U.S. Senate would postpone the vote to pass the bill SOPA

U.S. Senate would postpone the vote to pass the bill SOPA

U.S. Senate leader of the Democratic Party, Harry Reid, said it would postpone the vote to pass the bill SOPA (Stop Online Piracy Act). The plan, voting will be held in the U.S. Senate on Tuesday (24/01/2012).

Following protests by the company-technology company, plans a vote was postponed until an undetermined time limit. Lamar Smith, Republican leader of the Judicial Commission in the House also said the ratification bill and PIPA SOPA will be postponed until a new agreement concerning the contents of the bill.

"I have heard from the critics and I am concerned about this bill. We need to revisit and approach to find the best way to overcome the problem of piracy," said Smith, as quoted by Reuters.

Previously, the bill SOPA and PIPA is drawn protests from tech companies in the U.S.. As a form of protest, Wednesday (18/01/2012) then, they take action SOPA Blackout Day, the action of the leading sites to shut down for 24 hours. This action involves big names like Facebook, Twitter, Wikipedia, and Google.

In the action, a number of names which sponsored the formation of this bill states retreated, including members of the senate Roy Blunt, Chuck Grassley, Orrin Hatch, John Boozman, and Marco Rubio. They withdrew support for the bill SOPA and PIPA.

Pros and cons

The bill delays pengesahaan SOPA and automatic pipe to criticism from the stronghold of the entertainment world, including Hollywood films businessman and member of the senate who still support this bill. Chris Dodd, Chief Executive of the Motion Picture Association of America and a former Democratic senator said, stalling legislation is the trigger of a criminal act.

"As a consequence of the failure of the Senate to crack down on piracy, the Internet will continue to be a safe haven for foreign thieves," said Dodd.

Meanwhile, a spokesman for Facebook actually support this delay.

"We appreciate the Senate who has listened to community concerns, and we are ready to provide solutions to the piracy and copyright infringement without eliminating freedom of expression and without threatening economic growth and innovation on the Internet," said a spokeswoman for Facebook.

What is the best solution?

SOPA and PIPA's bill should not stop at the pros and cons. This bill should result in something that carried the original, namely combating online piracy without threatening the freedom berekspreasi. This opens up a new discussion about the limits of something considered to violate copyright. Designer of the law, technology companies, entertainment and business people should sit together to resolve this problem.

"It's a good start for discussion, and we are very open to it," said Tiffiniy Cheng, co-founder of Fight for the Future, a nonprofit organization that helped organize protests against the SOPA and PIPA.

Sen. Roy Wyden also said, SOPA and PIPA will overhauled to meet the same purpose. But, of course, without threatening life on the internet.

 Popular internet service providers, ranging from Google to Wikipedia, reject the draft law of anti-online piracy in the U.S..

The law in question there are two, Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA) and Protect IP Act (PIPA). Both are still in the process of legislation.

Without going too far to discuss the details perundangannya, SOPA and the PIPE seem to not only have an impact on the U.S. site. Instead, the target of the bill are the sites that are outside the U.S..

Through the Bill, later the site outside the U.S. that is considered copyright infringement can be blocked unilaterally.

Blocking unilateral

There are two methods block. First, the U.S. Internet service providers to block sites that violate domain.

The first method has so many parties and objections, according to PC World, have been excluded from the draft SOPA and the latest PIPA.

The second method is to stop the business of the provider of payment services, advertising, and search engines from the site in violation.

One of its application, if there is a site (including in Indonesia) in which a breach, then Google as a search engine does not may display that site in search results.

Another example, if the site is considered to violate the earlier use PayPal for payment services, or AdSense for advertisements, the service also must be stopped.

SOPA more ferocious

SOPA is considered more ferocious than PIPE because it defines a violated site as "any site that does or facilitating copyright infringement".

Remember that copyright here not only pirated content, such as music video clips, song, or software. It also includes products that are considered physical abuse, such as children's toy version of the "kw".

These are just examples, but it might be an illustration of the impact of SOPA. For example, in buying and selling a community forum in Indonesia's largest online store is open or there are other sellers of pirated products.

Through SOPA, the site could be banned from doing business with the United States. Thus, the ads (like Google Ads or other) will not appear on the site.

Then, the payment via a U.S. based service, such as PayPal, also must not be conducted through the site. The site will also be forced to not appear in the search via Google.

That scenario could certainly have an impact, both for those who use a service like PayPal on its website, as well as get additional revenue from AdSense ads and the like.

Refuse SOPA

Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) refused to SOPA and PIPA. EFF said that the bill does not protect false accusation.

For example, a site accused of violating, but proven innocent, still the site would be harmed. They will not receive compensation from blocking ads and payment services.

On 15 November 2011, Google, Facebook, Twitter, Zynga, eBay, Mozilla, Yahoo, AOL, and LinkedIn have written an open letter to U.S. Senate and House members to oppose the SOPA.

There is also a SOPA considers retaliation "Hollywood" because it could not fight against piracy. In fact, the "Hollywood" et al should fight with the business approach.

"It has been proven, the most successful fight against piracy is to create a platform that customers want, such as Spotify or Netflix," writes Mike Masnick from TechDirt.

War lobbyists

Admittedly, in the end SOPA and PIPA is duel in the arena of legislation among the lobbyists from the camp "Hollywood" against lobbyists from the stronghold of the "Silicon Valley".

However, its impact on industry internet / digital in Indonesia can not be ignored. So who will win? We wait for the outcome.


Online piracy timeline

1998 -- Digital Millennium Copyright Act enacted, a law that primarily pertains to policing intellectual property on the Internet. Copyright holders can send formal takedown notices to websites that are using infringing content. If a website does not comply, it can lead to criminal prosecution by the U.S. Department of Justice.

Sept. 2010 -- The Combating Online Infringement and Counterfeits Act (COICA) is sponsored by U.S. Sen. Patrick Leahy, D-Vt. This bill would have enabled the Justice Department to seize domains and order Internet service providers to block any website accused of hosting or linking to copyrighted material.

Nov. 2010 -- COICA passes the Senate Judiciary Committee but fails to come to the floor for a vote.

May 2011 -- Leahy introduces Preventing Real Online Threats to Economic Creativity and Theft of Intellectual Property Act -- known as PROTECT-IP or PIPA and based on the failed COICA.

Oct. 2011 -- The Stop Online Piracy Act, the House companion to PIPA, is introduced by U.S. Rep. Lamar Smith, R-Texas.

Nov. 2011 -- SOPA receives a House Judiciary Committee hearing, but the committee is criticized for allowing entertainment industry lobbyists to testify but not technical experts.

Wednesday -- Encyclopedia Wikipedia.org, social news site Reddit.com and tech news site BoingBoing.net lead an online blackout in opposition to SOPA/PIPA.

Thursday -- More than 30 members of Congress publicly pull their support for SOPA/PIPA.

Friday -- Original sponsor, Smith, tables SOPA, saying he "will postpone consideration of the legislation until there is wider agreement on a solution." Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., postpones a vote on PIPA.

SOURCES: propublica.org,
opencongress.org, mpaa.org,
The Associated Press.


Hollywood takes on Silicon Valley in US piracy battle

The anti-piracy battle gripping Washington and the Internet pits two US West Coast power bases directly against each other: Hollywood is taking on Silicon Valley over the right to make money online.

Backing two controversial pieces of draft anti-piracy legislation, the Los Angeles-based entertainment industry is calling for non-US websites to be held to the same standards as US ones.

But a couple of hundred miles up the coast, the giants at Google and Facebook are resisting at all costs moves which they claim will stifle development of the Internet -- on which their own future, and income, depends.

On Friday, US congressional leaders put anti-online piracy legislation on hold following a wave of protests led by Google and Wikipedia denouncing the bills as a threat to Internet freedom.

Senate majority leader Harry Reid said he was delaying next week's vote on the Protect IP Act (PIPA) and House Judiciary Committee chairman Lamar Smith said he would "revisit" the House version, the Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA).

In a joint statement Friday, the American Federation of Musicians, American Federation of Television and Radio Artists, Screen Actors Guild and other entertainment industry groups called on US lawmakers not to bow to pressure.

"We fought for this legislation because illegal Internet businesses that locate offshore expressly to elude US laws should not escape the very same rules of law that currently apply to illegal US websites," they said.

"They should not be allowed to reap in profits if they knowingly sell or distribute illicitly gained content and goods which they had no role in creating or financing to the American consumer," they added.

The draft legislation has won the backing of Hollywood, the music industry, entertainment giants like Rupert Murdoch's News Corp., angered at the enormous income lost from online streaming and downloads of their products.

But the bills have come under fire from online companies and digital rights groups for allegedly paving the way for US authorities to shut down websites accused of online piracy, including foreign sites, without due process.

"We want a world in which creators are properly compensated for their work, everybody is in favor of that," Corynne McSherry, lawyer for the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF), which promotes free speech online.

But "the right answer to that is not legislation, that's never going to happen in Washington DC, it has to happen via innovation, not legislation," she told AFP.

And she said: "Fighting the internet doesn't work. The answer is to embrace a new business model, that's the only thing that ever worked."

She cited the case of VCR technology, followed by DVDs, which were initially fiercely resisted by Hollywood, but in the end were accepted and turned into a huge new source of revenue.

The six-strong Hollywood grouping acknowledged that the question is complex.

"We recognize that we are currently part of a complex and important debate about the future, not just of the Internet but also of creativity, the American economy, free expression, and a civil society," its statement said Friday.

"We hope a new tone can be set that does not include website attacks, blacklists, blackouts, and lies. We believe an Internet that does not allow outright stealing has to be the Internet of the future or all the promises it holds will be unrealized."

On Wednesday, the English-language version of its online encyclopedia shut down for 24 hours to protest the legislation and hundreds of other sites joined in the protest.

On Thursday, US authorities shut down Megaupload.com, one of the world's largest file-sharing sites, and charged seven people in what they called one of "the largest criminal copyright cases ever brought by the United States."

The Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA) said last week that the US government has to act.

"On behalf of the 2.2 million Americans whose jobs depend on the film and television industries we look forward to the administration ... working with us to pass legislation that will offer real protection for American jobs," it said.

But EFF lawyer McSherry was not convinced, saying the entertainment industry needs "a new leadership that is more focus on innovation than saving yesterday's industry."

Pictures:
A demonstation against the Stop Online Piracy Act in the US. Photograph: Robert Galbraith/Reuters