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| Google chairman Eric Schmidt said SOPA amounted to "censorship". |
Web firms
including Google and Facebook have written to the US government in opposition
to a proposed bill to combat piracy.
Alongside
AOL, Twitter and eBay they claim that the Stop Online Piracy Act poses huge
risks to the internet.
SOPA,
supported by the music and film industries, aims to give new powers to content
providers to help them take offending sites offline.
The US
House of Representatives is due to debate the bill on 16 November.
The law
would allow content owners to seek court orders to force internet service
providers, search engines, payment processors and ad networks to block or cease
business with websites linked to online piracy.
Content
industries around the world are looking for new ways to combat the growing
problem of piracy.
Serious
risk
In the US,
critics warn that SOPA is unnecessarily draconian.
"Unfortunately,
the bills as drafted would expose law-abiding US internet and technology
companies to new uncertain liabilities, private rights of action, and
technology mandates that would require monitoring of websites," Google,
Facebook, Yahoo and eBay wrote in a letter to leaders of the House and Senate
Judiciary committee.
"We
are concerned that these measures pose a serious risk to our industry's
continued track record of innovation and job creation, as well as to our
nation's cybersecurity," the companies said. The letter was also signed by
AOL, Twitter, LinkedIn, Mozilla and Zynga.
Speaking at
the Massachusetts Institute of Technology's Sloan School of Management this
week, Google chairman Eric Schmidt voiced his own opposition to SOPA.
"The
solutions are draconian. There's a bill that would require ISPs to remove URLs
from the web which is also known as censorship last time I checked," he
said.
In the UK
the Motion Picture Association recently won a court order against BT forcing
the ISP to block access to Newzbin 2, a members-only site which aggregates
links to illegal content. It is now seeking to extend the block to other ISPs.
Culture
secretary Jeremy Hunt is considering whether to introduce even stricter
measures in the upcoming Communications Act which, like SOPA, would target
search engines, payment processors and advertising firms.
Rogue
websites
The Motion
Picture Association of America (MPAA), the Recording Industry Association of
America and the US Chamber of Commerce are among the supporters of the
legislation.
MPPA said
that SOPA would allow the US Department of Justice "more effective tools
to protect American intellectual property, including the films, television
shows and sound recordings created by our members".
Judiciary
Committee Chairman Lamar Smith, a Texas Republican who introduced the bill,
said the legislation is designed to "stop the flow of revenue to rogue
websites... that profit from selling pirated goods without any legal
consequences".
But the
legislation's "vague language" could have a knock-on effect to
websites that allow users to share videos and post blogs, according to the
Washington-based Center for Democracy and Technology.
It could
mean legitimate sites are also blocked, it said.
Golden
goose
Critics of
SOPA have joined together to create a Censorship US day to coincide with the
bill's debate.
On the
Censorship US Day website, critics argue that the bill gives the content
industries too much power over both the structure and content of the internet.
They are
also highly critical of SOPA's counterpart - the Protect IP bill - which is
currently being considered by the US Senate.
The bill
aims to block sites linking to illegal content by having their domain names
delisted from the internet's address books.
The bill
also contains clauses that would force search engines to stop listing
infringing sites in their indexes.
"These
bills were written by the content industry without any input from the
technology industry. And they are trying to fast track them through congress
and into law without any negotiation with the technology industry." Said
Fred Wilson of venture capitalist firm Union Square Ventures.
"The
tech industry, led by startups, have created all the net new jobs in the past
five years. Companies like Apple, Google, Facebook, and startups like Dropbox,
Kickstarter, and Twilio are the leading exporters and job creators of this
time. They are the golden goose of the economy and we cannot kill the golden
goose to protect industries in decline," he added.
James
Allworth, a fellow at Harvard Business School, said SOPA could stifle
innovation.
"It
contains provisions that will chill innovation. It contains provisions that
will tinker with the fundamental fabric of the internet. It gives private
corporations the power to censor. And best of all, it bypasses due legal
process to do much of it," he said.
Coinciding
with the debate about SOPA, a new survey looking at US attitudes to online
copyright infringement suggests that, while piracy is widespread, most
Americans are not hardcore pirates.
The report
suggested that 70% of all 18-29-year-olds have pirated music, TV shows or
movies. But it said that two-thirds of this subset also acquire content
legally.
The
research, conducted by the Princeton Survey Research Associates, was sponsored
by thinktank The American Assembly and part-funded by Google.
EU wants stricter control of censorship software
The Internet - The first Worldwide Tool of Unification ("The End of History")
" ... Now I give you something that few think about: What do you think the Internet is all about, historically? Citizens of all the countries on Earth can talk to one another without electronic borders. The young people of those nations can all see each other, talk to each other, and express opinions. No matter what the country does to suppress it, they're doing it anyway. They are putting together a network of consciousness, of oneness, a multicultural consciousness. It's here to stay. It's part of the new energy. The young people know it and are leading the way.
I gave you a prophecy more than 10 years ago. I told you there would come a day when "everyone could talk to everyone and, therefore, there could be no conspiracy." For conspiracy depends on separation and secrecy - something hiding in the dark that only a few know about. Seen the news lately? What is happening? Could it be that there is a new paradigm happening that seems to go against history? ... " Read More …. "The End of History"- Nov 20, 2010 (Kryon channeled by Lee Carroll)
"The New Paradigm of Reality" Part I/II – Feb 12, 2011 (Kryon channeled by Lee Carroll)
(Subjects: Egypt Uprising, Iran/Persia Uprising, Peace in Middle East without Israel actively involved, Muhammad, "Conceptual" Youth Revolution, "Conceptual" (without a manager hierarchy) managed Businesses, Internet, Social Media, News Media, Google, Bankers, Global Unity,..... etc.)
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