Drawing the line...
Dec. 30th, 2011 08:56 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
alexpgpAll the outstanding items were sent out, only to be replaced by a set of new outstanding items, weighing in at around 7,500 words. It's what one might call "unexpected happiness."
* * * In other news, there is word out that the Stop Online Piracy Act, which would require sites that carry infringing material (or links to same) to be made inaccessible on the mere say-so of parties claiming such infringement (with no judicial oversight), is going to a full committee for a vote and is likely to pass.
This, despite the very recent disclosure that a bit over a year ago, the DHS (yes, that DHS) seized a hip-hop site (dajaz1.com), claiming the site illegally distributed prerelease music, and then stonewalled the site owner for a year, refusing to allow any challenge of the seizure, until someone in authority eventually decided that, well, the site hadn't been doing anything illegal (since the music had, apparently, been provided to the site legally).
The passage of SOPA will require some major modifications to the infrastructure of the Internet and to networking software (to prevent the will of the content industry from being thwarted). According to some experts, such changes will make the Internet less secure (because of the changes that will be required to the Domain Name Server system and software that interacts with it).
As it turns out, such changes will also place the United States in the same class as China, Iran, and Syria, among others, which also censor access to the Internet, although naturally, we here in the United States would only be censoring the Internet for a noble purpose, i.e., to let the content industry determine what sites it will allow you to access and to make sure that non-content-industry sites weigh very carefully the origin and nature of the material they'll let you see.
Few people in the debate care to talk about the elephant in the room, which has to do with the fact that the changes required by SOPA will make it very simple to extend restrictions to cover just about anything that goes on over the Internet, which would then put the U.S. squarely in the same class as China, Iran, and Syria, among others, with regard to Internet access.
To learn more, and to find out how to let your Congresscritter know how you feel, go to StopAmericanCensorship.org.
Cheers...
This, despite the very recent disclosure that a bit over a year ago, the DHS (yes, that DHS) seized a hip-hop site (dajaz1.com), claiming the site illegally distributed prerelease music, and then stonewalled the site owner for a year, refusing to allow any challenge of the seizure, until someone in authority eventually decided that, well, the site hadn't been doing anything illegal (since the music had, apparently, been provided to the site legally).
The passage of SOPA will require some major modifications to the infrastructure of the Internet and to networking software (to prevent the will of the content industry from being thwarted). According to some experts, such changes will make the Internet less secure (because of the changes that will be required to the Domain Name Server system and software that interacts with it).
As it turns out, such changes will also place the United States in the same class as China, Iran, and Syria, among others, which also censor access to the Internet, although naturally, we here in the United States would only be censoring the Internet for a noble purpose, i.e., to let the content industry determine what sites it will allow you to access and to make sure that non-content-industry sites weigh very carefully the origin and nature of the material they'll let you see.
Few people in the debate care to talk about the elephant in the room, which has to do with the fact that the changes required by SOPA will make it very simple to extend restrictions to cover just about anything that goes on over the Internet, which would then put the U.S. squarely in the same class as China, Iran, and Syria, among others, with regard to Internet access.
To learn more, and to find out how to let your Congresscritter know how you feel, go to StopAmericanCensorship.org.
Cheers...
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no subject
Date: 2011-12-31 02:20 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-12-31 02:41 am (UTC)Case in point: a few months ago, I started an eBay auction for an item I had bought from manufacturer X.
A day later, I got an email from eBay telling me that my auction had been terminated by eBay because I was using a copyrighted image of manufacturer X's product. The email went on to say that I would have to undergo some kind of "copyright infringement" re-education session before I'd be allowed to post another auction.
I sort of went ballistic, and wrote a pretty scathing email to eBay (couldn't get through their impressive automated phone system), basically "thanking" them for pausing to listen to my side of the story before taking down the auction, informing them that the image had been taken by me (which made it my property and not an infringing image), and inquiring as to whether the party falsely claiming infringement would be required to take a "false copyright infringement claim" re-education session before they could take down anyone else's auction.
There was no reply.
I wrote a second email, asking for details about the party that had claimed infringement. This one eBay answered. I got in touch with said party, who proceeded to ask me the details of my case. I sent a second email with said details and asked for an explanation, but never heard back from them.
After a week, I wrote to eBay, summarizing what had happened, and informed them that since the complainant had not responded to my emails, I would be reposting the auction, and did so a couple of days later.
I can envision a world in which eBay would be a lot more sensitive to pressure from interested industries, and would simply cut me off at the knees, kicking me off eBay completely, with no redress, so as not to invoke the ire of the manufacturer.
Cheers...
Congresscritter
Date: 2011-12-31 02:39 pm (UTC)Happy New Year !