If you have been on the internet today, you have seen that some major sites
like Reddit, Craigslist, and Wikipedia are offline in protest of the
potential bills in both the US house and congress. These are SOPA (Stop
Online Piracy Act) and PIPA (Protect IP Act). The purpose of these bills
makes sense. Legislation would help curb violations of copyright act, as
well as stop the sale of 3rd world versions of prescription medications.
The problem lies in the writing of these bills. There are several issues
with their write-ups. The biggest is the wild west approach to activating
how these bills are put into effect. Basically it will allow reports from
anyone to go to the Justice Department, who can shut down the site without a
chance to defend oneself. The bill is 'designed' to have the US block the
DNS addresses of offending sites from US IP's. This is supposed to block
foreign sites from being accessed from US servers. The problem is the
wording of this provision. There is no limitation to what can be blocked.
In addition, with no justification for shutting down sites, this may not be
limited to international sites in the future.
The reality of this is that these bills are not about blocking piracy or
drug sales. They are about controlling information. It is little known, but
if you live in the US, it is illegal to own a DVD player from another
region. It is also not acceptable to purchase out of region DVDs. That
means that potentially amazon's UK site could be a victim of this, as would
the AU version.
The potential worst case of these bills would be the abuse by the MPAA, RIAA
or even politicians. The use of these bills to crush freedom of speech,
change in politics, or creation of non-approved MPAA media is evident.
Imagine the 2016 election and the possibility of an independent candidate
for president being charged with SOPA violations, and having his site,
Twitter, Facebook and other communications squashed without any way to
defend himself.
So what can you do? The site blackouts today are in place to encourage you
to contact your legislators and let them know of the impact of their
decision to support these bills. A lot are up for re-election in the next
12 months and they should understand that if they support violations of the
Bill of Rights, they will not be voted for in the coming elections. Put
pressure on them and don't let up. WARM REGARDS, Akhtar khatri
*****help what we can with others in need...the world is ONE big family*****
ALL THE MAILS POSTED BY ME R NOT MY PROPERTY, ALL R TAKEN FROM NET, IF SOMETHING IS COPYRIGHTED PLZ INFORM ME, SO THAT I MAY NOT POST THE MATERIAL IN THE FUTURE
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