Many are up in arms about what amounts to Internet censorship, some for personal reasons, others for reasons of public interest. The common denominator is NO ONE (Except media companies) likes SOPA because it creates a government bureaucracy that places your ISP and search engines into a nearly untenable position by making them either block a website’s IP or strip it from a list of search results. That doesn’t even mention the government’s tie ins to PayPal and Credit card Companies. Let me give you a real world example:
The Road to Avoid
A website located in Norway is giving away expensive software, movies, music, digital books and video games for free. All of the content is copyright in the United States but the people that worked hard on the content do not see a dime from this pirate website. If the SOPA bill passes here’s what happens -
The copyright holders call the government. With its’ new SOPA power, the government calls your ISP (Comcast, ATT, Verizon, etc), calls your search engine (Google, Yahoo, Bing, etc.) and finally calls PayPal, Amex. Mastercard, Visa, etc. The call to the ISP demands that the pirate website’s IP or web address is blocked. The call to the search engine demands all search results related to the pirate website be removed and the final call to the payment companies demands payments to NOT be released to the pirate website’s owners.
Doesn’t all this sound great? Especially if you hold copy-written content. But what happens when this far reaching new power of the government gets abused? The SOPA bill is written so vaguely it can easily be construed to shut down this website because I’ve written about the SOPA bill and put it in a bad light. The bill is so broad it harkins to the laws used to govern the Internet in China. That’s bad news.
Alternative
Logo Copyright: http://www.robbwhite.net/
My solution is simpler, employs Americans who actually do something instead of “make phone calls” and it has the potential to intimidate piracy. Using laws we already have on the record, we can choose to enforce these laws in the courts. I’m not a fan of litigation, but if the pirate website is located in the United States or the owner is, then they have to be taken to court and awarded all the rights an American Citizen is afforded. That’s our system and it works when people don’t screw with it.
What if the website or the owner are not American Citizens? This is my favorite part! Using the international court usually goes no where, ask Microsoft or anyone who writes books. Therefore I propose a military style response. A group of whitehat hackers will first try to shutdown the pirate website and then post a message in the website’s homepage describing what has happened. If the pirates get the website up and running again, which they will, then a team of trained military personal will be utilized. Using NONLEATHAL means, this “response” would infiltrate the location of the pirate website’s servers and take them out physically by destroying the server hardware by any means possible with out hurting any one at the location. This military response can be attached to or work under the CIA to avoid any international courts just like the pirates avoid our courts.
I believe this physical response will intimidate the pirates into “thinking twice” about it. Of course the law will be written with CLEAR guidelines protecting American Citizens and their rights first. What do you think?
I love it. Sign me up for the response teams.
But shouldn't there be some other recourse we should have. I mean committing a crime while crossing state lines grants authorization for Federal Involvement. Shouldn't that apply to over seas internet sites as well?
Kinda like Rico, One person Downloads the IP and the site is now under our criminal system?
Truth is, I think your alternative is a necessary evil. In today's day and age it seems everyone, including Americans, wants everything immediate and they want it for free.
Case in point, I have been dying to see a film starring Johnny Strong and Directed by Will Kaufman. It was not released in theaters in my area, and has finally went to DVD/BR. I have checked several Blockbusters, 5 out of six have closed or are in the process, to no avail. Net Flix doesn't have it yet, and Red Box (those daily dvd machines in grocery stores) has it but has been rented out every night since the movie was released to digital on the 10th.
Here I am trying to support the system. Is it hard, yes, because just to see if it was available online i checked several known sites. All but one were shut down, one even had a federal looking logo claiming it was shut down by the government, but one did have it…
No i didn't watch it. I wont lie, in the past I have streamed movies, even downloaded a few, and then I found Net Flix. quick, easy, convenient, and legal.
Instead I dragged my wife back out with me to see if I could find it at the Red Box again last night.
It was still rented….
I agree, it is difficult to do the right thing all the time when doing it wrong is so easy. That is the problem with the internet, so much is available if you have the knowledge. Taking is easier then working for it.
On the other hand, when these films hit video, if they are worth a damn, they have already made their investment back and then some. So why are they charging Netflix an outrageous price to stream? Look up what Starz wants to renew the contract. There are to many hands in the pot with high expectations.
Most people do not like to pay $5.99 to rent an hd film, they would rather download it via torrent. I think they have a better chance going Netflix's a la carte way and charging $15 a month.