ITU and the internet

Okay so I watched the video below, and am not so sure if I agree with them or not.  Thus far the US hasn't really bungled the management of the Internet, but that is not to say that they can't and the ITU itself isn't the trouble per se but rather the people that get to vote on and submit resolutions.  I do broadly agree that there are more countries that want to censor the internet then do not, and the openness of the governance has thus far helped users insure that those urges are not the consensus.  I signed the petition, but I'm sort of iffy on how if this is the catastrophe SOPA and PIPA where.

New Old Math

Complex mathematics at it's finest.  Thanks GAS

SMBC Comic

Saturday Morning Breakfast Cereal chimed in on the HR 1981 and SOPA/PIPA with this comic.

I think he did a solid job of grounding examples of what the powers they want mean to citizens.  Check it out.

Further thoughts and readings on SOPA/PIPA

Okay so before this gets really stale I figured I empty it out of my drafts folder, it's about SOPA and PIPA so if you are bored already move along.

First up both bills are currently shelved and of little interest for the time being.  It may be toxic enough to not come up again in the immediate future. There where a few summary posts that really highlighted great info on the guts of these bills and the efforts to curb them that I thought needed to be shared.

Finally some perspective and thoughts on the future, and maybe a little of how we got here.


Those links are all over the place but the one to read that is the most interesting of the bunch in my opinion is from Binary Bonsai.  The author of that blog is very passionate about Star Wars, he is part of the effort to get the real stories of the origin, and creation of the Star Wars universe out to people.  He has found amazing interviews with people that where part of the guts of making this movie and really shows the magic was quite different from the story that George is trying to sell the world.  He likes people to believe that he wholly created it from nothing with no support from anyone and certainly didn't draw inspiration from the environment around him.  The passion he has for Hollywood is evident, and his perspective is truly a different tone than anything you've been reading about killing Hollywood.

I found this video because of him.

@jamieSWB - Star Wars Begins - The Complete Documentary from jambe davdar on Vimeo.

John Steward SOPA/PIPA

The Daily Show
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MPAA threatens law makers

Demandprogress.org, an excellent political watchdog sent out a message about the MPAA's response to law makers now opposing SOPA or PIPA.  You can contact your law makers here if you are so inclined.

The money quote is

Those who count on quote ‘Hollywood’ for support need to understand that this industry is watching very carefully who’s going to stand up for them when their job is at stake. Don’t ask me to write a check for you when you think your job is at risk and then don’t pay any attention to me when my job is at stake.

The content industry didn't get their way, so now they are going to start turning the screws on law makers.

HockeyStick my ass

This is going to take a while and really, I hope you have some time on your hands because if you like the internet then this is important.  First up an excellent video that concisely lays out SOPA and PIPA's place in history, how we got here and where it leads from here. Again it's long but you should watch it.



So I'm going to bet at this point your response is something along the lines of wow great info, but didn't you hear we "defeated SOPA and PIPA".

Here's the thing no we did not.

Engadget and Gizmodo both have article about this, but the gist of what is going on here is a typical congress tactic of stalling until the news moves on and then doing what they planed on anyway.  That video called on you to vigilant and get ready, LOIC isn't going to make this go away and you need to understand that this is about more than LOLcats (but they are included in this).

 

This song falls clearly into the category of parody for the common observer, but because it's using the melody of a copyrighted work it could be a target for take down notices especially when you consider that you are not allowed to profit from performances of works currently covered by copyright.  What we need and I'm sure I'm not the first to propose it is a substantial effort to rework copyright.  As it sits the last several times that legislation has been introduced by the media industry it has substantially increased the length of time copyright is in effect.  When it was originally written it was intended to give the artist that created the work the right to profit from their work during their lifetime, but so as to encourage them to continue to work was limited enough that it couldn't carry their family forever (or as is more commonly the case now the company that owns the rights forever).

SOPA

I think I've mentioned it before, but given how unbelievably poorly this law is shaping up I thought it was time to post a little round up and information on what you can do should you find this proposed bill as abhorrent as I find it.

First Gizmodo has a pretty solid run down on why this bill is murderous for the internet as we know it.  The gist of it is that because sites that host infringing content typically are not US sites, court orders and take down notices do not have force of law.  To make it so rights holders have a way to see their interests looked after (keep in mind who the government works for here kids) they can have that sites DNS records blocked or erased without due process (remember foreign entities) with no appeal process.  This fundamentally undermines the way that DNS and the internet works and is from an infrastructure point of view a very bad way to implement this.  We would be following in the footsteps pioneered by The Great Chinese firewall.  Not the best role model, I would say.  Next up there is third party transfer of liability, that is a legal way of saying that if the search engines don't expunge records that rights holders get taken down fast enough they can be sued for the infringement that they are "facilitating".  Finally the whole framework amounts to a tool that can and in the hands of companies like UMG will be used to stifle free speech.  It literally blows my mind that a congress that claims to be in the business of lessening the power of government would like to handover such a huge power grab to private companies.  Or it would blow my mind if it wasn't business as usual over in congress.

Gizmodo has a link to a petition you can sign to ask Obama to veto the bill.

Gizmodo also has a story up of all the companies that are supporting this bill so you can know if you still want to give them your patronage.  The most notable of them is the Registrar GoDaddy, they have caught a decent amount of flack for this so I don't feel the need to pile on any more.  I will note that I have chosen to take my business elsewhere.  Yeah broken websites for a little while, but I think it is important enough to take the time to do.

Now I would like to post a link to a video that has a pretty decent attempt from one of the bills co-sponsors on what they want the bill to do.  They are trying to extend a physical metaphor to police the internet is the short story.  Once again Congress just doesn't understand the technology they are trying to regulate and should not be allowed to work on it.

Not covered in this post is the related and already passed 2008 Pro-IP law used to take websites down currently.  This is a really strange use of ICE and Department of Homeland Security, (read excessively broad interpretation of the Patriot Act powers).  Some people have gone as far as suggest that the current USAG should face criminal charges for his mis-use of laws.

Stop Censorship

If you live in the US and haven't heard about SOPA/PIPA winding it's way through the congress and senate then what rock are you living under?  StopCensorship.org can fill you in, but the long and the short is they want to be able to blacklist sites like Youtube if one copyright owner claims your video of lip-syncing is infringment.  No due process, no safe harbor, just bam, blacklist.  As written I don't believe that there is a way to contest being blacklisted, much less any testimony on how to make this work with out completely crippling DNS as we know it.

It's nasty legislation by onery old men, looking to strangle the internet that causes them so much trouble.  The trouble is we like the internet a hell of a lot more than we like them, so spread the word.

Also here is a bloggy compatriot that recenly blogged similarly on this issue.  Thanks R for keeping up the good work putting this info out there.