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Online News Association Comes Out Against SOPA/PIPA
from the wow dept
As Lamar Smith continues to live in his fantasy world that there's no real opposition to SOPA, more and more groups keep coming out against it. The latest is a big one -- and a big surprise. The Online News Association has officially come out against both SOPA and PIPA. The letter is thorough, detailed and comprehensive about why the bills are problematic, focusing mainly on SOPA. And it's unequivocal in its condemnation of the bill:
This is pretty big. Journalists, as a group, rarely stake out political positions or take official positions on anything political at all. To have them, as a group, come out against SOPA/PIPA shows just what a disaster these bills are. How much longer will the bills' supporters pretend that there isn't widespread opposition? How much longer can Lamar Smith, Bob Goodlatte, Howard Berman and John Conyers ignore the detailed concerns of the American public?
[W]e believe SOPA would do little to stem those problems and would actually cause harm to the Internet and to the American public.The letter then highlights multiple problems specifically in the bill (contrary to Smith's claim that no one has identified the specific problems of the bill). ONA notes that under SOPA, overblocking will be quite common:
Indeed, the act -- and its counterpart in the Senate, the PROTECT-IP Act (PIPA) -- would inappropriately shut down websites, disrupt the free flow of legitimate information and limit Americans from fully exercising their First Amendment rights.
Forcing payment services and ad networks to mete out punishment raises a host of concerns. For starters, SOPA stipulates that any payment service or ad network that fails to comply with a notice served by the copyright owner and based on the court order can be sued for damages and held liable. On the other hand, any service that cuts ties with a suspected site after receiving notice of a court order, may not be sued for damages by that site “for any acts reasonably designed to comply” with the order.The group also raises concerns about the anti-circumvention provisions (which aren't limited to foreign players) and how that could cause all sorts of problems for those who provide legitimate tools. Following that, they raise key concerns about the impact on social media sites -- which the letter notes is "one of the most profound cultural developments on the web."
It’s not hard to imagine, then, that a service provider, acting with abundance of caution and out of its own self-interest, will simply cut off services to entire sites that have been accused of infringement, even if the court order only applies to portion of the site. Such actions could even extend to other sites owned by the same entity.
This is pretty big. Journalists, as a group, rarely stake out political positions or take official positions on anything political at all. To have them, as a group, come out against SOPA/PIPA shows just what a disaster these bills are. How much longer will the bills' supporters pretend that there isn't widespread opposition? How much longer can Lamar Smith, Bob Goodlatte, Howard Berman and John Conyers ignore the detailed concerns of the American public?
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SOPA/PIPA = WAR
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How deep are Big Media's pockets?
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You'll have to speak up.
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I must confess to similar sentiment: It is not, though, that I feel so assured that my countrymen shall rally to the defense of their own ancient liberty, nor even that if they do indeed so rally that I feel so confident of the outcome; but yet that, as I see the present circumstances, this odious measure seems perhaps to offer the best chance to obtain desperately-needed revolution in the political order.
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Like the massive backlash from the public over the TSA?
Like the massive backlash from the public over the recently-passed NDAA that allows the government to indefinitely detain American citizens without trial?
Shall I go on?
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Why assume that they care?
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That hasn't stopped them yet.
There's widespread support for a host of other things.
That hasn't meant that the government has addressed them.
Corrupt and disconnected.
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But of course, if I were to give in to those anarchistic urges, people would just look at my corpse and say that video games made me do it, which is ANOTHER thing that really gets my goat. It's not just violence debates that haven't matured.
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One of the huge problems with big news media supporting SOPA - PIPA
I remained silent;
I was not a file sharer.
When they came for the infringing site admins,
I did not speak out;
I was not a infringing site admin.
When they locked up the social site admins,
I remained silent;
I was not a social site admin.
When they came for the Reporters,
I remained silent;
I wasn't a Reporter.
When they came for me,
there was no one left to speak out.
They do not realize how they have no freedom of speech when it passes.
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Re: One of the huge problems with big news media supporting SOPA - PIPA
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Re: Re: One of the huge problems with big news media supporting SOPA - PIPA
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I call BS on this statement
I agree with most of what you write most of the time, but I have to call BS on this statement. Newspapers back candidates for office all the time. Why I don't know as you can't maintain any kind of unbiased opinion (not that they even try). So yes, they take clear positions on politics all the time, especially in an election year.
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How long will SOPA and PROTECT-IP be supported in Congress?
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