Posts tagged SOPA

Is CISPA Really SOPA’s Evil Twin? First, check out this infographic. via Gigaom: The criticism that, by including a provision for the protection of intellectual property, CISPA is little more than a less-conspicuous form of the draconian SOPA bill seems misguided. CISPA is vague and unnecessarily broad, but it’s not SOPA. In fact, the very same Internet companies that were so adamantly opposed to SOPA might support CISPA. Facebook already does.  CISPA is actually good, in theory. The idea of sharing cybersecurity information between private companies and the government has merit, especially in a world of increased cyberattacks against organizations in both sectors. If you’re trying to discover patterns in attacks, more data is always better, and web sites are attacked constantly. That they also could have access to classified government data is particularly beneficial. But CISPA isn’t perfect. In fact, it’s vague to the point of being a problem, which is what’s driving concern over the bill. To me, CISPA doesn’t read like SOPA in disguise, but it doesn’t expressly deny that possibility either. Probably the biggest problem is what a company is able to do to “protect” itself from such threats. As the EFF points out, CISPA allows companies to “use cybersecurity systems to identify and obtain cyber threat information to protect the rights and property of such protected entity.” It also grants companies immunity from lawsuits if they exercise their rights under the bill in good faith. (Keep Reading) Infographic by Lumin Consulting Image via ReadWriteWeb. 

Is CISPA Really SOPA’s Evil Twin?

First, check out this infographic.

via Gigaom:

The criticism that, by including a provision for the protection of intellectual property, CISPA is little more than a less-conspicuous form of the draconian SOPA bill seems misguided. CISPA is vague and unnecessarily broad, but it’s not SOPA. In fact, the very same Internet companies that were so adamantly opposed to SOPA might support CISPA. Facebook already does. 

CISPA is actually good, in theory. The idea of sharing cybersecurity information between private companies and the government has merit, especially in a world of increased cyberattacks against organizations in both sectors. If you’re trying to discover patterns in attacks, more data is always better, and web sites are attacked constantly. That they also could have access to classified government data is particularly beneficial.

But CISPA isn’t perfect. In fact, it’s vague to the point of being a problem, which is what’s driving concern over the bill. To me, CISPA doesn’t read like SOPA in disguise, but it doesn’t expressly deny that possibility either.

Probably the biggest problem is what a company is able to do to “protect” itself from such threats. As the EFF points out, CISPA allows companies to “use cybersecurity systems to identify and obtain cyber threat information to protect the rights and property of such protected entity.” It also grants companies immunity from lawsuits if they exercise their rights under the bill in good faith.

(Keep Reading)

Infographic by Lumin Consulting

Image via ReadWriteWeb. 

Just like I told a French journalist and to the lady at the Washington Post, pirates are thieves and they do steal. Yeah yeah, “when I steal your DVD, you have no DVD, but when I copy a file, you still have a file” – I get that BS. We all know that it’s BS too. However, SOPAs and PIPAs create tyranny. If given the choice between thieves and tyranny, I’d rather stay with the thieves.

Suren Ter, creator of YouHaveDownloaded.com to Privacy Online News.

You Have Downloaded indexes IP addresses that have been used to download torrent files. If you visit the site, it will display what files have been downloaded on your network. 

The site, says Ter, is a proof of concept to show visitors what the entertainment industry might see as it tracks downloads across peer-to-peer networks.

H/T: Slashdot.

via Social Times: The waves of the Reddit sea have grown tumultuous as Internet privacy laws like SOPA have threatened to derange the treasured free speech of the web.  Reddit, a staunch critic of any move to restrict freedom, have drafted a crowd-sourced privacy bill that would protect web user’s rights. Creators of the act seek to prevent any kind of internet censorship, yet simultaneously protect copyrighted work. The suggested timetable leads to a completed documented by April 1, the same day the European Citizen’s Initiative site opens. Toward international reach, Downing_Street_Cat, author of the timetable, calls for “a bit of research into internet laws in different countries.” A good idea indeed. I wonder how the free speech vs. privacy debate will play into this. The act is being drafted on a Google Doc, which has been updated since Social Times reported it and discussion is still pretty dynamic. Check out these quick links to follow the action: The Free Internet Act Subreddit The FIA Discussion Page The Google Docs To get an understanding of the act, I’d read the 24th February view-only version, which has some pretty interesting editing suggestions on it, and then check the discussion page for updates. This evening, the “editable” version is a fun-to-watch live document of tremendous nonsense, periodically deleted of all relevant content and then replaced again.

via Social Times:

The waves of the Reddit sea have grown tumultuous as Internet privacy laws like SOPA have threatened to derange the treasured free speech of the web.  Reddit, a staunch critic of any move to restrict freedom, have drafted a crowd-sourced privacy bill that would protect web user’s rights.

Creators of the act seek to prevent any kind of internet censorship, yet simultaneously protect copyrighted work. The suggested timetable leads to a completed documented by April 1, the same day the European Citizen’s Initiative site opens. Toward international reach, Downing_Street_Cat, author of the timetable, calls for “a bit of research into internet laws in different countries.” A good idea indeed. I wonder how the free speech vs. privacy debate will play into this.

The act is being drafted on a Google Doc, which has been updated since Social Times reported it and discussion is still pretty dynamic. Check out these quick links to follow the action:

To get an understanding of the act, I’d read the 24th February view-only version, which has some pretty interesting editing suggestions on it, and then check the discussion page for updates. This evening, the “editable” version is a fun-to-watch live document of tremendous nonsense, periodically deleted of all relevant content and then replaced again.

Y Combinator wants to Kill Hollywood

youmightfindyourself:

Hollywood appears to have peaked. If it were an ordinary industry (film cameras, say, or typewriters), it could look forward to a couple decades of peaceful decline. But this is not an ordinary industry. The people who run it are so mean and so politically connected that they could do a lot of damage to civil liberties and the world economy on the way down. It would therefore be a good thing if competitors hastened their demise.

That’s one reason we want to fund startups that will compete with movies and TV, but not the main reason. The main reason we want to fund such startups is not to protect the world from more SOPAs, but because SOPA brought it to our attention that Hollywood is dying. They must be dying if they’re resorting to such tactics. If movies and TV were growing rapidly, that growth would take up all their attention. When a striker is fouled in the penalty area, he doesn’t stop as long as he still has control of the ball; it’s only when he’s beaten that he turns to appeal to the ref. SOPA shows Hollywood is beaten. And yet the audiences to be captured from movies and TV are still huge. There is a lot of potential energy to be liberated there.

How do you kill the movie and TV industries? Or more precisely (since at this level, technological progress is probably predetermined) what is going to kill them? Mostly not what they like to believe is killing them, filesharing. What’s going to kill movies and TV is what’s already killing them: better ways to entertain people. So the best way to approach this problem is to ask yourself: what are people going to do for fun in 20 years instead of what they do now?

There will be several answers, ranging from new ways to produce and distribute shows, through new media (e.g. games) that look a lot like shows but are more interactive, to things (e.g. social sites and apps) that have little in common with movies and TV except competing with them for finite audience attention. Some of the best ideas may initially look like they’re serving the movie and TV industries. Microsoft seemed like a technology supplier to IBM before eating their lunch, and Google did the same thing to Yahoo.

It would be great if what people did instead of watching shows was exercise more and spend more time with their friends and families. Maybe they will. All other things being equal, we’d prefer to hear about ideas like that. But all other things are decidedly not equal. Whatever people are going to do for fun in 20 years is probably predetermined. Winning is more a matter of discovering it than making it happen. In this respect at least, you can’t push history off its course. You can, however, accelerate it.

What’s the most entertaining thing you can build?

youmightfindyourself

Young People Following SOPA. Old(er) People, Not So Much

Each week the Pew Research Center releases its News Interest Index examining the most followed stories in the US market. 

Last week’s top stories were the sunken Italian cruise ship and the 2012 US elections.

SOPA also happened last week and it comes in at a somewhat respectable fourth (just after economic news stories). But what’s interesting is how it registered across age groups.

While just seven percent of people overall say they followed the SOPA debate, 23 percent of those under 30 surveyed say they followed news about the anti-piracy bill. That 23 percent is higher for this age group than any other news story.

Currently SOPA is off the table as lawmakers tinker with it to make it more “amenable” for re-introduction. As a congressional aid tells ReadWriteWeb, “I think, like anything else, if there’s not strong constituent opposition, it makes it easier for us to move forward on issues like this.”

Something to consider as older demographics largely ignore SOPA and other legislation affecting copyright.

Frederic Filloux says Piracy is a big part of the digital ecosystem, and its role is both revered and ridiculed:   In October 2003, Wired ran this interesting piece about a company specialized in tracking entertainment contents over the internet. BigChampagne, located in Beverly Hills, is for the digital era what Billboard magazine was in the analog world. Except that BigChampagne is essentially tracking illegal contents that circulates on the web. It does so with incredible precision by matching IP numbers and zip code, finding out what’s hot on peer-to-peer networks. In his Wired piece, Jeff Howe explains: BigChampagne’s clients can pull up information about popularity and market share (what percentage of file-sharers have a given song). They can also drill down into specific markets - to see, for example, that 38.35 percent of file-sharers in Omaha, Nebraska, have a song from the new 50 Cent album. No wonder some clients pay BigChampagne up to $40,000 a month for such data. They  use BigChampagne’s valuable intelligence to apply gentle pressure on local radio station to air the very tunes favored by downloaders. For a long time, illegal file-sharing has been a powerful market and promotional tool for the music industry. Piracy is still a problem, especially for software giants like Microsoft. Filloux points out that in China, so rampant is the problem of digital piracy for the company, that Microsoft sales are the same there as in the Netherlands, a country with just 16 million people—many of whom must be paying full fare for computer programs.

Frederic Filloux says Piracy is a big part of the digital ecosystem, and its role is both revered and ridiculed:

 

In October 2003, Wired ran this interesting piece about a company specialized in tracking entertainment contents over the internet. BigChampagne, located in Beverly Hills, is for the digital era what Billboard magazine was in the analog world. Except that BigChampagne is essentially tracking illegal contents that circulates on the web. It does so with incredible precision by matching IP numbers and zip code, finding out what’s hot on peer-to-peer networks. In his Wired piece, Jeff Howe explains:

BigChampagne’s clients can pull up information about popularity and market share (what percentage of file-sharers have a given song). They can also drill down into specific markets - to see, for example, that 38.35 percent of file-sharers in Omaha, Nebraska, have a song from the new 50 Cent album.

No wonder some clients pay BigChampagne up to $40,000 a month for such data. They  use BigChampagne’s valuable intelligence to apply gentle pressure on local radio station to air the very tunes favored by downloaders. For a long time, illegal file-sharing has been a powerful market and promotional tool for the music industry.

Piracy is still a problem, especially for software giants like Microsoft. Filloux points out that in China, so rampant is the problem of digital piracy for the company, that Microsoft sales are the same there as in the Netherlands, a country with just 16 million people—many of whom must be paying full fare for computer programs.

mondaynote.com

Jon Stewart on SOPA

I had to find out about SOPA and with Wikipedia down I had to turn to a notoriously unreliable source… the news.

Rushing something with such potential for far-reaching consequences is something I cannot support and that’s why I will not only vote against moving the bill forward next week but also remove my cosponsorship of the bill. Given the legitimate vocal concerns, it is imperative that we take a step back to allow everyone to come together and find a reasonable solution.
Senator Orrin Hatch (R-Utah) in a statement this afternoon coming out in opposition to PIPA, a bill he formerly cosponsored.
Your Images on SOPA Via Steve Jurvetson.

Your Images on SOPA

Via Steve Jurvetson.

SOPA and PIPA are prime examples of big companies trying to do everything they can to stop new competitors from innovating. They’re also examples of how lobbying in the United States has become one of the most effective ways of limiting this sort of competition.
James Allworth and Maxwell Wessel, Harvard Business Review. The Real SOPA Battle: Innovators vs. Goliath.
What Does Wikipedia Have Against Soap? Image: Screenshot of Twitter reactions to Wikipedia blackout, via @herpderpedia

What Does Wikipedia Have Against Soap?

Image: Screenshot of Twitter reactions to Wikipedia blackout, via @herpderpedia

As Web Protests SOPA, Two Senators Change Course

Via the New York Times

Internet protests on Wednesday quickly cut into Congressional support for anti-web piracy measures as lawmakers abandoned and rethought their backing for legislation that pitted new media interests against some of the most powerful old-line commercial interests in Washington.

Freshman Senator Marco Rubio of Florida, a rising Republican star, was first out of the starting gate Wednesday morning with his announcement that he would no longer back anti-Internet piracy legislation he had co-sponsored. Senator John Cornyn, the Texas Republican who heads the campaign operation for his party, quickly followed suit and urged Congress take more time to study the measure that had been set for a test vote next week.

What You Can Do about SOPA and PIPA

Via Slashdot:

Wednesday is here, and with it sites around the internet are going under temporary blackout to protest two pieces of legislation currently making their way through the U.S. Congress: the Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA) and the Protect-IP Act (PIPA). Wikipedia, reddit, the Free Software Foundation, Google, the Electronic Frontier Foundation, imgur, Mozilla, and many others have all made major changes to their sites or shut down altogether in protest. These sites, as well as technology experts (PDF) around the world and everyone here at Slashdot, think SOPA and PIPA pose unacceptable risks to freedom of speech and the uncensored nature of the internet. The purpose of the protests is to educate people — to let them know this legislation will damage websites you use and enjoy every day, despite being unrelated to the stated purpose of both bills. So, we ask you: what can you do to stop SOPA and PIPA? You may have heard the House has shelved SOPA, and that President Obama has pledged not to pass it as-is, but the MPAA and SOPA-sponsor Lamar Smith (R-TX) are trying to brush off the protests as a stunt, and Smith has announced markup for the bill will resume in February. Meanwhile, PIPA is still present in the Senate, and it remains a threat. Read on for more about why these bills are bad news, and how to contact your representative to let them know it…

…So, what can we do about it? There are two big things: contact your representative, and spread the word. Slashdot readers, on the whole, are more technically-minded than the average internet user, so you’re all in a position to share your wisdom with the less internet-savvy people in your life, and get them to contact their representative, too. Here’s some useful information for doing so:

Propublica has a list of all SOPA/PIPA supporters and opponents.
Here is the Senate contact list and the House contact list.
You can also use the EFF’s form-letter, the Stop American Censorship form-letter, or sign Google’s petition.
If you don’t live in the U.S., you can petition the State Department. (And yes, you have a dog in this fight.)
SOPAStrike has a list of companies participating in the protest, and this crowd-sourced Google Doc tracks companies that support the legislation. Tell those companies what you think.

shortformblog: awesomebrainpowers: Not to trivialize an incredibly important issue, but I foresee an off-the-charts spike in office productivity tomorrow. Sadly, the websites that track that kind of thing will have gone dark, so no-one will ever know. tpmmedia: A lot of major websites are “going dark” on January 18 in protest over the internet bill SOPA, and this timeline shows you how the campaign has ramped up in the last week. Google is even planning a special doodle about SOPA tomorrow. (via TPM) We’re on the fence about going dark. We’d rather cover the phenomenon and inform people about it than disappear entirely. I asked inothernews about this, and his thought was this: “I think that if it affects us directly in our ability to deliver information to our audiences, then we have no choice but to participate.” However, to us, it seems like it breaks the line between information source and activism; we’d rather tell people about the activists than play that role ourselves. What do you all think? — Ernie @ SFB FJP: We’re having the same conversation.

shortformblog:

awesomebrainpowers:

Not to trivialize an incredibly important issue, but I foresee an off-the-charts spike in office productivity tomorrow. Sadly, the websites that track that kind of thing will have gone dark, so no-one will ever know.

tpmmedia:

A lot of major websites are “going dark” on January 18 in protest over the internet bill SOPA, and this timeline shows you how the campaign has ramped up in the last week. Google is even planning a special doodle about SOPA tomorrow. (via TPM)

We’re on the fence about going dark. We’d rather cover the phenomenon and inform people about it than disappear entirely. I asked inothernews about this, and his thought was this: “I think that if it affects us directly in our ability to deliver information to our audiences, then we have no choice but to participate.” However, to us, it seems like it breaks the line between information source and activism; we’d rather tell people about the activists than play that role ourselves. What do you all think? — Ernie @ SFB

FJP: We’re having the same conversation.

livewire.talkingpointsmemo.com