SOPA / PIPA
COICA, Protect IP Act, SOPA, E-Parasite Act, whatever its names, this law is very dangerous and must not be passed. Oct 30
PROTECT IP Act Breaks The Internet
TRON and OPTIMUS PRIME fight for the USERS. They will never break what evolution has already fueled. by Jan 19
Yeah, I have an interest in that too! by Oct 27
I think it might have a larger impact now as the internet is much more complex now and there has been a large investment in social networking, alternative currencies, information sharing and creativity tools to name a few. by Oct 27
This will affect a lot of websites : if it had been passed in 2004, Youtube wouldn't exist today... by Oct 27
Many internet users in the United States have watched with horror as countries like France and Britain have proposed or instituted so-called “three strikes” laws , which cut off internet access to those accused of repeated acts of copyright infringement. Now the U.S. has its own version of this kind of law, and it is arguably much worse: the Stop Online Piracy Act, introduced in the House this week , would give governments and private corporations unprecedented powers to remove websites from the internet on the flimsiest of grounds, and would force internet service providers to play the role of copyright police. To recap a bit of history, the Stop Online Piracy Act or SOPA is the House version of a previous bill proposed by the Senate, which was known as the PROTECT-IP Act (a name that was an abbreviation for “Preventing Real Online Threats to Economic Creativity and Theft of Intellectual Property”).
Looks like Congress has declared war on the internet
Free Speech's Weak Links Under Internet Blacklist Bills
The Internet Blacklist bills — the House’s Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA) and the Senate’s PROTECT IP Act (PIPA) — would have a disastrous effect on online freedom of speech. In order to understand the ways a site placed on the blacklist could be denied a chance to connect with an audience, we’ve used our Free Speech is Only as Strong as the Weakest Link chart. The Internet Blacklist bills would subject non-domestic platforms and webhosts to the possibility of court injunctions that could require to payment interruptions or even DNS blocking in the U.S.
We had already mentioned that one of the foremost Constitutional scholars around, Laurence Tribe, had come out against Congress's attempts to modify copyright law through SOPA. Some complained that he didn't get into specifics. However, he's now sent a letter detailing the problems in the bill (pdf) and why it violates the First Amendment.
Constitutional Scholars Explain Why SOPA & PROTECT IP Do Not Pass First Amendment Scrutiny
Obama administration joins the ranks of SOPA skeptics
The Obama administration has joined the ranks of skeptics of the Stop Online Piracy Act. In an online statement released Saturday, three senior White House officials wrote that the administration "will not support legislation that reduces freedom of expression, increases cybersecurity risk, or undermines the dynamic, innovative global Internet." The statement was made in response to a petition on the White House's "we the people" site asking the president to veto SOPA if it reached his desk. The officials—IP enforcement coordinator Victoria Espinel, CTO Aneesh Chopra, and cybersecurity coordinator Howard Schmidt—did not commit the president to vetoing SOPA. However, they laid out criteria for an anti-piracy bill that seems to clearly rule out SOPA and the Senate's Protect IP Act in their current form. The White House seems most concerned with DNS-blocking, which is becoming the red-headed stepchild of SOPA provisions.
Under voter pressure, members of Congress backpedal (hard) on SOPA
The public outcry over the Stop Online Piracy Act and Protect IP Act seems to have gotten so loud that even members of Congress can hear it. On Thursday we covered the news that Sen. Patrick Leahy (D-VT) was expressing second thoughts about SOPA's DNS provisions.
House Kills SOPA - PIPA still alive !
In a surprise move today, Representative Eric Cantor(R-VA) announced that he will stop all action on SOPA , effectively killing the bill.
PIPA Senate vote to be delayed, Reid announces
Posted at 11:16 AM ET, 01/20/2012 Jan 20, 2012 04:16 PM EST TheWashingtonPost Update, 11:16 a.m.
A coalition of 75 groups including Reddit, Mozilla, the Electronic Frontier Foundation, Public Knowledge, Open Congress, and Human Rights Watch, have sent an open letter to Congress asking it to put the brakes on intellectual property lawmaking in the wake of the massive backlash against the Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA) and the Protect-IP Act (PIPA) . While the letter may not have any tangible impact on the behavior of Congress, it highlights growing concern from opponents of SOPA and PIPA that the current moratorium is merely a delay tactic , and that legislators still have an interest in implementing similar measures. The letter says that "now is the time for Congress to take a breath, step back, and approach the issues from a fresh perspective," and that Congress should take into account the wide variety of concerns that have been expressed by a diversity of groups over IP law and the internet.
SOPA and PIPA prompt Reddit, Mozilla, and 73 others to ask Congress to halt work on intellectual property laws
We are the media, and so are you
Change like this needed a fresh set of voices. The established tech giants may have newfound political influence, but their fights are still the same closed-door tussles over minor details. They have been at the table, and they have too much invested in the process to change it. More important, they are constrained by obligations to their shareholders and investors, as well as by the need to maintain relationships with their advertisers, partners and customers. Wikipedia , its users and its contributors don’t have the same constraints. We don’t rely on advertising dollars or content partnerships.They publicly opposed SOPA
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Companies pro SOPA
Examples of Consequences
Politicians and SOPA
Previously known as COICA
