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Fight SOPA and PROTECT IP

This blog would be forced offline if the currently proposed U.S. legislature is passed.

SOPA and PROTECT IP are poorly defined, easily abused, unclear bills proposed to the U.S. House and Senate with unrealistic expectations of Internet technology, which will stifle free speech and innovation while giving the U.S. Government the ability to censor the U.S. Internet and seize U.S. domain names with little reason or limitation. Enforcement of these bills would require the restructuring of many web services which would affect Internet users globally.

These bills threaten a blog like this through vague terminology lacking definitions, such as "committing or facilitating the commission of criminal violations" [of copyright infringement or counterfeit products]. "Facilitation" can often be argued as simply teaching or demonstrating how to do something. As I interpret this, any website with Hacking/Hacker/Hack in the name or topic would technically be automatically out of compliance and be at the mercy of enforcement of these laws to not permanently seize associated domain names and possibly further prosecute owners.

These bills create a largely undefined take down process that will clearly leave many types of web services, such as the free blog host here at blogger.com, unable to meet requirements. No provisions for abuse make these vague bills a prime target for more abuse than the DMCA takedown request system has historically endured.

Some other concerning areas of these bills include provisions against circumvention of such measures, which the U.S. State department funds creating hypocritical tools for doing just that, to offer citizens under [foreign]"repressive regimes" uncensored access to the internet.

Please do all you can to educate the public and urge U.S. citizens to contact their government representatives urging them to vote against these reckless bills.


Bill text PROTECT IP (Senate):
http://hdl.loc.gov/loc.uscongress/legislation.112s968

Bill text SOPA - Stop Online Piracy Act (House):
http://hdl.loc.gov/loc.uscongress/legislation.112hr3261

A Layman's examination:
http://blog.reddit.com/2012/01/technical-examination-of-sopa-and.html

History of DCMA takedown abuse:
https://www.eff.org/takedowns

How these bills violate free speech and innovation:
https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2012/01/how-pipa-and-sopa-violate-white-house-principles-supporting-free-speech

U.S. State department funds tools to circumvent censoring:
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2011-04-20/u-s-funds-help-democracy-activists-evade-internet-crackdowns.html

I apologize for any inconvenience. We will be returning soon.

SoCo