Internet Piracy, for as long as it has been an issue, has been regarded as subversive to established methods of media distribution. A study done by the Institute for Policy Innovation (which the Recording Industry Association of America's anti-piracy Website makes sure to point out is credible ) places annual damages done by piracy at $12.5 billion, in addition to the loss of 70,000 jobs and $2 billion in lost wages to American workers.
The Stop Online Piracy Act (commonly known as SOPA), which was introduced in the House of Representatives by Lamar Smith (R-TX) in October, is just the latest in a series of legislation aimed at curtailing the prevalence of piracy.
If enacted, SOPA would legally allow the US government to prosecute so-called "rogue sites," which are file-sharing Websites based in countries with more lenient copyright infringement laws. Further, the bill would authorize court orders requiring Internet providers to monitor their customers' Internet activity and redirect users away from copyright-infringing sites.
Further opposition to the bill has been offered by the ACLU, the American Library Association (ALA), and former vice president Al Gore. The European Parliament has also come out in opposition to SOPA, recently resolving to stress "the need to protect the integrity of the global Internet and freedom of communication by refraining from unilateral measures to revoke IP addresses or domain names." (You can see a full list of opponents here.)
Opponents of the act believe it will cause significant collateral damage. They warn it will have a drastic negative impact on the functionality of the Internet, as well as prevent innovation by third-party and open-source developers, authorize invasion of privacy by Internet providers, and adversely affect numerous innocent Websites for petty instances of copyright infringement.
The act is also believed to pose a threat to Internet security in general, as the provision that allows for the investigation of a user's Internet activity is seen as incompatible with Domain Name System Security Extensions (DNSSEC).
The DNSSEC, which is a set of security improvements made by the Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF) , aims to prevent the redirection of Internet users to harmful Websites by using end-to-end encryption, requiring Websites to digitally sign their domain name entries. Think of it as a chain, where each link is verified and secured.
Representative Dan Lungren (R-CA), head of the Homeland Security Subcommittee on Cybersecurity, states that SOPA would effectively "undercut the real effort that would practically help us secure the Internet." Requiring Internet providers to redirect users away from Websites (or portions of Websites) that are alleged to be pirates comes into direct conflict with DNSSEC.
The House Judiciary Committee, which held hearings on the controversial bill on November 16 and December 15, is expected to continue debating the bill when it reconvenes from winter recess. In the meantime, I'll follow this post with another one on piracy and take a look at something investors want to know: What effect does piracy have on profit?
I would expect that congressional Republicans would take a wrongheaded position on SOPA. After all, they're probably just jealous that it was a Democrat in the person of Al Gore who "invented" the Internet, lol!
But it sounds like even the Republicans can't agree on the issue! Ironic, too, that it's a congressman from California who's poking holes in the bill (since Hollywood is a big, if not the only beneficiary of anti-piracy legislation) and a Texan who's sponsoring the legislation.
Hollywood, in the form of the Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA) has majorly supported SOPA, while Silicon Valley seems staunchly against it. The bill itself is receiving tons of Bipartisan support and opposition.
What are we going to do now? I think this is the only source for 99% of things in America these days.
Wikipedia will shut down for 24 hours Wednesday to protest the Stop Online Piracy Act, founder Jimmy Wales announced on Monday. In doing so, Wikipedia joins a long list of web companies such as Reddit and Mozilla that are taking similar measures against the proposed legislation.
Speaking of things wrong with the Internet -- Wikipedia, where none of the information can be confirmed, the site is very susceptible to hacks, many pages fall out of date, with no centralized quality control system.Yet any lazy person can attribute facts to it.
" Wikipedia is the best thing ever. Anyone in the world can write whatever they want about whatever subject, so you know that you are getting the best possible information. "
Based on my experience, WikiPedia provides the most unbiased opinions in many cases. Honda once had a wide spread transmission issue for its 5th generation (1999-2003) vechicles. Most professional websites (including Edmunds.com) and medias were silent about the issue for an extended period of time to save the ad revenue, even the issue was widely discussed in all auto forums. Wikipedia is the first website pointed out this issue, and helped a lot of consumers to make the smart choices. When money was involved, you just can't expect people to express their opinion unbiased.
Whenever you give this big companies some priviledges, they will abuse it some time later. One good example: the media company is granted to add the FBI copyright warning at a special segment of each DVD, which consumers can not skip. Later on, the media company added their new release trails to the same segment on the DVD, so consumers was forced to view the Ad before the start of the movie. The practice was stopped only by government's involvement.
You might be able to get some potentially factual information from Wikipedia, but you have to double-check it and you cannot rely on it as a single source. Also most of the information is derivative, quoted from somewhere else.
I agree that the fall out from SOPA may be worse than any benefit derived. It is like letting banks regulate cars because they are used very often in bank robberies. There are many more effective ways to combat priracy than to let an industry with a vested interest decide which websites we can use.
Say what you will about Wikipedia, but I wanted to pass along an interesting tip I just read. Apparently, there is a way to keep access to the site during the SOPA protest blackout planned for tomorrow.
I have NO idea how difficult or easy this workaround will turn out to be. Might be a WHOLE lot easier just to drive to a library. But if you're a non-principled, smart aleck tinkerer or if your 6th grader has waited until the last minute to tackle that report on the parts of human cell...
Here's what you get on the English version of Wikipedia today:
Imagine a World Without Free Knowledge
For over a decade, we have spent millions of hours building the largest encyclopedia in human history. Right now, the U.S. Congress is considering legislation that could fatally damage the free and open Internet. For 24 hours, to raise awareness, we are blacking out Wikipedia. Learn more.
As the SOPA/PIPA protest boycott starts to spread, the BBC has put together an interesting visual tour of the censored web. Check it out...while you still can!
Cult online comic The Oatmeal said that this attempt to stop piracy was "like dealing with a liion that has escaped from the zoo by blasting some kittens with a flamethrower."
Can't imagine a better quote to start my day off with
The editorial staff of Consumerist would like to let you know that we have chosen to suspend our normal coverage so that we can bring you news, information, and opinion concerning the proposed SOPA/PIPA legislation and why Consumers Union, the advocacy arm of Consumer Reports and Consumerist, is against it.
Some good news in the SOPA situation. It appears that, 3 days before the posting of this article, the portion of the act that allowed DNS filtering was removed. At the very least, our crippled internet will be safe.
Yes, but...(there is always a but Joey)
Yes, the legislation’s House and Senate backers said they’d review a controversial provision that would de-list rogue sites from the Domain Name System (DNS). However, they haven’t abandoned these provisions — they just want more time to study them. The Senate bill is still scheduled for a vote next week. As Sen. Ron Wyden (D-Ore.) pointed out yesterday, it’s premature to write an obituary for SOPA and PIPA.
Subtext: Congressmen need more time to meet with Disney, Viacom, and News Corp. Lobbyists.
I cannot believe the media industry still thinks the solution is to lock up the Internet. You would have thought they had learned something from what happened to the music industry?
Does anybody use Napster anymore? No, because it became so easy to buy and transfer music content that people now do it legally. They grew the market. And Apple's making the most money because the music industry was afraid to do the right thing in the beginning and traded away all their negotiating power.
Enforcement actions like this will stop internet piracy at about the same level as naval regulations have stopped sea piracy, which has remained a problem for centuries.
In a recent blog post titled "Digital Content: The Half-Full Glass," Wharton legal studies and business ethics professor Kevin Werbach notes that SOPA and PIPA ignore the "great Internet success story" of authorized digital-content distribution.
"Reading [these bills], one would think that no one pays for digital content," Werbach writes. "Yet we know empirically that the market is thriving. Anecdotally, too. Ask a roomful of college students if they've obtained digital content through unauthorized means. Every hand might go up. Then ask whether they also pay for those very same forms of content. You could get the same response."
Werbach cites Apple, Hulu, Netflix and Pandora, among others, as examples of companies that are "monetizing digital content in unique, creative ways, while sending licensing fees back to the record labels and other content owners. Even licensed mobile ringtones are a $2 billion global business.
"The market isn't perfect," Werbach concedes. " It is a challenging time to be in any kind of content industry. We must accept, however, that the Internet genie will never go back in the bottle. It's time to build upon the successes of digital distribution, rather than imposing ever wider spheres of legal liability."
Prof.Werbach seems to have put the issue very much in the right perspective.
The trouble is that Big Media still wants to go back to the Good ol' days (of record bonuses with very low risk for their companies);unfortunately as Webach says you cant put the Internet genie in the bottle anymore.
Big Media has to learn to compete with this competition & the faster they do it,the better it is for the surviving members of this industry(or else they could all go bust and nobody would care...)
As for the numbers for all the losses coming in from SOPA,as the above articles say-the losses would most probably not go beyond USD 90 million(& enforcement costs to US Govt would be about USD 50 million)-Does it make economic sense to introduce such legislation then?
Can't agree more. This bill will kill innovation, meanwhile doesn't help to solve Piracy problem. Really don't understand why this guy made this proposal. He shall spend more time on more urgent problems for American: economy and job creation.
A look at how the Digital Millenium Copyright Act has been misused since its enactment in 1998. Possibly a glimpse into how SOPA could be abused if passed.
Thats always the case-More Regulation always ends up causing more trouble for the market in general(Take a look at the US Housing Industry for instance-It is easily the most regulated industry in America-Did it stop the massive bust we had in 2007-2009???).
This is precisely what will happen(in more advanced form) with SOPA and even PIPA.
The smartest and most talented researchers (from overseas)will simply refuse to come to the US or work with American companies-Remember America has no monopoly on Intelligence & Hardwork.
And in fact,also lead to something else-an Innovation Blackout where the US gets behind the rest of the world.
Good to hear that SOPA has been deferred temporarily for now.
The regulation also works in cycles, like economy. We passed a less regulation cycle (that's why we have seen so many innovation and financial enigineerings), now we are about to a more regulation cycle (at least in financial industry). Let's hope those politicians don't extend this into other areas, especially not into science and technology areas.
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