Stop On-line Piracy Act is , to say the least is idiotic ,impractical and seems to have been designed at the behest of Corporations to safeguard their interests.
SOPA is impractical as it is not possible to differentiate between original content and the pirated one, short of blocking the sites.
Blocking of sites on the basis of perceived copy right issues is difficult as even Quotes from the original will be closed down.
Those who really infringe copy right act will continue to go about under the guise of ‘quoting’
It is all a question of interpretation.
Being impractical ,it becomes idiotic.
Do Shakespeare,History Books ,Text Books,Literature,Science papers of general importance,even for that matter News…qualify to be called Copy Righted?
While the Corporations manoeuvre to have the bill passed, what is at stake is the individual Freedom of Expression.
Wiki leaks,Wikipedia,Wired.com,Reddit, Firefox are among others of the internet community to take the fight to the Capitol Hill.
Time that this non sense is put an end to protect freedom of Expression,fie the greedy corporations,whose perceived losses on account of Online piracy is a pittance compared with the astronomical profits they have.
Care must be excised to avoid piracy as it amounts to eating what one has spit out.”
See the Link as to how the web will look like if the SPOA comes into force.
I suggest, instead of closing sites to show our disapproval,we write more, say 5 pieces per Blogger on SOPA, to register out protest, signifying that Word can not be suppressed.
When the powerful world of old media mobilized to win passage of an online antipiracy bill, it marshaled the reliable giants of K Street — the United States Chamber of Commerce, the Recording Industry Association of America and, of course, the motion picture lobby, with its new chairman, former SenatorChristopher J. Dodd, the Connecticut Democrat and an insider’s insider.
Yet on Wednesday this formidable old guard was forced to make way for the new as Web powerhouses backed by Internet activists rallied opposition to the legislation through Internet blackouts and cascading criticism, sending an unmistakable message to lawmakers grappling with new media issues: Don’t mess with the Internet.
As a result, the legislative battle over two once-obscure bills to combat the piracy of American movies, music, books and writing on the World Wide Web may prove to be a turning point for the way business is done in Washington. It represented a moment when the new economy rose up against the old.
“I think it is an important moment in the Capitol,” said Representative Zoe Lofgren, Democrat of California and an important opponent of the legislation. “Too often, legislation is about competing business interests. This is way beyond that. This is individual citizens rising up.”
It appeared by Wednesday evening that Congress would follow Bank of America, Netflix and Verizon as the latest institution to change course in the face of a netizen revolt.
Legislation that just weeks ago had overwhelming bipartisan support and had provoked little scrutiny generated a grass-roots coalition on the left and the right. Wikipedia made its English-language content unavailable, replaced with a warning: “Right now, the U.S. Congress is considering legislation that could fatally damage the free and open Internet.” Visitors to Reddit found the site offline in protest. Google’s home page was scarred by a black swatch that covered the search engine’s label.
SOPA Text.
”
H.R.3261
Stop Online Piracy Act (Introduced in House – IH)
SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE; TABLE OF CONTENTS.
- (a) Short Title- This Act may be cited as the `Stop Online Piracy Act’.
- (b) Table of Contents- The table of contents of this Act is as follows:
- Sec. 1. Short title; table of contents.
- Sec. 2. Savings and severability clauses.
TITLE I–COMBATING ONLINE PIRACY
- Sec. 101. Definitions.
- Sec. 102. Action by Attorney General to protect U.S. customers and prevent U.S. support of foreign infringing sites.
- Sec. 103. Market-based system to protect U.S. customers and prevent U.S. funding of sites dedicated to theft of U.S. property.
- Sec. 104. Immunity for taking voluntary action against sites dedicated to theft of U.S. property.
- Sec. 105. Immunity for taking voluntary action against sites that endanger public health.
- Sec. 106. Guidelines and study.
- Sec. 107. Denying U.S. capital to notorious foreign infringers.
TITLE II–ADDITIONAL ENHANCEMENTS TO COMBAT INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY THEFT
- Sec. 201. Streaming of copyrighted works in violation of criminal law.
- Sec. 202. Trafficking in inherently dangerous goods or services.
- Sec. 203. Protecting U.S. businesses from foreign and economic espionage.
- Sec. 204. Amendments to sentencing guidelines.
- Sec. 205. Defending intellectual property rights abroad.
SEC. 2. SAVINGS AND SEVERABILITY CLAUSES.
- (a) Savings Clauses-
- (1) FIRST AMENDMENT- Nothing in this Act shall be construed to impose a prior restraint on free speech or the press protected under the 1st Amendment to the Constitution.
- (2) TITLE 17 LIABILITY- Nothing in title I shall be construed to enlarge or diminish liability, including vicarious or contributory liability, for any cause of action available under title 17, United States Code, including any limitations on liability under such title.
- (b) Severability- If any provision of this Act, or the application of the provision to any person or circumstance, is held to be unconstitutional, the other provisions or the application of the provision to other persons or circumstances shall not be affected thereby.
TITLE I–COMBATING ONLINE PIRACY
SEC. 101. DEFINITIONS.
- In this title:
- (1) DOMAIN NAME- The term `domain name’ has the meaning given that term in section 45 of the Lanham Act (15 U.S.C. 1127) and includes any subdomain designation using such domain name as part of an electronic address on the Internet to identify a unique online location.
- (2) DOMAIN NAME SYSTEM SERVER- The term `domain name system server’ means a server or other mechanism used to provide the Internet protocol address associated with a domain name.
- (3) DOMESTIC DOMAIN NAME- The term `domestic domain name’ means a domain name that is registered or assigned by a domain name registrar, domain name registry, or other domain name registration authority, that is located within a judicial district of the United States.
- (4) DOMESTIC INTERNET PROTOCOL ADDRESS- The term `domestic Internet Protocol address’ means an Internet Protocol address for which the corresponding Internet Protocol allocation entity is located within a judicial district of the United States.
- (5) DOMESTIC INTERNET SITE- The term `domestic Internet site’ means an Internet site for which the corresponding domain name or, if there is no domain name, the corresponding Internet Protocol address, is a domestic domain name or domestic Internet Protocol address.
- (6) FOREIGN DOMAIN NAME- The term `foreign domain name’ means a domain name that is not a domestic domain name.
- (7) FOREIGN INTERNET PROTOCOL ADDRESS- The term `foreign Internet Protocol address’ means an Internet Protocol address that is not a domestic Internet protocol address.
- (8) FOREIGN INTERNET SITE- The term `foreign Internet site’ means an Internet site that is not a domestic Internet site.
- (9) INCLUDING- The term `including’ means including, but not limited to.
- (10) INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY ENFORCEMENT COORDINATOR- The term `Intellectual Property Enforcement Coordinator’ means the Intellectual Property Enforcement Coordinator appointed under section 301 of the Prioritizing Resources and Organization for Intellectual Property Act of 2008 (15 U.S.C. 8111).
- (11) INTERNET- The term `Internet’ has the meaning given that term in section 5362(5) of title 31, United States Code.
- (12) INTERNET ADVERTISING SERVICE- The term `Internet advertising service’ means a service that for compensation sells, purchases, brokers, serves, inserts, verifies, clears, or otherwise facilitates the placement of an advertisement, including a paid or sponsored search result, link, or placement, that is rendered in viewable form for any period of time on an Internet site.
- (13) INTERNET PROTOCOL- The term `Internet Protocol’ means a protocol used for communicating data across a packet-switched internetwork using the Transmission Control Protocol/Internet Protocol, and includes any predecessor or successor protocol to such protocol.
- (14) INTERNET PROTOCOL ADDRESS- The term `Internet Protocol address’ means a numerical label that is assigned to each device that participates in a computer network that uses the Internet Protocol for communication.
- (15) INTERNET PROTOCOL ALLOCATION ENTITY- The term `Internet Protocol allocation entity’ means, with respect to a particular Internet Protocol address, the entity, local internet registry, or regional internet registry to which the smallest applicable block of Internet Protocol addresses containing that address is allocated or assigned by a local internet registry, regional internet registry, or other Internet Protocol address allocation authority, according to the applicable publicly available database of allocations and assignments, if any.
- (16) INTERNET SEARCH ENGINE- The term `Internet search engine’ means a service made available via the Internet that searches, crawls, categorizes, or indexes information or Web sites available elsewhere on the Internet and on the basis of a user query or selection that consists of terms, concepts, categories, questions, or other data returns to the user a means, such as a hyperlinked list of Uniform Resource Locators, of locating, viewing, or downloading such information or data available on the Internet relating to such query or selection.
- (17) INTERNET SITE- The term `Internet site’ means the collection of digital assets, including links, indexes, or pointers to digital assets, accessible through the Internet that are addressed relative to a common domain name or, if there is no domain name, a common Internet Protocol address.
- (18) LANHAM ACT- The term `Lanham Act’ means the Act entitled `An Act to provide for the registration and protection of trademarks used in commerce, to carry out the provisions of certain international conventions, and for other purposes’, approved July 5, 1946 (commonly referred to as the `Trademark Act of 1946′ or the `Lanham Act’).
- (19) NONAUTHORITATIVE DOMAIN NAME SERVER- The term `nonauthoritative domain name server’ means a server that does not contain complete copies of domains but uses a cache file that is comprised of previous domain name server lookups, for which the server has received an authoritative response in the past.
- (20) OWNER; OPERATOR- The terms `owner’ or `operator’, when used in connection with an Internet site, includes, respectively, any owner of a majority interest in, or any person with authority to operate, such Internet site.
- (21) PAYMENT NETWORK PROVIDER-
- (A) IN GENERAL- The term `payment network provider’ means an entity that directly or indirectly provides the proprietary services, infrastructure, and software to effect or facilitate a debit, credit, or other payment transaction.
- (B) RULE OF CONSTRUCTION- For purposes of this paragraph, a depository institution (as such term is defined under section 3 of the Federal Deposit Insurance Act) or credit union that initiates a payment transaction shall not be construed to be a payment network provider based solely on the offering or provision of such service.
- (22) SERVICE PROVIDER- The term `service provider’ means a service provider as defined in section 512(k)(1) of title 17, United States Code, that operates a nonauthoritative domain name system server.
- (23) U.S.-DIRECTED SITE- The term `U.S.-directed site’ means an Internet site or portion thereof that is used to conduct business directed to residents of the United States, or that otherwise demonstrates the existence of minimum contacts sufficient for the exercise of personal jurisdiction over the owner or operator of the Internet site consistent with the Constitution of the United States, based on relevant evidence that may include whether–
- (A) the Internet site is used to provide goods or services to users located in the United States;
- (B) there is evidence that the Internet site or portion thereof is intended to offer or provide–
- (i) such goods and services,
- (ii) access to such goods and services, or
- (iii) delivery of such goods and services,
- to users located in the United States;
- (C) the Internet site or portion thereof does not contain reasonable measures to prevent such goods and services from being obtained in or delivered to the United States; and
- (D) any prices for goods and services are indicated or billed in the currency of the United States.
- (24) UNITED STATES- The term `United States’ includes any commonwealth, possession, or territory of the United States
http://thomas.loc.gov/cgi-bin/query/F?c112:1:./temp/~c112s5p8Nc:e1014:
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