Vint Cerf: SOPA means 'unprecedented censorship' of the Web Vint Cerf, the legendary computer scientist who's known as one of the fathers of the Internet for his work on TCP/IP, is the latest technologist to oppose the Stop Online Piracy Act . Cerf, a onetime DARPA program manager who went on to receive the Turing Award, sent a letter yesterday warning of the dangers of SOPA to its author, Rep. Lamar Smith (R-Texas). The House Judiciary chairman, also Hollywood's favorite House Republican , has scheduled discussion of the bill to resume at 7a.m. PT tomorrow. Smith announced a revised version of SOPA earlier this week. SOPA represents the latest effort from the Motion Picture Association of America, the Recording Industry Association of America, and their allies to counter what they view as rampant piracy on the Internet, especially offshore sites such as ThePirateBay.org. Keep reading for the full text of Cerf's letter to Smith. December 14, 2011 The Honorable Lamar Smith Chairman, Committee on the Judiciary U.S. Dear Chairman Smith: Sincerely,
Coders Are Already Finding Ways Around SOPA Censorship - Politics A developer who calls himself T Rizk doesn't have much faith in Congress making the right decision on anti-piracy legislation, so he's built a work around for the impending censorship measures being considered: DeSOPA. The Firefox add-on is stunningly simple as the Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA) would block specific domain names (e.g. www.thepiratebay.com) of allegedly infringing sites, T Rizk's lightweight tool allows you to revert to the bare internet protocol (IP) address (e.g. 194.71.107.15) which takes you to the same place. “I feel that the general public is not aware of the gravity of SOPA and Congress seems like they are about to cater to the special interests involved, to the detriment of Internet, for which I and many others live and breathe," T Rizk told the site TorrentFreak -- and you can pretty easily guess whose side they're on. As the number of acronyms and parentheses in our intro suggest, the technical details of SOPA are, well, pretty technical.
Internet 2012 – Hadopi3 Acta C11 | Openskill - Agence Web Luxembourg This article is available in English Cet article essaye de donner une vue d’ensemble sur la situation actuelle concernant la propriété intellectuelle sur Internet. En effet, depuis quelques semaines, Internet traverse un cyclone sans précédent dont l’œil est la protection de la propriété intellectuelle. D’un côté les gouvernements ont tous des propositions de lois plus caduques les unes que les autres (SOPA, PIPA, Hadopi 3, …), de l’autre côté, les spécialistes et grandes entreprises d’internet crient à l’hérésie en voyant les mesures proposées. Depuis quelques jours, on sait que SOPA et PIPA sont ajournées , voila qu’ACTA ( 1 et 2 ) repointe le bout du nez en Europe et C-11 au Canada : le combat n’est pas fini. Copyright, Droit d’Auteur, Brevets, protection de la marque,… les Lobbies ont associé tous les problèmes de contrefaçon sur internet afin de regrouper des entreprises aussi importantes et diverses que Nike, Burberry, Electronics Arts, Time Warner,… et bien d’autres.
Online piracy laws must preserve Web freedom Egyptian anti-government bloggers work on their laptops from Tahrir Square during last year's uprising to oust Hosni Mubarak Ivan Sigal and Rebecca MacKinnon say Congress is mulling bills to stop online piracyLaws would make social media platforms proactively police for copyright violations, they sayThey say drafters mean to protect copyright, but effect will be to stifle dissentWriters: Laws should reflect Congress' stated aim to protect rights of Internet users globally Editor's note: Ivan Sigal is executive director and Rebecca MacKinnon is co-founder of Global Voices Online, an international citizen media network. MacKinnon is also a senior fellow at the New America Foundation and author of the forthcoming book "Consent of the Networked: The Worldwide Struggle for Internet Freedom." (CNN) -- One year ago, a Tunisian street vendor set himself on fire, igniting a storm of protest that toppled his country's oppressive government in less than a month. Ivan Sigal Rebecca MacKinnon
:: The Future of the Internet — And How to Stop It SOPA – tout le monde est concerné | Openskill - Agence Web Luxembourg Mise à jour du 23 Janvier: SOPA et PIPA ont été postposés aux Etats-Unis, plus d’informations dans notre nouvel article sur le sujet . La où la France ciblait les connexions des particuliers, les États-Unis ciblent le système DNS comme solution au piratage en ligne. En Europe, nous ne sommes pas assez informés des conséquences dramatiques que pourrait avoir cette loi si elle était adoptée. Nous remercions chaleureusement la “Stanford Law Review”, qui a eu l’extrême amabilité de nous autoriser à traduire et à publier un de leurs articles, passionnant à ce sujet. L’article d’origine, en anglais, est disponible sur le site de Stanford Law Review – Essay – Don’t break the Internet. Cette traduction a été réalisée et publiée par Open Skill avec la permission de la Stanford Law Review, mais ni celle-ci, ni les auteurs du texte, ne cautionnent cette traduction. Texte écrit par Mark Lemley , David S. Mark Lemley , Professeur William H.
Piracy vs. an open Internet To avoid the reach of U.S. copyright laws, numerous online pirates have set up shop in countries less willing or able to enforce intellectual property rights. Policymakers agree that these "rogue" sites pose a real problem for U.S. artists and rights holders who aren't getting paid for the rampant distribution of their music, movies and other creative works. The question is how to help them. Lawmakers keep offering proposals, but they don't seem to be getting any closer to the right answer. The latest, HR 3261, comes from House Judiciary Committee Chairman Lamar Smith (R-Texas) and a dozen co-sponsors. Dubbed the Stop Online Piracy Act, it's designed to isolate foreign websites that commit or "facilitate" willful copyright infringements by cutting off their funding and shrinking their U.S. audience. Both bills go to risky extremes, however, in their efforts to stop these sites from attracting an audience.
Firefox Add-On Bypasses SOPA DNS Blocking The pending Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA) continues to inspire opponents to come up with creative solutions to circumvent it. A new anti-SOPA add-on for Firefox, titled “DeSopa,” is such a counter measure. When installed, users can click a single button to resolve a blocked domain via foreign DNS servers, bypassing all domestic DNS blockades and allowing the user to browse the site though the bare IP-address (if supported). “I feel that the general public is not aware of the gravity of SOPA and Congress seems like they are about to cater to the special interests involved, to the detriment of Internet, for which I and many others live and breathe,” DeSopa developer T Rizk told TorrentFreak. “It could be that a few members of congress are just not tech savvy and don’t understand that it is technically not going to work, at all. Indeed, having several workarounds in place long before the bill is signed into law doesn’t promise much good for SOPA’s effectiveness.
Après SOPA, ACTA : explications et mobilisation La mobilisation contre SOPA (Stop Online Piracy Act) le projet de loi jugé par beaucoup liberticide, a largement dépassé les frontières des USA et a aboutie à une marche arrière du Sénat américain. Mais SOPA n’est pas seul, ACTA, un traité international cette fois et déjà signé par la France (mais non ratifié, explications ci-après), l’UE, les Etats-Unis et bien d’autres menace l’internet tel que nous le connaissons et laisse présager la censure sur le réseau. La mobilisation contre SOPA (Stop Online Piracy Act) le projet de loi jugé par beaucoup liberticide, a largement dépassé les frontières des USA et a aboutie à une marche arrière du Sénat américain. Mais SOPA n’est pas seul, ACTA, un traité international cette fois et déjà signé par la France (mais non ratifié, explications ci-après), l’UE, les Etats-Unis et bien d’autres, menace l’internet tel que nous le connaissons et laisse présager la censure du réseau. A quoi se sont d’ores et déjà engagés les pays signataires ? Non.
NY Times & LA Times Both Come Out Against SOPA & PIPA We've written a few times about how columnists at various mainstream press outlets have been speaking out against SOPA and PIPA, showing that the story is catching on in the mainstream media. However, some of our critics have complained that since these are just writers for those publications, it's unfair to suggest that the publication itself has come out. Okay... if that's the way you want it. Let's try this one on for size: the New York Times has officially come out against SOPA and PIPA. No, not a columnist, but an official editorial, meaning that it's the official stance of the paper. The purpose of the legislation is to stop business flowing to foreign rogue Web sites like the Pirate Bay in Sweden. While most of the editorial focuses on SOPA, it also mentions that PROTECT IP "has serious problems that must be fixed." The bill should be made to stipulate clearly that all of its provisions are aimed only at rogue Web sites overseas.
‘The Pirate Bay Dancing’ Add-On Killls DNS and IP Blockades Efforts to censor the Internet are increasing in the Western world. In the US lawmakers are currently discussing legislation (SOPA/PIPA) that could take out The Pirate Bay, or disable access to it. In several other countries such as Italy, Finland and Belgium, courts have already ordered Internet Providers to block their users' access to the site. When Homeland Security’s ICE unit started seizing domain names last year, a group called “MAFIAAFire” decided to code a browser add-on to redirect the affected websites to their new domains. The release went viral and by now more than 200,000 people have installed the add-on. Today MAFIAAFire delivers a new release that aims to thwart the increasing censorship efforts in countries worldwide. The MAFIAAFire team told TorrentFreak that the development of the plugin was partly motivated by SOPA and PIPA, the pending anti-piracy bills in the US. Putting the add-on to work only requires two clicks and is completely free. The Pirate Bay Dancing
SOPA est mort: qui a gagné? BLOGUE. C'est la fin pour les controversés projets de loi SOPA et PROTECT IP (PIPA). Mais qui a gagné? La Chambre des représentants et le Sénat américains ont tous deux annoncé qu'ils suspendaient tout débat devant mener à l'adoption de ces projets de loi touchant la protection de la propriété intellectuelle sur Internet. Les deux lois étaient si mal ficelées qu'il était devenu évident que leurs chances d'être adoptées étaient nulles. Et encore plus évident qu'il ne fallait pas qu'elles le soient. D'aucuns ont crié « Victoire! C'est à mon avis bien mal juger les politiciens en général et les politiciens américains en particulier. Prenons un exemple local qui, bien que beaucoup plus dramatique, illustre cette affirmation. Quand les motards criminalisés ont commencé à se sentir invincibles au Québec, il y a quelques années, ils ont voulu « lancer un message » au gouvernement en s'en prenant à des figures d'autorité publique. Le pouvoir légitime Google, c'est le rêve américain.
How The Web Became a Political Force vs. SOPA Good ideas aren’t enough. They need champions and constant vigilance, or Congress will take them from you. Many problems arise when your country’s legislature is consistently more responsive to its donors than its constituents. One of these problems is that simple good ideas can’t just be left alone to bask in their goodness. The Internet is clearly a good idea — not tautologically good, but certainly one of the better things that’s happened to human communication and the spread of knowledge in recent centuries. The reaction online has been one of the largest upswells of traditional advocacy by web-native organizations in recent memory. Google’s fighting the good fight within the halls of Congress, where its representative was the only opposition witness allowed before the House Judiciary Committee. 4Chan, BoingBoing, and other top web properties converted their home pages to CENSORED home page takeovers, offering priceless in-kind advertising to the cause. The result?
Homeland Security Wants Mozilla to Pull “Domain Seizure” Add-On Homeland Security's ICE unit is not happy with a Firefox add-on that allows the public to circumvent the domains seizures carried out during the past several months. In an attempt to correct this 'vulnerability' in their anti-piracy strategy, ICE have asked Mozilla to pull the add-on from their site. Unfortunately for them Mozilla denied the request, arguing that this type of censorship may threaten the open Internet. Last month we were the first to draw attention to a nifty Firefox add-on called “MAFIAA Fire.” The add-on maintains a list of all the domains that ICE (hence the antidote, ‘fire’) has seized and redirects their users to an alternative domain if the sites in question have set one up. Homeland Security’s ICE unit got wind of the add-on and almost immediately took action to have it taken offline. However, where ICE might have expected a swift take down from Mozilla, the legal and business affairs department of the tech company was not planning to honor the request so easily.