SOPA/PIPA Copyright Bills Also Target American Sites
SOPA/PIPA Copyright Bills Also Target American Sites
by Marvin Ammori
The tech and civil liberties communities have been fighting proposed copyright legislation. Critics have argued that the proposed legislation would break the Internet, create the Great Firewall of America, and lead to censorship while doing little to stop piracy itself. They say, essentially, that the bills aim at piracy but misses and instead ends up shooting the rest of us in the face. The bills are called the Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA) in the House and the PROTECT IP Act (PIPA) in the Senate.
The point of this post is more narrow than explaining all that is wrong with the bills. It responds to one particular argument: defenders of SOPA and PIPA keep saying that the legislation would not affect domestic sites. They say that the bills only affect foreign infringing sites like The Pirate Bay and MegaUpload.
Unfortunately, they’re wrong. They’re wrong for at least three reasons.
- The bills apply to the many American sites that have domestic and foreign domain names. This means Google.ca, Amazon.co.uk, and all the other foreign sites registered to American companies. (See the marked up version of PIPA, page 33, and the Manager’s Amendment to SOPA page 4. To understand the reference to registrar and registry, see definitions here.)
- The bills’ anti-circumvention provisions don’t even pretend to limit the bill to foreign sites, and clearly the provisions apply to American sites. Any tool that helps anyone “circumvent” the bills’ remedies are illegal. Since the bills’ remedies include domain-name breaking and removal from search engines, any American sites that permit you to search for, or find, The Pirate Bay’s new domain name is potentially liable for circumvention. At least some people will tell you where to find The Pirate Bay, and they will use their Facebook status, their Twitter posts, their Tumblr, their blog on WordPress or Blogger, a Youtube video, or a webpage indexed by Google to do it. That means all of those American sites displaying the information might be subject to SOPA and PIPA as anti-circumvention tools. The language is pretty vague, but it appears all these companies must monitor their sites for anti-circumvention so they are not subject to court actions ”enjoining” them from continuing to provide “such product or service.” What “product or service” might be shut down? The language is unclear. What could be shut down is the particular tweet or the entire Twitter service; one video or all of YouTube . (If it were just one tweet or video, the existing laws, such as the Digital Millennium Copyright Act would suffice, so the proposed law may be read more expansively.) (For evidence of this point, read the marked up PIPA, page 56, and the Manager’s Amendment to SOPA, pages 20-21.)
- Beyond the first two, the enforcement provisions regarding even The Pirate Bay obviously impose a burden almost exclusively on American companies. Search companies have to remove links from their search engine, imposing compliance costs. This applies to Google, Bing, Yahoo, StumbleUpon, and also to smaller search engines like Blekko. The American domain-name providers must break the connection between some domains and IP addresses. This applies to large and small American DNS-providers alike. And the advertising and payment processing provisions apply to American companies. (For evidence, note even the bills’ defenders admit the bills will commandeer American intermediaries to target foreign sites. Indeed it deliberately commandeers American intermediary companies not involved in any infringement.)
So, for these three reasons, the sites burden American sites and American speech. But it would not end the story if the legislation only targeted foreign sites: the First Amendment protects Americans’ ability to access non-infringing foreign speech no less than it protects our ability to access domestic speech. It protects our right to read books by Voltaire, Vaclav Havel, or James Joyce no less than our right to read Milton Friedman, Scott Fitzgerald, and Sabina Murray.
(Note: in addition to loving the Internet and being a long-time free speech lawyer and scholar, I also now representsome tech companies, some of which are on record against these bills. Also, if I misunderstood the import of the bills’ language in some way, I am happy to correct.)
An Open Message to Police & Military
http://waitingforthestorm.com
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Nikola Tesla unlimited free energy forever
Nikola Tesla unlimited free energy forever
From Google Videos.
Lightworks Video&Audio
Hosted by Bill Jenkins, formerly of ABC Radio, this comprehensive documentary features physicists and inventors who are challenging orthodox science to bring this non-polluting technology forward despite ridicule and suppression. See actual working prototypes that defy classical physics including phenomenal experiments in anti-gravity and the transmutation of metals.
http://www.lightworksav.com/
BitTorrent Admins Charged in $1.25bn Movie Piracy Case
BitTorrent Admins Charged in $1.25bn Movie Piracy Case
Written by enigmax on July 13, 2010
Claiming that the site was a major source of pre-release cammed movies with links to piracy groups outside the country, on May 26th 2009 the Russian Federation Ministry of Internal Affairs Investigation Committee under the Ministry of Internal Affairs carried out a raid on the the Russian BitTorrent tracker, Interfilm.ru.
The action followed complaints from anti-piracy group RAPO, a founding member of the MPA which represents the interests of Universal, Paramount, Sony, Warner Bros and 20th Century Fox in Russia.
At Interfilm’s Moscow base the police arrested several staff and also the main targets, husband and wife team Ivan and Irina Podorozhnikovymi.
Just over a year later the Interior Ministry Investigation Committee has now filed criminal charges against the pair, known online as ‘Ripper’ and ‘Nadezhda’. The scope of the accusations are quite incredible. Domestic and foreign film companies claim that the tracker caused 38.7 billion rubles in damages – a mind-blowing $1.253 billion. 
Although it has not been revealed how this astronomical figure was reached, if convicted the founders – who the authorities say moved house and took technical measures to keep the site up during the investigation – could be facing up to six years in jail under Part 3 of Article 146 of the Criminal Code.
In addition to action against the site’s founders, there is an ongoing investigation into some of the top users of the site. However, in order to prove that regular users committed any crimes, under Russian law it would be necessary to prove they profited from their actions on a large scale.
There are claims that some individuals downloaded fresh movie releases from Interfilm and then uploaded them to their own sites. Police are considering whether to launch criminal investigations in these cases.
Although Interfilm went down after the initial raid, it reappeared at LeaseWeb in The Netherlands. The site remains operational today with a Malaysian host but is perhaps preparing for trouble. In addition to using the Interfilm.ru domain, the site is also in operation from BitHouse.org. Russia’s biggest torrent site, Torrents.ru, recently had to change its name to RUTracker.org after its domain was seized by Russian authorities.
Psychiatry: An Industry of Death
http://video.google.com/googleplayer.swf?docid=-30073771927921128&hl=en&fs=true
There have been allegations that this is a Scientology propaganda film. Although the church of Scientology has had influence on the production of this film, the evil inherent in psychiatry should be of great concern to all people of all faiths especially Christians and Jews.
Michael Badnarik – Constitution Class 7 of 7
Michael Badnarik’s Constitution Class – Part 7 59:33
In the early eighties Michael Badnarik started his career as a computer programmer at an Illinois nuclear power plant. For the past twenty years he has continued this professional course, but during this time he became interested and frustrated with politics. As a result, in 1983 Badnarik began studying the IRS and then the constitution. He had since condensed his 18 years of research into a short eight hour course that he would teach in a lecture format. It included some of the fundamentals on our rights and the foundations of our republic.
Michael Badnarik teaches a class on the Constitution. Follow his message of freedom, this is a MUST WATCH!!! Most of what you think you know about the United States is wrong. Think you own your Car? Think its your money? Why do we have to register your car and get plates? Think you own Your property? He explains the differences between rights and privileges.
For the rest of the class Videos Please watch this space or See
http://www.archive.org/details/Michael_Badnarik
Michael Badnarik – Constitution Class 6 of 7
Badnarik Constitution Class Part 6 58:42 – 2 years ago
http://video.google.com/googleplayer.swf?docid=5747171386852909946&hl=en&fs=true
In the early eighties Michael Badnarik started his career as a computer programmer at an Illinois nuclear power plant. For the past twenty years he has continued this professional course, but during this time he became interested and frustrated with politics. As a result, in 1983 Badnarik began studying the IRS and then the constitution. He had since condensed his 18 years of research into a short eight hour course that he would teach in a lecture format. It included some of the fundamentals on our rights and the foundations of our republic.
Michael Badnarik teaches a class on the Constitution. Follow his message of freedom, this is a MUST WATCH!!! Most of what you think you know about the United States is wrong. Think you own your Car? Think its your money? Why do we have to register your car and get plates? Think you own Your property? He explains the differences between rights and privileges.
For the rest of the class Videos Please watch this space or See
http://www.archive.org/details/Michael_Badnarik
Michael Badnarik – Constitution Class 5 of 7
Badnarik Constitution Class Part 5 55:42 – 2 years ago
http://video.google.com/googleplayer.swf?docid=-5876221484028664477&hl=en&fs=true
In the early eighties Michael Badnarik started his career as a computer programmer at an Illinois nuclear power plant. For the past twenty years he has continued this professional course, but during this time he became interested and frustrated with politics. As a result, in 1983 Badnarik began studying the IRS and then the constitution. He had since condensed his 18 years of research into a short eight hour course that he would teach in a lecture format. It included some of the fundamentals on our rights and the foundations of our republic.
Michael Badnarik teaches a class on the Constitution. Follow his message of freedom, this is a MUST WATCH!!! Most of what you think you know about the United States is wrong. Think you own your Car? Think its your money? Why do we have to register your car and get plates? Think you own Your property? He explains the differences between rights and privileges.
For the rest of the class Videos Please watch this space or See
http://www.archive.org/details/Michael_Badnarik
Michael Badnarik – Constitution Class 4 of 7
Badnarik Constitution Class Part 4 58:02 2 years ago
http://video.google.com/googleplayer.swf?docid=5743392260531647132&hl=en&fs=true
In the early eighties Michael Badnarik started his career as a computer programmer at an Illinois nuclear power plant. For the past twenty years he has continued this professional course, but during this time he became interested and frustrated with politics. As a result, in 1983 Badnarik began studying the IRS and then the constitution. He had since condensed his 18 years of research into a short eight hour course that he would teach in a lecture format. It included some of the fundamentals on our rights and the foundations of our republic.
Michael Badnarik teaches a class on the Constitution. Follow his message of freedom, this is a MUST WATCH!!! Most of what you think you know about the United States is wrong. Think you own your Car? Think its your money? Why do we have to register your car and get plates? Think you own Your property? He explains the differences between rights and privileges.
For the rest of the class Videos Please watch this space or See
http://www.archive.org/details/Michael_Badnarik
mazanga 