SOPA (again) and how it would affect Parallax
Phil Pilgrim (PhiPi)
Posts: 23,514
Here's a link to an essay on Tom's Hardware about SOPA (Stop Online Piracy Act) and how it would affect their website:
Everything they talk about there applies equally to Parallax and to this forum. If you haven't called your congressperson yet in opposition to SOPA, please do it ASAP! Here's a link you can use to get your representative's contact info:
This is not a political issue; it's a matter of survival for the websites, like this one, that we depend upon.
-Phil
Everything they talk about there applies equally to Parallax and to this forum. If you haven't called your congressperson yet in opposition to SOPA, please do it ASAP! Here's a link you can use to get your representative's contact info:
This is not a political issue; it's a matter of survival for the websites, like this one, that we depend upon.
-Phil
Comments
Sorry, but I am a bit world weary about compelling causes.
Wish I had some serious money to invest in Google. They are ready for this.
OBC
Thanks for that link, Phil. I used it to convey my non-poltical views about this non-poltical SOPA thing to my non-political congressman. I always feel that, even if my emails don't count for anything, at least I know I tried.
Generally speaking I sense that there's something of a power grab going on "out there" with the internet. As another example, Facebooger and Google want to run all our internet traffic through their own little cattle chutes so they can monitor and profit over every thing we do. And other companies are scrambling to figure out how to set up some cattle chutes of their own. This entire "frictionless sharing" movement seems completely idiotic to me and it worries me that so many of my fellow human beings seem to think this is not a threat or is, even worse, a positive thing.
http://www.businessweek.com/technology/why-facebooks-frictionless-sharing-is-the-future-10032011.html
I think the funniest and perhaps most ironic thing about all of this sharing business is that your actual friends probably don't give that much of a damn about what you do. Companies are working hard to figure out how to keep your friends interested in you (or at least provide you with the perception that your friends actually care) so that you will keep sharing more and more information about yourself, which the companies will sell and/or manipulate for marketing, political targeting, opinion manufacturing, etc.
http://www.technologyreview.com/article/39321/?p1=MstRcnt
Why this social sharing thing has become an obsession totally baffles me. Maybe it's because Twitter and Facebooger are now acting as psychological substitutes for what prayer used to be for our species, back when the only "thing" we thought might be listening or watching us was The Tooth Fairy, Santa Claus or (insert personal caring cosmic entity here).
(sidebar)
Everything is political. Why? Because those that get that determine how it all goes for those that don't. Speak or be spoken for. That's the short answer on why. Tech will not win out on this one. They have already played that game, and we know that absolutely nothing survives the "scratch that itch" plus "many eyeballs" reality out there. Now that is known, they are using it to make the case for expansive powers without due process. All check, no balance, just because they want to. Their case is seeing success BECAUSE of technology. They are framing this as a last ditch effort, no alternatives. Either we speak out about how wrong that is and call them on the merits of their case, or this will go down as stated and we won't like the product of that. Count on it.
In this case, voting was delayed due to people contacting legislators. They got a bad read. Here's the thing. The entities who will profit from this expansion of power; namely, the ability to censor the net without due process, won't quit asking. The amounts of money in play are simply too great. Others can cite the reasons.
Dollars are being spent, or invested if you will, to make more dollars at our expense. The only real check on that is our speech, which is fairly diluted today, due to the dollars.
This stuff doesn't take much time. A few percent at most. If we do it, we get some balance. If we don't, we won't, and it's all really that simple. Sadly, that now needs to be a recurring investment. Tell your friends. The precedent is clear. They just keep pressing, and when people waver, they get some advance and we lose. Go and look. It's all right there, and I could easily cite pages and pages of stuff we have to live with because they paid the dollars to make their case at our expense. This isn't changing in the US anytime soon.
I personally DO spend about 5 percent of my free time on these matters. They are important.
(end sidebar)
You might be wondering, "why now?"
The current composition of Congress is favorable to this kind of thing. There will be a big press early next year to revisit this matter, and it will be done under the radar, not seeing much, if any media attention. Big media stands to seriously benefit from this. The general public doesn't get this stuff any more than they did the last few ugly laws passed without serious debate. This one is no different.
They will do it as things ramp up for the election. It is a prime time, with this being the early dry run, with some chance of success. Now that they've seen the opposition, they will re-frame this stuff and present it again. Both speakers, House and Senate have expressed a desire to settle this quickly before the election gets into full swing.
Why is that?
Because it's the kind of thing that looks bad AFTER it's done, which is why it will be pressed hard and quietly early on, most likely attached to some must do legislation.
My best guess target is the two month extension on pay roll tax ending in Feb sometime. That bill will need to pass, and so will anything attached to it. It is vital we speak on this now, and when it comes to attention again. It will. This is exactly why key entities are continuing to press the issue. They know it was a first pass, and they know both houses are gearing up to move this one through. Not just put it on the table, but pass it. Congress is not well aligned with ordinary people right now.
Again, there is nothing worse. I hate this garbage. But, I hate the passing of it and dealing with it as law worse. So there you go, my personal motivations for you to consider.
I am in Oz and if it distracts from local politics here, our politicians will follow suit.
Just my 2c. (oooh, is that statement anyones trademark??)
Peter...
It probably belongs to Disney. If I were you, I wouldn't even think of sailing into US waters now. The claim can be made that you violated copyright from your sailing vessel, therefore it will be confiscated as an accessory to your crime. Shame on you.
Don't worry... we're doing that just fine without SOPA...
Now to find my Senators email....
Doc
http://www.senate.gov/general/contact_information/senators_cfm.cfm
When contacting your senators, be sure to refer to the senate version of the legislation, which is the "Protect IP Act." There will be differences between the two versions, since they were written more or less independently, and I do not know which of the two is the more onerous. Although internet attention seems to be focused on SOPA, it certainly doesn't hurt to cover all the bases.
-Phil
And why would it? For every way someone would find to protect something, a hell of a lot more are out trying to unprotect it. Most of these types of law are not about anti-piracy, but more about giving some politician/party advantage over another. It they were serious about anti-piracy, they would simply use the existing law more effectively against individuals and entities within their legal jurisdiction and use sanctions and other methods to control those who are outside their lawful reach.
I would be willing that there are things which could be done against China such that their government would become suddenly much more cooperative regarding pirates, but sadly some of our business leaders (i.e. GE, apple and others) and politicians (who's left to borrow from for pet projects/social experimentation) have no such interest in pressuring one of the biggest co-conspirators in global piracy. Until we in the US, and other countries grow a pair and become less dependent on countries like China, the piracy outside of US law will continue unchecked, and until people here trading in copyrighted and other IP material realize that doing so is the equivalent of walking out of the store without paying, it won't stop here either.......
Frank
Instead of expensive sitting-duck satellite stuff, why not start with something down to earth and less centralized? Perhaps laser systems can't leap over oceans, but I would think it would be harder for centralized authorities to shut them all down simultaneously.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/RONJA
http://forums.parallax.com/showthread.php?113361-High-Speed-optical-transmissions-thru-air&p=812537&viewfull=1#post812537
I wrote my senators about how I feel about this topic while Online Piracy is a real problem
I DO NOT think that the way this bill is written that it will help very much in the long run
I think it will do more harm
This does nothing to stop the problem.
Oh saw this....
http://kotaku.com/5872766/the-video-game-industrys-lobbyists-support-sopa-but-they-understand-why-you-might-not
-Tor
-Phil
You shouldn't have told me, Phil! I just did a search of all of my deleted items and came up with about a dozen from you that included this phrase!
Ken Gracey
It is as I suspected earlier. SOPA targeted for early votes: http://www.searchenginejournal.com/tech-giants-support-open-act/38534/
Reid: “This is a bipartisan piece of legislation which is extremely important. I repeat, it is bipartisan. I hope we can have a productive couple of days, pass this bill, and move on to other matters.”
ASNE issues letter against: http://asne.org/Article_View/ArticleId/2107/ASNE-Issues-Letter-Opposing-Onerous-Federal-Anti-Piracy-Bill.aspx
ASNE: "
ASNE's letter makes it clear that the organization strongly opposes content piracy and supports the committee's efforts to eradicate it. But SOPA in its present form "allows individual copyright owners to effect the most onerous restriction on speech -- the prior restraint -- with little evidence and virtually no due process, utilizing vague and overbroad definitions in the process," says the letter, signed by ASNE President Ken Paulson.
"Navigating the balance between copyright and free speech demands precision, and in seeking to protect the interests of copyright holders, the First Amendment requires Congress to adopt the least restrictive intrusion on speech available," ASNE tells the committee. "SOPA fails this test.""
The list of supporters isn't trivial: http://www.opencongress.org/bill/112-s968/money
You will find a list of dollars and people on that page. Senator Reid, who is driving this to a quick vote saw: $665,420 fall his way for moving it forward. (read, passage)
One other thing not reported right now is the heavy hitters backing the legislation have convinced small scale creators that they stand to gain significantly from the legislation, forming a pool of very aggressive advocates who also happen to have excellent communications skills. Their motive is dollars, but a secondary one is just getting the power for themselves, frequently mentioning they would employ this legislation in aggressive ways to combat ALL uses of their works to drive revenue, with fair uses not even under discussion.
There is some significant overlap between technical people against and for, complicating things somewhat as well.
Right now, I would peg this for passage. No joke.
The US is pressing on Spain to also implement a similar law: http://torrentfreak.com/us-threatened-to-blacklist-spain-for-not-implementing-site-blocking-law-120105/
When we see that, know the majority view is passage, and that it's been framed as an economic necessity, given hard times. That's standard shock doctrine type policy, which generally isn't very good for ordinary people.
Ironically, smaller scale creators may not benefit much at all, as the bar for competitive works and liabilities surrounding those will be much higher under SOPA, which will generally have a chilling effect on small scale works overall, encouraging more middle man publishing where the liabilities can be paid for, and less direct trade between creator and audience / consumer.
http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20111219/04322417127/reuters-media-columnist-explains-that-sopapipa-are-cure-worse-than-disease.shtml
Doesn't look good kids.
-Phil
C.W.