SOPA/PIPA and the US Great Firewall

[mikelove]

Not sure if this is entirely relevant, and please feel free to downvote / moderate this post out of existence if not, but given the reliance of both this site and the Chinese learning community in general on user-generated content (online lessons, flashcard lists, CC-CEDICT, etc), and the fact that a lot of people here have firsthand experience with what happens when you give governments the power to arbitrarily block websites, it seems reasonably topical anyway.

The US Congress is dangerously close to passing a law called the Stop Online Piracy Act (similar Senate version is called the PROTECT IP Act) that would give the government the ability to totally cut off access to websites that infringe US copyrights; not simply by taking the site down (which wouldn't work in foreign countries where the US has no jurisdiction) but by cutting off DNS requests at the ISP level. They'd also ban tools designed to circumvent that block, and for good measure they'd give ISPs (many of which own, or are in bed with, large media companies) the right to block infringing websites themselves without going through any legal channels. This wouldn't be exactly the same as the Great Firewall since the US' network topology is very different - it would be impossible to route all US internet traffic through a single government-controlled choke point - but it would have essentially the same effect, and would result in an equally "broken"-seeming internet.

The even scarier part of the bill, however, is that it also gives copyright holders the ability to skip the legal process and go directly to the payment processors and ad networks that a website uses and demand that they cut it off. Under the current enforcement system (the Digital Millennium Copyright Act), as long as you promptly take down infringing content from your website after you're notified about it, you're protected from liability for having hosted it. So your only real duty as a website owner is to promptly deal with those notices. Under the new bill, however, you're forced to be more proactive, because simply not doing enough to check for / ban infringing content is potential grounds enough to get you cut off from your payment processors / ad networks. And even if you're not based in the US, chances are that the ad network you're using is, so you're still vulnerable.

Speaking as someone who myself has to deal with piracy on a regular basis (I've personally sent out a few hundred DMCA takedown notices) and who this bill is ostensibly designed to help, I think it goes way, way too far; even for our copyright-dependent business, the potential danger far exceeds the benefit. Personally I'm most worried about this in the context of vocabulary lists - the copyright status of those has never been well-established, and while I'm sure anybody hosting them would happily take them down if a publisher were to contact them and ask that they do so, we're now in a situation where Skritter, or Flashcard Exchange, or Anki, or Nciku, or even for that matter a discussion forum that occasionally hosts flashcard lists could be taken offline if a publisher suddenly decides that those lists are violating their copyrights. In fact, having such a big stick may encourage companies responsible for important vocabulary lists to become more aggressive in demanding license fees - who's to say that Hanban, for example, won't suddenly decide that anybody hosting an HSK vocabulary list should have to pay them royalties?

So it's a very scary bill, and one that could have far-reaching effects even outside of the US. And I know that between American residents and expats-with-US-citizenship there are a lot of people on this forum who have the ability to call or write to their members of congress and ask them to oppose it, so I'm posting here in the hopes that you will - emailing your opinion unfortunately doesn't seem to count for much, but if you've got a few spare minutes to look up their office number and VoIP them it'll really help the cause.

Thanks for reading,

[gato]

http://www.distresse...or-hr-3261.html

Under SOPA, Scribd would no longer be able to exist. And as I've linked to Scribd in the past, I and many other prominent financial bloggers could be held liable and cut off from the DNS directory and search engines.

Google , AOL, eBay, Facebook, LinkedIn, Mozilla, Twitter, Yahoo and Zynga are all vehemently opposed to the legislation. Think about it: If some person uploads to YouTube just one unauthorized piece of copyrighted material, the ENTIRE SITE CAN BE SHUT DOWN.

Sounds extreme.

[Silent]

It may sound extreme, but it's possible. I see this kind of tendencies everywhere. Not guilty unless proven otherwise changes more and more in guilty unless proven otherwise. It gives the power to the rich and wealthy as they can easily dispute false claims. The average common man whose website is blocked has not the financial means to get into an extended battle in court.

[Areckx]

Either way, people will adapt and we'll just have something new. As long as I can get Chinese and Japanese into my ears and eyes, I'm fine. I don't care if the website has to change.

[mikelove]

Sounds extreme.

I agree that it's unlikely it would actually be used to shut down a big site like YouTube or Scribd - they have armies of lawyers to prevent such a thing - but what about a simple little discussion forum that happens to end up with a few pirated file attachments because the owner was insufficiently vigilant about checking them? If their contact info is wrong, or the threatening email goes to the wrong place, or the owner is on vacation and doesn't see it in time, they could end up being pulled down without ever even knowing there was a problem.

[AdamD]

Either way, people will adapt and we'll just have something new.

True, but in the worst possible way. If the law passes, the people who don't infringe copyright will be heavily inconvenienced, and the hardcore copyright infringers will find ways to continue doing so.

[navaburo]

This means a lot coming from you, Mike. I deeply respect you for the work you have done on Pleco (which I use heavily), and I recognize the huge role that copyright plays in your business. I have already written my congressman regarding PROTECT IP, but I will write again concerning Stop Online Piracy.

Thank you for bringing this important issue to our attention.

-Chris

[mikelove]

Thanks, but while I do believe it's a terrible bill for everyone, there's also some enlightened self-interest at work in my case - many of our future plans for Pleco involve users being able to share more content with each other, and my favorite fallback business idea (been keeping a list of them for years in case things go badly with Pleco, though after a decade of sales growth that's starting to seem pretty unlikely...) is even more user-content-centric.

[skylee]

Wiki blackout ! http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:SOPA_initiative/Learn_more

[imron]

Many other sites are also blacking out today. If you read the learn more section, they also tell you how to work around the blackout if you really, really need access.

[jbradfor]

While I'm not for SOPA, I don't think wikipedia is doing the right thing. That said, they are making it really easy to bypass the "blackout". For example, I've read that it still works fine on mobile devices. For non-mobile devices (which, ironically, includes laptops.....), just let the page load, then click reload, then press esc a couple of times, and everything is fine.

[imron]

From the page Skylee linked to above:

Is it still possible to access Wikipedia in any way? Yes. During the blackout, Wikipedia is accessible on mobile devices and smart phones. You can also view Wikipedia normally by disabling JavaScript in your browser, as explained on this Technical FAQ page. Our purpose here isn't to make it completely impossible for people to read Wikipedia, and it's okay for you to circumvent the blackout. We just want to make sure you see our message.

Anyone reloading/pressing escape a couple of times is doing it wrong (and didn't bother to read Wikipedia's explanation of the issue to boot). Wikipedia themselves say they're not trying to make it impossible to read Wikipedia - they're just trying to bring the issue to people's attention. Personally I support them in this decision, especially as not being a US citizen I have little/no way to make an impact on such a stupid law, so it's good to see people standing up to fight it.

[renzhe]

provides a pretty good summary of what's wrong with SOPA and PIPA, for people having trouble getting through the legalese.

[jbradfor]

Anyone reloading/pressing escape a couple of times is doing it wrong

Why is that "wrong", given that it's much easer than disabling JS? To a casual user, any solution that requires a "technical FAQ" is not making it easy.

not being a US citizen I have little/no way to make an impact on such a stupid law,

I don't feel I have much of a way to make an impact either.....

[imron]

To a casual user, any solution that requires a "technical FAQ" is not making it easy.

Perhaps. Though for me, enabling/disabling Javascript is the press of a button. I imagine there will be many others for whom it's the same.

I don't feel I have much of a way to make an impact either

At least you have a senator you can call.

[jbradfor]

I think I'm going to get a t-shirt made saying "I survived the great wikipedia blackout of 2012".

[skylee]

Please post a photo of the t-shirt here.

[jbradfor]

[imron]

And all you got was a lousy photoshopped t-shirt

[imron]

Also of interest is this article showing that the blackout did indeed achieve a positive result. Whether it's enough, only time will tell.