W.E.B. Du Bois
01-18-2012, 08:27 AM
This topic is very current and relevant since this is my website, there is links to videos on it and I have been threatened with legal action by a politician before (because he claimed a member slandered him) and he wanted the post taken down (which I did, since it was spam and I consulted a lawyer and he told me my position was bad).
That tells you right away which side I'm on. I don't need to be sued because some random member dropped a link to a 3 minute clip of Sigourney Weaver shooting down some aliens. Nor do I need to wake up one day, turn my computer on, click on my Political Forum icon and see this:
http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4117/4910931947_94ced6ca44.jpg
I have invested a lot of money in this site and I'm not just some piece of shit who should be thrown off of his property because I'm not some rich studio like Sony, MGM or Fox.
Do I have links to YouTube videos of music on this site? Yeah. If they pass a reasonable law, I'll just take them down and make them against forum rules. However, that's not even the issue. The issue is that with SOPA, I feel like something I've paid a lot of money for can be taken away PERMANENTLY without notice for something I didn't even do and was not even warned to correct (i.e. a random person joining and posting a YouTube video while I'm away from my computer).
That is why I called up my representatives and told them what I think of SOPA.
http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-503544_162-57360665-503544/sopa-pipa-what-you-need-to-know/
Under the rules SOPA or PIPA would impose, Ohanian and others argue, start ups wouldn't be able to handle the costs that come with defending their sites against possible violations. Such sites would not be able to pay the large teams of lawyers that established sites like Google or Facebook can afford.
The legislation in question targets foreign companies whose primary purpose is to sell stolen or counterfeit goods -- but opponents say domestic companies could still be held liable for linking to their content. While sites like Reddit wouldn't have a legal duty to monitor their sites all the time, "you might have your pants sued off of you" if you don't, said Jayme White, staff director for the Senate Finance Subcommittee on international trade.
Brad Burnham, managing partner at the venture capital fund Union Square Ventures, said his company has avoided investing in companies related to the music industry because of the copyright risks -- but under the proposed legislation, that risk would hit just about any Internet company. SOPA and PIPA, he said, "takes the risk of frivolous litigation... to the entire Internet."
...
The impacts could go beyond the economy, some argue. Rebecca MacKinnon, a senior fellow at the nonpartisan New America Foundation, argues that if blogging platforms are motivated to monitor their content, that could have "a tremendous chilling effect on people trying to conduct political discourse and trying to use content in a fair use context."
Would I have just violated SOPA with that copy-paste? Actually, I could even live with some restrictions on copy-pastes, the thing I really hate though is the Sword of Damocles constantly hanging over my head, and with one slip swish! Make one mistake, don't be censoring your own site for 24/7 and you're liable to be shut down and sued.
The non-rich, non-media studio people (the 99%) are important too. We're not just shit and our interests need to be taken into account too. Give us some kind of bill of rights or protection from SOPA or something.
Wikipedia Founder talking on CNN: http://cnn.com/video/?/video/bestoftv/2012/01/17/exp-erin-sopa-jimmy-wales.cnn
Redit founder talking on CNN at bottom of link: http://www.mediaite.com/tv/soledad-obrien-grills-reddit-founder-on-the-sites-sopa-inspired-shut-down/
That tells you right away which side I'm on. I don't need to be sued because some random member dropped a link to a 3 minute clip of Sigourney Weaver shooting down some aliens. Nor do I need to wake up one day, turn my computer on, click on my Political Forum icon and see this:
http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4117/4910931947_94ced6ca44.jpg
I have invested a lot of money in this site and I'm not just some piece of shit who should be thrown off of his property because I'm not some rich studio like Sony, MGM or Fox.
Do I have links to YouTube videos of music on this site? Yeah. If they pass a reasonable law, I'll just take them down and make them against forum rules. However, that's not even the issue. The issue is that with SOPA, I feel like something I've paid a lot of money for can be taken away PERMANENTLY without notice for something I didn't even do and was not even warned to correct (i.e. a random person joining and posting a YouTube video while I'm away from my computer).
That is why I called up my representatives and told them what I think of SOPA.
http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-503544_162-57360665-503544/sopa-pipa-what-you-need-to-know/
Under the rules SOPA or PIPA would impose, Ohanian and others argue, start ups wouldn't be able to handle the costs that come with defending their sites against possible violations. Such sites would not be able to pay the large teams of lawyers that established sites like Google or Facebook can afford.
The legislation in question targets foreign companies whose primary purpose is to sell stolen or counterfeit goods -- but opponents say domestic companies could still be held liable for linking to their content. While sites like Reddit wouldn't have a legal duty to monitor their sites all the time, "you might have your pants sued off of you" if you don't, said Jayme White, staff director for the Senate Finance Subcommittee on international trade.
Brad Burnham, managing partner at the venture capital fund Union Square Ventures, said his company has avoided investing in companies related to the music industry because of the copyright risks -- but under the proposed legislation, that risk would hit just about any Internet company. SOPA and PIPA, he said, "takes the risk of frivolous litigation... to the entire Internet."
...
The impacts could go beyond the economy, some argue. Rebecca MacKinnon, a senior fellow at the nonpartisan New America Foundation, argues that if blogging platforms are motivated to monitor their content, that could have "a tremendous chilling effect on people trying to conduct political discourse and trying to use content in a fair use context."
Would I have just violated SOPA with that copy-paste? Actually, I could even live with some restrictions on copy-pastes, the thing I really hate though is the Sword of Damocles constantly hanging over my head, and with one slip swish! Make one mistake, don't be censoring your own site for 24/7 and you're liable to be shut down and sued.
The non-rich, non-media studio people (the 99%) are important too. We're not just shit and our interests need to be taken into account too. Give us some kind of bill of rights or protection from SOPA or something.
Wikipedia Founder talking on CNN: http://cnn.com/video/?/video/bestoftv/2012/01/17/exp-erin-sopa-jimmy-wales.cnn
Redit founder talking on CNN at bottom of link: http://www.mediaite.com/tv/soledad-obrien-grills-reddit-founder-on-the-sites-sopa-inspired-shut-down/