The House of Representatives is currently considering the bill “Stop Online Piracy Act,” (SOPA) which would infringe upon the freedom we currently enjoy on the Internet.
SOPA is so controversial — EFF calls it “disastrous” — because it would force changes to the Domain Name System and effectively create a blacklist of Internet domains suspected of intellectual property violations
Those against SOPA include Google, Facebook, Wikipedia, and hundreds of Internet start-up companies. Those opposed to the bill have described it in dark terms:
SOPA is an “Internet blacklist bill” that “would allow corporations, organizations, or the government to order an internet service provider to block an entire website simply due to an allegation that the site posted infringing content.”
The House is also attempting to silence criticism of the bill by presenting a skewed hearing:
Rep. Lofgren from California said during this morning’s hearing that it was a mistake for SOPA’s backers to dismiss criticism from people and companies who would be affected by it.
“It hasn’t generally been the policy of this committee to dismiss the views of the industries that we’re going to regulate,” Lofgren said. “I understand why cosponsors of this legislation aren’t happy about widespread criticism of this bill,” but attacking the messenger isn’t the answer.
Lofgren also accused Smith, the panel’s chairman, of deliberately stacking the composition of the panel in favor of SOPA. Of the six witnesses invited, “five are in favor and one is against,” she said. “That’s not a balanced panel.”
Is Internet piracy a problem? Of course. Is this the way to handle it? Absolutely not.
OK, what is the way to handle it?
I am open to the idea that this isn't it, but I am also well aware that a lot of people simply don't want Internet piracy stopped and will howl and yibber about "censorship" at any approach that looks like it might work.
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseWe'll let you know when someone proposes something that isn't basically a Trojan Horse to crush the Internet.
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseYou SEEM to have only learned enough to be able to bag on the cause. I'd like to point out that any site they see that contains ANYTHING they don't like will be blocked. Including Facebook. Including countless sites made by honest people who maybe just want a hobby, or even some people whose job is designing websites. Also, the net could be weakened by people circumnavigating the block. AND simply the potential for those put in charge messing up, and going outside the provided rights even more than the bill itself.
I wonder, would a email or pm be detected and read, which is against decent privacy, and used as foundation to block the email provider?
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseThey already read and detect your email and pm. Remember the Patriot Act?
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseBureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, Explosives and Internet
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseWho said it needs to be handled?
I believe that people are alive to make decisions for themselves. And if any part of the Internet content is regulated by Congress, you and I can certainly say goodbye to Free Speech.
Reply to this commentLinkReport Abusewow.. finally an intelligent comment on this page...
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseUh, those whose intellectual property rights are repeatedly and blatantly violated say that. This isn't about being able to "make decisions for yourself", it's about being able to steal work other people did without paying for it.
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbusePeople steal cars too. Should we solve that in the same way?
How far should we censor the Internet to keep their intellectual property from being stolen?
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseWhat would be "the same way" of stopping people from stealing cars? I am fuzzy enough on this law that it's hard for me to see what the same way would be. I'd say the government should come down pretty hard on used car lots that are found to regularly carry stolen cars and *wink, wink, nudge nudge* "didn't know" they were stolen. What would you say?
What sort of censorship of the Internet are we discussing here? Other than blatantly exposing copyrighted material, I can't think of any statement I would want to censor that isn't already censored.
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseThis is just an attempt to seize our 1st Amendment rights. Stop this bill now!
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseI can't believe we're even entertaining anything Congress has to say. They won't pass a jobs bill, they won't pass a health care bill but they want to consider passing a bill to police the Internet. What kind of idiots are we to let this kind of behavior continue form elected officials who have jobs and health care that we subsidize. If American companies would hire American workers, pay decent wages and benefits, we could have disposable income to spend on goods and services, ie. we don't have time to play on the computer. As it stands now, if folks don't have jobs and they can't get sex they go to the Internet for fun. Talk about kicking a guy when he's down.
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseUm, Congress did pass a health care bill and did pass a jobs bill, and 9.0% has been the result. I'd be more worried about what Congress can pass than what they haven't.
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseAmen slokes
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseYour statement would be correct if this was the same congress that passed the ACAPP but that would have been the 111th Congress that passed Health Care this Congress the 112th has done nothing to create jobs and only wants to cut jobs. We need Congress to run another stimulus bill that rebuilds our failing infrastructure which will have a multiplier affect for putting more people to work at the same tax rate which will result in more revenue coming into the Fed which will be used to pay the interest on the deficit.
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseYou have to be a liberal progressive....as you don't know the law or the composition of congress...here let me educate you....I will type slowly so you will understand....congress has two houses..the representatives and senate the representatives has passed about 15 jobs bills ...they were not voted on by the senate.....they passed a budget each year the republicans were in power, the senate has not....the senate is run by the liberal progressive denocrats...so that takes care of your first dumb remark...the second one is just as dumb....ask Obama why he wants us to bring forigein companies to build plants here but won't let Boeing build a plant in a non union state or build the pipeline from Canada to Texas...between just those two, that's about 40,000 jobs....and just so your education is well rounded...check with the left coast (read liberal) movie and film and the music(read liberal) industry and why they are pushing this?OK we done here !!!....oh and I do agree with you they shouldn't be trying to pass this type of bill but I ask what would you tell the film people and the musicians about their goods being stolen...????
Reply to this commentLinkReport Abuse"The real problem is special interest money, It should be considered treason to accept it because it allows outside entities to control our Politicians, our laws and our very way of life. Take the profit out of Government and our elective officials will represent the ones who voted them in and not the ones that bought there souls !!!!!"
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseDespite what you may think, the Senate is not run by "liberal progressive Democrats." All you have to do is look at their voting records to see that the Democrats are merely a very loyal "opposition" to Republicans.
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseObama is not stopping the building of the Keystone XL tar sands pipeline - there were over 100 mayors of cities that the pipeline would be going through who complained. Democrats like Hillary Clinton has stated that she is inclined to approve the pipeline. And, word has it that the US won't even see a drop of the final product that would result from the slurry that would be sent through the pipeline from Canada.
As for the media outlets, try looking up the concentration of media ownership. The majority of the music industry is owned by 3 corporations (SonyBMG, Universal and Warner); the majority of television news outlets is dominated by 4 corporations (News Corp., TimeWarner, NBCUniversal [51% owned by Comcast, 49% owned by General Electric] and the Walt Disney Company); and the majority of the movie companies are controlled by 6 corporations (TimeWarner, Viacom, News Corporation, Walt Disney, Sony Pictures Entertainment and Comcast/General Electric. 4 of those 6 major movie companies are on the East Coast (Disney is the only one fully based in Southern California while Sony Pictures Entertainment, which has its headquarters in Culver City, CA has its parent company's headquarters in Tokyo, Japan). The heads of each of those corporations are well known arch-conservatives, so don't give me any of that "liberal media bias" nonsense. If they were liberal, as you would like to paint them, we would not see bills such as this. This is the type of bill that you see when you have someone that is afraid of losing their financial dominance over everything they can get power over.
Any politician supporting this should be prepared to lose their job next midterm.
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseIf congress passes this, then we will know that there are no republicans or democrats.
Just the haves and the have nots.
We will be the have nots...
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