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As a UK music blogger I suspect SOPA (if passed) could affect me. Trouble is I don't know how... We avoid piracy (to our knowledge) and attempt to 'play by the rules' but will SOPA close the US to us?
I've not been following the coverage that closely, could someone from across the pond give some advice?
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how it will affect you:
in very basic way:
- directly via domain registration. (if you have .com, or other moniker registered in US based company)
- indirectly it will ask ISP to cut off domain name into US isp servers. (US readers can't reach you)
piracy or not, as most music blogs know, it will be run by robot/dumb corrupt dirt bags and they will shoot randomly, ask question later. You won't have any resource or willingness to fight a complex cross atlantic take down.
as of now, the bill is still weeks being debated and voted. It is fairly secretive and the debate so far has not been transparent, rumor abound. Since everybody online knows how these criminals work, it's pretty much high alert.
If the bill pass in the most draconian form, expect huge internet war, people will start attacking this and that. (Hey if one gonna get closed down, might as well go down with a fight and bring down the other guy for score settling.)
second people will seek new way to bypass domain name system. (basically breaks the internet as we know it)
but this is all still open. but the bottom line, internet as we know it is over. sooner or later SOPA/PIPA will pas in the next 5 years in one form or another. So somebody has to tackle this in fundamental way, at internet protocol level.
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FAQ
What is the intent of SOPA/PROTECT IP?
The stated intent of the bills is to provide tools for law
enforcement and copyright holders to protect their intellectual property
rights.
What’s wrong with protecting copyrights?
Nothing! The devil, as they say, is in the details. PROTECT
IP and SOPA will cause too much collateral damage, have a high
potential for abuse, and won't even be that effective at stopping the
crimes they target. Read alienth's examination of where these bills fail.
I'm not in the U.S. Why does this affect me?
Many of the sites that you may use (e.g. Google, Facebook,
Wikipedia, etc.) are all affected by this law and will be required to
hide offending domains from you.
If a non-U.S. site is blocked in the U.S., the site could
suffer financially or even be bankrupted by the loss of U.S. traffic and
revenue.
What are the differences between PROTECT IP and SOPA?
At a general level, the bills are very similar. SOPA, the
"Stop Online Piracy Act," is from the House of Representatives, while
the PROTECT IP Act is from the Senate. Either or both bills may pass a
vote in their chamber of congress on their way to becoming law. Both
must be defeated to end this threat. There have recently been more
detailed explanations in an ELI5 thread and alienth's blog post.
What about ACTA?
The Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement, or ACTA, is a
multi-national agreement with similar goals to the U.S.-only PROTECT IP
and SOPA bills. It is criticized for many of the same reasons that
PROTECT IP and SOPA are, but is also concerning because it has been
drafted in secret. ACTA is not the focus of this blackout but please
take the time to learn more about ACTA.
I'm not a U.S. citizen. How can I help?
You can still call or e-mail the U.S. representatives
(sponsors of the bills would be a good choice). However, you may want to
turn your attention more towards ACTA or other over-zealous copyright
bills in your country.
When will reddit be back? What should I do when it comes back?
reddit will return to normal service at 8 PM EST (0100
UTC). While our protest is temporary in nature, PROTECT IP and SOPA are
not. Continue to pay attention and join the conversation in /r/SOPA when reddit returns.
More answers
Check out the /r/SOPA Community FAQ.
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The Sacred Texts
Much of this post will be focusing on Title 1, Sections 101, 102, and
103 of SOPA; and Sections 2, 3, and 4 of PROTECT IP. I hope to make the
impact of these bills clear, however you shouldn't just blindly trust
me. Here are links to the current versions of the bills provided by
Library of Congress and the Government Printing Office.- PROTECT IP (Senate) AKA Preventing Real Online Threats to Economic Creativity and Theft of Intellectual Property Act of 2011
- Stop Online Piracy Act (House)
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@SGTMTWill SOPA close UK music blogs to the US? It could.All the entertainment companies have to do is allege that your site commits piracy and they can get your site blocked to US users under SOPA.Just like how it tends not to be worthwhile to host your site on Blogger because alleged infringement means a takedown - this time it wouldn't matter where you host as the censorship would be done on a DNS level.In reality, if you play by the rules then you *probably* won't be affected, the problem is - the mistakes we've all seen of one arm of a label giving you an mp3 to give away and then the other arm sending you a C&D - would now be replaced by your site being blocked to US users.SOPA creates a censorship system available to the highest lobbyist, which in my book puts its almost worse than the Great Firewall of China. We've gone dark in response even though we too are UK-based.
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If any of you wish to black out their website in protest here's a javascript or an url redirect that you can use:
http://sopastrike.com/#how-to-strike
Visit: http://www.moteldemoka.com as an example of how it will look like for the next 24 hours.
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We couldn't get the javascript to work for reasons unknown, so we went with a Wordpress plugin. There are a ton of them available for anyone who had a similar issue.
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UPDATE: Jonathan Weisman reports
that John Cornyn now opposes the bill. So that’s 16. The key here is
that the Tea Party opposes the legislation, which means we could see a
rush to the exits from Republicans over the next several days.UPDATE II: Make it 17, with Senator Mark Kirk’s opposition. I’m going to mark it down now: the cloture vote next week won’t get to 60.
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Look at who is dropping support for SOPA."I'm withdrawing my co-sponsorship for the Protect IP Act," said Sen. Roy Blunt, a Missouri Republican.
Sen. John Boozman, an Arkansas Republican, "will be
withdrawing his name as a co-sponsor" of Protect IP, a spokesman told
CNET today. Fellow Protect IP co-sponsor Sen. James Risch, an Idaho Republican,
said today that he wants "more time to re-examine the legislation
before going to a vote" and has asked staff for a detailed briefing, a
spokesman said.And Sen. Orrin Hatch, the Utah Republican who has
long been a close ally of Hollywood on copyright and is up for
re-election this year, said on Twitter that "I will not only vote
against moving the bill forward next week but also remove my
co-sponsorship of the bill." [...]Rep. John Carter, a Texas Republican who is listed
as a SOPA sponsor, "reserves judgment on the final bill," a spokesman
told CNET today. "He's certainly not saying pass the bill as-is -- there
are legitimate concerns in this bill." SOPA sponsor Tim Griffin, an
Arkansas Republican, now says: "I will not support a bill unless my constituents are comfortable with it."If you keep reading that story, the Democrats listed all remain
adamant that they'll remain co-sponsors of the legislation but work to
"fix it".Bullshit.
It's been a while since we've seen Democrats this tone deaf, this oblivious to political reality.
http://www.dailykos.com/story/2012/01/18/1056100/-SOPA,-and-the-idiocy-of-Democrats
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btw, one thing I notice, not a single artist/big names entertainer represents/make big noise about SOPA. I guess they learn not to piss off fan online. digital angry mob can be a serious hassle.
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- In the House, Speaker John Boehner declared that SOPA lacks consensus, and thus would need to significantly reworked before it went anywhere:"Listen, this bill is in committee," Boehner said. "It’s had
a number of hearings. It went through a markup, and it’s pretty clear
to many of us that there’s a lack of consensus at this point. And I
would expect the committee to continue its work to try to build a
consensus before this bill moves." - In the Senate, the number of opponents to PIPA rose from 15 to 37,
while the number of supporters dropped from 39 to 33, according to the Open Congress whip count.
Further, several senators who are listed as either supporters or
undecided have released statements in the past few hours calling for
changes in PIPA. Among those making such statements are Sens. Daniel Akaka (D-HI), Michael Bennet (D-CO), Kirsten Gillibrand (D-NY) and Patty Murray (D-WA).
What this all means is that yesterday's massive protest defeated both
bills as currently written. That is truly remarkable, given that
Protect IP unanimously passed the Senate Judiciary Committee last year.They gonna break it to pieces and try to scatter the bits in differences bills. Rest assure the totality remains the same at the end of the day. watch out.
Unless somebody find something that really hurt (boycott movie/music/products) they are not going to stop.
- In the House, Speaker John Boehner declared that SOPA lacks consensus, and thus would need to significantly reworked before it went anywhere:
-
James Losey from the New America Foundation sez, "Great news, the
PROTECT-IP Senate vote scheduled for Tuesday has been postponed!"
Washington, D.C. – Nevada Senator Harry Reid [ed: D-NV, Senate Majority
Leader] released the following statement today on the Senate’s PROTECT
I.P. Act: "In light of recent events, I have decided to postpone
Tuesday’s vote on the PROTECT I.P. Act..."http://boingboing.net/2012/01/20/senate-postpones-pipa-vote.html
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Mashable:
"Lamar Smith, the chief sponsor of SOPA, said on Friday that he is
pulling the bill 'until there is wider agreement on a solution.' ... and
... “'In light of recent events, I have decided to postpone Tuesday’s
vote on the PROTECT IP Act,' said Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid
(D-Nev.) in a statement Friday morning."
http://boingboing.net/2012/01/20/sopa-is-dead.html
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Sopa and Pipa bills postponed in US Congress
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After protest, Congress puts off movie piracy bill
The demise, at least for the time being, of the anti-piracy bills was
a clear victory for Silicon Valley over Hollywood, which has campaigned
for a tougher response to online piracy. The legislation also would
cover the counterfeiting of drugs and car parts.Congress' qualms underscored how Internet users can use their collective might to block those who want to change the system.
http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5iSlylAUCA11il9arPjOx-43GF0Fw
It's time to knive movie industry, just like the large labels.
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On Wednesday, as Republican lawmakers abandoned SOPA and PIPA in droves,
Democrats clung desperately to the legislation demanded by their
entertainment industry donors. Among the most vocal defenders of the dangerous internet-censorship bill was New York Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand, who posted on her Facebook page:Thank you for all your messages regarding Protect IP. I
agree there are real concerns with the current legislation & I’m
working to make important changes to the bill. We must work to strike a
balance between ending online piracy to protect New York jobs &
ensuring Internet freedom so our tech community can continue to
flourish.In other words, she was saying, "we'll keep tinkering, but I'm not abandoning this bill."
But with Republicans abandoning the bill, effectively killing it,
Democrats were left holding this stinker of a bill, and inevitably, they
had no choice but to start abandoning it. And today, we just heard that next week's Senate vote has been indefinitely postponed.Now that the bill is essentially dead, Gillibrand wants to play the hero, writing on her Facebook page:
While many of my colleagues and I have worked hard to
address concerns with the current bill, it is clear this proposal will
not create consensus on how to crack down on the real problem of online
theft that threatens tens of thousands of New York jobs in a balanced
way that ensures our tech companies will continue to flourish. It is
time for Congress to take a step back and start over with both sides
bringing their solutions to the table to find common ground towards
solving this problem.She wants Congress to step back! Except Congress already
stepped back. At that point, she was left the choice of being a
dead-ender, or pretending that she had some role in killing the bill in
its current form. -
Be wary, people. Just because SOPA in it's physical form is dead doesn't
mean that the ideas and issues it presented are. It could simply go back
to the workbench, be belted out in slightly different wording and have a new name on it and we'd still be facing the same problems.Everyone is trying to save face. The weight of the internet came down
upon them the other day and they are now realizing the effects that we,
the potential victims of their shoddy legislation have on their
survival in politics. Don't let them forget this battle. Don't let them
forget what they've pledged to do to the web, with blatant disregard for
the sanctity of the internet and it's denizens.This is exactly right. They've been at this for years, quite literally. In 2010, the bill was called COICA.
The same people rehashed it later the next year and renamed it PIPA. We
don't know what they'll call it next, but it's going to show up again
in one form or another, so we need to always remain vigilant.[–]WanderingStoner 61 points 1 hour ago
H.R.1981, the Protecting Children From Internet Pornographers Act of 2011.
http://www.reddit.com/r/politics/comments/op5su/sopa_is_dead_smith_pulls_bill/
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Chris Dodd to Obama: Hollywood will stop supporting you because you were soft on SOPA and PIPA
Former Senator Chris Dodd, now head of the MPAA, is pissed at Obama.
He's threatened to withhold entertainment lobbyist money from Obama's
upcoming re-election war chest over the administration's lack of support
for SOPA and PIPA. As an ex-Senator, Dodd is prohibited from directly
lobbying Congress for a couple more years, and some insiders tell me he
feels that this hamstrung his efforts because he couldn't sit down over
lunch with lawmakers who directly owed him personal favors and demand
that they stay firm on SOPA and PIPA.
"Candidly, those who count on quote 'Hollywood' for support need to
understand that this industry is watching very carefully who's going to
stand up for them when their job is at stake," Dodd told Fox News.
"Don't ask me to write a check for you when you think your job is at
risk and then don't pay any attention to me when my job is at stake."---------------------------
The level of corruption is amazing.
-
Here are some messages you can tweet
http://www.buythevote.org/projects/SopaPipa/congress/dianne-feinstein--ca-senatorTweet It Message Senator Dianne Feinstein, I think you should give back $54,750 in media industry funds before voting on PIPA #buythevote #pipa Senator Dianne Feinstein, took $54,750 from the Media Industry, $-1,048 more than the average Senate member #buythevote #pipa Senator Dianne Feinstein, If money is an issue, I'll donate $dd for you to represent citizens instead of corporations and lobbyists #buythevote #pipa
http://boingboing.net/2012/01/21/sopapipa-mashup-how-much-hol.html
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1. The internet has become the new Social Security. It has it’s own
broad-based constituency and much like Social Security, people will
become politically active if they believe politicians will try to get
rid of it.2. Most people in Congress still don’t get the internet, and I’m not going to be a partisan because the Democrats were arguably worse
on this issue than the Republicans. Honestly, I still think most people
in the political establishment still see the internet as just another
mechanism for raising money. They still don’t realize that the internet
has become an incredible tool for grassroots activism despite the
success of the Tea Party and Occupy Wall street.3. This is pretty much the end of the content industry (including
Hollywood). The internet has nearly destroyed their tried and true
business models for content, and they still haven’t figure out a way to
adjust to this new digital environment. The political system was the
last tool they had to stop or delayed the internet’s growing power. But
if they can’t even rely on the politicians to save them, then they’re
really screwed in the long run.http://www.dailykos.com/story/2012/01/21/1056935/-Reaction-to-the-end-of-SOPA-PIPA?via=siderecent
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MPAA Directly & Publicly Threatens Politicians Who Aren't Corrupt Enough To Stay Bought
from the sickening dept
Reinforcing the fact that Chris Dodd really does not get
what's happening, and showing just how disgustingly corrupt the MPAA
relationship is with politicians, Chris Dodd went on Fox News to explicitly threaten politicians who accept MPAA campaign donations that they'd better pass Hollywood's favorite legislation... or else:
"Those who count on quote 'Hollywood' for support need to understand
that this industry is watching very carefully who's going to stand up
for them when their job is at stake. Don't ask me to write a check for
you when you think your job is at risk and then don't pay any attention
to me when my job is at stake,"
This certainly follows what many people assumed was happening, and fits with the anonymous comments from studio execs that they will stop contributing
to Obama, but to be so blatant about this kind of corruption and
money-for-laws politics in the face of an extremely angry public is a
really, really, really tone deaf response from Dodd.
http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20120120/14472117492/mpaa-directly-publicly-threatens-politicians-who-arent-corrupt-enough-to-stay-bought.shtml
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ESA Tucks Its Tail Between Its Legs And Pulls SOPA Support
from the can't-be-unpopular dept
The
SOPA protests certainly seem to be having their desired effect. We have
already seen both SOPA and PIPA shelved, while support within the House
and Senate is eroding fast. And now that support is eroding outside
Congress, as well. The ESA is the first industry trade group to see the
writing on the wall and has now pulled its support of SOPA and PIPA. Sadly, it seems that this statement rings hollow.
From the beginning, ESA has been committed to the passage of balanced
legislation to address the illegal theft of intellectual property found
on foreign rogue sites.
If the ESA was interested in a balanced approach to the issue of
copyright infringement, it would have been looking somewhere other than
SOPA and PIPA. We have documented repeatedly that this legislation was
far from balanced. From the writing of the legislation, to debating the
legislation, to amending the legislation. No one other than supporters
of the legislation were given the time of day. None of the opposition's
concerns were addressed. Balanced legislation would have been where more
than one side had a voice.
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A petition to the White House asks for an official investigation of former senator and now-MPAA CEO Chris Dodd, who strongly implied that he believes his members' contributions to election campaigns are bribes.
“This is an open admission of bribery and a threat designed to provoke a
specific policy goal. This is a brazen flouting of the ‘above the law’
status people of Dodd’s position and wealth enjoy,” the petition reads.
“We demand justice. Investigate this blatant bribery and indict every
person, especially government officials and lawmakers, who is involved.”
In just a few hours the petition amassed more than 5,000 [ed: now 6,000]
votes and this number is increasing rapidly. As a former Senator, Chris
Dodd has many friends in Washington so it’s unclear whether the
petition will accomplish anything, but if the numbers grow big enough
the White House won’t be able to ignore it either.http://boingboing.net/2012/01/23/petition-investigate-chris-do.html
Not going to happen. Dodd is a party elder. He can do whatever he wants. He pays his dues and he is enjoying his retirement by fucking the country and milking it.
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Hey Reddit! This is EFF's activism team (Rainey Reitman, Eva Galperin,
Trevor Timm, and Parker Higgins).
Reddit was one of the first online communities to realize SOPA and PIPA
were horrible, bad, terrible ideas (even worse than ice-soap), and we
wanted to say thanks for all you did in protest.Whether it was pressuring Go Daddy to switch sides, convincing
members of Congress to do the same, or being the first website to
announce you'd black out on January 18th, your actions clearly had a
major impact in the debate.So we made you a present: http://imgur.com/IPoHW
Obligatory legal disclaimer: We can't offer legal advice, so please
don’t give us the specifics about any legal problems in your public
posting. Sorry! But if you do have a specific legal issue, here’s a link to our page about getting legal help from EFF. There also may be cases we are involved in we may not be able to comment on.But other than that, ask us anything!
EDIT: Staff attorneys Marcia Hofmann and Julie Samuels, and our legal intake coordinator Mark Jaycox, are also going to make cameo appearances throughout the day.
EDIT 2: Wow, thanks for the amazing response, folks! We're taking a short break, but we'll be back in an hour to answer more.
EDIT 3: Thanks to everyone for the great questions and kind words. For the many who asked: here is info on how you can become a member, how to donate, how to volunteer, or how to help EFF in any way you can, as we fight to keep the Internet free.
We had a great time and would love to come back if Reddit will have us. Let's say same time, same place, 3-4 months from now?
http://www.reddit.com/r/IAmA/comments/ot98v/hey_reddit_were_the_activism_team_at_eff_thanks/
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Reddit PAC aims to kick SOPA's daddy Lamar Smith out of Congress
Mike sez, "With the Texas Primaries coming up in May, I thought you
would be interested to know that some of the Redditors that were
involved in the boycott on GoDaddy.com and 'Operation Pull Ryan' (where
Reddit raised money for Rep. Paul Ryan's opponent), have started
TestPAC, a non-connected, registered PAC, with the goal of defeating
Lamar Smith in the Republican Primaries."
You'll remember Lamar Smith from such stupid Internet laws as SOPA and
the Protecting Children from Internet Pornographers Act of 2011 (AKA
"the Spy on Everyone Always Act"). He's a 25-year incumbent and a
powerful committee chairman. And he's kind of a tool.http://www.reddit.com/r/technology/comments/qosmd/reddit_pac_aims_to_kick_sopas_daddy_lamar_smith/
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