US Internet Censorship (warning: activism)
Posted: 27 Nov 2011 05:27 am
This week on Things That Are Terrible:
Ten days ago, American Congressional hearings on a pair of bills called PIPA (the Senate's Protect Intellectual Property Act) and SOPA (the House's Stop Online Piracy Act) began. The bills would allow copyright holders to force search engines, payment processors (Paypal/credit cards) and ad services to instantly withdraw support for vaguely-defined "rogue" websites, without evidence, crippling them financially and forcing them to shut down. This applies to user-posted content, too: if even one person posts supposedly copyright-infringing material, the entire site could be cut off. It'd force essentially every site with social-media aspects or user-generated content (Facebook, Twitter, Google+, YouTube, blogging and file hosting services, Subeta... I guess Neo is already censored to death) to strictly self-censor users' postings. Not only would the bill ruin major websites, but the House version at least would provide for heavy fines and years of jail time for harmless, non-commercial use of popular material, and both would choke future growth in the tech sector. The Chinese Politburo would be embarrassed.
On 16 Nov, a massive drive of petitions and emails to representatives actually got through to Congress, but for reasons relating to the arcane and somewhat disengaged relations between the media, the government, and the rest of the world, most of the bad press ended up hitting the slightly-more-restrictive House version, and those Powers That Be which would prefer to see it go through (the major players in the entertainment and anti-piracy industries) are now pushing the Senate version of the bill, spinning it as a "jobs" effort. (Needless to say, the losses involved in the shutdown of big names in the internet business—and the startups that might have become those big names—would more than outweigh whatever jobs would be created in the effort to maintain the censorship.) The Senate bill has a longer history and a stronger core of support; 40 senators have already backed the legislation, and there's reason to believe that the leadership may call for a vote as early as this week. Fight for the Future is organizing a call-in on Tuesday 29 November. They are hoping to do for the Senate what has been done for the House, and keep the internet, and all the areas of economy and society which use the internet, profitable, competitive, and most importantly, free.
If you are a constituent, please call your senator on Tuesday, either directly at their office or through the Capitol switchboard ((202) 224-3121). Whether they support the bill or oppose it, offer your concerns or affirmation as you see fit. Ask amenable friends and acquaintances to do the same. Make sure US representatives know the standpoint of the people they serve.
If worst comes to worst, Senator Ron Wyden (D-OR) has promised to filibuster the bill by reading from the list of names on this petition. If you can't or won't call in, or don't live in the US, consider adding yours. Thanks, guys.
Ten days ago, American Congressional hearings on a pair of bills called PIPA (the Senate's Protect Intellectual Property Act) and SOPA (the House's Stop Online Piracy Act) began. The bills would allow copyright holders to force search engines, payment processors (Paypal/credit cards) and ad services to instantly withdraw support for vaguely-defined "rogue" websites, without evidence, crippling them financially and forcing them to shut down. This applies to user-posted content, too: if even one person posts supposedly copyright-infringing material, the entire site could be cut off. It'd force essentially every site with social-media aspects or user-generated content (Facebook, Twitter, Google+, YouTube, blogging and file hosting services, Subeta... I guess Neo is already censored to death) to strictly self-censor users' postings. Not only would the bill ruin major websites, but the House version at least would provide for heavy fines and years of jail time for harmless, non-commercial use of popular material, and both would choke future growth in the tech sector. The Chinese Politburo would be embarrassed.
On 16 Nov, a massive drive of petitions and emails to representatives actually got through to Congress, but for reasons relating to the arcane and somewhat disengaged relations between the media, the government, and the rest of the world, most of the bad press ended up hitting the slightly-more-restrictive House version, and those Powers That Be which would prefer to see it go through (the major players in the entertainment and anti-piracy industries) are now pushing the Senate version of the bill, spinning it as a "jobs" effort. (Needless to say, the losses involved in the shutdown of big names in the internet business—and the startups that might have become those big names—would more than outweigh whatever jobs would be created in the effort to maintain the censorship.) The Senate bill has a longer history and a stronger core of support; 40 senators have already backed the legislation, and there's reason to believe that the leadership may call for a vote as early as this week. Fight for the Future is organizing a call-in on Tuesday 29 November. They are hoping to do for the Senate what has been done for the House, and keep the internet, and all the areas of economy and society which use the internet, profitable, competitive, and most importantly, free.
If you are a constituent, please call your senator on Tuesday, either directly at their office or through the Capitol switchboard ((202) 224-3121). Whether they support the bill or oppose it, offer your concerns or affirmation as you see fit. Ask amenable friends and acquaintances to do the same. Make sure US representatives know the standpoint of the people they serve.
If worst comes to worst, Senator Ron Wyden (D-OR) has promised to filibuster the bill by reading from the list of names on this petition. If you can't or won't call in, or don't live in the US, consider adding yours. Thanks, guys.