So that we have no rights whatsoever to do what? Abuse copyright? It seems to me that "your side" is forgetting that it's illegal anyway. Websites with clean hands have little to fear.
You see, that argument doesn't work. ALL web sites have something to fear. ALL journalists, all authors, all publishers, all, all, all.
Assume for a moment it's journalism we were talking about, since this is the framework used historically for first amendment questions. Let's use a relatively recent example...Bill Clinton perjuring himself about whether he had "sex with that woman." There is no question that he perjured himself, and at the time it was viewed as a fairly important story.
In this example, we'll pick on ABC and CBS.
ABC breaks the story that the President of the United States has just committed a Federal offense, by perjuring himself. This reflects badly on the President, and his administration.
CBS breaks the story that the President is just being picked on, persecuted by those wascally Republicans, and that his sexuality is his own business.
CBS is "towing the party line," and thus has nothing to fear...they're playing along. ABC, in this example, is breaking a potentially important story, but one which embarrasses the current administration...
SOPA grants the US government sufficient power to obliterate ABC's ability to distribute this message, by shutting down their distribution channels and *blocking* the public's ability to even find their site, through DNS redirection.
*This* is the problem I have with SOPA. It shuts down the distribution channels for what has often been referred to as the 4th branch of American politics. Play along, or we remove all traces of you from the internet.
???
I agree, wholeheartedly, that intellectual property infringement is a problem. I do not agree that shredding the Bill of Rights is the way to address it...and yes, I do view this approach as a shredding of the Bill of Rights. My intention is not to protect copyright thieves...my intention is to point out how ridiculous the overreaction is, and that it puts into place the framework which could *SO* easily be used to implement wholesale censorship.
While it's still legal to do so, let me quote Orwell. "If you want a picture of the
future, imagine a
boot stamping on a human face forever."
John Mayer may have said it even better in his song
Waiting on the World to Change, when he said "Cause when they own the information, oh
They can bend it all they want."
SOPA effectively gives unilateral ownership and control of the information *distribution channel* to the US government. Danger, danger, danger Will Robinson!
I'm a Republican, too, and one thing that has been fascinating about this whole thing is that it appears to be a truly bipartisan issue, without a clear division of which side is liberal and which side is conservative. It threatens to make people think for themselves.
An excellent point, actually. I've noticed the same thing. It's not often that I'm on the same side of an issue with the liberals, but obviously it *can* happen.
