Amy Goodman: The Day the Internet Roared

[marmar]

via truthdig:



The Day the Internet Roared

Posted on Jan 18, 2012
By Amy Goodman


Wednesday, Jan. 18, marked the largest online protest in the history of the Internet. Websites from large to small “went dark” in protest of proposed legislation before the U.S. House and Senate that could profoundly change the Internet. The two bills, SOPA in the House and PIPA in the Senate, ostensibly aim to stop the piracy of copyrighted material over the Internet on websites based outside the U.S. Critics, among them the founders of Google, Wikipedia, the Internet Archive, Tumblr and Twitter, counter that the laws will stifle innovation and investment, hallmarks of the free, open Internet. The Obama administration has offered muted criticism of the legislation, but, as many of his supporters have painfully learned, what President Barack Obama questions one day he signs into law the next.

First, the basics. SOPA stands for the Stop Online Piracy Act, while PIPA is the Protect IP Act. The two bills are very similar. SOPA would allow copyright holders to complain to the U.S. attorney general about a foreign website they allege is “committing or facilitating the commission of criminal violations” of copyright law. This relates mostly to pirated movies and music. SOPA would allow the movie industry, through the courts and the U.S. attorney general, to send a slew of demands that Internet service providers (ISPs) and search-engine companies shut down access to those alleged violators, and even to prevent linking to those sites, thus making them “unfindable.” It would also bar Internet advertising providers from making payments to websites accused of copyright violations.

SOPA could, then, shut down a community-based site like YouTube if just one of its millions of users was accused of violating one U.S. copyright. As David Drummond, Google’s chief legal officer and an opponent of the legislation, blogged, “Last year alone we acted on copyright takedown notices for more than 5 million webpages.” He wrote, “PIPA & SOPA will censor the web, will risk our industry’s track record of innovation and job creation, and will not stop piracy.”

Corynne McSherry, intellectual property director at the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF.org), told me: “These bills propose new powers for the government and for private actors to create, effectively, blacklists of sites … then force service providers to block access to those sites. That’s why we call these the censorship bills.” .................(more)

The complete piece is at: http://www.truthdig.com/report/item/the_day_the_internet_roared_20120118/

[Laelth]

1. Interesting.

what President Barack Obama questions one day he signs into law the next.

Let us hope SOPA and PIPA fail in Congress.

-Laelth

[LiberalLovinLug]

5. "what President Barack Obama questions one day he signs into law the next."

Looks like Amy would have her hands full with the Obama-can-do-no-wrong gang on here.

But I'm with her. The evidence is in. The internet community will have to lead this fight. We can't trust the Dems or even Obama to do the next day what he says today.

And a thank you and rec to DU, Skinner, Earl, and everyone, for their participation in this important protest. The most important one IMO in our generation for protecting the one outlet left for free speech.

[meow2u3]

2. The offline version of SOPA/PIPA would be like the government shutting down Ford, GM, and Chrysler

because some drunk driver decided to get behind the wheel and crash his or her car, killing someone's family.

If the government cannot legally shut down a manufacturing plant without due process because a consumer misuses or abuses their products, why should they be allowed to shut down an entire web site, denying the web site owner and/or operators the right to defend themselves in court, just because one rogue user decides to misuse and/or abuse posting privileges by uploading copyrighted content?

[fasttense]

3. And you wouldn't even know about this protest if you did not have the internet.

Corporate media is barely discussing this as if we don't even exist.

[zipplewrath]

4. It's what I told my congress critters

The bills, she says, are the creation of the entertainment, or “content,” industries: “SOPA, in particular, was negotiated without any consultation with the technology sector. They were specifically excluded.” The exclusion of the tech sector has alarmed not only Silicon Valley executives, but also conservatives like Utah Republican Congressman Jason Chaffetz, a tea party favorite. He said in a December House Judiciary Committee hearing, “We’re basically going to reconfigure the Internet and how it’s going to work, without bringing in the nerds.”

What I read of the thing, even from people supporting the bills, made plain that they were effectively written by the content owners, without much input from the folks who actually run domains and websites. Bring them in next time and let them help. They actually do want to help believe it or not. At some points, they often are "content" providers as well.

Said Dodd of the broad-based, grass-roots Internet protest,“It’s a dangerous and troubling development when the platforms that serve as gateways to information intentionally skew the facts to incite their users in order to further their corporate interests.”

This is classic as well. I'm not saying that SOME folks can't be fooled, but the suggestion is that huge numbers of users can be led around by their ignorant noses. The lobbiest might want to consider that the effort was successful BECAUSE their message rang true.

[Uncle Joe]

6. Kicked and recommended.

Thanks for the thread, marmar.

[littlewolf]

7. I found it interesting that

both sides fought against this .. left and right ....

[AverageJoe90]

8. The right didn't really fight. They were just trying to grab some votes......

.....like the flip-flopping hypocrites that the vast majority of them really are. Fuck 'em all.