[vox] Regarding: "Stop Online Piracy Act" that everybody screams about...

Mikies Runs Baal mikiesrunsbaal.sec at sbcglobal.net
Tue Nov 29 16:58:28 PST 2011


Well, under the DMCA and existing copyright laws, what you list as a 
potential fear shouldn't be happening anyhow. Current laws require a 
host to remove material that the copyright owner indicates is being used 
without permission or under fair use laws. Current law, also, permits 
the poster to challenge the copyright owners request, and have it replaced.

If you read the bill carefully, it does not penalize the host for the 
issues between the poster of material and the copyright owner. It only 
requires the host to make a reasonable effort to remove material that is 
deemed illegal or misused under copyright until adjudication is 
completed. It most significantly makes the owner  of copyright liable 
for false reports, and denotes the penalties for 'frivolous lawsuits' or 
false reports.

To make the blacklist, a host really has to demonstrate a complete 
disregard of law and copyright. In the extreme case, the host site is a 
terrorist forum for communicating internationally with secret cells in 
foreign countries.

Since I read the bill, the points you make really don't apply. However, 
it is interesting to note which organizations are crying foul the 
loudest, and some I don't understand their being involved: Google, 
Mozilla(?), Facebook, EFF...

Google and Facebook, I can understand their concerns because the bill 
puts the onus of responsibility squarely on their shoulders to make a 
reasonable effort to remove illegal or misused copyrighted materials. 
But that doesn't mean they should ignore the misuse of their hosting of 
materials by subscribers as is the current policy.

IMHO,

MJR



On 11/29/2011 2:45 PM, Bill Ward wrote:
> Yeah, but I think it's only meant to apply to services hosted outside 
> the US. Not that that makes it OK, but most of your examples wouldn't 
> apply.
>
> On Tue, Nov 29, 2011 at 12:33 PM, Alex Mandel 
> <tech_dev at wildintellect.com <mailto:tech_dev at wildintellect.com>> wrote:
>
>     My understanding of the concerns is that this bill will net a lot of
>     non-offenders without much court oversight (if any).
>
>     Think of the the scenario where any web 2.0 website (anything that
>     allows users to post) could potentially be a target if someone happens
>     to post something that is copyrighted or at least thought to be under
>     copyright. The fear is that major companies could ask paypal and
>     google
>     to unlist a wikipedia article, or that action could be taken to
>     cut off
>     google if it happens to link to a website that some-one uploaded
>     potentially copyrighted materials too without permission. It's not
>     clear
>     to me that music inadvertently in the background of a you-tube
>     video has
>     been cleared as fair use (though it ought to be). The bill seems to
>     shift the burden from being a request to take down material(DCMA) to a
>     we will cut off your business (ISP, payments, blacklist dns)
>     unless you
>     prove you're not hosting our materials within 5 days of
>     notification, oh
>     and this doesn't necessarily have to go to court or be proven 100%
>     until
>     you sue to get your domain name back at which point the burden of
>     proof
>     is on the wiki, forum, social network site that was just trying to
>     provide a service, to prove they weren't doing anything illegal.
>
>     Specifically on the blacklist idea, people are concerned that entire
>     regions will get blacklisted from US viewers, essentially meaning that
>     we can no longer see 100% of the Internet. That by definition is
>     censorship. Even if you're ok with Censorship of the internet is
>     it fair
>     to block 100% of a website if only 1% is offending material?
>
>     While I don't know if things would go this extreme I understand
>     the fear
>     that censorship brings and the potential to make it really
>     difficult to
>     implement any website that allows users to post without having to bend
>     over backwards to admin/moderate (a cost that no startup or non-profit
>     can afford).
>
>     Thanks,
>     Alex
>
>     PS: Search engines as usual will get targeted too, you think they do a
>     poor job of listing the Internet(estimates are 10-15% of the web is
>     indexed), wait until they have to censor what they list even more
>     dramatically.
>
>     On 11/23/2011 01:29 PM, Mikies Runs Baal wrote:
>     > Actually, certain types of porn are illegal, not only in this
>     country
>     > (USA), but other countries internationally.
>     >
>     > Secondly, speaking to the vagueness alluded to, all laws tend to be
>     > somewhat vague.
>     >
>     > As with all law, there has to be probable cause for an action to be
>     > initiated. This bill is no different, and further, spells out
>     > consequences for filing false reports by the copyright holder et al.
>     >
>     > After reading it from beginning to end, I, personally, think it is a
>     > good law. If enacted, it might give us the right to circumvent
>     > encryption protections on DVD and rip licensed copies to our
>     personal
>     > computer or other digital devices strictly for personal use much
>     like
>     > the current RIAA guideleines for ripping our music CD's to our
>     personal
>     > devices. This would, of course, have to be tested with a lawsuit
>     > contesting the restrictions imposed by the DMCA on ripping DVD's
>     with
>     > copy protection. This might be defended as a moot point since
>     almost all
>     > DVD's I have bought within the last year now include a code for
>     d/l'ing
>     > a digital copy to a personal digital device including my laptop
>     or other
>     > device.
>     >
>     > Currently, court decisions (case laws) under the DMCA make it
>     illegal to
>     > circumvent the encryption protections, but does NOT speak to the
>     rights
>     > of licensed copy owners to rip for personal use on their digital
>     > devices. A close read of this law suggests it might be used to
>     counter
>     > the DMCA on DVD's for personal use.
>     >
>     > As with all copyright issues, the licensed user MUST maintain a
>     > permanent copy of the original CD/DVD for "Fair Use Laws" to
>     apply. Give
>     > away the original, lose the rights to the copy...
>     >
>     > I have an extensive library of VHS and DVD originals that have
>     > encryption protection in place. VHS's have a limited
>     life-expectancy.
>     > So, I would definitely love to be able to convert to a DVD
>     format, and
>     > since my laptop is my primary entertainment system when I am not
>     home, I
>     > would love to be able to convert my entire library to digital
>     format and
>     > store on my laptop or external HDD drive for portability.
>     >
>     > I would encourage everyone to read the the bill in its entirety.
>     >
>     > Here are the link/s again (all available links I could find, btw)
>     >
>     > online: http://www.govtrack.us/congress/billtext.xpd?bill=h112-3261
>     >
>     > PDF:
>     >
>     http://frwebgate.access.gpo.gov/cgi-bin/getdoc.cgi?dbname=112_cong_bills&docid=f:h3261ih.txt.pdf
>     <http://frwebgate.access.gpo.gov/cgi-bin/getdoc.cgi?dbname=112_cong_bills&docid=f:h3261ih.txt.pdf>
>     >
>     > PDF: http://judiciary.house.gov/hearings/pdf/112%20HR%203261.pdf
>     >
>     > online: http://thomas.loc.gov/cgi-bin/query/z?c112:h3261:
>     >
>     > Takes a couple hours to wade throught the text.
>     >
>     > IMHO,
>     >
>     > MJR
>     >
>     > On 11/23/2011 9:10 AM, Eric Rasmussen wrote:
>     >> Has anyone signed the whitehouse.gov <http://whitehouse.gov>
>     petition?
>     >>
>     https://wwws.whitehouse.gov/petitions#!/petition/stop-e-parasite-act/SWBYXX55
>     <https://wwws.whitehouse.gov/petitions#%21/petition/stop-e-parasite-act/SWBYXX55>
>     >>
>     >> I've never e-signed a whitehouse petition so I'm curious to know
>     >> everyone's thoughts on whether or not its a meaningful step.
>     >>
>     >> Thanks!
>     >> Eric
>     >>
>     >>
>     >> On Wed, Nov 23, 2011 at 9:01 AM, Joseph
>     Arruda<joseph.arruda at gmail.com <mailto:joseph.arruda at gmail.com>>  
>     wrote:
>     >>> I have read partway through
>     http://www.govtrack.us/congress/billtext.xpd?bill=h112-3261 , and
>     it is indeed pretty vague in its language (a dangerous thing in
>     the hands of Big Content)...I'll probably finish by the end of the
>     weekend if anyone wants a rundown.
>     >>>
>     >>> ja
>     >>>
>     >>> On Tue, Nov 22, 2011 at 10:45 PM, Bill Ward<bill at wards.net
>     <mailto:bill at wards.net>>   wrote:
>     >>>> Um, porn may be unsavory but it's not an illegal activity.
>     >>>>
>     >>>> On Tue, Nov 22, 2011 at 8:41 PM, Mikies Runs
>     Baal<mikiesrunsbaal.sec at sbcglobal.net
>     <mailto:mikiesrunsbaal.sec at sbcglobal.net>>   wrote:
>     >>>>> Heya Bill,
>     >>>>>
>     >>>>> Besides me, has anyone bothered to d/l and read the actual
>     bill to find
>     >>>>> out IF and WHAT the hubris is actually about.
>     >>>>>
>     >>>>> Seems to me that the major screamers are the ones hosting
>     porn sites and
>     >>>>> other illegal activities.
>     >>>>>
>     >>>>> IMHO,
>     >>>>>
>     >>>>> MJR
>     >>>>> _______________________________________________
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>     >>>>> http://lists.lugod.org/mailman/listinfo/vox
>     >>>>
>     >>>>
>     >>>> --
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>     >>>>
>     >>>>
>
>
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