More sites are either going dark on January 18th or joining in the protest in some way. Google, Scrbd and WordPress are joining Wikipedia to voice opposition against H.R.3261 — Stop Online Piracy Act (Introduced in House – IH). Okay, reading all that is a commitment. Those in opposition believe that there are other, smarted ways to shut down foreign rogue websites without asking American companies to censor the Internet. Those in opposition believe that global intellectual property rights should trump all and that the ideal of a free and open Internet can still exist.
Since Wikipedia will be dark, here is the beginning of the SOPA citiation as of the day before:
The originally proposed bill would allow the U.S. Department of Justice, as well as copyright holders, to seek court orders against websites accused of enabling or facilitating copyright infringement. Depending on who makes the request, the court order could include barring online advertising networks and payment facilitators from doing business with the allegedly infringing website, barring search engines from linking to such sites, and requiring Internet service providers to block access to such sites. The bill would make unauthorized streaming of copyrighted content a crime, with a maximum penalty of five years in prison for ten such infringements within six months. The bill also gives immunity to Internet services that voluntarily take action against websites dedicated to infringement, while making liable for damages any copyright holder who knowingly misrepresents that a website is dedicated to infringement.
Proponents of the bill say it protects the intellectual property market and corresponding industry, jobs and revenue, and is necessary to bolster enforcement of copyright laws, especially against foreign websites. They cite examples such as Google’s $500 million settlement with the Department of Justice for its role in a scheme to target U.S. consumers with ads to illegally import prescription drugs from Canadian pharmacies.
Here is one take on it all.
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