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SOPA/PIPA Could Have Huge Impact on IT

Posted by rsmiller on · 25 comments
Real User Monitoring; By Ron Miller 		Mail this story
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If the SOPA/PIPA bills in the US Congress become law, it could potentially have a bigger impact on IT and your company web site than you think because these laws will make it fairly trivial to draw your company into a copyright street fight.

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Comments (25)

5 earlier comments in the full thread.

notbob ·
So it does. Yay Bob!!
gus3 ·
Bitstream Vera Sans strikes again! ;-)
caitlyn ·
While I'm opposed to SOPA I'll point out that it failed to make it out of committee in the House. While I'd like it killed in the Senate as well this isn't the immediate threat some are making it out to be. If the House was actively considering the bill then I'd be more inclined to protest.
Khamul ·
Personally, I don't think sites should be blacked out for non-USA visitors. It's pretty trivial to add geolocation to a website these days (I did it in less than an hour on my little site using GeoLite from maxmind.com); use that to determine who's a US visitor and who's not, and only block it for the people in the US. People in foreign countries don't have any power to change US laws.

If anyone wants a copy of my PHP wrapper script, I'll be happy to post it.
tracyanne ·
I'm not in the US, so taking any sies out that I control is pointless, but I'd love to see your script.
Khamul ·
geoip.php:

<?php

// Wrapper for maxmind.com GeoIP PHP class
// Sample code at http://geolite.maxmind.com/download/geoip/api/php/ 
// Database files at http://geolite.maxmind.com/download/geoip/database/ 
class KGeoIP {

    private $country_code;
    private $country_name;

    function __construct() {
        include_once('geoip.inc');

        $gi = geoip_open('geoip/GeoIP.dat', GEOIP_STANDARD);
        $ip = $_SERVER['REMOTE_ADDR'];
        $this->country_code = geoip_country_code_by_addr($gi, $ip);
        $this->country_name = geoip_country_name_by_addr($gi, $ip);
        geoip_close($gi);
    }

    public function get_country_code() {
        return $this->country_code;
    }

    public function get_country_name() {
        $name = $this->country_name;
        if ($name == "") {  // this normally used when testing on internal (192.168.*) site
            $name = "(Unknown Country)";
        }
        return $name;
    }

}

// instantiate Kgeoip object
if (!isset($Kgeoip) || !is_object($Kgeoip)) {
    $Kgeoip = new KGeoIP();
}

?>


To use on a webpage to see if a visitor is in the US, do the following:

<?php
    include_once('geoip/geoip.php');
    if ($Kgeoip->get_country_code() == "US") {
        echo "Ugly American!!";
    }
?>


montezuma ·
Khamul, Is wikipedia blacked out outside the US?
tracyanne ·
does this message constitute locked out

Quoting:Forbidden

You don't have permission to access / on this server.


Sorry wrong link from google. It looks ok, at least I can get in to their public pages.
Khamul ·
@montezuma: I have no idea, I'm an American. It's blacked out here, but you can easily get around it if you need to by disabling Javascript. I was just pointing out that Americans should be the ones to suffer with the blackout, since it's their (our) stupid elected politicians that are pushing these stupid laws, and that others shouldn't be forced to suffer along with them, though a notification asking them to help out if they can by writing in if they want to might be useful. I posted my script so anyone with a small website that wants to use geolocation to differentiate between the American and non-US visitors can do so easily.
nikkels ·
@montezuma From Thailand: It's blacked out.
BernardSwiss ·
I've been noticing a rather high number of sites being "inaccessible" today.

Unfortunately, only a minority of them give any indication that this relates to the anti-SOPA protest -- in which case the education of the ignorant fails to occur.
tracyanne ·
Isawthis on Wikipedia

Quoting:The English Wikipedia is currently locked for the SOPA/PIPA blackout
gus3 ·
For those who will call their elected representatives, I suggest this line to drive the point home:

"Per your Constitutional duty, please represent your constituents, not your sponsors."
jdixon ·
> "Per your Constitutional duty, please represent your constituents, not your sponsors."

You have these hallucinations often, gus3?

Of course, it's not just that it gets them campaign donations from moneyed interests. It's also a vast expansion of the federal government's power. Bonus points in their view.
tracyanne ·
I received the following email.

Quoting:Today was nuts, right?

Google launched a petition. Wikipedia voted to shut itself off. Senators' websites went down just from the sheer surge of voters trying to write them. NYC and SF geeks had protests that packed city blocks.

You made history today: nothing like this has ever happened before. Tech companies and users teamed up. Tens of millions of people who make the internet what it is joined together to defend their freedoms. The free network defended itself. Whatever you call it, the bottom line is clear: from today forward, it will be much harder to mess up the internet.

The really crazy part? We might even win.

Approaching Monday's crucial Senate vote there are now 35 Senators publicly opposing PIPA. Last week there were 5. And it just takes just 41 solid "no" votes to permanently stall PIPA (and SOPA) in the Senate. What seemed like miles away a few weeks ago is now within reach.

But don't trust predictions. The forces behind SOPA & PIPA (mostly movie companies) can make small changes to these bills until they know they have the votes to pass. Members of Congress know SOPA & PIPA are unpopular, but they don't understand why--so they're easily duped by superficial changes. The Senate returns next week, and the next few days are critical. Here are two things to think about:

1. Plan on calling your Senator every day next week. Pick up the phone each morning and call your Senators' offices, until they vote "no" on cloture. If your site participated today, consider running a "Call the Senate" link all next week.

2. Tomorrow, drop in at your Senators' district offices. We don't have a cool map widget to show you the offices nearest you (we're too exhausted! any takers?). So do it the old fashioned way: use Google, or the phonebook to find the address, and just walk in, say you oppose PIPA, and urge the Senator to vote "no" on cloture. These drop-in visits make our spectacular online protests more tangible and credible.

That's it for now. Be proud and stay on it!

--Holmes, Tiffiniy, and the whole Fight for the Future team.

___

P.S. Huge credit goes to participants in the 11/16 American Censorship Day protest: Mozilla, 4chan, BoingBoing, Tumblr, TGWTG, and thousands of others. That's what got this ball rolling! Reddit, both the community and the team behind it, you're amazing. And of course, thanks to the Wikimedians whose patient and inexorable pursuit of the right answer brought them to take world-changing action. Thanks to David S, David K, Cory D, and E Stark for bold action at critical times.

P.P.S. If you haven't already, show this video to as many people as you can. It works! http://fightforthefuture.org/pipa/

Read the whole comment
helios ·
Yep, got the same one about three hours ago.
JaseP ·
You know,... I was just thinking about this,... and what would be better than the users coming up with our OWN alternative to these bills,... taking the Bull-$#/% by the horns,... so to speak?!?!

My thoughts?!?!
  • Content providers want to go after the money,...
  • They want ease of process,...
  • They want to be able to recoup the cost of prosecuting infringement ...


Users want ...
  • ease of obtaining content, ...
  • an unrestricted internet ...
  • the ability to control what we buy (content shifting, format shifting, etc)...
  • And we want damages models to be more realistic ...


OK,... How about the following?!?!

  • Internet service of process (3x or more on successive days)
  • Venue only at defendant 's location
  • Atty fees and costs for copyright holders if successful in prosecuting civil infringement.
  • No criminality until successive violations proven against the same actor...
  • Damage calculations limited to actual number of copies made or transferred, plus
  • Punitive damages for willful or flagrant infringement and/or trafficking
  • Garnishment of funds to internet businesses found liable (at a percentage or revenue that allows for continued operation, ... They wanna get paid, right?!?!)


But also,...

  • Permanent DMCA exceptions for interoperability and content and format shifting, also as a defense to copyright infringement.
  • Exemptions from liability under patent restrictions for noncommercial Open Source software development and use (no multimedia codec or trivial UI restrictions on open source)
  • Liberal time to answer extentions for internet service defendants
  • No multiparty defendants unless the are pursued for the same set of violations.


I think the above is a reasonable start... Why let the fox guard the chikpcken coop?!?! Why not put OUR ball on THEIR court?!?!
Read the whole comment
Fettoosh ·
[Edited]Since the original is made nicer and easier to read, the duplicate in this comment was removed



JaseP ·
Yeah, that's what I originally intended to do, but forgot the hash for making bullet points... Plus I was taking too much time outa my work day for this... So I tried for quick n dirty, and it didn't work...

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