I didn’t take part in the Internet blackout today, as I’m a lazy sod and also I’m just back at work after a very hard weeks drinking. However I would note that as many many people have observed:
- This is very similar to our RIPA act, but from a country with more power to break stuff
- It’s utterly pointless, and won’t stop serious piracy in anyway
- It will result in an awful lot of collateral damage
- It will have a chilling effect and be trivial to be misused
I’d also predict that if it did come to pass then it wouldn’t be applied in the reverse direction to take off line large companies that steal content from smaller on-line artists and content providers. As one of the fundamental shifts which big media is fighting is that anyone can now be a content provider and they’ve actually got to compete on quality*
However unless this move is protested and every move like it sooner or later this sort of censorship at the behest of large media will come to pass and we’ll all be back to the walled garden days of AOL and the internet as a creative environment, medium for the free exchange of ideas and innovative business will cease to be (in the US at least). The problem with the US proposals is the same as we had with RIPA in that it allows for the blocking and removal of content before any proof of infringement, instead the blocked site has to prove it didn’t infringe (roughly speaking).
For far better summations of what the problem is with the legislation, let me pass you over to providers of original content over on the other side of the pond where they’re proposing this stuff Wondermark:
“What’s likely to happen?
• What burglars there are, will take another route. (SOPA/PIPA do not target pirates, but rather sites that link to alleged piracy. Real pirates can easily sidestep the restrictions.)
• Law-abiding business trucks, scared of the dynamite, will ALSO take another route. (The huge legal and financial burden of compliance with the new law will discourage startups, stifling independent businesses based in the United States.)
br/>• The dynamite is likely to go off whenever the trigger person sees anybody who looks slightly suspicious — burglar or not. (Claims of “piracy” could be used as a weapon against websites to silence them for competitive or political reasons.)
Despite the fact that nobody in Congress can agree on health care, the budget, or anything else, bought-and-paid-for politicians from both sides of the aisle have lined up to defend these bills. It’s pretty disgusting. Movie piracy is simply not more important than the safety and integrity of the entire Internet, which is my whole livelihood.”
Also in case you needed more convincing even Hitler is against it!**
Actually even more convincing than Hitler the MPAA oppose the SOPA protests and support the legislation.
* lets face it look how many remakes and re-imaginings etc. there are in the mainstream media, they’re churning out the same level of rip off’s as the internet but on a bigger budget.
** That mashup could result in the whole on YouTube being taken down under the proposed SOPA/PIPA laws.
