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[wahwho]

Even current laws provide too broad a brush (or sword, if you prefer) to law enforcement: today, MegaUpload was shut down by the FBI. Of course, nobody would deny that MegaUpload had its share of illegal files on it, but it also had plenty of legal content and should have been protected by various safe harbor provisions. When you consider that bills like SOPA, PIPA, and similar legislation in other countries want to expand penalties to linked content and not just directly hosted files you can see what kind of a nightmare it would be for the way the web is used.

The point of the web, at its most fundamental level, is sharing and linking. If legislation tries to restrict that then it breaks the web both technologically and conceptually. Frankly, the studios were doing the right thing when they were taking individuals to court because it was an attempt to hold those people accountable and not try to restrict multiuse technology - they were just doing it in a horribly, horribly foolish way that failed to meet any kind of burden of proof and caught up far too many innocents in essentially a legal racketeering and extortion scheme. (Oh, and completely ignoring the real problem of massive commercial infringement, as well as being completely ignorant of the true mechanisms of large-scale piracy that they never even touched, but that's a different argument.) The burden of copyright enforcement has always been on holders and these bills attempt to shift it to ISPs, site owners, and other third parties...including the federal government, which is possibly the worst group I can think of to put in charge of such a thing.

 

[VJCPatriot]

Exactly: there are already browser extensions in development that, when installed, will basically add another layer, client-side, on top of DNS servers. If you type, for example, the Pirate Bay's URL (not going to link to it here on PatsFans, of course), then it would refer to this extension's list of IPs, and, if an entry is found, it will simply direct the user to that IP address without ever producing a DNS query. This process circumvents DNS filtering entirely, and is incredibly easy to accomplish.

Most sites will still have IP addresses that you can navigate to directly, and that will remain a viable means for circumventing all of this stuff. Incidentally, that's how I kept up to date with Wikileaks after it was "taken down". Example:

If anyone wants to know the IP address of a website, they can do the following:

1) Access the command terminal (on Windows Vista and 7, you click start, type
"cmd" without the quotes into the search bar, and then press enter)

2) type "ping www.patsfans.com" (again without the quotes). From the reply information, you will see that the patsfans IP address is 208.116.51.99.

3) Navigate to 208.116.51.99 instead of patsfans.com in your web browser. If Patsfans were ever to get blacklisted through SOPA, you'd still be able to get here through that IP address.

Of course, Ian would suddenly find himself unable to make any advertising revenue without switching to offshore networks, though, and we probably wouldn't get any new users since nobody would be able to find us on Google. So Ian would be pretty much screwed, but for a site that planned on being blacklisted and had already moved its advertising outside of US jurisdiction? They'd be fine.

When a pirate site gets blacklisted, most/all of its users will already have the IP address written down, so they'll still be able to get there. The aforementioned browser extensions will make it even easier, and they'll be using offshore payment processors and ad networks, so they will still be able to monetize their traffic. SOPA will seriously be that easy to circumvent. I just showed you all how to do it- it's just a couple of extremely simple steps.

In short, this bill will barely be a speedbump for foreign sites that deliberately host copyrighted content. Their entire ecosystem of users will be prepared for this, and they'll have their own payment processors and ad networks located far outside of the US gov't's reach. The only sites that will get really screwed are places like Patsfans, where all it will take is one Jets troll posting a link to a site that has copyrighted content and then reporting it to get the entire site blacklisted.

Ouch. I don't like the sound of that. Hopefully everyone raises their awareness and stops SOPA from happening. From what I'm hearing it sounds way overbroad in its language and will be ineffective at achieving its 'intent'.

 

[sly24]

I don't know much about the FBI but can someone explain to me how on earth do they have the power to shut down servers located in other countries?

This is a major waste of time IMO. Owners will just relocate their servers in russia or something where they are out of reach of the US. I'm sure there are already dozens of sites exactly like megaupload that opened today with a .ru extention.. This will only end up hurting perfectly honest sites like patsfans.

 

[BradyFTW!]

Wow, so is the timing on the MegaUpload shutdown suspect, or what? Doesn't take a conspiracy theorist to realize that the FBI waited until now strictly so that the bill's proponents could falsely claim that SOPA/PIPA was necessary to get after sites like that.

After all, MegaUpload was the first on the list everytime when they were referring to rogue, foreign, massive, copyright-infringing sites by name.

 

[sly24]

Anonymous is going on a rampage right now lol

 

[BradyFTW!]

Anonymous is going on a rampage right now lol

It's their biggest DDoS ever, apparently. RIAA, MPAA, and FBI websites are all down.

Honestly, though, what's the point of DDOSing sites like that? They'll all be back up tomorrow, and none of them are consumer-facing and face lost sales when they're down. This is basically just a giant virtual temper tantrum that doesn't harm the "target" in any tangible way.

The only end result here is that the FBI will have a field day with all of the script kiddies who don't realize that LOIC requires you to forego proxies and access the target directly. I'd hazard a guess that there's trouble ahead for all of the "hackers" who just literally handed their IP addresses to the FBI.

 

[The Boston Patriot]

Because that's not the intent of the bill. Why are you assuming that it is? Sure, someone in the future could try to alter the bill to suit their nefarious ends but that's pure speculation.

Let's try to limit this discussion to the facts and not let fear mongering creep in.

The facts are: Power corrupts and absolute power corrupts absolutely! You are the one assuming intent and as any lawyer worth his shingle will tell you, if it's not written clearly and defined then it's not limited. I cannot believe you believe that 'intentions' are worth a damn.

 

[BradyFTW!]

Just as a quick heads up for anyone who doesn't already know about it: ACTA is a trade agreement that the USA has already signed, which is far worse than SOPA. It's currently being debated in EU Parliament, where we basically have to hope that it will fail. Considering that its enforcement provisions make SOPA look borderline weak by comparison (and considering that it was negotiated by a bunch of lobbyists and unelected officials behind closed doors...), let's hope that this doesn't pass.

Further reading:
If You Thought SOPA Was Bad, Just Wait Until You Meet ACTA - Forbes

ACTA vs. SOPA: Five Reasons ACTA is Scarier Threat to Internet Freedom - International Business Times

What's Wrong with ACTA Week | EDRI

THE SECRET TREATY: Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement (ACTA) and Its Impact on Access to Medicines | msfaccess.org

 

[Leave No Doubt]

The EU Parliament official in charge of ACTA apparently resigned today in disgust, calling the bills' process nothing but a masquerade. He said he'd never seen anything like the speed and slight of hand being used to get this bill done, especially considering the impact this bill would have on citizens' lives: European Parliament Official In Charge Of ACTA Quits, And Denounces The 'Masquerade' Behind ACTA | Techdirt

Polish legislators even put on Guy Fawkes masks:
ACTA: the legislation that makes SOPA and PIPA look reasonable | End the Lie - Independent News

PS: Thanks for bringing this up Ian, it's definitely concerning and I hope everyone reading the board this week takes a few minutes to check out this thread.