What is wrong with SOPA besides the fact that Ron Paul fans won't stop crying about it?

Question

SOPA is designed to fight online trafficking of copyrighted information and intellectual property.

What's wrong with that?

We should protect copyrights and intellectual property. Right?

Answer 1

The writers of SOPA and PIPA freely admit that they are basing their law on the same Internet Censorship Laws and Technology used in Communist China to censor internet content. It is overt censorship of the internet.



✖ How SOPA would affect you: FAQ | Privacy Inc. - CNET News

http://news.cnet.com/8301-31921_3-57329001-281/how-sopa-would-affect-you-faq/



✖ Who's opposed to SOPA?

http://www.net-coalition.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/12/Opposition_Dec16.pdf

Much of the Internet industry and a large percentage of Internet users. Here's the most current list (PDF) of opponents.



✖ Congress is considering two well-intentioned but deeply flawed bills, the PROTECT-IP Act and the Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA).

http://www.tumblr.com/protect-the-net

As written, they would betray more than a decade of US policy and advocacy of Internet freedom by establishing a censorship system using the same domain blacklisting technologies pioneered by China and Iran.



SOPA explained: What it is and why it matters - Jan. 17, 2012

http://money.cnn.com/2012/01/17/technology/sopa_explained/index.htm

NEW YORK (CNNMoney) -- The tech industry is abuzz about SOPA and PIPA, a pair of anti-piracy bills. Here's why they're controversial, and how they would change the digital landscape if they became law.



✖ Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA)

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stop_Online_Piracy_Act



✖ The PROTECT IP Act (Preventing Real Online Threats to Economic Creativity and Theft of Intellectual Property Act of 2011 or PIPA)

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PIPA

Answer 2

That is the flag under which it goes. But saying something is a car doesnt make it drive.

Its designed by persons that dont know how the internet works, to serve people that deserve it even less, in a way that cannot do what its designed to do and in turn it will harm most of the structure of the internet.

Also the bill is very broad, a thing that layers just wait to get their claws on and strip it bare.



So Its not a question whether you want to protect intellectual property, but wether you want the ones holding the intelectual property to be able to mark a website at will and shut it down. A neat thing if you say you want a news coverage webside to go dark for 24 hours or 2 weeks. Not so neat if you want to stop a piracy webside that already circumveined the way the bill works before its even out.

Answer 3

If you don't mind the government monitoring your data streams and blocking you until an investigation can be made if they "think" they've found something, then go for it.



SOPA is just a way for the music and movie industry to keep using the same old outdated technology to make money from instead of evolving with the times.



How many people would love to ditch cable?

How many people complain about the price of movie tickets?

How many people would rather wait for the DVD than watch a movie in the theater?

How many people would rather buy the songs they liked instead of having to but the whole album?

How many people prefer WiFi over 3G/4G?

How many people prefer to watch shows when they want to watch them?

How many people prefer an electronic copy over a DVD that once damaged, your "rights" die with that DVD?

How many people would want a device that was as fast as a similar device in a foreign country but can't get it because it hurts another company's bottom line so they are stuck with an inferior model for no good reason other than to essentially provide welfare for the lack luster company?





The evolution of entertainment has come and the powers that be can't hold it off any longer. They are going to effectively shut down the internet?



I would love to see how that plays out.



What about the sympathy for the traveling shows, drive-ins, local theater houses, local bands and local authors? The industry stomped all over them without a care but they want us to care? They were fitter and better. Now it is their turn to get the chop and lo and behold, they need government intervention.



When $20 Million for an opening weekend is seen as a flop, there is something seriously wrong with the system. If the cost of doing business is that high where a company cannot make a profit from that kind of money, shut down shop - end of. At that level you would have to shut down the only competition, the free internet to force people to go through the traditional distributors for their entertainment. This is about more than pirated music, movies, books and games. More people get enjoyment from watching 2 babies babble on YouTube and the racist Spongebob episode on YouTube than months of prep work from Hollywood. No one can compete with free entertainment copyrighted or not.



It's their fault for mismanaging "Two Way TV" aka the internet from the gate. They should rightfully go out of business so that a more fit provider can take their place.



Besides, I doubt this is really about copyrighted material.

Answer 4

Can Ron Paul be officially classified a cult already? If he ever got elected he wouldn't be able to do ANYTHING because the Republicans would block every single move. Does no one think of that? He has no political party (if you believe he's not really a Republican.) Anyway Obama said he wasn't signing SOPA.

Answer 5

Ron Paul fans hate SOPA + PIPA because the majority of Ron Paul fans are teenagers or 20 something year olds. These people grew up with the internet and SOPA and PIPA will change the internet forever, it will kill the internet. Also who are most likely to download pirated movies from torrents ddl etc? These people, not the 35+ year olds...



However, SOPA and PIPA are BAD for business! Back in the 90s without the internet, artists made WAY less than they make today. Why? Because Social Networking and sites like YouTube actually PROMOTE music, tv shows and movies. Under SOPA + PIPA they could be easily removed.



SOPA gives individuals and corporations unprecedented power to silence speech online. Under SOPA, individuals and corporations could send a notice to a site’s payment partners, requiring those partners to cut the site off — even if the site could never be held liable for infringement in a U.S. court. Since many sites depend on this revenue to cover operational costs, even one accusation of infringement could be ruinous.



SOPA gives the government even more power to censor. The Attorney General can “disappear” websites by creating a blacklist and requiring service providers (such as search engines and domain services) to block the sites on the list.



SOPA uses vague language that is sure to be abused. The bill targets nearly any site that hosts user-generated content, or even just has a search function, by failing to provide protections for legal speech.



SOPA would not stop online piracy. The powerful tools granted to the Attorney General would present major obstacles to casual users, but would be trivial for dedicated and technically savvy users to circumvent.





According to the Standford Law Review: "These bills (SOPA and PIPA), and the enforcement philosophy that underlies them, represent a dramatic retreat from this country's tradition of leadership in supporting the free exchange of information and ideas on the Internet. At a time when many foreign governments have dramatically stepped up their efforts to censor Internet communications, these bills would incorporate into U.S. law a principle more closely associated with those repressive regimes: a right to insist on the removal of content from the global Internet, regardless of where it may have originated or be located, in service of the exigencies of domestic law."





Ron Paul says SOPA violates the First Amendment, is Internet Censorship and will cripple the Internet. Ron Paul may live in an ivory tower of libertarian idealism, but on this, I agree with him.

Answer 6

What Eric said. Also not a big Ron Paul fan myself, and I do agree that intellectual property should be protected, but that's not the issue people have with this bill.

Answer 7

The whole constitution thingy is stupid i guess. All the stupid people who decided to fight to protect it from enemies foreign and domestic shouldn't have bothered. The SOPA and PIPA legislation chips away at the first amendment. The patriot act takes away the fourth amendment. NDAA removes our right to life and liberty. I think people should pay attention to the things that all politicians except for Ron Paul is wanting.

Answer 8

Anything that looks like its been ¨copyrighted¨ well be blocked by the government no matter what it is.



P.S. I use copyrighted very lightly cause people will sue for anything plus I am sure the government is full of trolls that will make something out of nothing.

Answer 9

It isn't just Ron Paul-bots attacking it. A whole swath of Americans--both liberal and conservative--oppose it. They're not opposed to the concept behind it--they're opposed to the methods that are being used in trying to stop the piracy, which involve large-scale censorship and no due process.

Answer 10

Little by little so it goes unnoticed, our government is nibbling away at our freedoms. Who knows how controlled the Internet will be in 20 or 30 years.

Answer 11

it's absurd, you might as well obliterate the entire internet, because no one will use it anymore if this bill gets passed

Answer 12

Well, that depends.



Is this copyrighted? http://fav.me/d4lcg4i



What about this? http://fav.me/d3bg0uk



Or this? http://fav.me/d39so5x



Or these:

http://fav.me/d32wm4d

http://fav.me/d2zdx41

http://fav.me/d2zcpyh

http://fav.me/d2yjjj3

http://fanart.lionking.org/Artists/Atarah_Derek/PCposterMd.jpg

http://fanart.lionking.org/Artists/Atarah_Derek/TimonPumbaaMovieGoersOnline.jpg (this one drawn for and published in my college newspaper)

Answer 13

read the fine print.