In the wake of SOPA and PIPA’s defeat, a new online boycott, some 8,209 researchers strong, is beginning to gain momentum.  The protest focuses on Elsevier, a publisher of renowned scientific journals such as Cell or The Lancet, whose aggressive business tactics have for years have been a thorn in scientists’ sides.

The main problem for scientists (or anyone interested in reading articles from the journals) is that in order to have access to the whole text- and not just the abstract or the first few paragraphs- they must pay upwards of forty dollars to rent them for a few days. They can also pay a few hundred dollars to own a copy.

In addition, many scientific articles in the U.S. are produced by government-sponsored organizations, which means that while taxpayers’ money funded the experiments, they do not get to see the articles without paying more money. This includes even the authors of the article.

While these outrageous prices are not anything new, the cause of the protest, a new bill titled the Research Works Act (RWA), is relatively recent.  The bill, designed to negate the effects of the Open Access Policy created by the National Institutes of Health (NIH) in 2008, that allowed the public to view any article that is the result of NIH-funded research, was submitted to Congress last December.

A little more than a month later, Timothy Gowers, a mathematics professor at Cambridge University, posted a short article about his difficulties with Elsevier and his frustrations at the RWA.  A few days later, he launched the boycott, calling on colleagues to boycott Elsevier.

While there are cheaper, alternative journals researchers can publish their work in, such as those run by professional societies, these do not come without their own can of worms.

Patricia Kelley, a Geology professor at the University of North Carolina Wilmington, says, “Societies… tend to require authors to pay charges to publish their articles.  For instance, Journal of Paleontology editorial policy states:  ‘Authors are asked to pay as much page charges as they can for articles of all lengths. Paying extra page charges is mandatory for articles that run 26-40 pages.’”

Elsevier, despite costly subscription, can help get researchers around these problems.  “The benefits to the authors are that publication is rapid and they don’t require page charges,” says Kelley.

Some previously “high cost” journals are beginning to make the switch.  The Open Directory keeps a list of journals that have made the jump and are now free-for-all, or are trying out new payment methods. Elsevier, though, still stands strong.  Despite its aggressive moneymaking tactics, the benefits of publishing through the company are obvious.

Says Kelley, “So authors find themselves in a tight spot.  Do we pay a non-for-profit journal to publish our work, or do we publish for free with a company such as Elsevier?”

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Citizens around the globe are more concerned than ever with SOPA (Stop Online Piracy Act), ACTA (Anti- Counterfeiting Trade Agreement), and PIPA (Preventing Real Online Threats to Economic Creativity and Theft of Intellectual Property Act). Behind all of these mechanisms are economic interests from big companies who claim to lose more than 200 billion euros per year, due to piracy.

The legislation has broad support from organizations that rely on copyright, such as the Motion Pictures Association of America, the Recording Industry Association of America, Macmillan US, Viacom, Nike, L´Oreal, and Acushnet among others. The opposition group includes companies such as Google, Yahoo, YouTube, Facebook, Twitter, AOL, Linkendin, Ebay, Mozilla Corporation, Human Rights Watch, and many more.

SOPA and PIPA are two sister bills currently being considered by the House of Commons and the Senate, respectively. Both are designed to tackle the problem of foreign-based websites that sell pirated movies, music and other products. SOPA and PIPA are very similar, but SOPA includes a provision making it illegal to stream unauthorized copyrighted content. Access could be blocked by making it impossible for users to type in a simple web address into a browser to reach the site, or by requiring search engines like Google to disable links to the sites.

What is clear, is that ACTA and SOPA have the same objective, which is to protect against copyright infringement, by blocking certain elements of the internet.  Monica Horten (www.iptegrity.com) defines SOPA as a mechanism to stop websites from being visible or trading in the United States, in order to avoid American citizens getting access to websites and services which are hosted outside the United States.

SOPA is a theft and antipiracy bill that seeks to protect American property, so it appears like a way to give US authorities carte blanche to police copyright worldwide.

It is important to point out that ACTA does not comply with American intellectual property and copyright law, as SOPA does, stopping websites that are indulging in unethical behavior, such as cyber crimes, or intellectual property right violations, which can be forced to be taken down or blocked in U.S. websites. For example, Megavideo and Megaloud have been some of the victims of SOPA, while FilseSonic has disabled its feature allowing users to share files on its site.

ACTA could be viewed as international version of SOPA, which aims to establish international intellectual property standards, focusing on conterfeit goods, generic medicines and copyright infringement. Countries need to have their own versions of copyright law. The proposals of ACTA focus on counterfeit goods and generic medications. This means that generic drugs and food patents will be more difficult to obtain in countries like India and Brazil, who are against ACTA.

Phil Hunt, the UK Pirate Party’s foreign policy spokesman told theinquirer.net: “Criticism of ACTA has often focused on the harm it will do to the Internet, but that doesn’t address one of the most important issues that ACTA presents: the fact that it will kill sick people in developing countries by denying them access to affordable generic drugs- whilst doing nothing to address the issue of unsafe counterfeit medications.”

The ACTA treaty was signed by the United States, Australia, Japan, Morocco, New Zealand, Singapore, and South Korea last October. The European Union, Mexico, and Switzerland have not yet signed because of their domestic procedures. The treaty has be to translated into all of the E.U. languages. In the United States, there is a petition to end ACTA and to protect internet privacy, signed by more than 30,000 citizens who are calling on the Obama administration to veto the treaty.

In Europe, opposition to ACTA has picked up in the past few weeks, with thousands protesting across Eastern Europe and in Germany, France, and Ireland. On January 26, while the Polish Government signed ACTA, Polish Members of Parliament wore Guy Fawkes masks, like the one in V for Vendetta, in order to protest the treaty. It was an ironic jab at Time Warner, who owns the intellectual rights to the movie.

Last week, the European Union suspended attempts to ratify the international anti-counterfeiting treaty, ACTA, and asked Europe’s high court to see if the controversial proposal violates any fundamental E.U. rights. E.U. trade commissioner Karel De Gucht said on Wednesday that an opinion from the European court of justice would clear what he called the “fog of misinformation” surrounding ACTA. De Gucht told reporters in Brussels, “ACTA will not censor websites, or shut them down; ACTA will not hinder freedom of the internet or freedom of speech.”

De Gucht continued, “Intellectual property is Europe’s main raw material, but the problem is that we currently struggle to protect it outside the E.U. This hurts our companies, destroys jobs, and harms our economies.”

Image Courtesy of   http://www.flickr.com/photos/davidberkowitz/

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Wikipedia founder Jimmy Wales delivered an inspirational speech to 600 attendees at Hult International Business School’s San Francisco campus, revealing how companies around the world are adopting the open-source technology that made his free encyclopedia a global success.

Mr. Wales told Hult students that his success stemmed from initial failures. “The way I got here is through failure,” said Jimmy Wales. “For a lot of my projects I should have quit a lot sooner,” reflected Wales to the crowd.  Mr. Wales also shared his strategy for the future of the Wikimedia Foundation and commented on ways his organization could achieve this by saying, “We do think we need more diversity in our community.”

Wales, a champion of Internet freedom, becomes the latest in an impressive line of high-profile speakers to share their knowledge with Hult students. “For any organization it is important to maintain that willingness to fail and try new things,” said Wales. Students also heard Mr. Wales speak about the most recent SOPA blackout. “The act would have set certain precedents that are really bad,” said Wales, answering a student question from the audience.

Students, journalists and local Bay Area companies took note of Wales’ views on how advances in open-source content are going to shape the future of global business. He also argued that the business managers of tomorrow – like Hult’s students – would have to be active and innovative to keep up with the changes brought about by advances in technology.

“Jimmy Wales is a true visionary and his success with Wikipedia has given him a well-deserved reputation as one of the Internet’s most influential people,” said Dr. Stephen Hodges, President of Hult International Business School. “Exposing Hult students to current business issues and trends that are impacting our international community, allows them to experience live what it takes to be a successful business leader.”

Image Courtesy of   http://www.flickr.com/photos/williambrawley/

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Controversial YouTube user AnonymousVoice777 has made a video threatening to target the servers hosting Facebook, Twitter and more in light of Congress’ recent closure of Megaupload.com.

Less than 72 hours after the closure of popular file-sharing website Megaupload, YouTube user AnonymousVoice777 has posted a video in which threats are made to the security of social media websites such as Facebook and Twitter, as well as to corporate companies and even the United Nations. The video’s narrator, using the guise of a voice modulator, dictates that:

“We are prepared to unleash a full-scale global blackout of these websites … if Megaupload is not reinstated to the Internet. We have access to banking and credit card information of millions of citizens … to those who support SOPA … you have been warned.”

The video closes with the voice declaring:

“We are Anonymous. We are Legion. We do not forgive. We do not forget. Expect us.”

The claims made here are as of yet unsubstantiated, but the video has become a viral sensation since it was first posted on January 19th, so far attracting close to half a million hits while AnonymousVoice777’s YouTube channel has amassed over 2,000 subscribers. There is no indication that the threats made here will indeed amount to anything in execution, however, the popularity of the video suggests that public opposition to the highly-contested SOPA (Stop Online Piracy Act) and PIPA (Protect IP Act) bills is as strong as ever.

These bills, which seek to make amendments to the current rules and monitoring of copyright piracy, have so far been stalled after House Judiciary Committee Chairman Lamar Smith postponed the vote “until there is wider agreement on a solution.” Nevertheless, supporters of AnonymousVoice777 appear eager to continue in their protests of the bills before any such vote can be carried out, with one further video appearing on late Monday (January 23rd) with information on how the public can get involved with this alleged multi-platform blackout.

The gargled narrator repeats its earlier declaration and provides an in-depth breakdown of how this blackout would take place on its scheduled date of January 28th.

AnonymousVoice777’s identity remains unknown, however, the possibility of it being a title adopted by unconnected opposers to SOPA and PIPA has been raised after Senator Chuck Grassley’s Twitter account was hacked by a figure urging Grassley’s followers:

“Dear Iowans, vote against ACTA, SOPA, and PIPA because this man, Chuck Grassley wants YOUR Internet censored and all of that BS.”

These tweets have since been deleted and no reference to the hacking was made in AnonymousVoice777’s latest YouTube video, thus, the uncertainty over the user’s true identity has only served to strengthen public interest in these proposed acts of protests; whether or not anything will come of these allegation remains to be seen.

Rob Kints / Shutterstock.com

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SOPA. It started out as just another seemingly innocent yet-to-be-passed bill of the United States. It has now made waves all over the world and resulted in a massive passive war. And it has not even been passed yet. Why the outrage? Why the heated arguments, online protests and huge sums of money involved? It’s simple. This law has to do with the big “P” word: prohibition. SOPA is a bill that has to do with prohibition – prohibitions that extend beyond national boundaries and into the heart of the internet.

The Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA) wants to allow the U.S. judicial system to aggressively fight online copyright infringement. It was proposed by U.S. Republican, Lamar S. Smith, in the United States House of Representatives. It was initially proposed on October 26, 2011, but is still currently being amended and considered. In the meantime the entire internet community is waiting with bated breath.

What this bill proposes to do is relatively simple: control the sharing of information and material on the web. It aims to do this by extensively reducing or even completely barring access to sites that facilitate or enable copyright infringement. Basically, an online blacklist will be created. Advertising companies and online payment facilities will not be allowed to do business with these “infringing” sites. These sites won’t show up on search engines anymore and Internet service providers will be forced to prevent access to these sites.

This means that, together with sites from all over the world, websites run by companies and individuals within South Africa might also be banned. Indeed, those websites that outrightly infringe on others’ copyrights will be banned on popular search engines and possibly completely inaccessible. The problem with this is that some of these websites are certainly of use to us South Africans.

There is fear that websites promoting popular entertainment, informing South Africans of events occurring in certain provinces at certain times and even blogs just being popular for their commentary or humor might disappear from our search engines. These websites are useful to locals and visitors to South Africa and the possible loss of these sites could affect tourism, events management, advertising and even businesses adversely.

On a more individual level, SOPA could affect any individual online who seems to enable copyright infringement. If your facebook page refers to an illegal or pirate site, for example, your facebook might just get deleted. An individual’s blog that contains cherished memories, photos or events might be lost forever if a hint of copyright infringement is found. And access to many a South African’s favorite websites might not be possible anymore. This is, of course, assuming that any South African websites infringe on copyright laws.

This bill might not be all bad. Many important and influential companies such as the Motion Picture Association of America and the U.S. Chamber of Commerce support the passing of this bill. It would, hopefully, decrease the illegal downloads of their material and disrespect for their copyrighted material significantly. SOPA’s motives seem to be pure as well: fight copyright infringement, fight piracy and provide all copyright holders with safety of their material.

This bill promises to achieve a seemingly insurmountable goal, however. The real offenders could be quick enough to remain out of harm’s way. Pirate Bay seems to laugh in the face of SOPA. And the multitude of sites like Pirate Bay makes it difficult for this bill to be very effective.

Various illegal websites are also technologically-savvy enough to be able to change their domain and name often enough for SOPA to never catch hold of them. And on top of this, copyright is already relatively difficult to control when it comes to books, newspapers, music and movies. How much more difficult would copyright control not be on the internet?

If this bill succeeds, it will be a massive success for American copyright holders. If this bill fails, the internet world will be drastically changed: a new level of control will exist over the internet and all the sites it houses, changing and possibly diminishing the online global community created by the internet. These ‘ifs’ only apply if the bill is passed. And so the world waits.

Image Courtesy of   http://www.flickr.com/photos/aseraphin/

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As Google, Wikipedia and other Internet titans staged a worldwide online protest of the proposed Stop Online Piracy Act, (“SOPA”), RogueFinder LLC, a New York City-based software company, has announced that it is developing software that will connect “rogue websites” by hunting for clues hidden within computer code and domain name ownership records.

Rogue websites offer seemingly great deals on clothing, music, software and video games, but are actually unauthorized by the copyright and brand owners.  These websites mimic legitimate channels of trade to sell counterfeits and even steal identities.  Reports show that most rogue sites are operated overseas.

According to RogueFinder’s CEO, Joseph C. Gioconda, the software will analyze billions of pieces of data mined from the websites, as well as Internet registries, registrars, web hosts and servers, to seek clues to who created and is actually operating the sites.

According to Gioconda, who has successfully shut down hundreds of rogue websites as an Intellectual Property lawyer for major brands, “this data forms a reliable digital fingerprint that lawyers and law enforcement can use as admissible evidence in court enforcing existing laws.”

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Wikipedia has temporarily terminated its services for a 24 hour period in an effort to combat a proposed controversial new bill.

The “Stop Online Piracy Act” (SOPA) has evoked strong opposition from Facebook, Google, Twitter, eBay and others. However, Wikipedia has taken the most severe stance against the proposed bill which, if passed, will make the issue of copyright infringement much more problematic and much more encompassing than many of the aforementioned companies would like to see.

Therefore, Wikipedia’s founder Jimmy Wales posted a message on the online encyclopedia warning that Wikipedia would “go dark” for 24 hours in protest because, in his opinion:

“SOPA … will cause serious damage to the free and open Internet. They put the burden on website owners to police user-contributed material and call for the unnecessary blocking of entire sites. Small sites won’t have sufficient resources to defend themselves. Big media companies may seek to cut off funding sources for their foreign competitors, even if copyright isn’t being infringed. Foreign sites will be blacklisted, which means they won’t show up in major search engines.”

Wikipedia goes on to advise site visitors from outside the United States of America on how they can help to oppose the introduction of a bill such as SOPA in their own country, with the conclusion that:

“Wikipedia is a tremendously useful resource, and its existence depends upon a free, open and uncensored Internet. SOPA and PIPA (and other similar laws under discussion inside and outside the United States) will hurt you, because they will make it impossible for sites you enjoy, and benefit from, to continue to exist. That’s why we’re doing this.”

Issues of online censorship have have arisen in previous years, but January 18th 2012 marks the first time that Wikipedia has intentionally ceased its services as a means of combatting such a bill.

In November of last year, fellow SOPA opponents including Facebook, Twitter and Google wrote a joint letter to the United States Senate and House of Representative, and explained that they were “very concerned” that the passing of SOPA would result in extremely adverse ways in regards to the Digital Millennium Copyright Act passed in 1998.

While Twitter’s worldwide trending topics demonstrate its users resistance to SOPA, chief executive Dick Costolo has publicly dismissed Wikipedia’s temporary switch-off as “foolish” and “silly”. This is the first major indicator of dissent among the major companies about SOPA, yet it should be noted that both Reddit and Boing Boing have similarly shut down their websites in solidarity with Wikipedia. Google, meanwhile, has added, “Tell Congress: Please don’t censor the web!” to below the search engine on its homepage with a link to their own personal explanation of what the negative effects of SOPA are said to be for online communities.

Regardless of the outcome of SOPA, a similar bill named the Protect IP Act (PIPA) has yet to go before the Senate – it will do on January 24th – and so, the public may be turning to Wikipedia to see if that date will bring with it another “World Without Free Knowledge”.

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After an entire day of #SOPASTRIKE on the web, joined by giants like Wikipedia, Reddit, Boing Boing, Google, WordPress, Mozilla, and many others, the discussion over the Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA) is still far from coming to an end.

Wednesday January 18, a large number of sites voluntarily blacked out for 24 hours – from 8 am to 8 pm EST – while other sites, as a sign of solidarity, featured anti-SOPA content on their home pages to protest against this controversial anti-piracy bill considered by opponents a real threat to internet freedom.

The SOPA strike was the largest online protest in the history of the Internet, “Nothing like this has ever happened before,” commented Fight For the Future, a non-profit that helped organize the virtual strike.

“This is the biggest online protest in history, and it’s no wonder,” said Holmes Wilson, co-founder of Fight For The Future. “Internet users have grown up around the abuse of copyright laws to punish political speech, creativity, and successful businesses. So the thought of giving rightsholders the power to erase entire sites from the web is horrifying to us.”

Millions of people defending the online community and its right to freedom of speech and expression, joined together both online and offline with the aim of pushing Congress to block the bill. Protestors were meeting up for street rallies in various American cities as New York and San Francisco and gathering in front of senators offices to make their voice heard.

The unprecedented online protest which has caught the attention of the world was sparked by an anti-piracy legislation that could change the Internet as we know it. In fact, the impact and the consequences of SOPA, and its related Senate bill PIPA (PROTECT IP Act), could be tragic for web users’ freedom of speech, for businesses, for users’ online privacy as for the nature of the Internet itself.

As stated by Laurence H. Tribe, a Harvard University professor of constitutional law, in an open letter on the web, SOPA “would undermine the openness and free exchange of information at the heart of the Internet. And it would violate the First Amendment.”

Also the Obama administration expressed skepticism over SOPA in an online statement released Saturday January 14, “While we believe that online piracy by foreign websites is a serious problem that requires a serious legislative response, we will not support legislation that reduces freedom of expression, increases cybersecurity risk, or undermines the dynamic, innovative global internet.”

Moreover, the consequences of SOPA could go beyond the United States, triggering a global chain reaction as pointed out on November 2011 in an article of Cynthia Wong, director of the Project on Global Internet Freedom at the Center for Democracy and Technology.

“If SOPA and PIPA are enacted, the US government must be prepared for other governments to follow suit, in service to whatever social policies they believe are important—whether restricting hate speech, insults to public officials, or political dissent,” wrote Wong.

In spite of all the criticism, the unprecedented SOPA online protest, and the growing opposition it has roused, the Stop Online Piracy Act has not stopped its track yet. The debate is to be continued and the vote, even if delayed once again, is still on the Congress’ agenda, presumably for February.

The vote on the PIPA legislation is scheduled for January 24 but public opinion and that of the senators is still split, and controversy is far from over. What is sure is that next weeks will be crucial – for the future of internet.

Image Courtesy of   http://www.flickr.com/photos/phillipstearns/

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Zfere Holdings (www.zfere.com) on January 18 unveiled its much awaited social commerce platform in conjunction with the Nationwide SOPA Blackout.  Zfere Holdings CEO Steve Vanderbol stated, “We chose to unveil our platform today as an example of the technologies which soon may not be available within the US Market due to these misguided and draconian proposals, should they pass into law.”

Zfere’s social commerce platform features tactile technology which enables a user to simply “touch to find” any product, good or service available at a local level from any picture, movie or IPTV content viewed within the integrated media player or social media console.

The platform also allows seamless interaction with up to sixteen social media networks through a single point interface on any mobile device currently running the Android or Apple mobile operating systems.  As part of its offerings, the company also manages a peer to peer bandwidth sharing network as well as personal data cloud services for its members in addition to a comprehensive business management and marketing suite geared towards small to medium sized businesses.

“From its inception, our social commerce platform was designed to empower people and to encourage them to cut the cord, go mobile, get out in the real world, share their experiences across social media platforms and other communications technologies so they could experience their local and regional worlds more deeply; often to the benefit of their ‘Main Street’ businesses.

We all recognize that these local businesses are the core of jobs creation and need the most support in this economic climate.  It’s rather ironic that at a time when this country needs emerging technological resources the most, is when proposals such as these, which could potentially remove economy building technologies from the US Market are being contemplated.”  Mr. Vanderbol added.

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Coinciding with the SOPA Blackout date, in which encyclopedia giant Wikipedia blacked out its webpage, the NY and NJ Tech groups met up in Midtown Manhattan to peacefully protest against SOPA and PIPA.

Held at the small plaza at the door step of Senator’s Charles Schumer and Kristen Gillibrand, several hundred members of New York City’s thriving technology community arrived to show support against the passing of SOPA, PIPA and to encourage Occupy Wall Street sentiments.

The Meetup, which lasted a little more than an hour, was held despite cold windy weather community leaders as well as executives from Reddit and Tumblr were on hand to speak out against this outrage. Billed as the death of creativity and the end of the internet as the modern world knows it, members of the Meetup are saying the ambiguous nature of the PIPA and SOPA acts leaves plenty of loopholes for governments to over extend their jurisdiction over the content that Domestic U.S citizens see.

Despite a somewhat slow build up of people at the beginning, the Meetup was in full swing with protesters inside and outside the cordoned area’s of 780 Third Avenue. The NYPD were on hand to keep the peace as well as clear the walkways despite the large amount of people who filled the sidewalks.

People from all over the tri-state area arrived to find that the police parade barricades did not help contain all of the protesters and some people needed to stand away from the demonstration itself. As opposed to Occupy Wall Street, which had a starting march that arrived to the protesting location, the NY Tech Meetup today was designated to start and finish in one location. Protesters brought homemade signs and, despite chilly temperatures, held them up proudly for the entire time of the protest itself.

Protesters stood in front of the restaurants, on street furniture and in large crowds to hear the words of the speakers that would confirm their hopes and fears. Early on in the meeting, it was plainly put by Andrew Rasiej, chairman of New York Tech Meetup and protest leader, that as a group they opposed any and all kinds of piracy, but that the government was misguided in their attempts to end internet piracy.

His fears were expressed in his plea of words to congress regarding free speech and the end of innovation. Among speakers attending was Executive Vice President Andrew Mclaughlin of Tumblr, who was one of the designated speakers of the event. He was quite vocal about the power of the internet which is certainly no surprise given the meteoric rise of Tumblr in the last few years. Mclaughlin went on to say this to protesters:

“The internet works because it’s a democracy, the internet works because its voluntary people working together to make the internet flow.” He went on to say that the internet and the New York Tech scene in particular is a vital part of our economy, providing jobs and empowering people all over the world.

Similar sentiments were echoed by other speakers expressing the rise of entrepreneurship due to the internet as a valuable reason not to pass SOPA and PIPA. Another one of these notable speakers is co-founder of Reddit.com, Alexis Ohanian. He passionately decried the passing of these acts, saying:

“We are here fighting the wholesale destruction of one of the healthiest parts of America’s economy.”

He went on to ask the crowd, most of who was working in the tech industry today, which of their current companies was still hiring. By a large scale, almost everyone attending the Meetup raised their hands, giving credence to Ohanian’s belief that SOPA and PIPA would further stagger the American economy.

Ohanian also lamented the U.S governments’ loss of focus, citing more serious issues such as the budget deficit and unemployment as a better use of the currently allotted resources for the SOPA and PIPA funding. Though not in attendance, there was mention of several senators and political figures who are currently against the passing of SOPA and PIPA.

Chief among them is Republican Congressman Ron Paul of Texas and Republican Senator Jerry Moran of Kansas. With arriving support from Republican Senator Marco Rubio of Florida, Republican Representative Lee Terry of Nebraska and Republican Representative Ben Quayle of Arizona support seems to finally be swinging in favor of the Tech Industry and the NY Tech Protesters.

Despite varying proposals for how to better reshape the SOPA and PIPA acts, there remains a firm interest from the MPAA and RIAA to continually convince Congress to keep things in favor of the entertainment industry. In the face of such odds, the protesters at this NY Tech Meetup have hope that SOPA and PIPA will not pass.

There is a faith in democracy that remains unshakable and as sure as there are people working in the Tech Industry, there will be voices challenging the wisdom of bills such as SOPA and PIPA.

Image Courtesy of   http://www.flickr.com/photos/phillipstearns/

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In late October last year, former Texan ranch manager Rep. Lamar Smith introduced the Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA) to the House of Representatives. The legislation was announced under the banner of being the United States next and ultimate weapon against ‘rogue sites’: offshore web sites in nations less concerned with copyright infringement than the States, but whose location makes them an out-of-reach target for American prosecution.

The Chamber of Commerce phrased their motivation in the following way, to the New York Times: “Rogue web sites that steal America’s innovative and creative products attract more than 53 billion visits a year and threaten more than 19 million American jobs.”

Over 400 businesses and organizations have expressed enthusiasm and support of SOPA, but the most vocal supporters have been the Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA), the Recording Industry Association of America, and the U.S. Chamber of Commerce.

As you could expect, the entertainment industry is on the front line when it comes to seeing this piece of legislation to term and have outspent Internet companies in lobbying effort, funneling more than $91 million into support for SOPA and its related Senate bill the PROTECT IP Act (PIPA), which is under similar scrutiny. This is more than the entertainment industry has ever spent on lobbying. Ever.

While anti-piracy laws have been in place for years, many would not be unfamiliar with the idea that efforts to stop illegal downloading of copyrighted content fall short of discouraging the practice. Opponents of SOPA have equally acknowledged that protection of copyrights and trademarks both in and outside of the US is a real concern which should be addressed. However, as lifehacker.com puts it:

[T]he Stop Online Piracy Act, is another one of those bills that sound like it’s going to do something mildly positive but, in reality, has serious potential to negatively change the internet as we know it.

The outcry throughout the digital community has been strong and continues to grow. Netcoalition.com has compiled a list of companies and organizations who oppose SOPA/PIPA  and voice after voice has broken down the issues and dangers involved in the legislation for everyone to understand:

PROTECT IP / SOPA Breaks The Internet from Fight for the Future on Vimeo.

There is even a protest song.

Like the supporters, the opposers have one overall reason against: it will be the end of the Internet as we know it. The effects are expected to ripple through the landscape of electronic content and ruin many of the services which have become deeply ingraned in the 21st century.

Though supporters deny that the impact will be as severe as anticipated, the expected negative impact range from user content websites becoming reliable by default and forced to either censor users or shut down (Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) mentions that sites such as Etsy, Flickr and Vimeo would be blacklisted), to seriously undermining DNS, DNSSEC and other means of internet security to full blown invasion of privacy and threatening freedom of speech online.

In between you have the discouragement of investing in web-related businesses, the downfall of open source software and the dangerous presumption that the United States ‘owns’ the Internet and can overextend its laws beyond its borders.

In mid-November, the nay-sayers were joined by high profile web companies who sent a letter to the U.S. Senate and House of Representatives, signalling the battle to come. But the months ahead could be a battle uphill; Cnet.com reported that support for PIPA is “remarkably broad, and for SOPA a little less so.”

Apparently, an analysis show that out of 1882 bills introduced in the 112th Congress, PIPA is one out of only 19 which has enjoyed substantial bipartisan support. This has made it one of the most popular bills so far, and while SOPA is newer in comparison, it has been gaining an equal momentum.

PIPA is currently on the fast-track to approval, and SOPA seems to be right behind it. What internet users and web businesses around the world seem to have most animosity towards is the wording of the bill; there are serious concerns that the bill makes overreach a real liability. However, the real scope of the repercussions will have to be assessed once the bill’s approval goes into its final stage, and it is possible that the bleak predictions will be curbed.

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A new bill set to pass through the United States Senate has many internet users worried about the future of online censorship. SOPA, an acronym for the Stop Online Piracy Act, was proposed as one the latest attempts to protect copyright and control online media pirates.

However, the bill’s vague parameters are already raising concerns and objections that the loose wording may be ripe for corporate manipulation. The aim of the legislation is to crack down on pirating by targeting rogue sites outside of U.S. borders. SOPA would allow the government to disband any website that hosts copyrighted material, and an individual who streams such material could also be tried for committing a federal offense.

Search engines, blogs, and directories with links to infringing content would be required to remove the offensive link under threat of lawsuit. It would force host websites to take responsibility for all of the material uploaded rather than merely serving as an impartial medium, hence the fear that major video sharing websites like Youtube could become targets.

Web giant Google went so far as to call the bill ‘draconian’, and Twitter, Wikipedia, Yahoo!, Facebook, and Redditt, among others, are taking a similar stance. Vice-President Biden also has announced his anti-SOPA position, claiming that the bill would create a fragmented and divided internet.

Others point to the fact that no new statues are actually being introduced by the bill, and that the government already has the means to combat internet theft through the Digital Millennium Copyright Act. Although SOPA has garnered a lot of support from the entertainment industry, many technology experts fear that it would irrevocably change the internet for the worse, stifling innovation and many promising young online businesses.

Art Bordsky, a Washington-based public policy expert, recently explained some of the potential implications of the bill to The Guardian:

“The international aspects alone are very worrying,” he said. “It appears that the US is taking control of the entire world. The definitions written in the bill are so broad that any US consumer who uses a website overseas immediately gives the US jurisdiction the power to potentially take action against it.”

Despite rising opposition, SOPA’s supporters are insistent that the legislation is in fact needed to combat the issue of piracy, and that complaints of government censorship are overblown. Careful analysis of the bill reveals that sites host infringing information must demonstrate “willful intent” to be prosecuted, which would offer protection to sites like Youtube.

The House Judiciary Committee held a hearing on the issue on November 16th, and SOPA is expected to go to markup sometime around December 15th.

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