I have been following the process of the Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA) which went through the senate last week. Many progressives and conservatives alike have said that while the intent of SOPA is a valid one to stop internet piracy, it's the equivalent of killing a mosquito with a Howitzer. As shocking as it was that it was passed, I was just as surprised that one man who voted for this bill was Al Franken (D-MN). I asked him about it at a fundraiser tonight. I wish I could give you some insight as to his vote which I will attempt after the jump, but you'll be as disappointed as I am...
I met Sen. Franken at a fundraiser for Tammy Baldwin for the senate seat in Wisconsin (who we should be supporting regardless). I introduced myself saying I was a huge fan of his, following him from his days from Saturday Night Live to Air America, noting I was also a contributor to his senatorial campaign. I also mentioned how much I admired his politics, his inspirational speeches at Netroots Nation, and how I remember him saying how he felt strongly about Net Neutrality and preservation of the First Amendment. So with all that said, I asked him about how he could vote in support of SOPA which could effectively shut down websites everywhere. He said that there was a lot of misinformation out there. He insisted that the purpose of the bill was to put a stop to internet piracy, that it wasn't just about the movie studios and record labels. It was about everyone who gets paid through the legit purchases of movies and albums like actors, grips, artists, writers, and so on. I said I totally agreed being in several unions myself, but this bill goes completely overboard. Take for example Daily Kos. Now no one here would say that the purpose of Daily Kos is to post pirated material, but how often have we cross-posted a clip from Monty Python or a movie or a song? Much of this material is still under copyright where any of us can download it. I asked Al would that mean Daily Kos could be effectively guilty under this law and could be shut down? "No", he said, "because Daily Kos isn't a website whose purpose is for pirating".
The problem, as I reminded Al, is defining the word purpose. Yes, if you have a site called Pirate Bay, there's a fairly good assumption that their purpose is to help pirated goods. But there's also people who have work intended to be Public Domain and many of these file sharing sites are very good at getting these works out there. I asked Sen. Franken if I wanted to get my work out that way, what's the problem? He said I should simply use another site that doesn't focus on pirating.
And here's the gray area and the start of the very, very slippery slope. I tried to show Sen. Franken that anyone could effectively shut down a website over a clip of material even if it puts it on the website simply for illustrative purposes. God knows the studios could come after Daily Kos with claim after claim for putting up material even though it's purpose is not to disseminate this stuff, but by the same token, Markos can't possibly supervise the site 24/7. So a court order could be issued to shut this site down. This should send a chilling signal to everyone who all Americans who want to save our freedom of speech.
I want to make it clear: Copyrighted material has every right to be preserved and treated appropriately. But this poorly written bill threatens everyone with a computer, and unless we raise our voices, we are totally screwed.
The good news, such as it is, is that tech heavyweights like Yahoo!, Google, the Consumer Electronics Association (uh, yay lobbyist?) and Tumblr have expressed how bad this bill is. Matt Pecham at Time Magazine sums it up well:
If someone wants something badly enough, they’ll figure out how to get it. If someone wants into your home badly enough, they’ll figure out a way to break in. They’ll face consequences if they’re caught, just as copyright infringers do, but short of hiring your own private army and creating disincentives so unwieldy they render everything else about living in or around your house impossible, there’s little you can do to prevent someone who’s determined to from breaking the law. That doesn’t make it okay, it’s just a way of illustrating how some “solutions” can be so severe they throw the baby out with the bath water.
Read more: http://techland.time.com/...
Even Darell Issa (R-CA) of "Viper Security! Stand Back" fame and Don Quixote ethic investigator says the bill is too "extreme". When you have Issa calling something extreme, it probably makes it worth several times looking over again - one would think so anyway.
I've heard that if the bill makes it out of the house and to the White House, Obama has indicated he'll veto it. DON'T LET THIS SLIDE! Stay on him on this. Save the internet!!!