SOPA Is Dead: Smith Pulls Bill

[Archangel]

Lamar Smith, the chief sponsor of SOPA, said on Friday that he is pulling the bill “until there is wider agreement on a solution.”

“I have heard from the critics and I take seriously their concerns regarding proposed legislation to address the problem of online piracy,” Smith (R-Texas) said. “It is clear that we need to revisit the approach on how best to address the problem of foreign thieves that steal and sell American inventions and products.”

Read more: http://mashable.com/2012/01/20/sopa-is-dead-smith-pulls-bill/

 

[silentg]

They got something worse than SOPA/PIPA >
http://thomas.loc.gov/cgi-bin/bdquery/z?d112:h.r.01981:
http://www.theatlantic.com/politics...-could-kill-internet-privacy-for-good/242853/

 

[Archangel]

From the 1st link you posted:

H.R.1981
Latest Title: Protecting Children From Internet Pornographers Act of 2011
Sponsor: Rep Smith, Lamar [TX-21] (introduced 5/25/2011)

What's bad about keeping kids from porn? We already have COPPA.

 

[silentg]

They'll be tracking every U.S. citizen that accesses the internet to catch few pedophiles:
"firm that sells you Internet access would be required to track all of your Internet activity and save it for 18 months, along with your name, the address where you live, your bank account numbers, your credit card numbers, and IP addresses you've been assigned."

How the new ‘Protecting Children’ bill puts you at risk

They named it "Protecting Children From Internet Pornographers Act of 2011 " to make people think anyone that opposes it is a pedophile or someone that supports them.

 

[Archangel]

Now that IS bad

It'll never become law, ever. Impossible. Can you think of exactly how many privacy laws would be breeched or how much backlash would pop up?

They'll be tracking every U.S. citizen that accesses the internet to catch few pedophiles:
"firm that sells you Internet access would be required to track all of your Internet activity and save it for 18 months, along with your name, the address where you live, your bank account numbers, your credit card numbers, and IP addresses you've been assigned."

How the new ‘Protecting Children’ bill puts you at risk

They named it "Protecting Children From Internet Pornographers Act of 2011 " to make people think anyone that opposes it is a pedophile or someone that supports them.

 

[enlytend]

It'll never become law, ever. Impossible. Can you think of exactly how many privacy laws would be breeched or how much backlash would pop up?

Never say never. We've already given up a good-sized chunk of privacy and freedom in the name of stopping terrorism. Nobody wants terrorists either, that's why now we are all subject to body scans and potentially strip searches just in order to board a plane (among other things!)

That's why it's good to keep an eye on proposed legislation (or be extremely grateful for the people who do) and make a big stink about it if someone tries to sneak through something unacceptable.

I'm betting that SOPA will probably be back in a year or two under a new name ... its proponents won't give up that easily...

 

[mhdoc]

In many ways it seems to me the National Defense Authorization Act, which has already been passed, is as bad or worse than SOPA might have been. It pretty much makes a joke out of the Bill of Rights.

 

[Weber]

I don't think these bills would have passed without republicans. Republicans seem to be as bad as democrats on this subject. This is contradictory to many individual republican and tea party goals. What in the h*ll are these people trying to do? Something is fishy.

 

[alien51]

Politicians have a vested interest in protecting their election chances.

Look at the scenario: You become a hero as a SOPA legislator supporter. Afterwards, you suffer election backlash from voters and you get booted from Congress.

And what do you get in return? Nothing! Because Obama has said he will veto the bill anyways.

Well, perhaps you'll get a 1-year free tickets to Universal Studios or Disneyland as consolation from these movie studios pushing for SOPA.

The "hero" prospect pushing for SOPA, doesn't look good for a politician.

 

[Veronika11]

They'll be tracking every U.S. citizen that accesses the internet to catch few pedophiles:
"firm that sells you Internet access would be required to track all of your Internet activity and save it for 18 months, along with your name, the address where you live, your bank account numbers, your credit card numbers, and IP addresses you've been assigned."

How the new ‘Protecting Children’ bill puts you at risk

They named it "Protecting Children From Internet Pornographers Act of 2011 " to make people think anyone that opposes it is a pedophile or someone that supports them.

apart from all of our personal information being stored in some "safe" file for 18th, the police ("hopefully" only them...) can easily access those files without being under investigation etc.

"[...]doesn't require that someone be under investigation on child pornography charges in order for police to access their Internet history -- being suspected of any crime is enough. (It may even be made available in civil matters like divorce trials or child custody battles.) Nor do police need probable cause to search this information."

does that mean they could pull you information pretty much any time they "freaking" feel like it?!

 

[silentg]

apart from all of our personal information being stored in some "safe" file for 18th, the police ("hopefully" only them...) can easily access those files without being under investigation etc.

"[...]doesn't require that someone be under investigation on child pornography charges in order for police to access their Internet history -- being suspected of any crime is enough. (It may even be made available in civil matters like divorce trials or child custody battles.) Nor do police need probable cause to search this information."

does that mean they could pull you information pretty much any time they "freaking" feel like it?!

Yeap.

There's also another bill called ACTA (worldwide). You can check my post here
http://www.namepros.com/domain-name-discussion/744313-say-no-acta-worse-bill-than.html

They just want to censor the internet.

 

[Veronika11]

Yeap.

There's also another bill called ACTA (worldwide). You can check my post here
http://www.namepros.com/domain-name-discussion/744313-say-no-acta-worse-bill-than.html

They just want to censor the internet.

Just read your post..unbelievable..*speechless*

 

[Edward Smeu]

Yeap.

There's also another bill called ACTA (worldwide). You can check my post here
http://www.namepros.com/domain-name-discussion/744313-say-no-acta-worse-bill-than.html

They just want to censor the internet.

ACTA is at least as bad as SOPA, imo SOPA was just a joke, ACTA is the real deal. Already implemented in Europe and very few are fighting against.

 

[DU]

Can you think of exactly how many privacy laws would be breeched

Most privacy laws aren't applicable to the internet as they predate the "digital age".

The laws in the US are REALLY out of date - the problems are:

1) There's no incentive for law to increase privacy laws (or be more specific)

2) Most people fail to realize that true freedom of the internet means two things...

freedom for you to do what you want.. AND freedom for others to do what they want (including law enforcement). So attempts at INCREASING your rights online generall will DECREASE your rights as a result (needs balance which is something the US doesn't have anymore)

3) People in political office are ill-equipped to deal with the process of creating appropriately targeted bills. They're not skilled in the right areas of law and technology versed.

4) People are unable to come to any middle point with extreme views (Anarchy vs Control in Cyberspace)

That said, most domainers would want law enforcement to build a case without any "illegal search" and then present a solid case to a judge who could then file a motion to start proceedings against the site operator...

Unless, of course, they were off shore in which case they should forward the case details to the appropriate authorities and let them handle the situation.... *YAWN*... while we wait and the site stays online.

Also they would want to make sure the the registrar would NOT remove the domain because that infringes on their rights as a domain holder and is censorship. In addition, we would want to make sure that any records kept on the users of that site should be protected at all costs....

Blah blah.. it's all about freedom.


That said. If the comment is that all our web access is logged for 18months and available I'd be concerned. I'd remove the lock on my router right now if that's the case - make it open to everyone. It's what we want, right?