Infographic: How SOPA will change the net

Dean sez, "Here's a really helpful infographic that shows how the Blacklist Bill/SOPA could drastically change the Internet."

SOPA Infographic

• [Angryjim]

   All you new yrokers should know Chuck schumer is for this bill apparently. Here’s the reply letter I just received:Thank you for your contacting me in opposition to S.968, the PROTECT IP Act. Like you, I believe that consumers should have access to a vibrant and innovative online community to discuss their ideas and opinions.  At the same time, we must not let the internet become a haven for intellectual property thieves.      The threat to intellectual property owners over the internet is clear. Every year, the US Chamber of Commerce estimates that copyright theft costs our nation about $58 billion in lost output, 373,375 in lost jobs, and $16 billion in lost employee earnings. These numbers present an unacceptable burden to US businesses. In addition, companies may be less likely to innovate because their products may be stolen by intellectual property pirates, creating a drag on the US economy.      The PROTECT IP Act addresses the problem of intellectual property theft online, but it also contains important due process protections to ensure that legal activity over the internet is not disrupted.  As you may know, the PROTECT IP Act would allow the Department of Justice to file a claim against a website that 1) has no significant purpose other than engaging in or facilitating copyright infringement, circumventing technology controlling access to copyrighted works, or selling or promoting counterfeit goods or services; or (2) is designed, operated, or marketed and used to engage in such activities. A judge would have to find that a website is intentionally violating intellectual property rights of an American entity before he could issue an order against that site. I believe PROTECT IP Act would provide law enforcement and intellectual property holders additional tools to protect American intellectual property from websites while still ensuring the constitutionally protected rights of free speech and due process. The PROTECT IP Act currently is awaiting action on the floor of the Senate, and I will continue to monitor this bill as it moves through the Senate.        Thank you for contacting me on this important issue.  Please do not hesitate to contact me in the future if I can ever be of assistance to you on this, or any other matter.    Sincerely, Charles E. SchumerUnited States Senator 

  • [kothz]

    Bought.

  • [Lemoutan]

    Please do not hesitate to contact me in the future if I can ever be of assistance to you on this, or any other matter.

    Senator Schumer very nearly just told you to shut up about this matter.

    Every year, the US Chamber of Commerce estimates that copyright theft costs our nation about $58 billion in lost output, 373,375 in lost jobs, and $16 billion in lost employee earnings.

    I suppose you could point out that the USCoC can ‘estimate’ as much as it likes, but that doesn’t make it true. But it rather seems that he’s not listening.

• [Alan Bucknam]

  I support the anti-SOPA efforts, but an infographic with no actual data points on it is a disservice to the cause. I’m sure some smart cookies out there could actually estimate the impacts, in measurable numbers, to things like self-censorship and startups pre- and post-SOPA….

  • [allenmcbride]

    DMCA needs SOPA like that line graph needed its little “data point” dots.

• [twichy]

  Creepy:

  Heroku | No such app

  There is no app configured at that hostname.
  Perhaps the app owner has renamed it, or you mistyped the URL.

• [icecube]

  I take it the censorship police have started early and took down the anti-censorship website?

• [Cowicide]

  Here ya go, this link works:

  http://americancensorship.org/infographic.html

  Moderators the link doesn’t work with the www prefix.

• [t3kna2007]

  So, I found my congressvarmint’s phone number but it took about 15 minutes.  Through a bunch of pages that look like master lists but only show email or Washington office rather than local numbers, finally to the House and Senate sites, then down to the pages for my representatives, then down to their contact info, figuring out along the way which congressional district I’m in so I know which representatives are mine.

  Does anyone have a master list of LOCAL office phone numbers for U.S. representatives that we can pass out to people, as a link, so they know how to call?

  Asking people to call Washington, long distance, is not a winner.  Email gets ignored.  Asking people to figure out the local numbers on their own is probably too high a threshold for many.  Giving them a link to a list that puts the numbers right in their faces seems important.

• [Cowicide]

  On the plus side, if these corporatist idiots do pass this draconian SOPA into law, mesh Internet will EXPLODE and then eventually most of our Internet traffic will be encrypted (sorry corporatist wiretappers!) and we won’t pay money to ISPs.

  Go ahead, make my day.  Are you feeling lucky, punks?

  Disclosure: Cowicide stands to make a LOT of money if SOPA goes through.

  • [kjh]

    Using VPN and encryption to bypass SOPA is outlawed by SOPA too.

• [Karen Rustad]

  1.) The site’s gone.

  2.) Don’t call it an infographic when there’s no info on it. There’s assertions, and some graphics that  happen to resemble charts and graphs. I happen to agree with those assertions (at least the ones visible in the sample, since as mentioned the site’s down) — but it’s fake infoviz. Ugh.

  • [Cowicide]

    http://boingboing.net/2011/11/15/infographic-how-sopa-will-cha.html#comment-364247841

• [Jens Alfke]

  I don’t think any of us need more convincing that this bill is dangerous. But if I did, ridiculous chartjunk like this wouldn’t be the way to do it. Ugh.

  So, in the big circle vs. little circle graph: is the level of self-censorship proportional to the radii or the areas of the circles? And which units of censorship are they using — comstocks or milligoebbels? *facepalm*

  Tell me this is really another brilliant Onion parody of vapid USA Today infographics, please? Nobody was stupid enough to create something like this out of a sincere desire to help, right?

• [Abdul Alhazred]

  It’s been said perfectly already, but I’d like to add my displeasure over the picture as well. It’s so bad it actually detracts from the positive cause it’s intended to support.

• [Trent Baker]

  Why aren’t Google, Facebook and suchlike not digging into their warchests in an effort to counter Hollywood?

• [fgvr.]

  Why aren’t Google, Facebook and suchlike not digging into their warchests in an effort to counter Hollywood? 

• [Florian Bösch]

  Cory, you’ve said a long while ago “you’re not a copyright abolitionist”, at a time when I was very engaged in trying a last ditch effort to prevent ACTA in switzerland. I told you then that I also rather would see the system being made fair then abolishing it altogether, but that the opponents (meaning the lobbyists/*IAA) are making that impossible by attacking our freedom and economy and that they are radicalizing the debate to a degree where any form of common ground will be impossible to find. I don’t think you ever responded to that concern.

  Today, 4 years later, we stand on the precipice of SOPA, even Torrentfreak is now loudly commending the *IAAs for bringing us to the brink of toppling the whole IP regime to an unworkable farce that will lead to it’s abolition.

  I am, as I’ve been the last few years, a copyright abolitionist. I’ve seen that the system is has now reached a proportion of radical and harmful that there is little choice. Do you still believe you can “work it out” with people who push SOPA?

• [Guest]

  But I thought net neutrality was going to save us all!

  I guess getting government out of the Internet is the right thing to do after all…

• [pablohoney]

  You think it’d be possible to invoke bogus “take down” notices to get people’s Facebook profiles you don’t like deleted? Seems like the same principle would apply here… after all, someone uploads/posts/links to some copyrighted video, you could say they’re infringing and get their account canned.  I mean, if past behavior is anything, Facebook already self-censors to a large degree, this might just push it over the edge.

• [SamSam]

  This “infographic” is a monstrosity, and a terrible way to argue for the cause.

  If someone you disagreed with had created this, Cory, you would be tearing it to shreds in your post.

  What the hell is that “New Startups Being Launched Before/After SOPA” graph? Those look like they are actual data points there, but we know those data points are entirely made up because there is no scale and no way they could have numbers. So why did they make it look like a graph with actual data points? Because they’re lying.

  Using fake “graphs” that appear to be real graphs is lying and is not a way to make an argument, even if you agree with it.

• [puufuu]

  I see a “graphic,” by some definitions at least (debatable). Where’s the “info” though?

• [voiceinthedistance]

  Nothing gets me stirred up more than a call to arms to defend Facebook, Myspace and Twitter.

  I’m down with the cause, but is this the best they can come up with?