[LINK] Tim O'Reilly on SOPA/PIPA: Solving The Wrong Problem

Jan Whitaker jwhit at melbpc.org.au
Sat Jan 21 12:56:29 AEDT 2012


At 08:58 AM 18/01/2012, Kim Holburn wrote:
> >... without paying for it, and even that some criminals are 
> profiting by redistributing it. But is there actual economic harm?

The Senate and the House have put both bills on hold:

http://www.9news.com/news/world/243759/347/After-protest-Congress-puts-off-movie-piracy-bill-

WASHINGTON (AP) - Caving to a massive campaign by Internet services 
and their millions of users, Congress indefinitely postponed 
legislation Friday to stop online piracy of movies and music costing 
U.S. companies billions of dollars every year. Critics said the bills 
would result in censorship and stifle Internet innovation.

The demise, at least for the time being, of the anti-piracy bills was 
a clear victory for Silicon Valley over Hollywood, which has 
campaigned for a tougher response to online piracy. The legislation 
also would cover the counterfeiting of drugs and car parts.

Congress' qualms underscored how Internet users can use their 
collective might to block those who want to change the system.

The battle over the future of the Internet also played out on a 
different front Thursday when a loose affiliation of hackers known as 
"Anonymous" shut down Justice Department websites for several hours 
and hacked the site of the Motion Picture Association of America 
after federal officials issued an indictment against Megaupload.com, 
one of the world's biggest file-sharing sites.

The site of the Hong Kong-based company was shut down, and the 
founder and three employees were arrested in New Zealand on U.S. 
accusations that they facilitated millions of illegal downloads of 
films, music and other content, costing copyright holders at least 
$500 million in lost revenue. New Zealand police raided homes and 
businesses linked to the founder, Kim Dotcom, on Friday and seized 
guns, millions of dollars and nearly $5 million in luxury cars, 
officials there said.

In the U.S., momentum against the Senate's Protect Intellectual 
Property Act and the House's Stop Online Piracy Act, known popularly 
as PIPA and SOPA, grew quickly on Wednesday when the online 
encyclopedia Wikipedia and other Web giants staged a one-day blackout 
and Google organized a petition drive that attracted more than 7 
million participants.

That day alone, at least six senators who had co-sponsored the Senate 
legislation reversed their positions. House Speaker John Boehner, 
R-Ohio, in statements at the time and again on Friday, stressed that 
more consensus-building was needed before the legislation would be 
ready for a vote.

On Friday, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., said he was 
postponing a test vote set for Tuesday "in light of recent events." 
House Judiciary Committee Chairman Lamar Smith, R-Texas, followed 
suit, saying consideration of a similar House bill would be postponed 
"until there is wider agreement on a solution."

With opposition mounting, it was unlikely that Reid would have 
received the 60 votes needed to advance the legislation to the Senate floor.

The two bills would allow the Justice Department, and copyright 
holders, to seek court orders against foreign websites accused of 
copyright infringement. The legislation would bar online advertising 
networks and payment facilitators such as credit card companies from 
doing business with an alleged violator. They also would forbid 
search engines from linking to such sites.

The chief Senate sponsor, Judiciary Committee Chairman Patrick Leahy, 
D-Vt., cited estimates that copyright piracy costs the American 
economy more than $50 billion annually and that global sales of 
counterfeit goods via the Internet reached $135 billion in 2010. He 
and Smith insist that their bills target only foreign criminals and 
that there is nothing in them to require websites, Internet service 
providers, search engines or others to monitor their networks.

That didn't satisfy critics who said the legislation could force 
Internet companies to pre-screen user comments or videos, burden new 
and smaller websites with huge litigation costs and impede new investments.

The White House, while not taking a specific stand on the bills, last 
week said it would "not support any legislation that reduces freedom 
of expression ... or undermines the dynamic, innovative global 
Internet." On Friday, White House spokesman Jay Carney said online 
piracy is an issue that has to be addressed, "but everybody has to be 
in on it for it to work and get through Congress."

The scuttling, for now, of PIPA and SOPA frustrates what might have 
been one of the few opportunities to move significant legislation in 
an election year where the two parties have little motivation to cooperate.

Until recently "you would have thought this bill was teed up," with 
backing from key Senate leaders and support from powerful interest 
groups, said Sen. Jerry Moran, R-Kan., who cosponsored the original 
bill but quickly dropped his backing on the grounds the bill could 
undermine innovation and Internet freedom.

Moran said the "uprising" of so many people with similar concerns was 
a "major turnaround, and in my experience it is something that has 
happened very rarely."

Moran said PIPA and SOPA now have "such a black eye" that it will be 
difficult to amend them. Reid, however, said that there had been 
progress in recent talks among the various stakeholders and "there is 
no reason that the legitimate issues raised by many about this bill 
cannot be resolved."

Jeff Chester, executive director for the Center for Digital 
Democracy, a consumer protection and privacy advocacy group, said 
Google and Facebook and their supporters "have delivered a powerful 
blow to the Hollywood lobby." He predicted a compromise that doesn't 
include what many see as overreaching provisions in the current legislation.

"It's been framed as an Internet freedom issue, but at the end of the 
day it will be decided on the narrow interests of the old and new 
media companies," he said. The big questions involve who should or 
shouldn't pay - or be paid - for Internet content.

Leahy said he respected Reid's decision to postpone the vote but 
lamented the Senate's unwillingness to debate his bill.

"The day will come when the senators who forced this move will look 
back and realize they made a knee-jerk reaction to a monumental 
problem," Leahy said. Criminals in China, Russia and other countries 
"who do nothing but peddle in counterfeit products and stolen 
American content are smugly watching how the United States Senate 
decided" it was not worth taking up the bill, he said.

In the House, Smith said he had "heard from the critics" and resolved 
that it was "clear that we need to revisit the approach on how best 
to address the problem of foreign thieves that steal and sell 
American inventions and products." Smith had planned on holding 
further committee votes on his bill next month.

The bill's opponents were relieved it was put on hold.

Markham Erickson, executive director of NetCoalition, commended 
Congress for "recognizing the serious collateral damage this bill 
could inflict on the Internet."

The group represents Internet and technology companies including 
Google, Yahoo and Amazon.com. Erickson said they would work with 
Congress "to address the problem of piracy without compromising 
innovation and free expression."

Rep. Darrell Issa, R-Calif., who has joined Sens. Ron Wyden, D-Ore., 
and Moran in proposing an alternative anti-piracy bill, credited 
opponents with forcing lawmakers "to back away from an effort to ram 
through controversial legislation."

But the CEO of the Motion Picture Association of America, former 
Connecticut Democratic Sen. Chris Dodd, warned, "As a consequence of 
failing to act, there will continue to be a safe haven for foreign 
thieves." The MPAA, which represents such companies as Walt Disney 
Studios Motion Pictures, Twentieth Century Fox Film Corporation and 
Warner Bros. Entertainment Inc., is a leading advocate for the 
anti-piracy legislation.



(Copyright 2012 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)




Melbourne, Victoria, Australia
jwhit at janwhitaker.com
blog: http://janwhitaker.com/jansblog/
business: http://www.janwhitaker.com

Our truest response to the irrationality of the world is to paint or 
sing or write, for only in such response do we find truth.
~Madeline L'Engle, writer

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