SOPA really is extremely dangerous. I wrote about it just the other day: http://www.wnyc.org/blogs/its-free-blog/2011/dec/16/opinion-online-piracy-bill-threatens-innovation-web-freedom/
Media industry groups have been trying to push through legislation for > years that stops online piracy for years. Whether you're someone who uses > file sharing or streaming sites or not, most recognize that it is illegal > and these industry people do have a legal leg to stand on in looking for > common sense ways for copyright owners to force sites to take down their > content. > > But that's only part of the picture with the Stop Online Piracy Act > (SOPA). Hidden behind that relatively benign name, and some rules that are > fair, are rules that go far and beyond past what a copyright holder needs > to stop file sharing of the material they own. > > A list of major internet titans penned an open letter to Congress the > other day, asking them to not pass SOPA. Some noteworthy names include > Google founder Sergey Brin, Yahoo's David Filo and Jerry Yang, eBay's > Pierre Omidyar, Wikipedia's Jimmy Wales, Twitter's Jack Dorsey and > craigslist's Craig Newmark. Last month several major internet companies, > among them Google, Facebook, eBay, Mozilla (who makes FireFox), Yahoo & > AOL, also came together to warn lawmakers that SOPA, saying it "poses a > serious risk to our industry's continued track record of innovation and job > creation, as well as to our nation's cybersecurity." > > Here is the crux of the latest open letter: > > We've all had the good fortune to found Internet companies and nonprofits > in a regulatory climate that promotes entrepreneurship, innovation, the > creation of content and free expression online. > > However we're worried that the PROTECT IP Act and the Stop Online Piracy > Act--which started out as well-meaning efforts to control piracy > online--will undermine that framework. > These two pieces of legislation threaten to: > > - Require web services, like the ones we helped found, to monitor what > users link to, or upload. This would have a chilling effect on innovation; > - Deny website owners the right to due process of law; > - Give the U.S. Government the power to censor the web using > techniques similar to those used by China, Malaysia and Iran; and > - Undermine security online by changing the basic structure of the > Internet. > > We urge Congress to think hard before changing the regulation that > underpins the Internet. Let's not deny the next generation of entrepreneurs > and founders the same opportunities that we all had. > > Defenders of the legislation claim that it will only be used against > obvious offenders, but the wording of the law is so vague, that even > Facebook is afraid that it might be a target and it could be used to put > people in jail for up to three years for doing things like singing their > favorite songs on YouTube. The law can punish, potentially even shutting > them down, websites that display links to illegal copyrighted content. This > poses such a threat to their business that Yahoo has dropped their > membership with the US Chamber of Commerce, and for good reason. If a > search on Yahoo, Google or Bing comes up with illegal content, in theory > Yahoo, Google and Bing could be shut down or fined. > > The same could potentially happen on Facebook, if one of your friends > posts a link to illegal content, or YouTube if someone posts the video to a > Metallica song. It's impossible for sites like YouTube, Facebook and other > sites that host user generated content to look at even a fraction of their > content to take down potentially copyrighted material, yet this is > precisely what this law wants to require them to do. > > And if you think this is an overstatement that these companies use the > legal system to do outlandish things to file sharers, ask the family who > was sued by the Recording industry for putting a video of their baby on > YouTube, because there was a copyrighted song playing on the radio in the > background, and has sued families into bankruptcy for their tweener kid > downloading a tracks that would have cost a couple bucks on iTunes. These > people have illustrated time and time again that they have no sense of > fairness or proportion, and cannot be trusted with legal tools like this > law would give them. > > Passing this legislation would make the internet less secure, stifle > innovation in the United States (leaving other nations to lead, in a sector > of the world economy where we are usually at the forefront) and do you > really want to give these companies a tool that they could literally use to > put teenagers singing copyrighted songs on YouTube in jail? > > It's beyond me why any Congressperson would even consider this. We should > all be thanking Democratic Senator from Oregon Ron Wyden for placing a hold > on the bill, giving people the chance to organize and tell their > representatives that voting for this would be unacceptable. > > *Solomon Kleinsmith is a former nonprofit worker, serial social > entrepreneur and strident centrist independent blogger from Omaha, > Nebraska. His website, Rise of the Center <http://riseofthecenter.com/>, > is the fastest growing blog targeting centrist independents and moderates. > * > -- Centroids: The Center of the Radical Centrist Community <[email protected]> Google Group: http://groups.google.com/group/RadicalCentrism Radical Centrism website and blog: http://RadicalCentrism.org
