SOPA - Worse Than You Think

I am a small business owner who develops websites and web programs for other small business' (which I was able to get going with minimal start up expense or overhead (no loans), I just needed a few people to give me a chance.).

I wanted to take this opportunity to tell you just how bad the SOPA act would be to a small business.

First we are hearing a lot about how DNS would be involved here. So let me explain first what a DNS is.
Simply put, it translates IP addresses into words.

how stuff works - DNS



I own a server with 6 ip addresses and run all my clients websites on this server with each IP being associated with a DNS name. According to the sopa act if someone on one of my clients websites were to post a copyrighted video from youtube, and someone reported it, they would shut down the DNS, which will pretty much make my server non accessible through a domain name.

Foreseen outcome: All of my clients now no longer have working websites. I could potentially get sued for this, as many of my clients rely heavily on their websites for everyday business.

I could potentially get around DNS problem with a few days worth of work and a lot of man hours, and using a different domain name (which, as you can see, wouldn't fix the copyright issue at all). but would probably still be sued for loss of income to my clients, and would have to close my doors.

This scenario could potentially not only make it so that all general small business' are at risk here, but in my world, would make it nearly impossible to keep my business going, because of the high risk it would cause. I would have to monitor every little word, picture, and link a client puts on their website (even emails, since now emails can be sent to post straight to a website). Programs can be written to handle some of this, but not all of it, so I would have to hire people to monitor every part of every site. That would cost a lot of money, not to mention privacy issues. And how am I supposed to know if a sentence or picture is or isn't a copyright of another company. it is impossible to keep track of all copyrighted material out there.

If this act passes, it would give 100% control of the internet to large corporations to do as they please with it. Any chance of an entrepreneur coming in and being successful will be out the window. Small business websites will be wiped out, and the only ones left will be controlled by large corporate website hosting companies, who will charge a fortune to host your website, but will control everything you email, write, and post to the website.

It would be the only way around the getting their DNS from being taken out too (though that wouldn't happen, since congressman and senators will be heavily invested in this money maker).

Make no mistake this will take out any chance of small business' surviving in a world of corporate dictatorship.

Well, let's do the ground work to stop it:

americancensorship.org...

You know the drill.

This also proves that the writers of this bill, either don't understand how the web really works, and aren't seeking the right advise, or they do know, and have a sinister plot behind it.

Sadly, I am willing to bet that the bill stands and passes, but with exceptions in it for large corporate sites such as google, amazon, facebook and other large money making social networks.

reply to post by TheOneElectric


Done! Of course no one in my state has any open events scheduled. I'll call tomorrow though. I hate emailing, because I know how e-mail systems work. They are rarely read, and auto responders are pretty high tech and can make it look as if your e-mail was actually read.

A quick question for everyone. who here owns a website, and where do you host it.

I am curious about this, and will explain later.

here are a few images explaining how the internet, and websites work.













Most websites use shared hosting, which share ip addresses and DNS server addresses. If you they were to block a DNS then not only would the site in question go down, so would all the other sites sharing that host DNS.

How shared hosting works









and last but not least, you can see here that all a "overseas" company that hosts pirated information really has to do is backup their website, change the DNS on their domain, and re-upload the website to the new webhost/server. can be done in matter of minutes.



So I ask, if it is this simple to change a dns on a website, then is this law really about piracy??

reply to post by tw0330

I own a server with 6 ip addresses and run all my clients websites on this server with each IP being associated with a DNS name. According to the sopa act if someone on one of my clients websites were to post a copyrighted video from youtube, and someone reported it, they would shut down the DNS, which will pretty much make my server non accessible through a domain name.

Maybe it is an act to close little servers ? (because they surely won't block servers like Yahho and feecbook)

So, as a small business, you need to have a disclaimer in your terms of services that you are not responsible for any loss of business related to action out of your control.

Have a lawyer write up some terms of services for your business, and you'll be covered.

I agree, SOPA is a horrible law, but using small businesses being sued as an avenue to try and defeat it is silly. Small businesses have a lot of options to cover themselves for eventualities such as this.

As a small business, you should have this written into your terms and conditions of services ANYWAY.

reply to post by hmdphantom


Technically they wouldn't be blocking the server, they would make it so the server wouldn't broadcast the websites until the DNS on that server is changed. (this can cause issues with some websites, but is fixable)

I would still be able to access my server through the ip address.

So in other words the bill will do nothing to actually stop online piracy by overseas websites.

Yes they would make it so I could no longer offer hosting services to my clients because of pending lawsuits that could arise because of this. Companies like "godaddy, yahoo, google, and other large corporate websites hosting companies" would virtually rule the world of website hosting.

The problem is, when you host with these companies, they may offer you the world for $3.00 a month, but what you don't see is that they limit what you can and can't do with your website. When you host with smaller companies, (depending on the company) the limits are far less, if they have any at all. It might cost a little more, but if you want your website to do what ever you want, then that is the way to go.

An example of limits would be the database space. many offer so many gigs for a min price, but what you don't see is the limited database space they give you. and from my experience, any site that offers social networking requires a lot of database space.

Basically, if you want a strict HTML website godaddy type hosting is fine, but if you want to actually do stuff with your website, you will have to pay an arm and a leg to actually do that stuff.

reply to post by babybunnies


Yes I am aware of this, and have already done this. But when you have a government that does not understand how the internet works, or websites work, a disclaimer will only go so far. All it takes is a good lawyer, a system of bad laws, and a judicial system that doesn't understand how the web works, to make that contract. no matter how good it is, obsolete.

But understand that this is more about customer service. Small hosting companies would lose a lot of business just out of simple fear.

reply to post by tw0330


Do you really have all of your tenants going through the same domain? I manage a server cluster with hundreds of sites hosted on it. They all have different domains. If one got blacklisted it would not affect the others. I am by no means defending this atrocious law, but let's stay clear on its impact on a web hosting business.

Now a site that aggrgates from other sites or shows user submitted content, that is a different story, and as everyone points out the concept is completely idiotic!

DNS blackout is actually very simple for a user to get around. All it takes is an update to the hosts file and/or pointing your DNS requests to a server that keeps its hosts file updated.

Of course disclosing the IP of a blacklisted site or to a noncompliant DNS server will be criminal, and will likely get the site the info was posted on blacklisted too.

Some mention they will probably have clauses so the big guys don't get blacklisted. If so then what were are going to see is all of these such sites will be totally spammed with IPs. All comments on all articles. New posts. Etc. If there is no safe haven clause then they will be forced to shutdown ALL sites that expose user submitted content.

It is totally rediculous. I know that if I were to pirate I would use FTP or Usenet in the first place and this would not curb that in the least. This is so obviously not about piracy.

Originally posted by tw0330
A quick question for everyone. who here owns a website, and where do you host it.

I am curious about this, and will explain later.

I have a few hosted with godaddy.com

reply to post by tw0330


My sites are hosted on hosting.com.
My databases are hosted at a different colo that I would rather not disclose, but it is in San Francisco and has a very high up time guarantee with comprehensive physical security.
I register(ed) domains with go daddy.com (will use a different registrar for future sites).
I use easy-DNS for a name server.

I was surfing this site last nite and clicked on the 93 bombing of the WTC thread. To my surprise a page popped up that was red and white and said something about this page being deemed illegal by SOPA . It looked like an official government page.

I was so shocked I thought maybe ATS as a whole had fell under the new SOPA act. I hurriedly clicked on "new topics" and it went away to my relief. Now, I'm regretting that I didn't take a screen shot of this. I clicked on a couple more posts and it didn't happen again, Anyone else have this happen to them?

Originally posted by freedom12
I was surfing this site last nite and clicked on the 93 bombing of the WTC thread. To my surprise a page popped up that was red and white and said something about this page being deemed illegal by SOPA . It looked like an official government page.

I was so shocked I thought maybe ATS as a whole had fell under the new SOPA act. I hurriedly clicked on "new topics" and it went away to my relief. Now, I'm regretting that I didn't take a screen shot of this. I clicked on a couple more posts and it didn't happen again, Anyone else have this happen to them?

edit on 8-1-2012 by freedom12 because: (no reason given)

This is part of the ATS planned protest. It gives you insight into what may happen if SOPA is passed...

reply to post by freedom12


I saw that too, really confused me for a while! lol

This is how much these old Senators and congressmen know about the internet. Remember their spokesperson for Net neutrality, Ted Stevens. He's dead now, but this just gives you an idea of how much these old guys know about how the internet really works. They are going to destroy us all. It's like giving sticks of dynamite to children to build with and a lighter so they can see what they are doing.



Let's not forget the "inventor" of the internet, maybe he should weigh in.

reply to post by benjamin2012
Whew! I was hoping I wasn't the only one or being targeted for some reason. So ATS has done this huh?

Will it only happen once?

I don't know if anyone mentioned it yet on ATS, but interestingly in greek the word "sopa" means "be quiet", "shut up" (σώπα).

Ko3

SOPA Cabana (by Dan Bull)

I want to send massive thanks to every single person who contributed to this video, you're all awesome. A number of you didn't make the final cut, but I value your effort and enthusiasm as much as everyone else. Let's keep the internet free. Stop SOPA.

www.youtube.com...#!