SOPA up this Thurs: are they really going to Censor the Internet?

[liveonearth]

I don't know much about this bill, but I ran across this today: 87% of Wikipedians despise the bill and support a Wikipedia Blackout to protest it. SOPA stands for Stop Online Piracy Act, and it goes before the U.S. House Judiciary Committee this Thursday, December 15.

I can relate that at the public library in the town of my birth, if you type "finish it" the computer system changes your "sh it" to xxxx. Pain in the A$$. But I have a feeling that's not the kind of censorship that's coming down the pipe on this one. Can anyone give me a primer on what this law would really do? I'd appreciate it.

Comments

[ford-prefect42.livejournal.com]

Ask and you will recieve:) I looked it up since you asked.

It's actually not so much "censorship" as "copyright protection". It's to keep people from streaming movies and suchlike :( It's not a *bad* bill in and of itself.

The tetchy part is that it creates a mandate that ISPs and other datamovers create filters that can screen out specified domains. It's intended to be like... xyxx.nz is a kiddy porn site in new zealand not subject to US law (we can't arrest the operators of the web site), so the Government puts them on a list, and henceforth, no US router will forward a packet to or from xyxx.nz. What has people in a tizzy is that once that capability is created, it's... pretty much going to be abused. How long after xyxx.nz is it before they declare that "hate-speech" also qualifies for listing in the "do not forward" list?

Long story short, it's another "It's not the bill, it's what the bill leads to" scenario.

[liveonearth.livejournal.com]

Ah yes, the slippery slope toward the police state. Well thanks for looking it up!!