I am not sure what, if any, legal repercussions there would be a to a site or its operators if it "facilitated" people obtaining or distributing the blueprints for an MX missile, but under the proposed legislation would impose significant criminal penalties for that as surely as for facilitating mpeg downloads.
SOPA/PIPA have nothing to do with this. It's not a matter of increasing national security at all.
You don't seem aware the US judicial system is already fully equiped to deal with all the examples you've produced. If the Pentagon gets hacked and secret data stolen, it's espionnage. If a US company gets hacked and its proprietary data gets stolen, it's espionnage. Laws already exist for all this, and extradition treaties between several nations are in place. The US government could already sue Google if it considered it helped disseminate state secrets, if it so wished.
The proposed legislation is meant to protect American commercial interests (at the detriments or risk to other American and non-American business interests). Trademarks, copyrighted images, music, movies and so on. It does so by allowing corporations to get websites blacklisted, or deprive it of their sources of income from advertising, all without even a law suit and proven guilt. It threatens all the American Internet giants like Google, Facebook You Tube and so on (could even make some of them move out of the US to nations where they would be less vulnerable. The US are currently the world leader in web development and this is an important economical sector, SOPA/PIPA would seriously endanger that.
There's so much opposition to it worlwide including from within the US (and not the least from Silicon Valley) isn't because people are against stopping piracy of cultural products, it's because it gives the US corporations way, way too much power as the two projects as they stand are full of backdoors to abuses, censorship, or violations of freedom of expression, and violation of "fair use". And it's all up to the sites, not the US corporations which claim copyright violations, to take the measures to prove in the US they are not guilty. Considering the business ethics in foreign countries of many of the US major cultural corporations, and with all the lobby groups in the US that would like nothing more than an opportunity to censor information on the internet and could very well find ways to do this abusing SOPA/PIPA, it's all very troubling from the foreign front, all the more since the means to go around the new legislations are already emerging (and it's nothing good, for anyone).
The MPAA and co. already have tons of tools under US law to protect its copyrights. It just managed to have a UK guy whose site merely posted links, not actual content, to pirated American content extradited. It doesn't need SOPA/PIPA for this, not in most foreign nations. Everybody knows its main targets with SOPA/PIPA are rogue nations where pirates are out of reach for US corporations and which don't recognize US copyrights, from which most of the piracy cases originate, China above all. It's a very high risk and high price to pay to curtail piracy of Disney movies in China, especially when you consider that so far the MPAA is not even able to demonstrate losses from actual lost sales because of piracy.
This message last edited by DomA on 18/01/2012 at 08:14:19 PM
English Wikipedia Anti-SOPA Blackout
- 17/01/2012 08:31:46 AM
2375 Views
Yeah, man, because currently copyright holders have no recourse, am I right?
- 17/01/2012 11:47:35 AM
1199 Views
"altering the infrastructure of the Internet so as to render RAFO virtually inaccessible"?
- 17/01/2012 08:12:27 PM
1287 Views
- 17/01/2012 08:12:27 PM
1287 Views
I'll go ahead and ask before I get my panties in a bunch: do you understand these bills?
- 17/01/2012 09:09:22 PM
1398 Views
I admit I have not looked into it much
- 17/01/2012 11:42:30 PM
1259 Views
And yet you're still arguing the matter.
- 18/01/2012 02:34:04 AM
1355 Views
- 18/01/2012 02:34:04 AM
1355 Views
I love you. *NM*
- 18/01/2012 03:41:03 AM
756 Views
heh, thanks. I usually find myself pushing minority opinions. Nice to be "appreciated" for once.
*NM*
- 18/01/2012 04:01:10 AM
728 Views
*NM*
- 18/01/2012 04:01:10 AM
728 Views
Can i second the adulation?
- 18/01/2012 04:07:17 AM
1061 Views
I too (three?) appreciate the common sense and reasonable explanations. *NM*
- 18/01/2012 04:12:59 AM
716 Views
Right, because the argument is not just over THIS bill but, apparently, over ANY bill.
- 18/01/2012 11:09:13 AM
1248 Views
Alternatives to SOPA/PIPA have been proposed for months now. Please stop arguing this.
- 18/01/2012 05:42:10 PM
1152 Views
Also, in the case of the OPEN Act, it has not "been proposed for months."
- 18/01/2012 07:28:15 PM
1686 Views
"sensitive federal content"? Provide a source justifying this claim and it's relevance, please.
- 18/01/2012 05:59:47 PM
1279 Views
I would not have thought a source necessary.
- 18/01/2012 06:24:44 PM
1269 Views
Okay, I'm with Aemon now.
- 18/01/2012 07:36:21 PM
1258 Views
OK.
- 18/01/2012 10:16:16 PM
1300 Views
should be interesting
- 17/01/2012 12:41:47 PM
1128 Views
Could be; depends on a lot of factors.
- 17/01/2012 07:38:55 PM
1198 Views
See, that's one of the biggest problems that people aren't understanding.
- 17/01/2012 09:31:38 PM
1199 Views
So tell them that.
- 17/01/2012 11:54:19 PM
1355 Views
Joel, I think I'm done with this unless you want to do some research.
- 18/01/2012 02:53:19 AM
1162 Views
Research would tell me what is wrong with these bills and how a good bill should look.
- 18/01/2012 11:22:46 AM
1253 Views
Could've done without the snide rejoinder, but, good.
- 17/01/2012 02:20:08 PM
1103 Views
I love the black banner, like some kind of internet Holocaust.
- 17/01/2012 08:03:27 PM
1255 Views
Are you aware that SOPA/PIPA has nothing to do with hackers and everything to do with copyright?
- 18/01/2012 02:08:56 AM
1106 Views
There seems to be some overlap.
- 18/01/2012 01:08:22 PM
1238 Views
Re: There seems to be some overlap.
- 18/01/2012 08:13:15 PM
1135 Views
Re: There still seems to be some overlap.
- 18/01/2012 10:27:32 PM
1396 Views
Re: There still seems to be some overlap.
- 18/01/2012 11:30:39 PM
1212 Views
Just because the news does not mention something does not automatically make it non-applicable.
- 19/01/2012 04:08:58 PM
1246 Views
Re: Just because the news does not mention something does not automatically make it non-applicable.
- 19/01/2012 10:39:40 PM
1232 Views
If you re-read your last sentence it should be clear why this law is being pushed.
- 20/01/2012 09:12:29 PM
1515 Views
Re: If you re-read your last sentence it should be clear why this law is being pushed.
- 21/01/2012 03:19:49 AM
1114 Views
Er, what Ghav said.
- 18/01/2012 02:30:37 AM
1163 Views
Sorry, protecting Pirate Bay and offshore gambling are not compelling counterarguments.
- 18/01/2012 11:38:08 AM
1179 Views
Okay, another analogy:
- 18/01/2012 02:04:12 PM
1153 Views
The devil is always in the details, and it seems clear the details need great revision.
- 18/01/2012 03:31:20 PM
1181 Views
what they SHOULD do is stop taking money from proponents of sopa/pipa
- 18/01/2012 03:51:09 PM
1236 Views
Yes, they should, but, once again, that approach will not prevent a new law.
- 18/01/2012 04:05:02 PM
1241 Views
Re: The devil is always in the details, and it seems clear the details need great revision.
- 18/01/2012 04:27:30 PM
1199 Views
If the US government wants to summarily block sites within the US, it already can and will.
- 18/01/2012 06:15:53 PM
1167 Views
You know all this anti-SOPA bullshit is making me hope the bill passes.
- 18/01/2012 04:00:17 AM
1220 Views
I would not go THAT far; it seems clear these bills have many objectionable provisions.
- 18/01/2012 11:41:23 AM
1229 Views
Re: I would not go THAT far; it seems clear these bills have many objectionable provisions.
- 19/01/2012 01:57:46 AM
1058 Views
Yeah, the extreme bias on both sides is why the bills will likely pass more or less as written.
- 19/01/2012 03:31:52 PM
1249 Views
joel, you need to consider three things
- 18/01/2012 06:06:16 AM
1225 Views
You need to consider that they WILL pass some legislation, and what you want it to contain.
- 18/01/2012 12:15:38 PM
1254 Views
again, it's not about piracy, it's about protecting the mpaa/riaa business model at our expense
- 18/01/2012 03:34:32 PM
1334 Views
Yeah, see, that is the problem: "it's not about piracy."
- 18/01/2012 03:57:55 PM
1149 Views
if piracy is such a problem then the mpaa/riaa need to PROVE their losses
- 19/01/2012 02:43:31 AM
1146 Views
How do you expect anyone to prove what people WOULD HAVE bought if they could not just take it?
- 19/01/2012 03:57:24 PM
1477 Views
A technical examination of SOPA and PROTECT IP
- 18/01/2012 08:32:44 AM
1154 Views
"As a disclaimer, I am not a lawyer, I'm a sysadmin."
- 18/01/2012 12:47:16 PM
1386 Views
Wikipedia has already convinced me
- 18/01/2012 03:26:01 PM
1014 Views
Trying to stop this legislation without proposing an alternative is trying to stop ANY legislation.
- 18/01/2012 03:44:18 PM
1224 Views
It isn't their job to propose legislation
- 18/01/2012 04:12:53 PM
1140 Views
No, but they have as much RIGHT to do so as anyone else.
- 18/01/2012 05:31:55 PM
1127 Views
Strike three.
- 18/01/2012 05:37:55 PM
1246 Views
That is fine; that is what people SHOULD be doing.
- 18/01/2012 06:03:59 PM
1015 Views
Things being better now than they would be under SOPA seems like a legitimate argument to me
- 18/01/2012 09:04:18 PM
1275 Views
Against SOPA, sure; against ANY new law, no.
- 18/01/2012 10:46:48 PM
1141 Views
About "proposing new legislation"
- 18/01/2012 04:45:08 PM
1265 Views
So true
- 18/01/2012 05:08:45 PM
1211 Views
Re: About "proposing new legislation"
- 18/01/2012 05:59:55 PM
1361 Views
Hm, you should read my post one above about combatting online piracy.
- 18/01/2012 06:20:16 PM
1294 Views
I would not recommend photocopying a book and handing it out on street corners.
- 18/01/2012 06:45:52 PM
1232 Views
Not to blame, neccessarily. But you have to live in the real world.
- 18/01/2012 07:31:18 PM
1183 Views
Re: Not to blame, neccessarily. But you have to live in the real world.
- 18/01/2012 08:55:59 PM
1229 Views
I always liked the codewheels SSI provided with copies of their Gold Box AD&D games.
- 18/01/2012 10:07:40 PM
1377 Views
These are really different arguments
- 19/01/2012 12:05:10 AM
1131 Views
TV is slightly different, because regional availability becomes a factor.
- 19/01/2012 04:18:58 PM
1140 Views
Yeah, so I use Russian wikipedia for a day. Or German wikipedia, or French, or Italian... *NM*
- 18/01/2012 06:23:36 PM
780 Views
Or just hit stop right before the script runs. *NM*
- 18/01/2012 06:52:40 PM
764 Views
Or just disable Java. *NM*
- 19/01/2012 01:58:03 AM
628 Views
That's not as much fun though. *NM*
- 19/01/2012 02:13:44 AM
756 Views
Exactly, this way its kind of a game. *NM*
- 19/01/2012 02:20:37 AM
562 Views
I really don't see the fun in that. Wikipedia is just a tool, not a game. *NM*
- 19/01/2012 04:59:14 AM
672 Views
I don't know about those (except French), but none of the ones I ever used are remotely as good. *NM*
- 18/01/2012 08:13:47 PM
754 Views
Russian wikipedia is very good if you're not checking some obscure Western cultural phenomena.
- 19/01/2012 01:57:43 AM
1308 Views
Or Answers.com, or even the actual sources that are often copy/pasted into Wikipedia...
- 19/01/2012 01:07:38 AM
1234 Views
Re: Or Answers.com, or even the actual sources that are often copy/pasted into Wikipedia... *NM*
- 19/01/2012 01:34:46 AM
793 Views
Oh, no; now Congress will be inundated with complaints from lazy college students!
- 19/01/2012 04:40:12 PM
1276 Views
- 19/01/2012 04:40:12 PM
1276 Views
13 previously unopposed senators now do not support SOPA.
- 19/01/2012 11:36:15 PM
1256 Views
How does that "rebutt" what was a facetious post in the first place?
- 20/01/2012 09:24:27 PM
1329 Views


