Anti-Piracy Bill a Threat to Innovation and Free Speech, U.S. Senator Says.

Yesterday the controversial PROTECT IP Act unanimously passed the Senate Judiciary Committee.

The bill now moves forward to the Senate, but getting a vote on it will not be easy.

Just a few hours after it was passed by the committee Senator Wyden already put it on hold.

According to the senator the bill aims to protect intellectual property at the expense of free speech, technological innovation and the very foundations of the Internet.

Wyden released the following statement:

“In December of last year I placed a hold on similar legislation, commonly called COICA, because I felt the costs of the legislation far outweighed the benefits. After careful analysis of the Protect IP Act, or PIPA, I am compelled to draw the same conclusion. I understand and agree with the goal of the legislation, to protect intellectual property and combat commerce in counterfeit goods, but I am not willing to muzzle speech and stifle innovation and economic growth to achieve this objective. At the expense of legitimate commerce, PIPA’s prescription takes an overreaching approach to policing the Internet when a more balanced and targeted approach would be more effective. The collateral damage of this approach is speech, innovation and the very integrity of the Internet.

“The Internet represents the shipping lane of the 21st century. It is increasingly in America’s economic interest to ensure that the Internet is a viable means for American innovation, commerce, and the advancement of our ideals that empower people all around the world. By ceding control of the Internet to corporations through a private right of action, and to government agencies that do not sufficiently understand and value the Internet, PIPA represents a threat to our economic future and to our international objectives. Until the many issues that I and others have raised with this legislation are addressed, I will object to a unanimous consent request to proceed to the legislation.”

Source: Anti-Piracy Bill a Threat to Innovation and Free Speech, U.S. Senator Says.

Generated by BlogIt

BlogIt - Auto Blogging Software for YOU!

Experts Point Out Uselessness of Anti-Piracy DNS Filter

There’s been a lot of talk about the PROTECT IP Act and domain seizures this week.

Lawmakers and the entertainment industries praise the anti-piracy initiatives, but not everyone is convinced.

A group of DNS experts has now joined the opposition with a new whitepaper.

In it, they discuss how DNS filtering is not only very ineffective, but also a threat to the security of the Internet.

ARS has a great writeup on the paper.

Below is a relevant excerpt of the actual report highlighting the ineffectiveness.

—

“The IP number for the website of The Pirate Bay, a well-known peer-to-peer (P2P) organization that has often been connected to infringement allegations, is 194.71.107.15. Simply typing this number instead of www.piratebay.org into a browser’s address line will take a user to the site. To avoid having to remember the number each time, PCs can easily be configured to bypass DNS filters.”

“Effectively, all systems have within them something called a hosts file, which is in text format. After simple editing of a hosts file with the additional line “www.thepiratebay.org 194.71.107.15”, the DNS will no longer be consulted.”

“Many users will not have the expertise necessary to rewrite a host file. On the other hand, individuals who are skeptical of this potential for evasion should consider that software developers already are working on software to evade DNS filtration. A group calling itself “MafiaaFire” has developed a Firefox browser plugin that automatically redirects users requesting a seized domain to the desired site’s new domain or server IP address. Infringers are almost certain to develop similar plugins that skip the DNS entirely, perhaps simply by putting links on their pages which offer to make necessary system changes with a click of the mouse.”

“This reality leads to one conclusion: PROTECT IP’s DNS filtering will be evaded through trivial and often automated changes through easily accessible and installed software plugins. Given this strong potential for evasion, the long-term benefits of using mandated DNS filtering to combat infringement seem modest at best.”

“In addition, if the U.S. mandates and thereby legitimizes DNS filtering, more countries may impose their own flavor of DNS filtering. As this practice becomes more widespread, the extent to which a particular name is reachable will become a function of on which network and in which country a user sits, compromising the universality of DNS naming and thereby the “oneness” of the Internet. This situation will in turn increase the cost and challenge of developing new technologies, and reduce the reliability of the Internet as a whole. If the Internet moves towards a world in which every country is picking and choosing which domains to resolve and which to filter, the ability of American technology innovators to offer products and services around the world will decrease.”

The Whitepaper

Source: Experts Point Out Uselessness of Anti-Piracy DNS Filter

Generated by BlogIt

BlogIt - Auto Blogging Software for YOU!

Richard Stallman Opts to Disobey Anti-Piracy Law

In a recent interview the the Spanish newspaper El Pais, Richard Stallman says that the public should disobey Spain’s new anti-piracy law.

“It is as unfair as Sarkozy and Berlusconi, and should be disobeyed by users,” Stallman says referring to The Sinde Act.

“How many authors writing earn money to pay his expenses? A hundred, five hundred? Is that enough to restrict freedom of all? Collecting user’s private data should only be legal with a court order when there is suspicion that someone is preparing a crime. Non-commercial file-sharing should be legalized. It is a fundamental freedom.”

Stallman further commented on his hair (“my long hair was a political decision”, and his baby (the Free Software Foundation), which he says accomplished more than most real kids.

“I have no family and did not want to have children because the children push you desperately seeking more money.”

“My son is the Free Software Movement, and I believe that it contributed more than other human children to make the world a little better. It is true that copyright is only a secondary area where one can see that democracies are ill because they are sold to corporations. But it is important because the freedom of many people is at stake.”

Source: Richard Stallman Opts to Disobey Anti-Piracy Law

Generated by BlogIt

BlogIt - Auto Blogging Software for YOU!

More Opposition to UK Anti-Piracy Law

Three strikes laws, the fabled ‘golden bullet’ to deal with copyright infringement has taken a beating over the past year. The debate over the effectiveness has focused on three areas – proportionality, judicial oversight and accuracy – and more evidence keeps piling up against it.

Opponents to three-strikes, or ‘Graduated Response’ laws have been boosted in recent weeks by the news that the UN has condemned such laws, citing their disproportionate  nature (that the punishment is far greater than the alleged crime warrants). In the wake of this statement, UK groups have started pushing ever harder to get significant parts of the Digital Economy Act (DEAct) – which has already cost the taxpayer around £5.9Million – repealed.

The Act, passed in an incredible rush in 2010 has been constantly under fire for legitimizing the practices of accusation-based punishment. On June 14 an Early Day Motion was submitted to the Government, building on the UN’s report, asking that a review of the DEAct be undertaken, and is currently signed by 20 MPs.

The UK Pirate Party is also putting pressure on the Government, with it’s “Axe the Act” campaign. The campaign asks UK citizens to urge their MP to support the Early Day Motion, as well as a petition.

Since errors in graduated response schemes have now been publicly documented, and the whole system has come under global condemnation, how long will it be before content industries are pushing a new ‘golden bullet’ to solve the claimed problems of piracy.

Source: More Opposition to UK Anti-Piracy Law

Generated by BlogIt

BlogIt - Auto Blogging Software for YOU!