Speak out against SOPA
by Derek Bodner on Jan 18, 2012 8:27 AM PST
in Philadelphia 76ers News
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Most of you know me for my basketball opinions. Some of you may know that I'm also a technologist. During rare times, both of those passions unite. This is one of those times.
It's likely you're familiar with SOPA, or at least have heard about it on the news. Today the internet is protesting. You may notice the english version of Wikipedia is blacked out, with Google, Reddit, and many other major internet players making similar statements. Vox Media and SBNation join them in opposition of this potentially devastating piece of legislature.
The bill right now is short on details, which in and of itself should be enough not to pass the bill considering its far reaching consequences. I'm not going to sit here and bore you with agonizing details, but I do implore you to read up on it. I can't stress how potentially damaging the effects are. This has the potential to shut sites like SBNation down without due process. To kill millions of jobs due to stifled creativity and a drastically changed economic landscape on the web. This has the potential to regulate the internet in ways Communist China would be proud of. It also will make the internet inherently less secure. I wouldn't expect our lawmakers to understand the intricacies of our DNS infrastructure, but I would hope they wouldn't bask in their ignorance on the subject and ignore pleadings from the technically informed.
These are decisions being made by people with no knowledge of how the internet works, pushing through legislation to appease its big constituents in the entertainment industry, who have displayed time and time again that they have no interest in due process. Hollywood's right to make bad business decisions needs to stop when it gets to the point where they kill our freedom of speech.
They're doing so despite near universal opposition in the technology sector, including engineers who have had a hand in making the internet what we know and love.
It's not that people who oppose SOPA support pirating. It's that people who oppose SOPA recognize how much this bill will stifle creativity on the internet. It's that people who oppose SOPA are fans of due process, fans of freedom of speech, and recognize that the government censoring the internet will cause more harm than it would fix. It's not that we don't want to stop pirating, it's that this isn't the right way to do so.
SOPA goes against everything America was founded for, and everything the internet was designed to do. As Google says, end piracy, not liberty.
To quote TheOatMeal, this is like dealing with a lion that has escaped from a zoo by blasting some kittens with a flamethrower.
I urge you to educate yourself on SOPA and PIPA and its potential consequences. Furthermore, I urge you to sign the petition and contact your Congressman and Senators to let them know how you oppose a censored internet.
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I'm glad you mentioned PIPA.
I’m tired of everyone forgetting about that sucker.
Isn’t the bill against the First Amendment? Then why is this bill still existent? We need to stop electing these people in office.
As cwel87 from BGN said it best.
This is the ultimate test of politicians being bought vs. doing the right thing.
In no universe should anything like SOPA or PIPA even be remotely considered in a country that believes in anything like our First Amendment. And yet, here we are.
I think everyone should be bilateral coordinated.
You hit the nail on the head on why it’s being considered. Lawmakers are ignorant on what effects it would have, and since they have no idea they’re going in the direction their pocket points them to.
Derek Bodner
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by Derek Bodner on Jan 18, 2012 8:55 AM PST up reply actions
I’m actually peripherally involved in fighting this as a side project. In 24 years of practicing law, I’ve never run into a more insane piece of legislation. While IP isn’t my specialty, this legislation is irritating enough to me that I’m quickly learning.
I'm good enough, I'm smart enough, and doggone it, there will be no trade for Monta!
Kinda of an off the wall question
I figured that a lawyer could answer this. People are freaking ( understandable) but want to use proxy servers. I don’t understand how proxy servers are affected or if they illegal or not.
I think everyone should be bilateral coordinated.
At the moment...
…user proxy servers would remain legal. As I understand it, the government would go after the Internet Service Provider (or network software developers who do not build the requisite censorship functionality into their products), who is expected to stop the “illegal” activity or face sanctions. Part of why this legislation is so evil is that it never requires the government to specifically face off against a citizen, so it insulates the government from being brought to court as a party to a suit, protecting the legislation from being struck down by the courts.
How SOPA affects proxies is that developers of proxy software will be expected to build censorship functionality into their software, to block “illegal” activity or face injunction on software development/release/sale/provisioning plus possible fines.
I'm good enough, I'm smart enough, and doggone it, there will be no trade for Monta!
Not only does it mean no more Noce Turkeys, but it means if YOU post a Noce Turkery, all of SBNation gets shut down.
Derek Bodner
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by Derek Bodner on Jan 18, 2012 8:58 AM PST up reply actions
Mr. Badner, can you e-mail the DenverStiffs guys and ask them to repost this article ?
Maya: "What are your first impressions of Denver?"
Mozgov: "I must break you..."
You could always just link to this post in a FanShot over there.
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by PhiladelphiaEagles on Jan 18, 2012 9:46 AM PST up reply actions
Nobody reads fanshots...
…. at least at DS.
I’ll link this article with my own 2 cents once the game preview is posted, but hopefully one of those guys will devote a front page post to this issue.
Maya: "What are your first impressions of Denver?"
Mozgov: "I must break you..."
Yeah. I’m not going to tell other people how to run their blog.
That’s a job for the US government.
Derek Bodner
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by Derek Bodner on Jan 18, 2012 9:53 AM PST up reply actions 2 recs
without going too deep in US politics...
…. I can’t remember the last time activists from both parties united to kill a bill, and politicians from both parties started recanting their prior support for these horrid bills.
Maya: "What are your first impressions of Denver?"
Mozgov: "I must break you..."
I’m seriously concerned about this as a prime example of the deterioration of individual liberties in favor of increased governmental control. Not to mention the direct assault on the First Amendment.
I go to a great effort to keep my personal political views off of LB, since the only important opinions worth sharing on here are whether or not to trade Iguodala or whether Tha BOSS can keep up his recent run of slightly less selfish play or whether Hawes is really any good. I can also be consulted on chicken soup recipes :)
But you can’t help but notice a drastic shift towards governmental control of many aspects of our life that were at one time considered to be matters of personal freedom. And it’s not a party issue. Both sides of the aisle have gone all-in on increasing the power of government to interfere in our personal lives, our business, and pretty much every aspect of our existence.
Translation: These bills are bad. They are very bad. And they are bad in ways that are not immediately obvious, as well as the grotesquely immediately obvious ways. I don’t trust the Supreme Court to strike them down, either. While I don’t want to overstate the case, this legislation is every bit as frightening to me as the Patriot Act, and there’s not even a war as an excuse.
I'm good enough, I'm smart enough, and doggone it, there will be no trade for Monta!
ok, i have to say this first… my opinion about this is very unpopular. (what’s new?)
i definitely understand the concerns here and the possible censorship issues that very well could result from a bill such as this. but i honestly dont think the responsible officials created it with the intent of harming blogs such as SBN and similar networks.
there is no doubt that the verbiage needs a little specification and rebuilding, but i (ironically considering my past rants) do believe that the governments intentions were honest with due to piracy and the different things going on in this era.
similar to that “other bill” that had people thinking that officers would start randomly bursting into people’s homes and arresting them without cause, i think that there is no doubt that there is an invasion of free-will, but as usual, the gov’t has acted with their focus strictly on stopping the bad, without consideration to the imposition of the good.
Rant! Rant! Rant!
by J.Michael Woodson on Jan 18, 2012 10:04 AM PST reply actions
The intentions of the government (which is impossible for us to know) have little relevance to whether or not they should have this power and authority.
Derek Bodner
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by Derek Bodner on Jan 18, 2012 10:10 AM PST up reply actions
i understand what you are saying, as i said there definitely is a change needed as to the functionality and details to it. as to the intentions of the government, true, but i think there are many other cruel things that they could implement if they were simply out to ruin the creative freedoms of the American people.
I also agree that they should not have this specific authority (listening to kanye west- power), i simply think that the sense of panic that is created by such a movement is misinterpreted by alot of people. in other words, just because there is a loop in the text allowing for the random shutting down of sites, i highly doubt that this is what they are worried about. something tells me that liberals nor conservatives have a decisive opinion of photoshopped images of nocioni on turkeys.
Rant! Rant! Rant!
by J.Michael Woodson on Jan 18, 2012 11:20 AM PST up reply actions
As dweebowitz said below me, it’s not just about what the congressman care about. Once this law is in the books, it’s about the burden of proof other organizations need to show in order to get something shut down.
And somebody will absolutely care about something posted on this blog, whether it is something as innocent as a noce turkey or simply a link to a game feed the editors didn’t see.
Derek Bodner
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by Derek Bodner on Jan 18, 2012 11:26 AM PST up reply actions
It’s extremely poorly thought out. There are far better ways to provide a level of protection to intellectual property without this sort of draconian legislation.
My old Constitutional Law professor used to say, “It’s not necessarily what you see on the face, or what the current administration/Congress/Court could do with it, it’s what someone else could do with it in 10 years now that it’s on the books.”
While RIGHT NOW no one is using the Patriot Act to burst into peoples’ houses without cause, the power is there, and who is to say that it won’t be used in the future? In the same way, while I’m sure the Congress doesn’t particularly care about blogs like SBN, and they’re not out to stop the NoceTurkey, someone probably does, and once the law is on the books, that someone could sue, and since the law is on the books, they would win their suit.
Then we would have to start chiseling our opinions about Thad Young onto stone tablets or something…I think we can agree that none of us want that :D
I'm good enough, I'm smart enough, and doggone it, there will be no trade for Monta!
by dweebowitz on Jan 18, 2012 10:10 AM PST up reply actions 2 recs
Dweeb is absolutely owning this thread.
by Michael Levin on Jan 18, 2012 12:39 PM PST up reply actions
You guys are better at crunching basketball stats than I am…legal questions? That’s mine :)
I'm good enough, I'm smart enough, and doggone it, there will be no trade for Monta!
I can especially appreciate it because my current job is at a talent agency in business affairs. Oh man if you were my boss…..
by Michael Levin on Jan 18, 2012 2:08 PM PST up reply actions
Anyone who trades liberty for security deserves neither liberty nor security
Benjamin Franklin
@xEgan on Twitter
There’s not even any security being gained here. What’s being gained is short-term profit by some large entertainment companies who are too lazy or dim to figure out how to alter their business model to accommodate the technology widely available to customers.
I’m sorry. TimeWarner is NOT “too big to fail.” If they can’t figure out how to make money in the new technological reality, they should become extinct, like the dinosaurs. Some pesky little rodent creatures survived when they couldn’t, and the descendants of those pesky little rodent creatures are typing away their opinions about basketball and legislation on their computers right now :D
I'm good enough, I'm smart enough, and doggone it, there will be no trade for Monta!
by dweebowitz on Jan 18, 2012 10:15 AM PST up reply actions 2 recs
Ironically, its all about the Benjamins...
with the campaign $$ on the one end, and exorbitant damage awards from schmos like you and me to the obscenely rich publishers and media companies.
That is irony, right? Paging Alanis…..
Maya: "What are your first impressions of Denver?"
Mozgov: "I must break you..."
Nothing in today’s political climate is about anything other than money.
I'm good enough, I'm smart enough, and doggone it, there will be no trade for Monta!
by dweebowitz on Jan 18, 2012 10:22 AM PST up reply actions 1 recs
SOPA
big sixers fan (duh, why else am i here?) but i never post, and just created a SB Nation account so i could on this issue.
most of what needs to be said has been, but one thing that is shocking is what you discover when you follow the money. i came across a site that showed the money every representative has received from pro-SOPA groups vs. anti-SOPA groups. each and every PA state rep and senator had received nearly 12 to 1 from pro-SOPA groups.
i’m glad this topic is starting to get national traction, but it is a shame that it has taken these blackouts to make it onto the national radar. this has been going on for months, and none of the major news networks have covered this adequetly, if at all. it’s the same with the NDAA and it’s indefinite detention (of US citizens on US soil) clause. no one covered that and poof it’s law.
anyway, go Sixers.
link?? I'd be interested in seeing that.
and go Nugs.
Tangent: anybody still an Andre Miller fan from his days in Philly? We in Denver were really excited he came back in exchange for the malcontent named Raymond Felton. Unfortunately, Miller professed himself a malcontent for playing behind Ty Lawson, and has kind of played like a malcontent since his feelings were published in article by Chris Tomasson.
Maya: "What are your first impressions of Denver?"
Mozgov: "I must break you..."
I always liked Miller while he was here. I think he got a bit of a bad rap here, because he’s not the most outgoing, media-friendly dude, but his career kinda fell apart once he ended up back in Denver.
I'm good enough, I'm smart enough, and doggone it, there will be no trade for Monta!
If we hadn't somehow gotten Chauncey for AI
trading Andre for AI was, in hindsight, a horrible trade for Denver.
Maya: "What are your first impressions of Denver?"
Mozgov: "I must break you..."
I just spent time reading the print on SOPA and PIPA...
Honestly, it is one of the most insane bills I’ve read in a while. I had to write a thesis in college on the Patriot Act in comparison to the Red Scare so I know how absolutely absurd some parts of the legislation is. I’m scared to go on the internet if a bill like this is passed.
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I'm good enough, I'm smart enough, and doggone it, there will be no trade for Monta!
These bills came out of the entertainment lobby, which is a lot smaller than the IT industry. I think the burden has to be on the injured party to show injury BEFORE a site is shut down. Intellectual property like Movies and TV shows are intended for the public as entertainment- they want you to see it, but want you to pay for it. That’s reasonable.
But the reality is a lot of people don’t pay for it, and wouldn’t watch it if they had to. In other words the NBA doesn’t loose money and Comcast doesn’t loose money if I watch the Sixers streamed from a European site. If the site was shut down, I’d watch the game in a bar. The presumption that I would do business with the NBA or Comcast for their content is false.
In truth, the free sites are more like free advertising for the NBA. You get sick of the stuttering on the streaming feed, you might decide to break down and pay for cable. If the only way people know about your sport is through pirated sites, your business model is already in trouble. This is why the NBA gives feeds to public TV stations.
The government is filled with people who want to help their monied constituents. What they all need to understand is that there are a lot of people out there without money who also deserve to be represented. And these people vote. By all means write your political representatives so they understand that protection doesn’t mean the government gets to shut down a site without due process.
Good read
Thank you for sharing your reasoned and informed positon. I happen to agree with you and will share your article.
Peace
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