Sopa Bill

SOPA: Bill, That Could Kill The Internet :

While the U.S. government House Judiciary Committee hearing on the proposed start-stop online piracy law (SOPA), as well as supporters and opponents are spreading their campaigns, with big names get involved. And, as it should. SOPA stakes are high as the future of the Internet itself.
SOPA The main problem is trying to break the copyright holder of any relationship between the website of online advertising networks, or service credit card processing, simply by pointing your finger. As Ars Technica explains:Call his plan a "market-system to protect customers from the United States and to prevent U.S. funding of websites dedicated to American property theft," the new bill gives broad powers to private actors. Each holder of intellectual property rights can simply send a letter to the operators ad network like Google and payment processors such as MasterCard, Visa and PayPal, requiring the companies to deny access to all IP site owner names are offensive.
Sopa Bill
As long as the holders of intellectual property include some "specific facts" supporting their violation, ad networks and payment processors will have five days to cut contact with this site.
Bill also gives the government the power to obtain prescription foreign websites that would force an ISP, within five days, "does not reach its subscribers are in the United States of violating foreign site." In essence, requires service providers to break its own DNS server, filtering or re-directing users who are trying to get the site of the accused. It also prohibits any tools that allow circumvention of the blocks.

It does not take a genius to see how this can be abused: an injured party to blame the accident site, with or without credible evidence, and all of a sudden, the site will no longer accept credit cards or PayPal payments, and its advertising revenue dries completely. And we know that the IP industry is not above false accusations of copyright infringement. It's not just corporate websites, which may be in danger, but also many open source projects.
Opponents now include companies like Google, Facebook, Zynga, eBay, Twitter, Yahoo!, AOL and LinkedIn, which together have sent a letter as defenders of the Electronic Frontier Foundation, Reporters Without Borders and Human Rights Watch, and eleven members of the House of Representatives, also wrote a letter to House Judiciary Committee. Another letter from human rights groups like the India Center for Internet and Society and the Church of Sweden.

There are also complaints that the House Judiciary Committee to try to push the legislation through too hastily. PCWorld says:

Critics of the law have also complained that the U.S. House of Representatives Judiciary Committee appears to be accelerating the bill before the opposition can build. In a. Wednesday's hearing to 10 hours, five of the six witnesses are likely to speak in favor of the soup, with Google only opposition's witnesses Motion Picture Association of America, the Union of the AFL-CIO and the pharmaceutical company Pfizer have expressed support for the project.

No public interest groups, Internet engineers and human rights organizations have been invited to the hearing, said Gigi Sohn, president of Public Knowledge, a digital rights group. "This is really taking, without a broad public debate," he said.

Yes, the tone of the committee called Sheet, which outlines a series of "myths" and the desire to "facts", since it implies that they have already decided which side of the fence, they will land. It is also disturbing is that the US Copyright Office - as part of the Library of Congress, would be expected to be impartial and evidence led - could offer a "full approval":

"And 'My opinion is that if Congress does not extend to serious answers to online piracy, the U.S. Copyright Act of the system fails in the end," [Copyright Office Director Mary] Pallas said certificate.

Pallante and representatives of Pfizer, the Motion Picture Association of America, AFL-CIO and Mastercard, which supported the bill, is testimony tomorrow before the Parliament Committee on Legal Affairs.

Americans complain that the latest move to control the content on the Internet is a letter writing campaign to encourage people to contact Congress. Not Americans, Avaaz has established the Save the Internet petition, which currently has 70 000 signatures and is making hundreds of new signatures every minute.

There is no doubt that the tech journalists, supporters of free software and digital rights advocates and Internet businesses around the world will be glued to the coverage of the judicial hearing today. But given the strength of the arms industry lobbying of copyright, it is difficult to expect discussions to be satisfactory. It may just be that the entire Internet will rely on the strength of the US Constitution, which Sopa may be contrary to save it.


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