SOPA fight leaning towards opponents, as Rupert Murdoch’s feed suggests

So Obama has thrown in his lot with Silicon Valley paymasters who threaten all software creators with piracy, plain thievery.
Rupert Murdoch • Posting on Twitter yesterday afternoon about the Obama administration’s stance on SOPA, which discouraged the bill in its current form. CNET’s Greg Sandoval says that Murdoch’s reaction is a strong sign that the entertainment industry is starting to lose the battle, with a key provision of PIPA and SOPA — which involved the DNS system — getting removed from both acts. Murdoch, meanwhile, was quick to rip Google for what he perceived as their strong influence on the White House statement: “Piracy leader is Google who streams movies free, sells advts around them. No wonder pouring millions into lobbying,” he said on Twitter. On the plus side, at least Rupe isn’t making gambling jokes that could be misinterpreted. source

Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink

downtime To demonstrate what Internet life might be like with SOPA/PIPA in the mix, Reddit will be shut down on Jan. 18. Instead, users can watch a livestream of a House Oversight and Government Reform Committee meeting on DNS and search engine blocking, where the site’s co-founder, Alexis Ohanian, will offer remarks to Congress.
backup Wikipedia co-founder, Jimmy Wales, has expressed his support of Reddit’s move, and may even work with the site, potentially creating a similar shutdown of Wikipedia. With big websites explicitly showing users what a life with SOPA/PIPA is like, could public outrage crop up? And will Google or Facebook join in? source

Posted by samimain • 0 Comments • Permalink

claim AllThingsD’s Arik Hesseldahl claimed in an article Monday that Obama would be likely to veto the controversial Stop Online Piracy Act because the president “likes the internet” and that a decision in favor of SOPA would strongly go against the president’s longstanding net neutrality policy.
rebuttal However, TechDirt blogger Mike Masnick, who knows a thing or two about online copyright issues, says that Obama would likely sign it due to his need for election-year money from Hollywood — unless the bill becomes toxic to the touch, which Masnick says hasn’t happened yet. So, who’s right?

Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink

Not a good day to be Danica Patrick. Spurred on by a Reddit thread earlier today (we mentioned it here), a snowballing boycott against the world’s largest domain registar has picked up such tech-industry luminaries as Cheezburger Inc.’s Ben Huh and Y Combinator’s Paul Graham. And Graham’s Hacker News is currently loaded with GoDaddy-related posts tonight, including this post about how to extricate yourself from GoDaddy’s service. But while the movement is certainly noble, it’s one that could face a lot of trouble going forward. Here’s a quick summary of the challenges boycotters may face going forward:

Why they support SOPA GoDaddy has been one of the more vocal supporters of SOPA, as a statement they submitted to the House of Representatives makes clear: “As much as some would like to paint a bleak picture, this debate is not about Hollywood vs. Silicon Valley. This debate is about preserving, protecting, and creating American jobs and protecting American consumers from the dangers that they face on-line.”
Prone to controversy GoDaddy doesn’t exactly have the most pristine reputation among tech companies (what with its scantily-clad commercials and elephant-hunting CEO), but it hasn’t hurt their service in the past. Why? Quick — name another company that sells domains off the top of your head. Most people probably can’t. That’s what might hurt this boycott amongst mainstream users.
An uphill battle? GoDaddy users face a very similar situation to PayPal or Craigslist or Internet Explorer— no matter how controversial, user-unfriendly, or outdated the service may get, the market leader is seated pretty firmly due to years of market recognition and popularity, and it’ll take a lot to shake them. GoDaddy’s offered annoyed users a good reason to move elsewhere, however. But how many will there be? source

Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink

People upset with the Stop Online Piracy Act have a small reason to cheer this morning. The anti-piracy bill, which many Internet users feel could have a chilling effect on the Web, got tabled until early next year, giving a brief respite and an opportunity for alternative bills (such as Rep. Darrell Issa’s OPEN act) to gain footing. Being a creative bunch, many users have taken to design tricks, boycotts, even music to protest what they feel is a dangerous bill. Here are just a few examples of SOPA protests online:

one Scribd, taking a bit of a cue from Tumblr but even more ambitiously, made the articles on their site disappear yesterday, word by word.
two A number of Reddit users have begun a movement to move domains away from GoDaddy en masse, in protest of their support of SOPA.
threeLeah Kauffman, the songwriter who wrote “I Got a Crush on Obama,” just released an anti-SOPA protest song titled “Firewall.”

Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink

current SOPA and PROTECT-IP, the bills getting pushed in the House and Senate respectively, have faced heavy criticism over their heavy-handed approaches to stopping piracy — effectively giving rightsholders the ability to shut down a site at will and preventing sites from receiving ad revenue. Cue the internet freaking out en masse over a poor implementation.
alternative With popular support for the bill on the skids, legislators are now pushing a low-key alternative which would focus on international sites “primarily” and “willfully” involved in piracy. The International Trade Commission, not the Attorney General, the would handle these claims — a better, more logical fit, as they already handle physical counterfeiting claims. source

Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink

15 Jan 2012 10:05