SOPA in depth: the worst-ever copyright proposal in US legislative history?

SOPA, the House version of the US Senate's PROTECT-IP Bill, might be the worst-ever copyright proposal in US legislative history. The Electronic Frontier Foundation has begun a series of articles examining the bill in depth, explaining just how insane it is. Here's part one:

If an IP rightsholder (vaguely defined – could be Justin Bieber worried about his publicity rights) thinks you meet the criteria and that it is in some way harmed, it can send a notice claiming as much to the payment processors (Visa, Mastercard, Paypal etc.) and ad services you rely on.

Once they get it, they have 5 days to choke off your financial support. Of course, the payment processors and ad networks won’t be able to fine-tune their response so that only the allegedly infringing portion of your site is affected, which means your whole site will be under assault. And, it makes no difference that no judge has found you guilty of anything or that the DMCA safe harbors would shelter your conduct if the matter ever went to court. Indeed, services that have been specifically found legal, like Rapidshare, could be economically strangled via SOPA. You can file a counter-notice, but you’ve only got 5 days to do it (good luck getting solid legal advice in time) and the payment processors and ad networks have no obligation to respect it in any event. That’s because there are vigilante provisions that grant them immunity for choking off a site if they have a “reasonable belief” that some portion of the site enables infringement.

SOPA: Hollywood Finally Gets A Chance to Break the Internet

• [yadayada]

  Let’s just hope Anonymous hears about this.

  (And, yes, it makes me a little nervous to post a comment like this. And the fact that it makes me nervous makes me even more nervous. I hate Big Brother. Oh, wait, I meant to say “I love Big Brother. I have always loved Big Brother.”)

• [Guest]

  I think we’re due some process. 

• [davidasposted]

  I wonder how many U.S. Congressmen and/or their businesses could become the targets of this bill if some version of it or PROTECT-IP are passed. The ‘three strikes’ laws proposed in some European countries would be fairly easy to turn on their masters, for example. But are these bills too narrowly focused on torrent sites and the like for folks in the U.S. to hijack them should they become law?

• [Sean McKibbon]

  I see the advantage now of having fewer provinces in Canada than the US has states. When a provincial court overturns a law it reallllly means something and decisions go up the chain to the supremes waayyy quicker, deterring legislators from passing blatantly stupid and unconstitutional laws.

• [Mordicai]

  I feel like we are slouching toward “corporate citizens” starting to make their very first “citizen’s arrests.”

• [Florian Bösch]

  Any more proof required that the whole bunch of IP law is quickly fading into obsolescence, if not by opposition, then by making itself utterly unworkable with. Abolish the lot, it’s time, it’s been time a long time ago, do it now, and get it over with.

  Watching IP law evolve is like watching baby seals die.

• [phoomp]

  There really is no other solution to problems like this than to simply stop consuming the content owned by anyone who wants and will use these kinds of laws.

  Honestly, this kind of legislation no longer bothers me, because everything I now read/listen/watch is produced and owned by creatives who have no desire to lock down their creations to such insane degrees.

  • [ocatagon]

    Unfortunately that’s about 90% of the content since they pretty much own the distribution chain.

  • [bnschlz]

    Unfortunately it should still bother you.

    The point of this type of legislation is to turn the internet into a paid distribution service for current big media.

    Do you think these companies like that you can buy ‘art’ directly from ‘artists’? (where art = anything at all). They hate the idea, and want to kill any chance of it becoming the normal way to buy music/video/literature/games/… They also see youtube and other community content generated forums as direct challenges to their distribution networks, and to their access to your viewing time. Hence the push to attack these through whatever means possible.

    These current companies are dinosaurs, and current technology could (should) cripple their business model. But they are rich, and will do everything they can to stay as profitable as they are. They don’t care about you, they just want you to give them, and only them, your cash.

• [usonia]

   I dodnt read through carefully, so this may be moot BUT! How hard is it for average Joes & Janes to use this to fuck back with the corporations, lawyers and congressfolk passing this shit?

  • [Florian Bösch]

    Ah see, now that’s the fun part. In theory such a thing could be used to “fuck them back”. In practice nobody takes your takedown/dammage complaints serious if you’re not a representative of the RIAA/MPAA, because, duh, that would be like messy for all, and the RIAA/MPAA certainly don’t encourage anyone using the laws they created for themselves to use.

• [squashee]

  As a small anecdote, sopa in swedish actually means trash or garbage.

• [SDukeEllis]

  If an organism can’t survive in particular environment, it dies out. If law enforcement agencies can’t police something on their own, the law is unenforceable. Hollywood, Nashville? These are creatures who refuse to adapt to a changing environment. SOPA is like holding up an umbrella against a meteor shower. It’ll be a grand fight, and many will suffer. In the end, the dinosaurs will die, no matter how many little mammals they stomp on the way out.

  Imagine what life would be had typewriter factories been able to halt the production of word processing software. What if Irish monks – noted for their beautifully hand-written transcriptions of classical literature – had been able to halt the proliferation of printing presses? And if the dinosaurs had been able to legislate away the cause of their extinction, where would we be?

  • [Antinous / Moderator]

    And if the dinosaurs had been able to legislate away the cause of their extinction, where would we be?

    We wouldn’t just have Raptor Jesus, we’d have Raptor Juggaloes, too.

• [Brendan]

  As an artist, I can’t pick and choose what unconsciously comes through in my work. Every single thing I do is a remix of stuff I’ve seen before – not just from other creative works, but from the environment and world around me.

  New ideas don’t come in a vacuum, they’re built off those that have come before. These law makers have no clue about the creative enterprise. It’s sad.

• [urbanspaceman]

  As I’ve said before, what makes the Hollywood studios think that we want to even *watch* their formulaic, sophomoric regurgitations of pop culture cliches, let alone “pirate” them? True, not all Hollywood movies suck, but quick, how many mainstream movies this year do you consider “must-see”?

  It’s bad enough that “copy-protected” DVDs won’t play on my linux box. Hey, Hollywood, you’re supposed to make it *easier* for folks to use your product.

  • [LightningRose]

    “It’s bad enough that “copy-protected” DVDs won’t play on my linux box.”

    You’re doing it wrong.

• [vicx]

  I was racking my brain trying to think of a way to prepare for this in case it gets through and This is what I came up with.

  A form of Fair Use insurance coverage issued by the EFF or simlar type of organisation and backed by a Fair Use Fund. A website or enduser could take out fair use insurance and based on their exposure to risk of SOPA action get a suitable level of technical redundancy and legal coverage to respond to any action against them. In the event of a SOPA action, an automated preprogrammed defensive response could be instantly launched. Using a Fair Use Protection Plan would identify your site as legally perpared to fight and acts as a deterrent against fivilous legal action. Of course the more sites covered by the Fair Use Protection Fund the greater the protection each site enjoys.

  It is like a Star Wars Laser Defence System for the commons. Pew Pew.