ip route SOPA/PIPA null0
ROUTEHUB is against SOPA and PIPA!
If you are in IT or work a lot on websites posting material you probably heard of SOPA and PIPA by now.
First off, SOPA and PIPA are basically the same thing. SOPA (Stop On-Line Privacy Act) is being discussed in Congress by the House of Representatives. PIPA (Protect IP Act), is the SOPA version, being discussed by the Senate. More or less they are the same.
So what is SOPA/PIPA anyway? The short answer is to stop copyrighted content with a lot of small print. Most copyright content infringing websites (e.g. Movies, Music) exist in other countries, where the US has limited power to stop them. With SOPA/PIPA, Hollywood for example, can get the Internet communities to block access to these sites preventing users from accessing or even searching for them. This blocking will be done by censoring DNS among other similar censorship filtering.
Keep in mind that this however will not stop you if you know the IP Address for a site. DNS is a convenience really that can associate a user friendly name to the actual IP Address that is configured for a site. Obviously people in Congress are not IT people and know nothing about inter-networking since they are either business or law people. Yet another reason because it is in the wrong hands. It's being discussed by non-experts in the Information Technology field.
Now stopping piracy is a real issue here, it is the approach and who it could impact that is the problem here. It could be manipulated or used to cripple the Internet as we know it in a way that benefits a particular group (or a big business that works in there favor). It could have legal implications for everyday people without even knowing about it. All of this is scary and very possible under these acts.
The best way to understand the implications of SOPA/PIPA (if it was passed) is to provide two examples:
- Lets say that you post a simple family video of your child doing something funny on YouTube. It's a funny video with millions of views. I see this all the time on YouTube for some reason. Well in the video you hear a pop song playing in the background. Not added to the video by design, but some random song that happened to be playing in the background. That video could be impacted by this act. As a result, YouTube.com could be blocked. This means millions people who are accessing YouTube would suddenly stop. Plus that user who posted that video could face up to 5 years in jail and/or likely a fine just because the song playing in the background was a copyrighted song. This will likely not happen, but it is a possible outcome.
- Another example which I got from craigslist.org is really something to squirm over! One of the supporters for SOPA/PIPA is the company, Monster Cable, which says that companies like eBay and craigslist apply for takedown under these acts. Users who sell there unused/older TV cables on Ebay or craigslist reduces the sales for new Monster cables. On craigslist I just did a search and found a Monster Cable 8-outlet surge suppressor that a user was selling brand new for $75. Looking at the same exact product on Monster Cable's main website it was selling it for $200. Gee, I wonder which option I will consider first! But seriously this is what most consumers will do. They will search for the lowest possible price. But back on point, if Monster Cable seriously pursued this, it could shutdown ebay.com and craigslist.org.
These examples could apply to any site in the wrong hands by a judge. My favorite movie reviewers of redlettermedia.com could also be impacted by this act.
SOPA/PIPA as you can tell is very dangerous and can cause a lot of damage. It will prevent individuals from contributing or posting anything because the concern they might be sued or go to jail for something that could be copyrighted is not worth it. The social network would start to diminish. It could also affect startup and small businesses. US which is known for the land of opportunity would not really be the case unless you are a large corporation.
Companies like Comcast, Viacom, ABC, Rolex, and Monster Cables among others support this act.
Again stopping piracy is a serious issue, but how it is done and executed is the critical piece in this that warrants serious collaboration to reach a fair compromise for all parties.
I feel that copyright itself is a bigger issue here. It is difficult to police and determine how it is used on the Internet. Like a YouTube video of a kid watching Star Wars in the background. That could be a copyright infringement that George Lucas could argue. That seems petty for most of us, but from the creator's perspective it's the recognition and the rights (which means give me money if you want to use it) to that content that is very important. I guess it depends which side you are on.
So I personally feel that the bigger issue is copyright. That needs to be clearly defined and addressed to work nicely for personal to money-making purposes. SOPA/PIPA is trying to deal with that, it's just doing it completely wrong!
So, if the world and the Internet was one big router that I could configure for routing, one of those routing entries would be:
ip route SOPA/PIPA null0
Which means SOPA and PIPA would be discarded going into a black hole entry never to be heard of again.
Support us along with Google, Yahoo, Twitter, eBay, Facebook, and Craigslist to stop this!
Get more details and learn more about SOPA/PIPA at the following links which we found very informative and
entertaining:
http://www.craigslist.org/about/SOPA
http://vimeo.com/31100268 ; this is a great video to summarize the danger!
http://www.reelseo.com/sopa-and-pipa/
https://www.google.com/landing/takeaction/
http://stopthewall.us/
Spread the word!