The whole SOPA thing

[Dog Pants]

I imagine most of us have heard about this by now, and in our social circles at least it's considered to be a bad thing. The common rhetoric is that the Stop Internet Piracy Act gives the entertainment industry the power to sue any site which contains copyrighted media, and/or horse service providers to shut them down. While intended to combat torrent sites (which incidentally it will only hinder by blocking DNS, they can still be reached by IP), the act doesn't distinguish between piracy orientated sites and normal sites containing user posted material not intended to challenge any copyright. So in theory the US entertainment industry would have the power to shut down any site with user posted content. Yes, that includes this one.

A lot of sites (RPS, Boing Boing, Reddit, Wikipedia, for example) are closing up today in protest. That hasn't been discussed here, and I think most of us know about it anyway so we wouldn't achieve anything that this post doesn't. It makes me wonder though, won't this just horse the controlling entities of the internet outside the US? Other countries can host DNS servers, in fact the very nature of the internet is that it's an interconnection. Those servers could be hosted anywhere, and if SOPA goes through and is as disruptive to the internet as we know it then surely simple consumer desire will move services outside the US where they can be relied on not to be shut down?

Maybe I've got the wrong idea somewhere, if so someone please explain.

[Grimmie]

SOPA has been shut off now, but the Protect IP Act (PIPA) still has some movement in it.
http://wikimediafoundation.org/wiki/Eng ... A_blackout

I can't recall the exact details, but I think the bill stipulates that you can't then use copyrighted media hosted in foreign websites, so they get around that little loop hole quite quickly.

It would mean things like Tumblr would be shut off, Youtube would be heavily policed, and as you said, yes, 5punk could potentially be banned in the US.

[Joose]

SOPA has hit a stumbling block, but it's far from dead, afaik.

[FatherJack]

Not sure how it would affect us particularly, as we're hosted in the US, but the worrying thing for any site with user created-content (ie: posts) is that any single one linking to contraband sites (including sites which were perhaps hacked and went rogue after you linked them) gets the whole domain DNS blacklisted. That's too much power in the hands of people who only represent a tiny percentage of content-creators.

I don't think piracy should go unpunished, it's only fair people get paid for stuff they are selling after all, but I think they have enough powers to act in that area already - ie: it's illegal. Interfering with the DNS system isn't fixing the problem, it is simply pretending it's not there.

Edit: There is some other stuff about suspected infringers being barred from trading with US companies, perhaps blocking access to their paypal, advertising revenue or hosted services - possibly all because of a link some spammer posted in their blog. Who the hell is going to be able to police it? Companies like YouTube and Google spend millions of man-hours removing copyright violations as it is, and there aren't many others with resources to match them.

[Joose]

I think that is the biggest problem with SOPA/PIPA. I dont support piracy (I know, that might seem a little hypocritical for someone who sweeps tv shows like its going out of fashion, but lets not get into that debate), but these acts wont actually do shit to stop piracy. Most pirates are tech savvy enough to get around the things these bills would put into place quite easily, and those that are not will mostly know someone who does and can help them out. What it will do is make it extremely dangerous to have any kind of user generated content on your site. It will make it dead easy for a mild accidental whoopsie to cause a startup company to get pwned by bigger companies who dont want the competition. Like FJ says, it puts a lot of power into a small group of people. Do not want.

[Thompy]

Jeremy Vine (or his team) made a bit of a blunder talking about the Wikipedia black out. He was introducing his topics on the Ken Bruce show at 11:30 and said something to the effect of "Wikipedia has blanked out its site today - something to do with US laws, nothing particularly interesting - so we're asking do we rely on Wikipedia too much."

Perhaps shows how little awareness this has outside of people like ourselves who follow games/music/films etc on the internet on a regular basis.

[FatherJack]

Perhaps shows how little awareness this has outside of people like ourselves who follow games/music/films etc on the internet on a regular basis.

Or how little understanding they have of how US laws can affect us. It was probably meant as a glib remark though, as the BBC News website seems to have a better grasp, but it's probably the reaction most people have had today.

The internet isn't just America: http://root-servers.org/ but a lot of those are US-owned companies.

[Grimmie]

Even the people representing the games industry (who also host E3) in this mess are rooting for SOPA/PIPA. Mnngh.

[Dog Pants]

ESA are supporting it, but a great many of the companies they represent aren't. RPS have a big list of companies and organisations (in conjunction with Eurogamer I believe) who have publicly denounced it. What that says to me is that ESA are no longer representing the games industry, in this at the very least.

[buzzmong]

It's quite important both it and the PIOA don't pass.

I think not many people are aware that the Internet is actually administered from America (creation of domain suffixes and such, along with connection standards and protocols). Sure it's a government funded but independent organisation, but nonetheless, subject to 'merkin laws.

Although, if it does pass, what you'll see is the rise of the darknet to the point where it becomes the defacto norm for internet use, and darknets are MUCH harder to actually police.

[Thompy]

Yay.

And a somewhat related oops. Plus retaliation hacks.

Oooh it's all kicking off.

[Dog Pants]

It's great timing that Megauploads is taken down just as SOPA flounders. It shows that sites dedicated to piracy can be targeted without it. On the other hand, the rapid reappearance of it also shows that SOPA would be completely ineffective.

[spoodie]

It shows that sites dedicated to piracy can be targeted without it.

Is "dedicated" fair? I don't know, but it sounds bit a strong. I've certainly got copyrighted material from there and other places like it, rapidshare and mediafire (which still seem to exist), but I've also downloaded legitimate stuff from those sites as well. I don't like using them, but some people don't know how to or can't host files from less horrible sites.

/edit
And this is not the end for SOPA and PIPA style lawmaking. There's bound to be further attempts at legislation of this type in the not too distant future.

[Thompy]

They're also up against other criminal charges beside copyright infringement, have apparently been under investigation for a long time, and it's just one major site. I don't think it's true that current powers come close to matching what SOPA/PIPA would offer.

Obviously I'm not defending the bills, but as the common reaction to this is to assume it could be used against them, I thought it worth noting it might not be quite that simple.

[Dog Pants]

It shows that sites dedicated to piracy can be targeted without it.

Is "dedicated" fair? I don't know, but it sounds bit a strong. I've certainly got copyrighted material from there and other places like it, rapidshare and mediafire (which still seem to exist), but I've also downloaded legitimate stuff from those sites as well. I don't like using them, but some people don't know how to or can't host files from less horrible sites.

/edit
And this is not the end for SOPA and PIPA style lawmaking. There's bound to be further attempts at legislation of this type in the not too distant future.

Maybe dedicated isn't entirely fair in this case, compared to the likes of TPB, but they were at the very least implicit and very likely the only reason for their success. Of course you're right about other laws following SOPA/PIPA, and we all know they've only been stalled, but hopefully if something reasonable gets in the politicians would take less of an interest in pressure from the entertainment lobbyists. Personally I think both extremes of this argument are counter productive and I've no love for either.

[FatherJack]

Hackers taking down, or attempting to take down SOPA-supporting sites in retaliation only lends future, similar motions more traction. Many will see no irony and ask why should the authorities lack power, when hackers can take down any site they want right now?

Like Pants I have no love for either camp, I just want an internet where I can exchange uncensored views and buy things without having my financial details stolen, neither of which would be possible if either side had the internet they wanted.

[Roman Totale]

I don't understand what the big deal about SOPA is...

[spoodie]

People are going on about ACTA now. I don't know what that is, but I'm furious! I've got a video lined up to watch later to find out why I'm so furious.

In the meantime ...

[media]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Lz-l5HiJ3NY[/media]