[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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