back to article Opposition to SOPA mounting as Google, Facebook link arms

An MPAA-backed bill designed to let rights-holders block Websites on the accusation of copyright infringement has drawn the ire of Google, Facebook, Yahoo!, eBay, Twitter, LinkedIn, Zynga and others. According to Bloomberg, AFP, and others, the Stop Online Piracy Act would expose “law-abiding” US tech firms to “uncertain …

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  1. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    As anyone who has been watching Boardwalk Empire knows Attorney-General 's love their debauchery

    And as we all know from the size of the US defense budget both congress and senate are beyond bribery or corruption

    The wisdom of their measured response marks them for the statesmanship we have grown to expect

  2. Peladon

    SOPA - and Canada

    From the Toronto Star:

    http://www.thestar.com/business/article/1085837--geist-u-s-could-claim-millions-of-canadian-domain-names-in-piracy-battle

    Geist: U.S. could claim millions of Canadian domain names in piracy battle

    "First, it defines a “domestic domain name” as a domain name “that is registered or assigned by a domain name registrar, domain name registry, or other domain name registration authority, that is located within a judicial district of the United States.” Since every dot-com, dot-net and dot-org domain is managed by a domain name registry in the U.S., the law effectively asserts jurisdiction over tens of millions of domain names regardless of where the registrant actually resides.

    Second, it defines “domestic Internet Protocol addresses” — the numeric strings that constitute the actual address of a website or Internet connection — as “an Internet Protocol address for which the corresponding Internet Protocol allocation entity is located within a judicial district of the United States.”

    Yet IP addresses are allocated by regional organizations, not national ones. The allocation entity located in the U.S. is called ARIN, the Americas Registry for Internet Numbers. Its territory includes the U.S., Canada and 20 Caribbean nations. This bill treats all IP addresses in this region as domestic for U.S. law purposes.

    To put this in context, every Canadian Internet provider relies on ARIN for its block of IP addresses. In fact, ARIN even allocates the block of IP addresses used by federal and provincial governments. The U.S. bill would treat them all as domestic for U.S. law purposes."

  3. heyrick Silver badge

    Go for it...

    And when these rights holders decide to jump on the "orphan content" bandwagon... well, let's just say things could get interesting indeed - screw you if you think you're gonna take my content, pretend you don't know its origin (or can't be assed to find out) and use it without paying me the billions it is worth (your own examples).

  4. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    I find it interesting that Google, Facebook etc, are bothering to send letters themselves. Surely a short paragraph on their homepages encouraging their users to do so would be more effective.

    1. David 105
      Pirate

      user interest vs corporate interest

      I'd agree with you, if we live in an ideal world, which we don't. Unfortunately (as this very nil demonstrates) governments and law makers will always put the interest of big business above those of the people who elect them.

      I'm glad that Facebook, Google et al have waded into the debate (although I don't believe for a minute it's down to altruism on their part, more likely they'd suffer a loss of revenue from not being able to link to copyright material, or the admin costs from following up every time someone posted a link to YouTube would be unworkable), as the government are more likely to listen to them than the great unwashed. Of course, that puts them in the unenviable position if deciding which puppet master to listen to!

  5. LJRich
    Big Brother

    Hmmm

    "... the targeted site then required to defend itself via counter-notices."

    Gone are the days of innocent until proven guilty (in an appropriate court of law). Now you can have punitive action taken against you ON SUSPICION of copyright infringement.

    How hard would it be to create a new Internet which the US Government can't get their grubby, egotistical hands on? (Could even be IPv6 from the start to take advantage of the inevitable collapse of the USGov's Interwebz and ensuing public/commercial panic).

    1. Mark C 2
      FAIL

      @LJRich (....and just about everyone else)

      Nope.

      <Pedant>

      Innocent *UNLESS* proven guilty.

      Not 'until proven guilty' - this is not correct and implies that it is only a matter of time.

      </Pedant>

      1. Figgus
        Unhappy

        In the modern US courts...

        ... it really is UNTIL. If they want you, they'll get you. Sad but true.

        1. Sam Liddicott

          until is now

          We knew we were all guilty, now we know what of:

          http://yro.slashdot.org/story/11/11/15/1821238/doj-violating-a-sites-tos-is-a-crime

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