Hello Matt,   
      
   MM>At the request of Lee, I seperated the paragraphs if anyone wants   
   MM>to give this topic a second chance.   
      
   Thank you for re-presenting this topic.  SOPA (and PIPA) were   
   officially "postponed" on January 20, but will we back soon in   
   a revised form.   
      
    MM> To   : All   
    MM> Subj : ISP's are hirelings for the police state   
      
    MM> - Maybe this is a good example why we should go back to dialup days and   
    MM> still use bbs's.   
      
    MM> Understanding SOPA and copyright laws in the context of liberty.   
      
   Protecting content is a worthy goal.   
      
   SOPA is an acronym for Stop Online Piracy Act.  The bill was written and   
   designed to crack down on copyright infringement by restricting access   
   to certain sites that host pirated (stolen) content.   
      
   What certain sites were targeted by SOPA?  One could say those   
   targets were "rogue" overseas sites, such as The Pirate Bay.   
      
   Copyright infringement is already illegal, thanks to The 1998 Digital   
   Millennium Copyright Act, which lays out enforcement measures. However,   
   that piece of fine legislation is not enough in today's modern world.   
      
   SOPA supporters, such as Time Warner and Motion Picture Association   
   of America, claim that online piracy leads to U.S. job losses beacuse   
   it deprives content creators of income.  Legislation is needed to fix   
   a system that is broken, the present system being unable to adequately   
   prevent criminal behavior.   
      
   After tech companies voiced opposition, the White House said it   
   would not support legislation that mandates manipulating the Internet's   
   technical architecture.  Shortly thereafter one of SOPA's lead sponsors,   
   Lamar Smith, agreed to remove SOPA's domain-blocking provisions.   
      
    MM> Remember that battle over SOPA, in which the worlds largest websites beat   
    MM> back a congressional threat that would have changed the Internet forever?   
      
   SOPA supporters, such as Time Warner and Motion Picture Association   
   of America, are much larger than the handful of small tech companies   
   that opposed SOPA.  :)   
      
    MM> It was pretty obvious within a day after this Pyrrhic victory that the   
    MM> existing laws in place were enough to give the government the power   
    MM> to wreck the digital world.   
      
   The system was already broken long before SOPA was even being discussed.   
      
    MM> But how would it happen? How would government end digital freedom? Well,   
   the   
    MM> excuse is obvious. It is intellectual property. This phrase serves the   
   same   
    MM> purpose for would-be censors that terrorism does for warmongers. It is a   
    MM> way to ramp up government control while kicking sand in the faces of those   
    MM> who would oppose such control.   
      
   One more time.  Protecting content [intellectual property] is a worthy   
   goal.  The individual who created that content [intellectual property]   
   is the owner of that content [intellectual property].  Stealing that   
   content is theft.  Otherwise noted as copyright infringement, which is   
   illegal.   
      
   Does the term "digital freedom" mean a license to steal?   
      
    MM> Are you for terrorism? Are you for theft? Its rather easy to detect normal   
    MM> theft.   
      
   Copyright infringement is theft of intellectual property.   
   SOPA legislation was meant to repair/fix a broken system that   
   is incapable to adequately prevent criminal behavior.   
      
    MM> One day, I have a planter on my porch. The next day, the planter is on   
   your   
    MM> porch, and it got there without my permission....Now   
    MM> imagine a different scenario. One day, the paragraph above appears on the   
    MM> website for Laissez Faire Books. The next day, it appears on your Facebook   
    MM> page or blog. But it is not thereby removed from lfb.org. Instead, it is   
    MM> copied. A second instance of the paragraph has been created, taking   
   nothing   
    MM> from me. My paragraph still exists. And lets say this happens 10 billion   
    MM> times in the course of a few minutes, as can happen in the digital world.   
    MM> Is this a case of mass looting, or is   
    MM> it a mass compliment to me? Copyright law sees this as theft. But how can   
    MM> that be?   
      
   Because it deprives content creators of income.   
      
   Musicians and songwriters such as Madonna and Lady Gaga have learned   
   this, and have devised very innovative ways to prevent theft of their   
   own work.  But what is needed is federal legislation, so that others   
   can benefit.   
      
    MM> The whole merit of the digital world rests on the remarkable scalability   
   of   
    MM> everything digitized. Thats the basis of the economy of the Internet. Its   
    MM> capacity for inspiring and achieving infinite emulation and sharing is   
    MM> unparalleled in history. Its what makes the Internet different from   
    MM> parchment, vinyl or television. Remove that, and you gut the unique energy   
    MM> of the medium. Intellectual property law became universal only about 120   
    MM> years ago. It was gradually expanded over the course of the century,   
    MM> invading the digital realm in the 1980s and expanding its coverage ever   
    MM> since. How do you make copies illegal in a medium that specializes in its   
    MM> capacity for sharing, multiplying, linking and community formation? You   
    MM> need totalitarian control.   
      
   An alternative to SOPA has been proposed, known as OPEN.   
   Draft legislation of OPEN is online, and the Web community   
   has been invited to comment and revise its contents.  Here   
   is the url -   
      
   http://keepthewebopen.com/   
      
   However, SOPA supporters do note that OPEN has some serious drawbacks -   
      
   "The Open Act does not do enough to combat online piracy, and may make   
   the problem worse." - Lamar Smith (R-TX)   
      
    MM> - from   
    MM> http://www.humblelibertarian.com/2012/03/isps-are-hirelings-for-   
    MM> police-state.html   
      
      
      
    MM> Matt   
      
   Excellent topic for discussion.   
   The battle lines are drawn...   
      
   --Lee   
      
   --- MesNews/1.06.00.00-gb   
    * Origin: news://felten.yi.org (2:203/2)