The E-PARASITE Act

[webfork]

There's almost no chance of this getting passed, but I did want to point out this tediously stupid bill to members from the US. Despite this site's efforts against piracy and frequent discussion about license compliance, we still reference file sharing programs and circumvention tools (like the TOR network), so our site would be subject to this law.

If you live in the US, I encourage you to contact your representative. This can be done via the EFF or appeal to the executive branch via a whitehouse.org petition.

[joby_toss]

Let's hope Google and Mark Zuckerberg have more money than the bill's supporters!

[JohnTHaller]

We censored our logo on PortableApps.com for America Censorship Day yesterday and had a banner on our site for it. Even though a law like this would allow publishers like us to block out foreign sites that steal our work, the collateral damage would be awful and have all kinds of nasty consequences. Plus, you never know how that blacklist would actually be managed.

[castman]

Man, I am too furious not about it but about the roughness of it, and I was going to say a long explanation of how this could be still very fair in one hand (if it was at least descent).

If someone wants to start a chit-chat about it I would be very happy to say =P.

[Hydaral]

We had something very similar to this recently in Australia, it didn't get to the voting stage though. Ours was instigated by our Christian IT minister and was targeted at pornography, because as everyone knows, on-line pornography turns normal people into pedophiles (yes, this was one of their arguments). We also had the threat of a secret blacklist with no set rules as to how a site is classified as blocked and no apparent recourse to get your site removed from it.

The US proposal seems to be targeted at "piracy" though which may trick any politicians who don't actually read the thing. This is bad for pretty much the rest of the democratic world as a lot of countries will use this as a precedent if it passes.

[dmg]

It seems Microsoft has gotten in on the debate now:
http://news.cnet.com/8301-31921_3-57330 ... ight-bill/

And the EU version of this has been stopped:
http://www.zdnet.com/blog/london/europe ... ilter/1085


Happy thanksgiving! It may be strictly a U.S. holiday but the sentiment should be universal.

[dmg]

Two more articles of interest on the subject.

A possible alternative to SOPA:
http://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/news ... merges.ars

A rational analysis of the bill:
http://www.techdirt.com/articles/201112 ... porn.shtml

[joby_toss]

Is this COICA a different one than those above?

http://demandprogress.org/blacklist/coica

[SYSTEM]

http://wikimediafoundation.org/wiki/Eng ... A_blackout

[abc]

COICA was the initial version of SOPA and PIPA.

[webfork]

English_Wikipedia_anti-SOPA_blackout

Thanks for the post. Reddit will also be participating. Obviously there are a long list of bad things about this, but one element in particular:

...users who upload copyrighted content to sites could potentially be held criminally liable themselves.

I am currently hosting several programs for this site and, although I'm reasonably sure they're abandonware, I'm not 100% sure that they haven't been made commercial by their original authors. Programs that Andrew is hosting here on the site may have a similar issue.

If this happens giving fair warning is not necessary: if the US government wants a web site, they own it:

The 1998 Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) includes the Online Copyright Infringement Liability Limitation Act, that provides a "safe harbor" for websites that host content. Under that provision, copyright owners who felt that a site was hosting infringing content are required to request the site to remove the infringing material within a certain amount of time. SOPA would bypass this "safe harbor" provision by placing the responsibility for detecting and policing infringement onto the site itself, and allowing judges to block access to websites "dedicated to theft of U.S. property."

Although the White House response and the successful Boycott GoDaddy effort seem to suggest SOPA won't pass, making a strong stand against it now will prevent future bills like it from gaining this kind of momentum.

• If you live in the US, EFF has a way to contact your representative.
• Whether or not you live in the US: vote with your wallet: don't buy anything from EA, sign the petition, and don't support any of the these companies.

[joby_toss]

A call to action for webmasters around the world

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n0X5WCmyokw

[abc]

SOPA Protest: List of Websites Going Dark

[Update]

I found an even better list: http://sopastrike.com/

[abc]

I noticed the Wikipedia blackout is just a big splash screen and the site is still accessible if you disable javascript. I wonder if this was intentional. I was thinking it was going to be a full on "server not found" kind of black out.

P.S.
Google blacked out their logo on the front page

[Hydaral]

I noticed the Wikipedia blackout is just a big splash screen and the site is still accessible if you disable javascript. I wonder if this was intentional. I was thinking it was going to be a full on "server not found" kind of black out.

The Wikipedia blackout is more about raising awareness rather than showing people what might happen if SOPA/PIPA passes, they thought this would be more effective than a banner across the top of every page. Looking at the numbers, it appears it's done its job:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia: ... Learn_more

They even describe how to bypass the blackout on their technical FAQ page:

http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/English_ ... hnical_FAQ