SOPA.
If you’ve been on Google today or some of your usual web destinations, you may have noticed or read the discussions about SOPA (Stop Online Piracy Act). I took some time to educate myself about it before posting this. While the intent of the bill is good, the proposed means of achieving that intent is what is dangerous and should be stopped. It’s pretty obvious that the people who wrote this bill either don’t know how the internet works in the real world or are a bunch of power hungry idiots who want to turn us into one of the countries that controls the freedom of its people via internet censorship.
I took out an excerpt from the SOPA wiki page on a section that relates to web based businesses which we would definitely fall under. From the text below, you can clearly see that this is a dangerous bill if it goes through.
“An analysis in the information technology magazine eWeek stated, “The language of SOPA is so broad, the rules so unconnected to the reality of Internet technology and the penalties so disconnected from the alleged crimes that this bill could effectively kill e-commerce or even normal Internet use. The bill also has grave implications for existing U.S., foreign and international laws and is sure to spend decades in court challenges.”
Art Bordsky of advocacy group Public Knowledge similarly stated, “The definitions written in the bill are so broad that any US consumer who uses a website overseas immediately gives the US jurisdiction the power to potentially take action against it.”
On October 28, 2011, the EFF called the bill a “massive piece of job-killing Internet regulation,” and said, “This bill cannot be fixed; it must be killed.”
Gary Shapiro, CEO of the Consumer Electronics Association, spoke out strongly against the bill, stating, “The bill attempts a radical restructuring of the laws governing the Internet,” and that “It would undo the legal safe harbors that have allowed a world-leading Internet industry to flourish over the last decade. It would expose legitimate American businesses and innovators to broad and open-ended liability. The result will be more lawsuits, decreased venture capital investment, and fewer new jobs.”
Lukas Biewald, founder of CrowdFlower, stated, “It’ll have a stifling effect on venture capital… No one would invest because of the legal liability.”
Booz & Company on November 16 published a Google-funded study finding that almost all of the 200 venture capitalists and angel investors interviewed would stop funding digital media intermediaries if the bill became law. More than 80 percent said they would rather invest in a risky, weak economy with the current laws than a strong economy with the proposed law in effect. If legal ambiguities were removed and good faith provisions in place, investing would increase by nearly 115 percent.
As reported by David Carr of The New York Times in an article critical of SOPA and PIPA, Google, Facebook, Twitter and other companies sent a joint letter to Congress, stating “We support the bills’ stated goals – providing additional enforcement tools to combat foreign ‘rogue’ Web sites that are dedicated to copyright infringement or counterfeiting. However, the bills as drafted would expose law-abiding U.S. Internet and technology companies to new uncertain liabilities, private rights of action and technology mandates that would require monitoring of Web sites.”[24][53] Smith responded, saying, the article “unfairly criticizes the Stop Online Piracy Act,” and, “does not point to any language in the bill to back up the claims. SOPA targets only foreign Web sites that are primarily dedicated to illegal and infringing activity. Domestic Web sites, like blogs, are not covered by this legislation.” Smith also said that Carr incorrectly framed the debate as between the entertainment industry and high-tech companies, noting support by more than “120 groups and associations across diverse industries, including the United States Chamber of Commerce.”
Go here to do something about it. If you definitely agree that this bill should not pass as we do, contact your congressman and make your voice heard.
by Scrills
The Cookies Mob runs deep.
