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The "Stop Online Piracy Act"/"E-PARASITE Act" (SOPA) and "The PROTECT IP Act" (PIPA) are the latest in a series of bills which would create a procedure for creating (and censoring) a blacklist of websites. These bills are updated versions of the “Combating Online Infringements and Counterfeits Act" (COICA), which was previously blocked in the Senate. Although the bills are ostensibly aimed at reaching foreign websites dedicated to providing illegal content, their provisions would allow for removal of enormous amounts of non-infringing content including political and other speech from the Web.
The various bills define different techniques for blocking “blacklisted” sites. Each would interfere with the Internet's domain name system (DNS), which translates names like "www.eff.org" or "www.nytimes.com" into the IP addresses that computers use to communicate. SOPA would also allow rightsholders to force payment processors to cut off payments and advertising networks to cut ties with a site simply by sending a notice.
The reason for this law is because of the vast amount of sites offering infringing and counterfeit material outside the borders of the US. There is really no way for US companies to enforce their copyrights, there is already plenty of mechanisms available if the server is inside the US.
At face value I'd support it but I'm under no illusion that large entertainment companies won't abuse it especially considering their past record.
This is a disaster. Remember the phrase 'the road to ruin is paved with good intentions"? It applies here.
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