SOPA Bill--for it or against it? And why?

[hyphenate]

I keep thinking there is a lot more to it than chasing down pirates, and is just another tool in corporate warfare on the internet.

I've seen a lot in the years I've been online, and I think the USA government--or any government, for that matter--controlling any aspect of our online life is despicable, and comparable to the clampdown that countries like China have on online content.

The Internet was envisioned largely as an "information superhighway" as Al Gore called it, for multi-nationals to share information and correspondences. Abusing that power of freedom would be unconscionable, and that's what I fear the SOPA is all about.


Found this video and recommend to watch it. Interesting!

&feature=player_embedded#!

[Ter]

1. Strongly against

We don't need federal internet laws. It's already illegal to pirate.

[msongs]

2. corporate take over so fees can be raised/access lowered. there is no "competiton" in internet

except for ever increasing charges and fees.

[limpyhobbler]

3. SOPA is crap

The internet is fine the way it is now. Leave it alone.

[Warpy]

4. Strongly against

There are already adequate laws against piracy and this law is written so stupidly as to curtail most legal activity on the net today.

It was written by a committee of idiots and should never have seen the floor of Congress.

[libmom74]

5. Very against

I agree there is more to this bill than stopping pirace, IMHO it is more about controlling dissent as more of our rights are taken away.

[mwooldri]

6. Against SOPA & PIPA (its Senate counterpart).

I'm against these two acts as they stand because they

a) They both impede citizens' rights to exercise their 1st Amendment rights.

b) They both demand that Internet Service Providers alter their DNS services to be able to filter "rogue websites".

As written, it could mean that the US Dept of Justice could obtain a court order, declaring that such and such a domain (e.g. "democraticunderground.com&quot is a "foreign rogue website". People who use the website could be prosecuted. Administrators of DNS servers in the US, once given notice by USDoJ that a specific domain name is considered unlawful, they would have to program their DNS server to return 0.0.0.0 instead of 216.158.28.197 (which is DU's IP address)

In essence, these acts create the "Great Firewall of the United States of America".

There are also millions of DNS servers around the world; I'd say that there's at least a couple of million in the US alone. SOPA calls for the USDoJ to set up a process to serve DNS Administrators with notices of "rogue websites" - and with millions in force, this notice serving process would have to be automated. This could introduce a nice wide security hole for any person with intent and capability to further poison the DNS system and make legitimate websites invisible to most US Internet users. DNS already has its flaws and problems, and has been shown to be vulnerable on a number of occasions in the past year.

I am taking some actions already to prepare for SOPA and PIPA - if they come to be:

1) my websites will be hosted in Canada, not the USA.
2) My business with Godaddy will be eliminated as and when is practically possible (as they came out for SOPA, and have now backpedalled but not far enough to my satisfaction).

So SOPA and PIPA must die a painful death, and lawmakers need to know that these are bad, bad laws.

[mwooldri]

7. Cos Justin Bieber says it's a bad law.

I just had to follow up with a separate posting, because I've been reading a fair bit about SOPA etc... as I have a vested interest. Now I am no Bieber fan, but IMO he's got his head on his shoulders correctly.

The laws as presented would land Justin Bieber with jail time - 5 years - just for posting a video online of him singing along to a copyrighted song.

His reaction to SOPA/PIPA? ""Whoever she is (referring to Senator Klobuchar), she needs to know that I'm saying she needs to be locked up - put away in cuffs."

He's said a few other things before: "You guys are evil. Canada's the best country in the world. We go to the doctor and we don't need to worry about paying him, but here, your whole life, you're broke because of medical bills. My bodyguard's baby was premature, and now he has to pay for it. In Canada, if your baby's premature, he stays in the hospital as long as he needs to, and then you go home." (source: http://abcnews.go.com/Entertainment/justin-bieber-abortion-thinks-canada-trumps-us/story?id=12940503#.TvsXZXqPwvR ) - clearly he's patriotic about his country, and knows firsthand why the US medical system is broken.

[MichaelMcGuire]

8. Against SOPA and PIPA

However I don't agree in Mr Mozart's methods. I'd prefer a clearer message purely on why SOPA is wrong rather then showing a few companies being hypocrites.