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Drawing the line...
Dec. 30th, 2011 08:56 pmAll 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...
