Monday, December 5, 2011, 10:50 AM:
1. Hi. I'm Bill Ulsh. I'm an unsigned independent musician like so many others out there.
I have original works on sites such as www.reverbnation.com
These work are also registered copyright IN MY NAME courtesy of www.songregistration.org
Now, with that said... *ARE* sites such as these affected by the 2 bills: Protect IP and SOPA?
This kills independent business, and innovation which could also in turn
FURTHER hurt our already failing economy.
2. What about Facebook and Other social networking sites such as Youtube?
Our families here "at home" trying to contact OUR MEN AND WOMEN overseas???
SOPA and Protect IP could very well DESTROY these emotional moments.
EX: One of our men and women overseas attempts to send a
video message via Youtube or other video sharing site to let their family
know that they are okay. However He or she is unable to do so
because said video site is now BLOCKED or possibly even taken down
due to suspicions of copyright infringement and online piracy.
Do You the Congress NOT CARE??? is THIS really what you want???
3. It is UNCONSTITUTIONAL. It gets even easier and more dangerous with an act like SOPA -
and this means that (for all practical purposes) any website will censor content posted by anyone -
people from other countries included -
to avoid the threat of action under SOPA, because it's cheaper and easier than fighting
it's important to remember that once websites are being blocked there is no way for us to know
whether or not it has been done justly. This means that the gov could take down web pages for
whatever reason they please and we would have no way to figure out why.
4. What people should know, is there's always a work around. Private VPNs hosted by foreign countries,
not tied to censorship. TOR, and loads of other crap you could think of.
This wont fix the problem, it will make it far worse.
5. It will, however:
cost ISPs, search engines, legal file-sharing sites, social media sites, archiving and backup sites, and ultimately consumers,
untold millions of dollars to implement. place innocent owners of legitimate sharing sites (YouTube, Daily Motion, etc.) in danger of prosecution.
place the same legitimate sharing sites in danger of being blacklisted. interfere with the security of the already-fragile DNS system.
stifle software innovation, and set in place a system that could also be used for censorship even of non-infringing content.
This particular piece of Fascist legislation serves the interests of only two groups -- the RIAA and the MPAA -- and does so in an
illegal manner that would circumvent the court system, allowing claimants of infringement to be judge, jury, and executioner in cases of alleged copyright violations.
If a copyright owner (including myself as well as many others) alleges an infringement,
there are legal avenues available to address said infringement. If it happens overseas,
the copyright owner should file with that nation's court system. That's the way the system works;
and no copyright owner -- including myself -- should be able to circumvent lawful process.
notes of interest:
Hopefully it won't pass. but in the off-chance it does, I pray that it will be instantly repealed.
