Re: Mopars - PIPA and SOPA - Admin. note

[Anthony Brummett <brummett@xxxxxxxxx>]

On Wed, Jan 18, 2012 at 1:39 PM,  <ALIENVOICE@xxxxxxx> wrote:
> Gary:  I just saw some information on this today on Fox News (yes, I watch
> Fox), and they were interviewing a Congressman about SOPA and PIPA, and he
> was adamant that these legislations would only apply to foreign sites which
> provide much of the piracy of American intellectual properties (movies,
> recordings, etc), and would not impact American sites whatsoever.

First off, it doesn't make much sense for the US Congress to attempt
to regulate activity that happens outside the borders of the US.  In
the scope of this particular bill, other countries have their own laws
regulating distribution of copyrighted material which may include
having shorter time periods before something enters the public domain,
or different penalties depending on whether the material was
distributed in a commercial sense, or personal.  These media companies
are completely within their rights to take it up in the foreign
jurisdiction using their laws.

It also shifts the prosecution of these alleged copyright
infringements from a civil action (the owner of the copyright suing
the person doing the distribution) to a criminal action (the
government brings a case against the distributor which could include
fines and jail time).  It seems awfully unfair for this one particular
kind of industry to have its business model enforced by the
government, especially if it's in pursuit of a non-US citizen overseas
which would require action of US citizens and companies to enforce.
If someone is pirating movies, they can already be sued under existing
law.

It not only makes distribution a crime, it also makes sharing links to
places that do the distribution a crime, and possibly places that have
links to links to places, links to links to links etc.  It's similar
to the difference between actually robbing a bank, and saying "if you
need money, you could rob a bank".  This provision is what has much of
the Internet in a tizzy.  If some place hosts a site that accepts user
comments, and one of the users posts a message that includes a link to
one of these distribution sites, the owner of the first web site
containing the comments is now running afoul of this bill.

And finally, the actual language of the bill does not restrict itself
only to overseas web sites.  The whole "only apply to foreign sites"
thing is only coming out the mouths of people talking up the bill.
http://thomas.loc.gov/cgi-bin/bdquery/z?d112:h.r.3261:
is a link to the bill.  If you look at section 102(a) it defines
"foreign infringing site" as basically any web site accessible to US
citizens.  Yes, it uses the word "foreign", but not in the way anyone
would think it would mean.

-- Tony

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