"How About Killing The Careers Of The Sponsors?"
That was Glenn Reynolds' suggestion and I'm all for it. Bill Wilson writes for The Hill about the Internet censorship bill:
What began as an attempt to restrain foreign piracy on the Internet has morphed into a domestic "kill switch" on First Amendment freedom in the fastest-growing corner of the marketplace of ideas.Proposed federal legislation purporting to protect online intellectual property would also impose sweeping new government mandates on internet service providers - a positively Orwellian power grab that would permit the U.S. Justice Department to shut down any internet site it doesn't like (and cut off its sources of income) on nothing more than a whim.
Under the so-called "Stop Online Piracy Act" (SOPA) the federal government - which is prohibited constitutionally from abridging free speech or depriving its citizens of their property without due process - would engage in both practices on an unprecedented scale. And in establishing the precursor to a taxpayer-funded "thought police," it would dramatically curtail technology investment and innovation - wreaking havoc on our economy.
Consider this: Under the proposed legislation all that's required for government to shutdown a specific website is the mere accusation that the site unlawfully featured copyrighted content. Such an accusation need not be proven - or even accompanied by probable cause. All that an accuser (or competitor) needs to do in order to obtain injunctive relief is point the finger at a website.Additionally, SOPA would grant regulators the ability to choke off revenue to the owners of these newly classified "rogue" websites by accusing their online advertisers and payment providers as co-conspirators in the alleged "piracy." Again, no finding of fact would be required - the mere allegation of impropriety is all that's needed to cut the website's purse strings.
Who's vulnerable to this legislation?
"Any website that features user-generated content or that enables cloud-based data storage could end up in its crosshairs," writes David Sohn, senior policy council at the Center on Democracy and Technology. "
SOPA was introduced by Lamar Smith (R-TX) and a bipartisan group of 12 initial co-sponsors. Now there are 30 behind it. See the list and the bill here. For an easier reading of the list of its supporters to vote out of office, here:
Mark Amodei [R-NV2]
Joe Baca [D-CA43]
John Barrow [D-GA12]
Karen Bass [D-CA33]
Howard Berman [D-CA28]
Marsha Blackburn [R-TN7]
Mary Bono Mack [R-CA45]
John Carter [R-TX31]
Steven Chabot [R-OH1]
Judy Chu [D-CA32]
John Conyers [D-MI14]
Jim Cooper [D-TN5]
Ted Deutch [D-FL19]
Elton Gallegly [R-CA24]
Robert Goodlatte [R-VA6]
Tim Griffin [R-AR2]
Tim Holden [D-PA17]
Peter King [R-NY3]
John Larson [D-CT1]
Ben Luján [D-NM3]
Thomas Marino [R-PA1
0] Alan Nunnelee [R-MS1]
William Owens [D-NY23]
Dennis Ross [R-FL12]
Steve Scalise [R-LA1]
Adam Schiff [D-CA29]
Brad Sherman [D-CA27]
Lee Terry [R-NE2]
Debbie Wasserman Schultz [D-FL20]
Melvin Watt [D-NC12]
Of course, the government is already doing this. Just look for information on "Operation In our sights". The US Customs service has now twice seized over 100 websites - no due process, nothing. Your website is just...gone.
When it turns out that they made a mistake (as has happened in several cases), don't expect to get your day in court. Your lawyer will simply be ignored. If you are very lucky, after a year or so, your site might just start working again - at least, that's the experience a few people have had. Of course, if you were depending on your website to make a living...well, that's just tough...
a_random_guy at December 13, 2011 6:38 AM
Amy Alkon
http://www.advicegoddess.com/archives/2011/12/13/how_about_killi.html#comment-2852447">comment from a_random_guyBy the way, a little-known area of serious government malfeasance is the FDA. I told a Constitutional lawyer friend what people I know went through. It doesn't matter whether your product tests out as okay -- if the FDA decides to go after you, you're just screwed. You spend vast sums of money on lawyers -- if you have it. And whether you can prove you're right is immaterial...the FDA can just decide to do all sorts of nefarious things to you to stop your business and your life. Imagine having done not a thing wrong and having your accounts frozen, etc.
Amy Alkon at December 13, 2011 6:54 AM
Boy, isn't compromise great? I love seeing legislators working across party lines to accomplish something. I really that they'd be able to set aside idealogical differences more often to get things done. Compromise!
JDThompson at December 13, 2011 7:30 AM
JD's right. Whenever I hear the term gridlock, my first thought is Thank God! I hope they stay gridlocked for the next 50 years.
Regarding this legislation, it would be helpful to read a less histrionic description. Internet advocates spout the same claims any time there's a proposal to centralize a/o enforce 'internet policy'. So while I don't doubt that this legislation overreaches, it's probably not a harbinger of the apocalypse and all that.
merle at December 13, 2011 8:23 AM
I'd rather to see copyrights revert back to the original timeframes, and let Hollywood pay for its own enforcement. Maybe I can get my rep to introduce that bill.
MarkD at December 13, 2011 11:29 AM
Offtopic irony
Crid at December 13, 2011 11:54 AM
As a_random_guy said, this is already happening, just bureaucratically. This legislation means that even if you can afford an army of lawyers you can't fight it.
Dionysus at December 13, 2011 1:07 PM
Sens. Boxer and Feinstein belong on that list, too.
John David Galt at December 13, 2011 3:51 PM
merle,
I will grant that no individual policy, legislation, or regulation will probably end the internet as we know it. The aggregation of all of them would have crippled it to such a degree that we would not have what we have now.
I have been inside and on the fringes the internet since 1993. Just about every piece of legislation or regulation that I have seen addresses a less than 3% issue. But the congressional sponsor is typically a technology novice.
If I listed every one of the bills I would blow out Amy's spam filter, several times.
Just a recent one was the proposed "Net Neutrality" act that would compel any blogger to have an opposing viewpoint on any item. I.e. Amy would have had to post an opposing view with this entry.
The thing that you aren't looking at is that liberty dies by inches, not by yards. By blowing off the latest crap as you're overblown, you are giving up your First Amendment rights.
Jim P. at December 13, 2011 7:15 PM
Take a look at the nonsense surrounding Pirate Bay. Its founders are looking at jail time, but the site is still up. The only thing it isn't doing that it used to is allow indexes of preteens (and that was softcore, apparently).
The prosecution simply assumed that millions of dollars were changing hands, too, having no way to measure anything associated with Pirate Bay.
I would not be surprised to see violence escalate as high-handed police tactics become more common. Even the IRS bought millions of dollars of weapons to better serve you.
Radwaste at December 13, 2011 8:13 PM
Even the IRS bought millions of dollars of weapons to better serve you.
They were envious that local police had SWAT teams and they did not.
Christopher at December 14, 2011 8:20 AM
"They were envious that local police had SWAT teams and they did not. "
You say that in jest, but...
Cousin Dave at December 14, 2011 6:54 PM
Hey, HUD has a SWAT team, too. I dunno why.
Radwaste at December 15, 2011 2:26 AM
I don't agree with online piracy, but I don't think SOPA is the way to fix it. I think funds aren't distributed evenly from a lot of the bigger record labels to their recording artists. Not just the famous ones, but some session musicians earn less than minimum wage!
Also, I think that their inability to move with the times helped to cause this problem. If they embraced the technology and worked with it in the beginning, they probably wouldn't be having this problem!
Laura @ Useful Answers at January 24, 2012 3:29 AM
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