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SOPA Versus Free Speech
PROTECT-IP is a bill that has been introduced in the Senate and the House and is moving quickly through Congress. It gives the government and corporations the ability to censor the net, in the name of protecting "creativity". The law would let the government or corporations censor entire sites-- they just have to convince a judge that the site is "dedicated to copyright infringement."
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Re: SOPA Versus Free Speech
H.R. 3261 and S.968 have nothing to do with stopping piracy or copyright infringement. They are a bid by big media companies to expand their monopolies.
In the music world, the RIAA attacks peer-to-peer file-sharing web sites, not because such sites infringe on the music giants’ profits (they don’t), but because the music giants want to control our culture and society. The giants want to decide what you hear, and who becomes a “star.” They despise independent artists, and don’t want you to hear anything except the same drab, lousy music that the giants control.
So it is in the visual arts world (movies, Fox News, etc). The giants, plus people like former Connecticut Senator "Chris" Dodd, (who is now head of the MPAA) don’t want independent people posting visual media on the Internet. They hate web sites like YouTube. They hate independent start-ups.
It’s all about controlling the free and democratic sharing of media and information – “democratic” in that the only independent media items that become popular are those that the public genuinely likes.
The monopolies get allies in their attack (e.g. GoDaddy) by offering them special exemptions from control. “Join us or die.”
With this legislation the giants do not need to prove anything. They can merely claim that someone has infringed on a copyright, and BANG – the entire web site is instantly banned from the Internet with no trial or investigation.
I’m curious to now what the big opponents (e.g. Google) are doing abut this. They too have money, and can bribe congress people, just like the monopolists do. Congress clowns from California must balance the demands of both Hollywood and Silicon Valley. I suspect that Silicon Valley has less experience in bribing Congress.
Chris Dodd and his henchmen wanted to fast-track this through Congress, before anyone realized what happened, but H.R. 3261 and S.968 face increasing resistance, even from congress-clowns who originally co-sponsored the bills.
It will be interesting to see what happens.