SOPA: Hollywood Finally Gets a Chance to Break the Internet
As promised, here’s the first installment of our closer review of the massive piece of job-killing Internet regulation that is the Stop Online Piracy Act. We’ll start with how it could impact Twitter, Tumblr, and the next innovative social network, cloud computing, or web hosting service that some smart kid is designing in her garage right now.
This is gonna get REALLY messy REALLY quickly, seeing as how the servers for things like Mediafire, Rapidshare, and the other big culprits pointed out in the press release (I think there were 6) all reside in Japan, Sweden, etc.
They're basically trying to use a technological loophole and one of these companies is gonna take legal action in some form.
The IP Act (S.968 - PROTECT IP Act of 2011) establishes a system for taking down websites that the Justice Department determines to be "dedicated to infringing activities." The DoJ or the copyright owner would be able to commence a legal action against the alleged infringer and the DoJ would be allowed to demand that search engines, social networking sites and domain name services block access to the targeted site. In some cases, action could be taken to block sites without first allowing the alleged infringer to defend themselves in court. The PROTECT IP Act would allow copyright owners – movie studios and other content providers – simply to accuse a website of infringement, which could lead to that site being shut down by court order and entire links to the site being wiped clean from the Internet. The bill is so poorly written that it would allow any copyright owner to shut down a legitimate retail website, such as Amazon or Best Buy, by alleging that one product being sold on the site could “enable or facilitate” an infringement. It could even allow any content owner to block access to the Patent Office website if it receives and posts a patent application for a product that is believed to use content without permission. The PROTECT IP Act will hurt American innovation. This bill will give one side the power to put the other side out of business and this is dangerous beyond words.
**Cancels download**
