How SOPA will hurt the free web and Wikipedia

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For the past several days, Wikipedia editors have been discussing whether to stage a protest against the proposed Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA).  I’ve been asked to give some comments on the bill and explain what effect the proposed legislation might have on a free and open Internet as well as Wikipedia.  My goal in this blog post is to provide some information and interpretation that I hope will be helpful to Wikipedia editors as they discuss the bill.
SOPA has earned the dubious honor of facilitating Internet censorship in the name of fighting online infringement. The Wikimedia Foundation opposed that legislation, but we should be clear that Wikimedia has an equally strong commitment against copyright violations. The Wikimedia community, which has developed an unparalleled expertise in intellectual property law, spends untold hours ensuring that our sites are free of infringing content. In a community that embraces freely-licensed information, there is no room for copyright abuses.
We cannot battle, however, one wrong while inflicting another. SOPA represents the flawed proposition that censorship is an acceptable tool to protect rights owners’ private interests in particular media.  That is, SOPA would block entire foreign websites in the United States as a response to remove from sight select infringing material.  This is so even when other programs like the Digital Millennium Copyright Act have found better balances without the use of such a bludgeon. For this reason, we applaud the excellent work of a number of like-minded organizations that are leading the charge against this legislation, including the Electronic Frontier Foundation, Public Knowledge, Creative Commons, Center for Democracy and Technology, NetCoalition, the Internet Society, AmericanCensorship.org, and others.
On Tuesday, after receiving input on the original version of the bill, the House Judiciary Committee issued a new version of SOPA for its mark-up scheduled for this coming Thursday.  A vote on that mark-up may take place on the same day.   At the end of this article, I provide a summary of the most relevant parts of this new version of SOPA as well as a summary of the legislative process (which you can also follow here).
In honesty, this new version of the bill is better (and credit goes to the Judiciary staff for that). But, it continues to suffer from the same structural pitfalls, including its focus on blocking entire international sites based on U.S.-based allegations of specific infringement.  Criticism has been significant.[1]  Representative Darrell Issa, a California Republican, for example, felt the bill “retains the fundamental flaws of its predecessor by blocking Americans’ ability to access websites, imposing costly regulation on Web companies and giving Attorney General Eric Holder’s Department of Justice broad new powers to police the Internet.”
Members of our community are weighing whether a protest action is appropriate.  I want to be very clear: the Wikimedia Foundation believes that the decision of whether to stage a protest on-wiki, such as shutting down the site or putting a banner at the top, is a community decision. The Wikimedia Foundation will support editors in whatever they decide to do. The purpose of this post is to provide information for editors that will aid them in their discussions.
I’ve been asked for a legal opinion. And, I will tell you, in my view, the new version of SOPA remains a serious threat to freedom of expression on the Internet.

  • The new version continues to undermine the DMCA and federal jurisprudence that have promoted the Internet as well as cooperation between copyright holders and service providers.  In doing so, SOPA creates a regime where the first step is federal litigation to block an entire site wholesale: it is a far cry from a less costly legal notice under the DMCA protocol to selectively take down specified infringing material.   The crime is the link, not the copyright violation.  The cost is litigation, not a simple notice.
  • The expenses of such litigation could well force non-profit or low-budget sites, such as those in our free knowledge movement, to simply give up on contesting orders to remove their links.  (Secs. 102(c)(3); 103(c)(2))  The international sites under attack may not have the resources to challenge extra-territorial judicial proceedings in the United States, even if the charges are false.
  • The new version of SOPA reflects a regime where rights owners may seek to terminate advertising and payment services, such as PayPal, for an alleged “Internet site dedicated to theft of U.S. property.”  (Sec. 103(c)(2))  A rights owner must seek a court order (unlike the previous version) (Sec. 103(b)(5)).  Most rights owners are well intentioned, but many are not.[2]  We cannot assume that litigious actions to block small sites abroad will always be motivated in good faith, especially when the ability to defend is difficult.
  • Although rendering it discretionary (Secs.102(c)(2)(A-E); 103(c)(2)(A-B)), the new bill would still allow for serious security risks to our communications and national infrastructure. The bill no longer mandates DNS blocking but still allows it as an option.  As Sherwin Siy, deputy legal director of Public Knowledge, explained:  “The amendment continues to encourage DNS blocking and filtering, which should be concerning for Internet security experts . . . .”
  • The Electronic Frontier Foundation advises that the new proposed legislation still targets tools that might be used to “circumvent” the blacklist, even though those tools are essential to human rights activists and political dissidents around the world.

More specifically with respect to Wikimedia, the new version is an improvement, but, in addition to the reasons listed above, it remains unacceptable:

  • Wikipedia arguably falls under the definition of an “Internet search engine,”[3] and, for that reason, a federal prosecutor could obtain a court order mandating that the Wikimedia Foundation remove links to specified “foreign infringing sites” or face at least contempt of court sanctions.[4]  The definition of “foreign infringing sites” is broad[5] and could well include legitimate sites that host mostly legal content, yet have other purported infringing content on their sites.   Again, many international sites may decide not to defend because of the heavy price tag, allowing an unchallenged block by the government.
  • The result is that, under court order, Wikimedia would be tasked to review millions upon millions of sourced links, locate     the links of the so-called “foreign infringing sites,” and block them from our articles or other projects.   It costs donors’ money and staff resources to undertake such a tremendous task, and it must be repeated every time a prosecutor delivers a court order from any federal judge in the United States on any new “foreign infringing site.” Blocking links runs against our culture of open knowledge, especially when surgical solutions to fighting infringing material are available.
  • Under the new bill, there is one significant improvement.  The new version exempts U.S. based companies – including the Wikimedia Foundation – from being subject to a litigation regime in which rights owners could claim that our site was an “Internet site dedicated to theft of U.S. property.”  Such a damnation against Wikimedia could have easily resulted in demands to cut off our fundraising payment processors.   The new version now exempts U.S. sites like ours.   (Sec. 103(a)(1)(A)(ii))

In short, though there have been some improvements with the new version, SOPA remains far from acceptable. Its definitions remain too loose, and its structural approach is flawed to the core.  It hurts the Internet, taking a wholesale approach to block entire international sites, and this is most troubling for sites in the open knowledge movement who probably have the least ability to defend themselves overseas.  The measured and focused approach of the DMCA has been jettisoned.  Wikimedia will need to endure significant burdens and expend its resources to comply with conceivably multiple orders, and the bill will deprive our readers of international content, information, and sources.
Geoff Brigham
General Counsel
Wikimedia Foundation
 
[1.] http://www.cato-at-liberty.org/the-new-sopa-now-with-slightly-less-awfulness/ ;
http://cdt.org/blogs/david-sohn/1312proposed-revision-sopa-some-welcome-cuts-major-concerns-remain ;
https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2011/12/sopa-manager’s-amendment-sorry-folks-it’s-still-blacklist-and-still-disaster
[2.] See http://www.chillingeffects.org/resource.cgi?ResourceID=101 (providing a list of articles documenting abuses that certain rights owners have engaged in within the DMCA context).
[3.] An “Internet Search Engine” is defined as “a service made available via the Internet whose primary function is gathering and reporting, in response to a user query, indexed information or web sites available elsewhere on the Internet.”  Sec. 101(15)(A).  This definition does not include services that retain “a third party that is subject to service of process in the United States to gather, index, or report information available elsewhere on the Internet.”  Sec. 101(15)(B).  Although not conceding the point, Wikimedia arguably does not appear to fall under this exemption.
[4.] Sec. 102(c)(3)(A)(i).  To ensure compliance with orders issued under Section 102, the Attorney General may bring an action for injunctive relief against any Internet Search Engine that knowingly and willfully fails to comply with the requirements of section 102(c)(2)(B) to compel such entity to comply with such requirements.
[5.] Generally speaking, a “foreign infringing site” is any U.S.-directed site, used by users in the United States, being operated in a manner that would, if it were a domestic Internet site, subject the site to liability for criminal copyright infringement, as well as other federal copyright or trade secret violations.  See Sec. 102(a)(1-2).


H.R. 3261 – STOP ONLINE PIRACY ACT

Section 102

A “foreign infringing site” is a:

  • U.S. directed site:
    • Definition: Foreign Internet site used to conduct business directed to U.S. residents OR that otherwise demonstrates the existence of minimum contacts sufficient for the exercise of personal jurisdiction over the owner or operator of the Internet site consistent with the U.S. Constitution; according doesn’t not cover such sites as .com, .org, .biz, etc.;
  • Used by users in the U.S.; and
  • Operated in a manner that would, if it were a domestic Internet site, subject it (or its associated domain name) to:
    • Seizure or forfeiture in the U.S. in an action brought by the Attorney General, by reason of an act prohibited by sections 2318, 2319, 2319A, 2319B, or 2320, or chapter 90, of 18 U.S.C.; or
    • Prosecution by the Attorney General under sections 1204 of title 17, United States Code, by reason of a violation of section 1201 of such title.

If a foreign Internet site is a “foreign infringing site,” the Attorney General (AG) can:

  • Commence an action in personam against a registrant of a domain name used for the foreign infringing site OR an owner or operator of a foreign infringing site.
  • Commence an action in rem against the foreign infringing site or the foreign domain used by such site if it cannot commence an action in personam.

On application of the AG, after commencement of either of the above actions, the court may issue a temporary restraining order, a preliminary injunction, or an injunction against:

  • A registrant of a domain name used by the foreign infringing site or an owner or operator of the foreign infringing site if the action is in personam; or
  • The foreign infringing site or the domain name used by such site, to cease and desist from undertaking any further activity as a foreign infringing site if the action is in rem.

After an order is issued and served, the AG can require the following of:

  • Internet search engines:
    • Definition: a service made available via the Internet whose primary function is gathering and reporting, in response to a user query, indexed information or Web sites available elsewhere on the Internet and does not include a service that retains a third party that is subject to service in the U.S. to gather, index or report information available elsewhere on the Internet.
    • Measures: Technically feasible and “commercially” reasonable, and taken as expeditiously as possible, rather than within 5 days.
    • Order: Applicable to search engines must be narrowly tailored to be consistent with the First Amendment as the least restrictive means of achieving the goals of this Title.
  • Service Provider:
    • Measures: Least burdensome, technically feasible and reasonable to prevent resolving to the foreign infringing site domain name’s IP address, taken as expeditiously as possible, rather than within 5 days.
  • Payment network providers/ Internet advertising services:
    • Measures: Technically feasible and “commercially” reasonable to halt payment processing, and taken as expeditiously as possible, rather than within 5 days

Section 103

Definitions were changed and none of the Wikimedia.org properties (or any other U.S. registered sites) are covered by this section.

New definition of “Internet site dedicated to theft of U.S. property”:

  • U.S. directed site OR Site for which the registrant of the domain name used, and the owner or operator are not located and cannot be found within U.S.;
    • Wikimedia is outside of this definition because based on the “U.S. directed site” definition outlined above; Wikimedia is not a foreign Internet site.
  • Site is used by users within the U.S.; and
  • Site is primarily designed or operated for the purpose of, has only limited purpose or use other than, or is marketed by operator or another acting in concert with that operator primarily for use in, offering goods or services in violation of sections 501 or 1201 of title 17 or certain provisions of the Lanham Act OR the operator of the site operates the site with the object of promoting, or has promoted, its use to carry out acts that constitute a violation of section 501 or 1201 of title 17, as shown by clear expression or other affirmative steps taken to foster such violation.

Qualifying plaintiff:

  • Definition has been narrowed down to be “any person with standing to bring a civil action for violations described in paragraph 1(C),” which requires infringement, rather than any holder of intellectual property rights harmed by activities of the site.

SOPA Legislative Process [1]

 

House

  • Full committee markup (Thursday)
    • Members of the committee study the viewpoints presented in detail. Amendments may be offered to the bill, and the committee members vote to accept or reject these changes.
    • At the conclusion of deliberation:
      • A vote of committee members is taken to determine what action to take on the bill.
      • It can be reported, with or without amendment, or tabled (which means no further action on it will occur).
      • If no vote is taken, another markup will be scheduled
  • Manager’s Amendment
    • Possible amendments to the bill that were not voted on in committee.
      • This new bill is the one that is submitted to the floor.
  • Rules Committee Hearing
    • Determines whether the bill will be considered under a closed rule (no amendments), an open rule (any amendment in order), or a modified closed rule (in which only some amendments are in order).
  • Floor time (probably not until early January):
    • If the bill is voted on and approved to move to the Floor, floor time must be scheduled.
      • Vote to recommit: vote to send the bill back to committee might be requested.
      • Vote on final passage: if the bill is voted on and passed by the House, it moves out to conference committee.
      • It can also be sent back and forth between the House and Senate in order to avoid a conference.

Senate

  • The bill is already out of Committee
  • Hold on the bill:
    • Senator Wyden has placed a hold on the bill
    • Senator Reid can override the hold or call a cloture vote to defeat it.
  • Manager’s Amendment
    • Possible amendments to the bill that were not voted on in committee.
      • This new bill is the one that is submitted to the floor
  • Floor time (probably early next year):
    • If the hold is defeated or overridden, then floor time must be scheduled.
      • Bill voted on by roll call vote, voice vote, unanimous consent, or division.
    • If the bill is passed, it is sent out to conference committee.
    • It can also be sent back and forth between the House and Senate in order to avoid a conference.

Conference Committee

  • Once a bill leaves the House and the Senate, it must be reconciled if anything in the two versions of the bill is different otherwise it is sent to the President (see below)
  • The house in which the bill originated is given a copy of the bill with its differences.
    • If the changes are minor, they might be accepted by the originating house with no debate.
    • If changes are of a more substantial nature a conference is called.
  • The conference can be closed and informal or open and very formal.
  • Following negotiations, the managers make reports back to their houses.  If they are able to agree on the bill, the bill is re-voted upon in both houses.
    • If they were able to agree only on some parts of the bill or unable to agree at all, the bill may go back to a new conference committee, be referred back to the committees in the two houses, or it may just die because the differences are too vast to bridge.

President

  • Officially, all bills that pass both houses are signed by the Speaker of the House and the President of the Senate before being presented to the President.
    • This process could delay a bill a day or two.
  • Then, the bill is delivered to the President.
    • The President may sign the bill at any time after its deliverance.
    • If it sits unsigned for more than a 10-day period, it becomes law regardless of his signature or not.
      • The exception to this 10-day period is a pocket veto, in which the President can kill a bill if it goes unsigned and Congress adjourns prior to the 10-day time limit.
    • If the President vetoes the bill, a veto message is sent back to Congress.
      • The two houses of Congress may decide to revote, and two-thirds is needed to override the veto and have the bill become a law.
        • If no immediate revote is taken, the bill can be tabled for later vote or sent back to the committee to have further work done.
        • If a vote is taken to override, and the vote fails, the bill dies.

[1] http://www.house.gov/content/learn/legislative_process/; http://www.usconstitution.net/consttop_law.html.

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I defend undoubtedly the right of the authors to charge for their works, but also I defend with the same force the right that I and others have to contribute for a world in which every single human being can freely share in teh sum of all the whole knowledge that is not subject to these rights. Censorship is only a way of killing the freedom. A man named Ben Franklin (you know, the face in the 100 US$) says: Those who would give up Essential Liberty to purchase a little Temporary Safety, deserve neither Liberty nor Safety.

[…] Wikimedia Foundations jurist, Geoffrey Brigham, har nu skrivit ett inlägg om det här på Wikimedia Foundations blogg. Han skriver: De senaste dagarna har de som redigerar […]

[…] Esta es una traducción al español del comunicado de Geoff Brigham General Counsel – Wikimedia Foundation. […]

Dear Jimbo
Okay to mute wikipedia to have the politicians understand what is freedom
Thanks for it!
Kind regards,
Yah

[…] del comunicado original de Geoff Brigham ¿Aceptaremos censura en […]

Free Knowlwgde isn’t in danger. Who says, our Server have to stay in the USA? There are much more free Countries in the world…

Even if Wikimedia were exempt from some points, its equivalent free knowledge sites overseas would not be. As well, Wikipedia is “overseas” to other countries and substantively funded from other countries, who may be pressured or minded to replicate the US model. SOPA (if passed) and its equivalent overseas versions will collide badly with Wikimedia’s mission and existence. If not here then overseas, when a foreign court under its version of SOPA forces its ISPs to filter, or its payment processors to decline to service Wikimedia, for whatever offences it deems in that country: – Alcohol information in Islamic territories?… Read more »

I oppose SOPA and support Wikimedia and Wikipedia. But I think your argument is dangerously weak. MediaWiki already has a domain-blacklisting extension, http://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Extension:SpamBlacklist . URLs with domains in the blacklist can not be added to an article. It’s in use on English Wikipedia; it might be in use on more sites. It would not require an undue amount of work to add new domains to the blacklist. The extension includes scripts to scan for URLs in existing articles when you add new ones to the blacklist. SOPA may be bad, but I’m not sure the argument that it would be… Read more »

[…] je např. Microsoft, Apple a Corel, zatímco např. Google, Facebook, Twitter, Mozilla, Wikimedia (jež také uvažuje o dočasném odebrání všech anglických stránek Wikipedie v protestu SOPA) […]

Evan: At the moment, the list of sites blocked by SpamBlacklist is collaboratively maintained by our community. Wikipedia is remarkably spam-free and there is not a single WMF employee dedicated to fighting spam.
Were SOPA to pass, the WMF would probably need a system of blocking links, which was entirely under the control of WMF staff, which could not be revoked by any other person. I’m not even sure how I would do that other than locking down contested articles wholesale. So that would dramatically raise our costs there, and greatly interfere with our community process.

[…] How SOPA will hurt the free web and Wikipedia SOPA has earned the dubious honor of facilitating Internet censorship in the name of fighting online infringement. The Wikimedia Foundation opposed that legislation , but we should be clear that Wikimedia has an equally strong commitment against copyright violations. […]

[…] Wikipedia measures discussed by Wales. Like a good law firm, the media arm of Wikipedia laid down their position in detailed fashion, explaining why the idea of SOPA goes against the open principles on which the Internet was […]

Information is my right. I support wiki and I will. I respect copyright but YOU DON’T HAVE THE RIGHT TO MAKE A LAW TO STOP THE SOURCE OF STUDY. SO I SAY NO TO SOPA

Black it out, it is a possibility anyway if this bill passes. Show politicians the possible future they are trying to create.

NeilKandalgaonkar: the SpamBlacklist extension can use multiple blacklist sources — I’m pretty sure WMF sites already use multiple blacklists. A WMF-staff-only source could be a file on disk (probably best idea) or a generated file from a protected wiki or page.
I don’t disagree that SOPA is wrong. I just don’t think that this particular aspect would be excessively burdensome to implement for Wikimedia sites.

shut it down jimmy the free speech the liberty the privacy is in danger we need raise the voice to stop reforms and laws like sopa the liberty and free speech in internet

Evan: I agree a technical solution to blocking is probably possible, but the collateral damage could be enormous (and actually more of a burden to the community than the Foundation). In the case of Biographies of Living people, for example, unless a statement is completely uncontroversial, it can’t be included without a verifiable citation. So if the original source is blocked, or worse, taken off the internet, part of the article may have to be rewritten. And if you consider a worst case scenario, like Al Jazeera being blocked, hundreds of articles would have to be gutted or else left… Read more »

[…] a blackout to protest SOPA. Now, Wikimedia's General Counsel, Geoff Brigham, has written a thorough, detailed, and thoughtful explanation for why SOPA is still terrible. There's a lot more at the link, but a few points: I’ve been asked for a legal opinion. And […]

I say shut the site down give them a glimpse at how the people are not behind SOPA or PIPA. USE this article as the page that comes up for any Wikipedia link for a day it will do a few things one make it so mainline media has no choice but report on the bills, bring the subject to the front line of those how don’t really believe the government would try to censor us, and make a solid statement to the politicians that this is our country and they most listen to us. WE THE PEOPLE need to… Read more »

Calling your Congressman, e-mailing your Congressman will only do so much. Blacking out this website would do 1000 times more than the previous statement. Please do it.

I definitely support your protest idea. The one thing I would suggest is if you do it, make sure that whatever becomes the placeholder page is in some way digestible for kids. Many young students use the Wiki sites for research. The SOPA bill is clearly a complex issue, but the how and the why of your protest should touch on basic civics and be worded as simply as possible. Kids aren’t voters, and they don’t have (much) purchasing power, but taking Wikipedia offline could have actual effects on work and schoolwork. All those affected should be able to understand… Read more »

tsavory, the people in democracies have been speaking loudly and clearly for decades now by continually voting for plutocrats, and rejecting ethical candidates.

[…] Geoff Brigham at Wikimedia Blog makes a compelling argument that the controversial bill will lead to internet censorship. He writes: […]

Dear Jimmy Wales and Wikipedia I support freedom of expression and freddom of speech which are un-alienable RIGHTS! PLEASE go ahead and protest by blanking out or shutting down at least wikipedia from access anywhere in America! We need to send a message that tyranny will not be tolerated!

I am agree that “the people in democracies have been speaking loudly and clearly for decades now by continually voting for plutocrats, and rejecting ethical candidates.”

Protest in any (peaceful, legal) way you can. Make an impact, make your voice heard.

I vote for blackout. As has already been said, the US IP regime is rapidly becoming a system where the major commercial interests suppress the rights of the smaller companies, artists and consumers, whilst being immune to the law themselves. The US also has a track record of using political and commercial pressure to force other countries to submit to this regime. “For evil to succeed, all that is necessary is for good men to do nothing” “From time to time, the Tree of Liberty must be fed with the blood of patriots AND TRAITORS” We must do what little… Read more »

[…] de la mano de la propia página. Geof Brigham recoge en la Wikipedia de forma clara y detallada por qué SOPA es terrible: Nos han pedido nuestra opinión legal, así que diré mi opinión sobre la nueva versión de SOPA, […]

[…] de la mano de la propia página. Geof Brigham recoge en la Wikipedia de forma clara y detallada por qué SOPA es terrible: Nos han pedido nuestra opinión legal, así que diré mi opinión sobre la nueva versión de SOPA, […]

I vote for blackout, just shut it down. I will not stand for these Corporations lobbying for laws to protect their greed, especially when they are funneling money to dimwits that don’t even understand the fundamentals of their own bill, and what it TRULY does..ie LAMAR SMITH
Let us stand against greed and corruption. It’s rather funny that the individuals that help draw up that bill got shiny new jobs at MPAA. This type of buying new laws by MPAA/RIAA is totally unacceptable!!

[…] de la mano de la propia página. Geof Brigham recoge en la Wikipedia de forma clara y detallada por qué SOPA es terrible: Nos han pedido nuestra opinión legal, así que diré mi opinión sobre la nueva versión de SOPA, […]

[…] a blackout to protest SOPA. Now, Wikimedia’s General Counsel, Geoff Brigham, has written a thorough, detailed, and thoughtful explanation for why SOPA is still terrible. There’s a lot more at the link, but a few points: I’ve been asked for a legal opinion. […]

I vote for a temporary blackout or some kind of large banner on each page. Something that demonstrates loud and clear that Wikipedia stands against SOPA.

[…] detallada por qué SOPA es terrible: […]

[…] Wikipedia està promovent una campanya de protesta contra SOPA. Asseguren que si s’aprova la llei, aquesta important web haurà de tancar. Geof Brigham […]

Hey! This is a costly bill. A cheaper way for USA would be to simply hammer the device that contains the very core of the Internet.

What happens if a non-US site hosts material which is in the public domain in the hosting country but not in the United States? For example, there is Projekt Runeberg which hosts Swedish public domain literature, but the only requirement is that the work is out of copyright in Sweden — it may still be copyrighted in the United States. A good example is http://runeberg.org/annasvard/ (in the public domain in Sweden 1992-95 [50 years p.m.a.] and since 2011 [70 years p.m.a.]). Since Swedish copyright was restored on 1 January 1996, the copyright was also restored in the United States on… Read more »

Please forget all the debates and just shut it down, temporarily of course. I’ve already done the same with my little site, but Wikipedia and related will have a far larger impact if you do this.

[…] de la mano de la propia página. Geof Brigham recoge en la Wikipedia de forma clara y detallada por qué SOPA es terrible: Nos han pedido nuestra opinión legal, así que diré mi opinión sobre la nueva versión de SOPA, […]

Stefan2 asked “What happens if a non-US site hosts material which is in the public domain in the hosting country but not in the United States?”
This US law completely disregards any law where a site is located. The law even applies to perfectly legal sites hosting nothing except public domain content.

[…] fest: “Nach wie vor leidet das Gesetzvorhaben an den gleichem grundlegenden Problemen”, schreibt Geoff Brigham, Justiziar der Wikimedia Foundation. Dass ganze Webseiten blockiert werden sollen, wenn eine […]

[…] de la mano de la propia página. Geof Brigham recoge en la Wikipedia de forma clara y detallada por qué SOPA es terrible: Nos han pedido nuestra opinión legal, así que diré mi opinión sobre la nueva versión de SOPA, […]

[…] Die schmutzige Seite der Politik kann man derzeit in den USA beobachten, wo der Stop Online Piracy Act (kurz SOPA) vor dem House Judiciary Committee verhandelt wird. Das Gesetz, mit dem die Wirtschaftsinteressen von amerikanischen Copyright-Inhabern verteidigt werden sollen (mit dem Nebeneffekt, dass Internetprovider gezwungen sind, proaktiv zu überwachen, Inhalte gesperrt werden, Suchmaschinen die Treffer nicht mehr anzeigen dürfen und Verlinken strafbar sein kann), hat in Amerika für einen Aufschrei gesorgt, wie man ihn aus deutschen Zensursula-Zeiten kennt. Unter anderem opponiert fast das ganze Internet von Google über Facebook bis Wikimedia. […]

[…] ausführliche Einschätzung des Wikimedia-Justitiars Geoff Brigham findet sich im Wikimedia-Blog. Dieser Beitrag wurde unter Allgemein veröffentlicht. Setze ein Lesezeichen auf den Permalink. […]

[…] und Journalisten gehen auf die Barrikaden, auch große Firmen. Hier die Statements von Tumblr, Wikipedia, Google, Ebay und Co. (PDF) (Danke […]

[…] del comunicado de Geoff Brigham (General Counsel – Fundación […]

[…] on Judiciary Committee’s SOPA hearings: I just want the nightmare to be over; http://eicker.at/SOPAnightmare […]

[…] Censorship is never the answer to this kind of problem. Read Wikipedia’s view of SOPA here. Sign a petition to stop SOPA here. Voting on the bill has been delayed for the rest of the year, […]

NO TO SOPA. BLACK OUT WIKIPEDIA TO SHOW THE IMPACT.
All of us must do our part, now, to defend our freedom and our rights! Take action against SOPA!
If you do not, you risk living in a censored state of fascist control. And you’ll regret not standing up when you had the chance.
Call, write, and e-mail your Senators and Representatives.

[…] Today sites that violate copyright laws are notified and given the opportunity to take down the material in question or argue the right to post or share it. There is even a “safe harbor” provision that reduces or eliminates a sites liability under the law as long as the party performed its actions in good faith or in compliance with defined standards. Under SOPA, sites will not have that right. They will face immediate action — including being taken down before they have a chance to respond. […]