SOPA - Worse Than You Think

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)

yeah there´ve been a couple of threads about it.

ATS did it themselves, to show members what SOPA could to do sites like ATS.



ETA:

at the bottom of that screen was a link to ATS like you know it.

had me scared for a while as well


ETA2:
sorry replied to fast.
somebody mentiond this already.

got a couple of questions in general, ATS.

- this influences the whole web right? not just restricted to the USA?
- can i vote against this as non-us citizen?

i mean if i am right in saying that it does influence people outside the US. (someone correct me if i'm wrong)
what does give the US the right to pass laws like this?

i've not read to many threads about SOPA.
so i'm still a bit ignorant on the subject matter.

someone care to enlighten me?

It´s really scary, exactly the same law has been passed here in Spain, called "Ley SINDE", as one of the first moves from our recently elected new right wing government.
Link to article in English

It´s really scary, to me this is another sign of a global agenda, similar laws been passed at the same time in different countries.

A few months ago we were really surprised to see that this spanish website DNS had been seized, even though it was not based in the US, and it didn´t host any content: it provided links to watch many sport events online untill it got seized. So yes, i think the law affects outside the US, and somehow certain agencies can already act outside US borders: you still can see the notice if you´re interested; Link to Roja directa

Originally posted by tw0330
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.

edit on 1/7/2012 by Mirthful Me because: All Caps Title.

Should you cost in checking that material that breaks copyright rules is blocked before it is hosted? Shouldn't someone actually be doing that anyway and it's worked into your charges? Do you currently allow pirated material to be hosted and you are complaining this will prosecute you for it? Sorry, not sure exactly where you want the sympathy.

Originally posted by tw0330
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.

I'm sorry but that's bull, of course a lawyer could look after your business with a disclaimer that your service depends on another service that you have no control over.

If as you say the law is complacent the world would have descended in anarchy 2000 years ago, sure big spinners usually get a nice foot in, but laws are also written by a person with a family that's human beings who have good intentions too.

I feel you have alterior motives in your rant, unless you set up your EULA like a 14 year old you should be safe from being sued over loss of income. So that's not a plausible argument.

Yeah sure sucks your business would suffer from this law. Just imagine us who care about freedom and individual liberties, and reading about that stuff online, its kind of like revenue, but only more important. So I feel where you are coming from, and it certainly does suck. So it's not worse than I think, it is what I think. But it was worse than what you thought.

Originally posted by Jooles
It´s really scary, exactly the same law has been passed here in Spain, called "Ley SINDE", as one of the first moves from our recently elected new right wing government.
Link to article in English

It´s really scary, to me this is another sign of a global agenda, similar laws been passed at the same time in different countries.

[...]

The US government forced them to pass this "Sinde" law. Almost looks like Spain isn't a sovereign country.

US slammed Zapatero for not passing "Sinde" anti-piracy law

reply to post by Fenrin


Precisely, Zapatero (socialist) refused to pass the law and the US made him pay. But as soon as the PP party was elected, the law was passed. And guess who controls PP in the background from his foundation/think tank? Mr Aznar, George W Bush´s pal. It´s really scary to see how this deploys internationally.

Btw, there are no more sovereign states in Europe, but that´s OT.

reply to post by Templeton


As with a lot of small startup companies, I go through a server company and actually have a vps (virtual private server.)

As for your question, I will admit I do not yet know exactly what they will and will not do with this law. If it is a matter of just turning off the domain name and the specific ip my vps creates for that domain ( ip-number) or if they will turn off the primary ip-dns numbers related to the server the domains are on.

I wish I could afford several servers, or an actual server which I can just divide out, but I have so far not had to barrow any money for my company, and would like to keep it that way.

I will also admit that there is a lot that I can still learn about running a server, and hope to have the time in the future to learn more.

reply to post by tw0330


I own a small business website, but it is hosted by one of the larger providers, homestead.

HA!!! my 2 senators that I can talk too are Scott Brown or John Kerry.... ::walks away chuckling:::

reply to post by JJRichey


I have not had any experiencing with homestead, so I can not voice an opinion on them.

I am sure that there are good larger hosting companies, but be aware of the ones who offer a ton of space for pennies on the dollar.

reply to post by something wicked


1. If I were the one creating the content, and updating their website, then yes, but that is not the case when they update their own website.

2. even if I had hundreds of people working for me, it is nearly impossible to keep track of all copyrighted material online, let alone online and off line material.

example: lets say a client sees a magazine article and decides they like how it is written, so they put it on their website, claiming they wrote it.

How is anyone supposed to know they didn't write it? am I supposed to memorize millions of websites, and thousands of magazines just to be sure material wasn't taken from it?

OP, your understanding of how DNS works is not 100% correct.

You have HOST records and ALIAS records. The only way ALL of your clients would be blocked is if you give them names within your domain under one HOST record. For example:

your_hostname.com -->10.1.2.3
customer1.your_hostname.com -->10.1.2.3
customer2.your_hostname.com -->10.1.2.3

I doubt that this is how you are providing service to your customers, as who really wants "their" company name with "your" domain name - but hey, maybe that's how you roll, and yes, if someone from customer2 got their domain name blocked, they would block your_hostname.com thus blocking everything in that domain.

Now, with that said

You most likely are giving your customers their OWN domain names. Therfore, your HOST record would be different than the ALIAS records you'd give to your customers. For example:

your_hostname.com -->10.1.2.3
customer1.com -->10.1.2.3
customer2.com -->10.1.2.3

If customer2.com was blocked, customer1.com and your_hostname.com would still function without issue - they're blocking DNS not IP addresses.


The last scenario would be you give each customer their own IP (since you have multiple). For example:

your_hostname.com -->10.1.2.3
customer1.com -->10.1.2.4
customer2.com -->10.1.2.5

And again, blocking the DNS to one customer would have no affect on your others.

----

Don't take this as me siding with SOPA - its a load of crap, and I'm tired of my rights being walked all over by big companies and the government. If Sony wants their product protected, then they should spend a little more money on security measures that provide that.

Just get your tech right first.

reply to post by 44shooterlb


and what if they block the DNS for the server it'self?

I have been in this world for more years than I care to admit, and I can tell you that I would never have thought that this could happen to my country. I think I am going to be glad to leave it in a few years.
See all that has already happened makes me so,sad. angry & incredulous at the same time.

It seems they want their NWO and will do anything to get it.
So I think I see the chain of command. Now what puzzles me is why exactly do the next in line obey those at the top? What would happen if they didn't? What do they have over these people?

In this and other topics I have noticed something. I sincerely hope this does not offend anybody or rub them the wrong way. That is not my intent and I say this with utmost respect to everyone's views.

With that said, I've noticed when it comes to contentious legislation like this, people tend to pick an agenda or a specific aspect of it to be most concerned with. When this is based on personal self-interest, that's to be expected and natural. But inevitably it seems I always eventually see someone start telling others that their own personal interest in opposing said legislation is not as paramount as the aspect they have set their own sights on.

Remember what MLK said: injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere. I encourage everyone to stand by your fellow citizens (and human beings in general the world over) in opposing anything that curtails their right to cherished freedoms, not only to speech and information, but also to happiness and liberty in general. Especially when these various aspects are all related. Some of these business websites facilitate freedom of speech, so stifling them goes hand in hand with stifling freedom of speech itself.

If we don't defend forums for speech as vigorously as speech itself, we’ve already handed them a huge victory in my opinion because what good is free speech if there isn't a robust means of leveraging it and sharing it?

Just a thought. Again, not trying to ruffle any feathers. Peace.

I,ll say it again.
The American public need to get out there and protest to the right people against this bill, the NDAA and all the other crap that's being heaped on them.
This stuff just can't go on.

These criminals who are pulling the governments strings have gone totally out of control !

Originally posted by OhZone
I have been in this world for more years than I care to admit, and I can tell you that I would never have thought that this could happen to my country. I think I am going to be glad to leave it in a few years.
See all that has already happened makes me so,sad. angry & incredulous at the same time.

It seems they want their NWO and will do anything to get it.
So I think I see the chain of command. Now what puzzles me is why exactly do the next in line obey those at the top? What would happen if they didn't? What do they have over these people?

You think the rest of world is better than US? hardly, and if US falls into fascism or a de-facto dictatorship you will have nowhere no hide, they will own the entire world.

Flagged it! This crap needs to be stopped. Call your representatives and let them know the author's of this bill have no clue how the Internet really works.

Uh, they already do this, but it requires a court order. They seek to circumvent due process once again. They won’t be blocking your local DNS by the way!

The global DNS registry just holds NS records that tell which DNS servers should handle a request for a particular domain. When blocked the NS records for the domain in question will be set to law enforcement servers etc…

One bad site on your shared system will not bring down the whole machine. It is still very bad though, anytime we lose due process we sacrifice liberty and open the door for corruption and unfair practices!

SOPA must be stopped! The entertainment industry already has the tools they need! They just seek to bypass the courts and due process! When you lobby with a few billion bucks you are above the law in America!