[vox] Take action now against SOPA (Stop Online Piracy Act)

[Marc Elliot Hall]

On Fri, Dec 02, 2011 at 06:14:46PM -0700, timriley at appahost.com wrote:
> > -------- Original Message --------
> > Subject: [vox] Take action now against SOPA (Stop Online Piracy Act)
> > From: Brian Lavender <brian at brie.com>
> > Date: Tue, November 29, 2011 7:03 pm
> > To: LUGOD's general discussion mailing list <vox at lists.lugod.org>
> > 
> > 
> > Don't trust SOPA. Take action now
> > https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2011/11/protect-ip-act-very-real-very-bad-call-now-block-it
> 
> The ACLU doesn't consider SOPA so very really very bad,
> like the above EFF blogger feels. They just found a poison
> pill. Here is their letter to Congress:
> https://www.eff.org/document/aclu-letter-sopa
> 
> The union agrees with the bill's intention to "reduce the
> infringement of copyrighted material online." However,
> they say the bill casts a too-wide of a dragnet because it
> doesn't only include sites dedicated to piracy.
> Instead, it includes sites with only a trivial infringement.
> 
> They say, "By eliminating the concept of sites 'dedicated to infringing
> activity', SOPA enables law enforcement to target all sites that
> contain some infringing content -- no matter how trivial -- and
> those who 'facilitate' infringing content."
> 
> So, if SOPA were amended to only target foreign websites that
> are *dedicated* to hosting pirated movies and music, then
> should SOPA pass?
> 
> Disclaimer: The ACLU letter has other gripes, but this is the big
> one.
> 
> <snip>
> 

This week's NPR "On the Media" program had a lengthy segment on SOPA
and the surrounding political and legislative environment.

Podcast available here:

http://www.podtrac.com/pts/redirect.mp3/audio.wnyc.org/otm/otm120911pod.mp3

The relevant bit is this segment:

http://www.onthemedia.org/2011/dec/09/us-government-seizes-domain-names/

describing how SOPA would actually "legitimize" activities that the US
government is already undertaking without any clear legal authority. 

Fascinating, really. A good listen, in its entirety or simply in part. 

-- 
Marc Elliot Hall
www.hallmarc.net
Enterprise System Architecture and Implementation