biggest share. With the opening of apple's itunes it gave (even the smallest)
artists the chance of putting their content on the internet to buy, without
having to necessarily deal with the companies who have have been making
millions/billions off them for years.. Several artists (and i would go as far
as saying most) have now accepted that downloading music is the new norm and
itunes is the way to keep the money coming in, whilst also being able to
appeal to the masses. When you read ([https://torrentfreak.com/swiss-govt-
downloading-movies-and-m...](https://torrentfreak.com/swiss-govt-downloading-
movies-and-music-will-stay-legal-111202/\)then) take into account that alot of
music artists have actually uploaded their own albums to torrent sites prior
to release to gain attention, it would seem the artists know exactly how to
play the market. I can truthfully say I have been to many gigs I wouldn’t have
known about etc had I not downloaded the artists albums, I have also bought
merchandise as a result of this.

then you read something like [https://torrentfreak.com/retired-computerless-
woman-fined-fo...](https://torrentfreak.com/retired-computerless-woman-fined-
for-pirating-hooligan-movie-111222/) , and realise this is what would happen
if the music companies had their way. Profit at any costs, even when it cant
even be proven that any crime has been breached.

At the end of the day I see the music companies fighting a losing battle (the
megalupload takedown certainly didnt help), the musicians still "making it
rich" and the consumers who buy music STILL buying music, though direct from
the musician, thats why the companies are trying to have this act passed.

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itcmcgrath
I would be interested in seeing some stats on number and % of unique visitors
that clicked on the 'call now' or 'write now' buttons. ( see:
[http://www.scribd.com/doc/75153093/Tribe-Legis-Memo-on-
SOPA-...](http://www.scribd.com/doc/75153093/Tribe-Legis-Memo-on-
SOPA-12-6-11-1) )

------
colinsidoti
It would be awesome if that "Call Now" button was implemented with Twilio
Client to directly call someone.

------
bitops
Good start.

For maximum impact: Google should disable all of its public facing web servers
for a week.

I think Congress would get its act together pretty darn quickly if there were
no Google search or GMail.

~~~
billswift
So you think Google should fuck over millions of people to protest Congress
_potentially_ fucking over millions of people??

~~~
mattstreet
I think a good start would be filtering out access to all government IPs.

------
j_baker
This is certainly good of Scribd, but I suspect this is more about "Hey, we've
got a billion pages!" than it's about "Let's stop SOPA!"

~~~
matthiaskramm
Oh, it's about SOPA, trust me. I felt defenseless when the DMCA (and the
"European DMCA", 2004/48/EC) were introduced (I went to a couple of
demonstrations, but that only goes so far), and SOPA is even worse. It's nice
to work at a place where you can have more of an impact, and take a stance
that has an actual chance of being heard.

------
dos1
I applaud all of these anti-SOPA efforts. What I can't figure out is why our
legislators are hell bent on passing this thing.

I've not heard of a single rational person being individually in favor of this
bill. Now, that certainly doesn't mean there aren't any, but by and large I
would be willing to bet that the vast majority of US citizens are either
ambivalent or in opposition when it comes to SOPA. The only groups that are
for this bill, so far as I can tell, are big content providers and their
lobbies.

If almost no one is in favor of a piece of legislation, and there are millions
vehemently opposed to it, why in God's name is it still being considered? Is
it really just so certain Congressman can collect money from the proponents of
the bill? That seems far too cynical to be accurate. If there's more truth in
that statement than false, I think we owe it to ourselves to never re-elect a
single sitting member of this Congress.

The longer I live, the more ashamed I become of the United States government.

~~~
ghshephard
If I worked for the music or entertainment industry, then the act, as
described <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stop_Online_Piracy_Act> would be very
attractive.

I'm sure HBO, and all of its employees, and their families, would appreciate
being able to somehow DNS blackhole all the search engines leading to torrents
of the content they try and sell for $18/month on digital cable, or $85/Season
for DVDs.

If you are Adele, or one of the tens of thousands of artists like her (or
their families, or the people that provide services to them) - don't you think
you'd like to DNS blackhole, and remove from every search engine of note,
<http://mp3skull.com/mp3/someone_like_you_adele.html> starting today?

The Global entertainment industry is worth 100s of billions of dollars, much
of it created in the United States - SOPA is an attempt, however ham handed,
at protecting that industry.

I'm curious, dos1 - how would you protect rights holders? I don't have any
good answers, but perhaps you do.

~~~
nostromo
> how would you protect rights holders?

The entertainment business hasn't ceased to exist despite a decade of internet
piracy -- and in fact seems to be doing quite well. Both of your examples,
Adele and HBO ([http://www.nytimes.com/2011/08/04/business/media/time-
warner...](http://www.nytimes.com/2011/08/04/business/media/time-warner-
reports-double-digit-revenue-increase-expects-more.html)) are doing great --
so I wouldn't hold them up as examples of the plight of the entertainment
industry.

So, I'd ask you instead, how can you show that our existing laws that protect
rights holders aren't adequate.

~~~
ghshephard
The United States has been pretty effective at shutting down wholesale
internet piracy.

What many (most?) commentators fail to understand is that the entertainment
industry is not interested in anything that account for less than 1% of the
population. If 2.6 million americans wish to use some wacky "Direct Connect"
or "Darknet" or "Unregistered Usenet" system - have at it. You are round off
error.

It's when it moves into the wholesale category of piracy - ala:
<http://www.google.com/search?q=adele+mp3+download>

Then they have a problem. As do the artists.

It would be interesting to see a study of "Health of Entertainment Industries
with heavy emphasis on Content Resale" vs "Protection of Intellectual property
(copyrights, trademarks, internet policing" in various countries.

HBO and Adele may be doing okay - how many thousands of artists can't make a
living (and don't even try) - because they would be just ripped off.

Don't get me wrong - I'm opposed to SOPA, but not because I don't think it
wouldn't help the entertainment industry - I'm certain it would. I'm opposed
to SOPA because I care more about the internet industry (which SOPA would
hurt).

At the end of the day - it's really a question of which we value more -
creation of high-value entertainment content, or individual rights, freedoms,
and the entire internet industry.

I know where my vote is.

~~~
nostromo
> how many thousands of artists can't make a living (and don't even try) -
> because they would be just ripped off.

This is the crux of the issue. I contend that more art is being created now
than ever before. I know so many musicians in my personal life, I can't even
keep track of all of their albums and shows. On SoundCloud and YouTube and
Internet Archive I could listen to music freely given for months on end and
never listen to the same song twice.

However, I have never once met a musically inclined person that decided not to
make music because of GrooveShark or BitTorrent. I've never heard someone say
"well, Adele is only worth 20 million, and I'll never be as big as her, so why
bother?"

~~~
michaelcampbell
_ding_ Your experience mirrors mine. I actually do play an instrument, but I'm
not "talented" in any stretch of the word; I just enjoy it. I've said for a
long time there are 2 types of musicians; those that have to do it and those
that can afford to. I'm in the latter camp.

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maeon3
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