I think this is big news because WordPress has never really got into anything political. Shows you how serious the SOPA/PIPA situation is getting. Check this out and the cool little video they did explaining what SOPA/PIPA means for net professionals:
wordpress-asks-its-60-million-users-to-help-stop-sopa-and-pipa/
Re: WordPress comes out against SOPA/PIPA
Here’s the excellent video.
I’m still waiting to see Google grow some balls though. Very disappointed in their stance on this. Having said that, where’s Yahoo, Bing and FaceBook on this issue?
[video=vimeo;31100268]http://vimeo.com/31100268[/video]
Re: WordPress comes out against SOPA/PIPA
Google is one of the main opponents to SOPA as far as I know.
BTW: The Dutch version of SOPA has become reality today. A similar law has passed in Finland recently. It’s strange, both The Netherlands and Scandinavian countries have been considered a safe haven for many years and now they are the first democratic countries to censor the internet.
While I am glad that it will be harder for citizens to download illegal content, I don’t like censorship of the internet by governments. Two big ISPs are forced to block access to The Pirate Bay within 10 days and the court also said that the government can force ISPs to block access to other websites without having to go to court from now on.
Re: WordPress comes out against SOPA/PIPA
Wow…this is some scary shit.
Re: WordPress comes out against SOPA/PIPA
[QUOTE=pocoloco;108333]
While I am glad that it will be harder for citizens to download illegal content, I don’t like censorship of the internet by governments. Two big ISPs are forced to block access to The Pirate Bay within 10 days and the court also said that the government can force ISPs to block access to other websites without having to go to court from now on.[/QUOTE]
I believe that there are ulterior motives for a government doing this. Since when has any government actually cared about piracy? What’s in it for them to go after this? There have been times in the past when piracy has been far more prevalent, and no government was weighing in on the situation back then.
Just wait for the austerity protests to start in Finland, they’ll soon be using their new and shiny censorship laws to shut down sites and restrict Google/Youtube/Twitter/Facebook.
Re: WordPress comes out against SOPA/PIPA
Reddit has announced their blackout for Jan 18, doing what was mentioned in a previous discussion suggesting Google would do the same…
Reddit, in protest of the Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA), will be shutting down normal operations on Jan. 18 from 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. ET.
During that window, visitors to the site will find a message about SOPA and its sister bill in the Senate, the Protect IP Act (PIPA). There will also be links which will provide more information about the two bills and suggestions on how to take action against SOPA and PIPA.
Re: WordPress comes out against SOPA/PIPA
[QUOTE=conran;108364]I believe that there are ulterior motives for a government doing this. Since when has any government actually cared about piracy? What’s in it for them to go after this? There have been times in the past when piracy has been far more prevalent, and no government was weighing in on the situation back then.
Just wait for the austerity protests to start in Finland, they’ll soon be using their new and shiny censorship laws to shut down sites and restrict Google/Youtube/Twitter/Facebook.[/QUOTE]
I know. Of course there’s more to it. It’s all about control and power and that scares me. Are we living in free countries or China / North Korea?
I have good hope that the law will be reversed. Big protests have been planned and since the new law has passed, the government’s anti-piracy site and several other government sites cannot be reached because of attacks by “Anonymous”. Some ISPs say they will never block any IP and are working on ways to get around the new law.
This message currently shows up on The Pirate Bay:
Listen up people of The Netherlands.
Your internet is being censored!
In a few days your ISP will block this site!
Behind the blockade is some of the biggest corporations in the world. In your country they are fronted by a corrupt organisation called BREIN. They’re famous internationally for forging evidence in court cases.
Other countries that block this site are China, North Korea ans Saudi Arabia…
To bypass this block and the other blocks in place in your country you should start using TOR or a VPN service.
In the meantime, the government can’t do anything about a legit ped0phile association, that is protected by our freedom of speech laws… they’d better spend their time and energy to create laws to forbid such an association!
Re: WordPress comes out against SOPA/PIPA
Update: Craig’s List also came out against these laws. And it looks like the Obama adminustration will not support them either.
Is it really possible that the people beat the big corporations on this one? Maybe there’s hope for America after all.
Re: WordPress comes out against SOPA/PIPA
I think if this one fails it’ll only be because corporations like Google have expressed their opposition to it, not because they’ve genuinely thought about how it could damage freedom.
I was reading up yesterday about a British guy who is being extradited to the USA for piracy, for hosting a site linking out to other sites hosting pirated video.
Our legal system has been hijacked by the USA in this case. Under UK law he should not be extradited to the USA. And considering he’s been told he could face up to ten years in the US prison system it’s quite shocking.
This case sets a precedent, meaning that any person, with any links on their site leading to anywhere that hosts any pirated content, could be extradited to serve a decade in prison in the US. And that’s without SOPA/PIPA.
I know a lot of people here are vehemently opposed to any form of piracy (I wonder how many of those people were copying tapes back in the 80’s and 90’s, and then went on to buy those albums because of it?) but extraditing someone and sending them down for this is pure insanity.
Re: WordPress comes out against SOPA/PIPA
And the piratebqy would be immune to SOPA
http://www.extremetech.com/computing/113275-the-pirate-bay-is-immune-to-sopa
Re: WordPress comes out against SOPA/PIPA
The SOPA/PIPA controversy isn’t about “the people” vs. big corporations. It’s about big corporations vs. big corporations - it’s just that those opposed to SOPA were a little late to the game. The legislation was drawn up and started to move through committee before internet companies, ISPs and intermediaries (as well as internet advocacy groups) got wise to it and woke up about it.
Quite frankly, none of the big 'net corporations are in it for the sake of free speech or constitutional rights, either. Clearly they have a vested interested in the safe harbor provisions of existing copyright law being as generous and accommodating as possible for ISPs and intermediaries, and SOPA/PIPA would change that.
Hopefully, with the Obama administration’s suggestion SOPA/PIPA would face veto, its supporters and sponsors might give up on it and pay some attention to the proposed OPEN act, instead - a bipartisan alternative to SOPA/PIPA that has the support of most in the tech community and would be far more effective and fair than SOPA/PIPA.
As content creators, though, I’m actually quite glad SOPA/PIPA came about and garnered some attention. The fact of the matter is DMCA is inadequate, and actually enables piracy; ISPs and intermediaries willfully turn blind eyes to piracy because DMCA leaves them no choice but to; in order to avoid liability or responsibility, ISPs and intermediaries are essentially legally obligated to pretend there is no such thing as piracy, unless and until a copyright holder notifies them through a DMCA notice; the burden to comb the internet for one’s copyrighted works rests entirely and solely on the shoulders of copyright holders, with ISPs and intermediaries offering no support or assistance and doing absolutely nothing to prevent stuff from being posted and distributed in the first place.
Further, in the years since DMCA’s passage, the types of one-click hosting and filetrading sites that are entirely designed to do nothing other than facilitate piracy have all learned how to avoid consequence - go offshore. SOPA/PIPA try to address that, but poorly. OPEN could likely be more effective in accomplishing what SOPA/PIPA originally set out to do, without so much collateral damage.
Ultimately, though, I have little to no sympathy for the Googles and Facebooks and other such ISPs and intermediaries and all the sites accepting and redistributing content from users who are now shitting their pants over potential SOPA/PIPA passage. They’ve been allowed to carry on as if there is no such thing as piracy, and have been allowed - through DMCA - to play the “See no evil, hear no evil, speak no evil” game when it comes to infringement, encouraged to enable and facilite infringement in order to benefit from safe harbor and all too happy to do precisely that.
There very well needs to be adjustments to digital copyright law in the US that encourages ISPs and intermediaries to be proactive in preventing infringement, and cooperate with IP holders. They’ve taken DMCA’s safe harbor provisions and used it as an excuse to be negligent and willingly ignorant, and they need to grow up and accept the fact that they are now a fully integrated industry - one that will get regulated to some extent just like every other (including ourselves), and one that can’t play the free speech card every time someone wants them to play fair. We’re no longer incubating the internet - it flourishes and thrives and its most successful companies are the most profitable and wealthiest businesses on the planet. They can put someone on staff to not just take down material they get DMCA complaints about, but prevent the stuff from going online in the first place. They are no more driven by charity or selflessness than record labels or motion picture studios, and are capable of acknowledging infringement exists - even on their services and networks.
Re: WordPress comes out against SOPA/PIPA
Brian:
I’m afraid you are sounding way to reasonable here. Could you please ratchet your rhetoric up to Olympian proportions? (Maybe like Lawrence Olivier’s Zeus in Clash of the Titans)
Thanks,
Steve
Re: WordPress comes out against SOPA/PIPA
hehe sorry. It’s just all quite frustrating to read and hear about. I recently engaged in a discussion about all of this with some people at a number of these sites opposed to SOPA/PIPA, including a number planning on joining this Jan 18 blackout thingy.
As much as I can understand their concern - and I think it fairly safe to assume most of us in this industry don’t look too kindly on government regulation and are wary of a fair amount of legislation - the predominant attitudes among them that I found disturbing were anything not to their liking amounted to censorship (think: how the NRA views any attempt at gun control. There is a reasonable level of regulation that can be effective without amounting to censorship or violation of their rights, and yet they refuse to admit such is the case), and that they don’t enable or facilitate infringement in the least. Regarding the latter, DMCA not only allows them to take that attitude but rather essentially obligates them to have that attitude. Responding to a DMCA notification is not acknowledgement infringement occurred on their system; taking down content for which a complaint was received is simply their doing what the law tells them, against their will. Anything and everything is fair game, free to post and distribute as much as you want unless and until some copyright holder lucky enough to come across it sends in a notification. Google can host whatever blog they want, tube sites can post whatever video they want, filetrading sites can distribute any file they want because DMCA allows them to say, “Everything is good… unless you think something isn’t… and you complain… but that doesn’t prove anything because someone can submit a counter notification and then they’re actually the right one if and when they do…”.
BoingBoing (one of the blackout sites) recently said, “Making one link would require checking millions (even tens of millions) of pages, just to be sure that we weren’t in some way impinging on the ability of five Hollywood studios, four multinational record labels, and six global publishers to maximize their profits.”
Sure… but who has to check those millions and millions of pages now? IP rights holders! Is that any less burdensome and time consuming for us? Surely there must be some way for ISPs and intermediaries to help out with the process and try and keep stuff from getting online in the first place. Further, it’s not just Hollywood studios, big record labels and big publishers. We’re all small businesses and DMCA does us little good. There are independent filmmakers and musicians, non-profits and laborers, small business owners and entrepreneurs and countless others put at risk by infringement and for whom DMCA is inadequate. Many of those Silicon Valley types seem to think they’re the only ones with “start ups” and new ventures and are guilty of the very same hubris and selfishness they accuse Hollywood studios and recordlabels of having, and fail to acknowledge a world outside their own as much as they accuse others of doing.
Re: WordPress comes out against SOPA/PIPA
The SOPA/PIPA controversy isn’t about “the people” vs. big corporations. It’s about big corporations vs. big corporations
I disagree and believe that one reason people are angry about these laws can best be summed up by a question posed by Reddit founder Alexis Ohanian on CNBC today:
“Why is it that when Republicans and Democrats need to solve the budget and the deficit, there’s deadlock, but when Hollywood lobbyists pay them $94 million dollars to write legislation, people from both sides of the aisle line up to co-sponsor it?”
http://video.cnbc.com/gallery/?video=3000067904
Oh, and Reddit, Craig’s List and Wikipedia are against SOPA/PIPA and are not exactly big business powerhouses. Corbin Fisher probably makes more than all of them combined.
Re: WordPress comes out against SOPA/PIPA
Reddit’s founder grossly oversimplifies both SOPA and the budget/deficit with that statement. The OPEN Act - a proposed alternative to SOPA/PIPA and with the backing of many of the tech companies opposed to SOPA - was introduced by a bi-partisan group of legislators. By the logic you’re using there, I suppose it’s equally unacceptable simply because it has the support of members of both parties? Or is tech-supported bi-partisan legislation just better than Hollywood-supported bi-partisan legislation?
Craigslist makes well over $100,000,000 per year, with the overwhelming majority of that being profit (about 85% profit). Reddit has been valued (in recent estimates involving selling stakes in the site to investors) at over $200,000,000. Oh, and Reddit is also owned by Conde Nast, a company with gross revenues in the billions. Wikimedia Foundation is a non-profit organization. But despite Wikimedia’s being a non-profit, Corbin Fisher most definitely does not make in excess of the $300,000,000 per year that it would take for us to make more than Reddit, Craigslist and Wikipedia combined, though I wish we did.
Re: WordPress comes out against SOPA/PIPA
BTW…
http://code.reddit.com/wiki/help/licensing
Their licensing page. 25% of gross revenue to license the alien. They talk about what an unfair burden it would be for them to have to police the internet for knockoffs of their logo and how that would all risk diluting their brand - kind of like copyright infringement does for intellectual property creators. It’s quite an unfair burden for us to have to comb reddit and other such sites for material that infringes our copyrights and brands.
Really, if anyone honestly thinks these companies are doing this out of an interest in free speech of intellectual freedom, it’s just foolish. For them, billions of dollars are at stake; what these companies conveniently fail to point out to the individual surfers they’re getting all riled up is that they have a vested financial interest - involving massive amounts of money - in being able to continue to pretend infringement does not exist, and pretend they don’t contribute to it.
It’s that latter part that’s really key - these companies have been allowed to freely operate as if they don’t in any way enable infringement. Their business models and their DMCA safe harbor risks putting content creators out of business. When the tables are turned and they perceive themselves to be put at risk, all of a sudden there’s some profoundly important moral issue taking place. Content creators wanting to protect their business are greedy, tech companies wanting to protect their business are selfless champions of freedom. I don’t buy it.
Google makes more in a quarter than Time Warner does in a year. Google, in fact, makes more than most of the Hollywood studios combined, if you want to play that numbers game. And a big key to Google’s being able to do so is being entirely unburdened by any responsibility to acknolwedge copyright infringement through their services, assign the entirety of the burden of copyright enforcement to IP rights holders, and redistribute others’ content unhindered unless and until told not to - that is the very nature of DMCA.
I don’t want Google or Wikipedia or any of these sites shut down any more than anyone else. But what I do want is adjustments to copyright law that encourage them to be more proactive in making sure their sites and services are on the up-and-up.
Re: WordPress comes out against SOPA/PIPA
BD, I stand corrected about Reddit and Craigs List although I noticed you didn’t get into more detailed info about the non-profit Wikipedia Foundation and their ulterior evil motives in fighting SOPA/PIPA.
From reading your extensive comments you seem upset that some companies opposing SOPA/PIPA are painting themselves as defenders of free speech, but if you read the statements on their blackout pages today you see that they simply believe these are badly written laws, and since it looked like they were on a fast track to passage, action had to be taken. Google said it best in their headline âEnd Piracy, Not Libertyâ.
Re: WordPress comes out against SOPA/PIPA
MSM,
I think a more accurate headline from Google would be, “End Piracy (if it does indeed exist), Not Our Ability To Enjoy Blanket Immunity and Safe Harbor Regardless of Circumstance”.
Google was just as outspoken when DMCA was coming around, telling everyone they could it’d mean the end of the internet. They will oppose any attempted modification to existing copyright law that they feel threatens their bottom line (and they feel all such law threatens their bottom line).
Don’t get me wrong - I’m no supporter of SOPA. SOPA is overreaching, excessive, and tremendously flawed.
But DMCA is also flawed. As it exists, DMCA enables sites like Google to pretend there’s no such thing as infringement. Even their responding to take down notices is not an acknowledgement of infringement on their part, but simply a reluctant adherence to the law. That’s why they post everything on Chilling Effects.
I don’t want SOPA/PIPA to pass, but I’m also quite tired of companies like Google attempting to play the civil liberties and freedom and censorship cards every time legislation gets proposed.
All of us, as content creators, have had to adapt to infringement. The Hollywood studios and the record labels adapt - iTunes, Spotify, Netflix, Pandora, 8Tracks, Turntable, Hulu are all proof that the major content creators are adapting. All I would hope is that the ISPs can likewise adapt, quit trying to hide behind a 13 year old law, and admit that sometimes, some people try and use their sites and services to violate copyrights. We have 3 people on staff full-time to hunt down infringing material, send takedown notices, and record evidence. Does Google not have a means to ensure they’re not hosting blogs dedicated to infringement, or that laws aren’t being violated on YouTube? They are long, long beyond their incubation phase and are now one of the world’s biggest, most powerful and most profitable corporations; they can put a little effort in to proactively monitoring their own sites and services to respect existing law, rather than continue to turn a blind eye to it all and say they’re doing so in the interests of freedom.
Re: WordPress comes out against SOPA/PIPA
Case in point a discussion I recently had with someone at Google re: a pirate blog run through Blogspot. I’m sure many of you have had similar experiences if you’ve submitted complaints to them.
The casual observer can obviously see the blog exists for no other purpose than to post links to full length movies (both porn and mainstream Hollywood films). When you submit a DMCA complaint, Google responds with, “Those files are not on our servers so we can’t do anything” (because the files are actually on Rapidshare. The blog just contains links to and screengrabs of them". So you submit notices about the screengrabs. Finally, Google deletes only those but not the blog.
Eventually you dig through blogspot’s Terms and Conditions to find ways in which teh blog violates them, and send a complaint to Google about that (non-DMCA related but simply about their own T&Cs). If you’re lucky, in a few months the blog gets shut down.
… then it pops up again the next day, but instead of the old, “moviepirateblog.blogspot.com” URL it is not “moviepirateblog2.blogspot.com”. Same operator (same gmail address). Doing the same thing.
So you have to follow this guy around the internet and submit complaint after complaint and work around all of Google’s obstacles to get him taken down.
I’ve discussed this with people at Google and the response I got was, in a nutshell, “We don’t block anyone. We let everyone join. We don’t review sites. We don’t acknowledge infringement, and only respond to proper DMCA complaints because the law makes us”. Really? They don’t have one person on staff who can look at blogs like this and say, “Yeah… this guy is clearly up to no good” and cancel his account? They hide behind DMCA, use it as an excuse to turn a blind eye, and scream bloody murder at any attempt to prevent them from being able to do that.