1) Remove the circumvention bullshit in cases where you can (and should) be allowed to use non-infringing usage as an affirmative defense, if not outright. Prevention of anything but actual infringement is anti-competitive and unfair to end users.
2) Apply the same "under penalty of perjury" to initial notices regarding allegations of infringement as applies to counter-notices. There needs to be more accountability for sending a frivolous notice. It should be treated the same way as any other false report...as a crime.
Also, voters ARE calling their reps, and they ARE complaining VERY LOUDLY.
Even the united american people as a team still gets drowned out by briefcases full of money from the corporate lobbyists of the MAFIAA.
Congress passing SOPA will expose just how strong a grip the corporate sector actually has on them. It will also make them show their true colors, and demonstrate just how little they actually fear the voters.
2 years is plenty of time for an angry public to either quit caring, or have something even worse dumped on them as a distraction.
2 years is ALSO plenty of time to do enough favors for your sponsors that you'll have a nice and cushy private sector job waiting for you if you ever DO get run out of town during election season.
Said major internet sites find themselves mysteriously dragged in front of the FTC on anti trust grounds and their influence magically disappears.
Seeing as Google is already on the hot seat as it is I do not see them having the balls to piss off either the feds or the corporate lobbyists holding their puppet strings.
Somehow, I don't see Congress letting one of their own laws shoot them in the foot.
Besides, the regulators are just as much in bed with corporations as legislators are. Even if they accidentally DID incriminate themselves, they'd wiggle out of it.
Slashdot Mirror
It's not even that much.
Corporations own the media.
The only people you see on TV are the ones who pass the corporate ass kissing test by selling their soul.
Actually they do because Slashdot is hosted in the USA.
The implied license might be another hurdle though.
Indeed.
If complaints under the DMCA had to be backed up by affidavits under penalty of perjury I'd have a lot more respect for the takedown process.
The rest of it is still crap though.
I dunno, I'd call that retroactive extension of copyright an ex-post facto law.
Which is why we need to balance it with stiff penalties against those making frivolous complaints.
I'd call getting locked up for 5 years for perjury and having your bar membership revoked would be a good start.
They already did.
Remember UMG vs Mega Upload?
That's all the proof I need that a bazooka like SOPA will be mercilessly abused.
If the mega upload debacle proves anything, it'll just be one more weapon that us poor peon folks won't get the bullets for.
And the fact that musicians are artists first and businessmen second is why the record labels get away with screwing them.
"which he confessed to"
Did he give the confession freely or was it beaten out of him for political reasons to make the US look bad?
It's no secret that Iran hates their guts.
Is it the same 5 dollar wrench that was used to beat the password out of the programmer of another sattelite that was hacked?
Dammit jim I'm a doctor, not an engineer.
I'll do you one better
DMCA should
1) Remove the circumvention bullshit in cases where you can (and should) be allowed to use non-infringing usage as an affirmative defense, if not outright. Prevention of anything but actual infringement is anti-competitive and unfair to end users.
2) Apply the same "under penalty of perjury" to initial notices regarding allegations of infringement as applies to counter-notices. There needs to be more accountability for sending a frivolous notice. It should be treated the same way as any other false report...as a crime.
And you can bet that a decent chunk of that "return on investment" just gets plowed right back into congress's corporate feed trough.
There is no such thing as a federal referendum.
Also, voters ARE calling their reps, and they ARE complaining VERY LOUDLY.
Even the united american people as a team still gets drowned out by briefcases full of money from the corporate lobbyists of the MAFIAA.
Congress passing SOPA will expose just how strong a grip the corporate sector actually has on them. It will also make them show their true colors, and demonstrate just how little they actually fear the voters.
2 years is plenty of time for an angry public to either quit caring, or have something even worse dumped on them as a distraction.
2 years is ALSO plenty of time to do enough favors for your sponsors that you'll have a nice and cushy private sector job waiting for you if you ever DO get run out of town during election season.
Not only more judicial oversight, but also stiff penalties for false accusations.
I think a perjury charge would do nicely.
Since such felonies tend to get you disbarred it would be a good incentive for lawyers to be honest for once.
Kinda like ACTA isn't it?
If the favors they do for their corporate bedfellows line them up a cushy enough job in the private sector they won't give a damn about re-election.
That's because politicians quit answering to voters once they are elected.
If congress critters were subject to recall like their local and state counterparts you'd see a LOT more responsiveness.
In the regular 9 to 5 world us working class folks live in, your boss actually gets to fire you if you screw up.
Making a commercial outfit judge, jury, and executioner, combined with the frivolous takedown of the mega upload video.
Put these two together.
This ought to be a real gas.
Said major internet sites find themselves mysteriously dragged in front of the FTC on anti trust grounds and their influence magically disappears.
Seeing as Google is already on the hot seat as it is I do not see them having the balls to piss off either the feds or the corporate lobbyists holding their puppet strings.
And what makes you think such an obviously corrupt government can be trusted to shoot its own foot?
My bet on the first site to get taken down by SOPA:
sopatrack
Somehow, I don't see Congress letting one of their own laws shoot them in the foot.
Besides, the regulators are just as much in bed with corporations as legislators are. Even if they accidentally DID incriminate themselves, they'd wiggle out of it.