SOPA

I'll watch the video when I get home from work.

SOPA is a pretty scary bill as it parallels the French antipiracy bill. Three strikes and your out mentality. That's not three strikes as in three proven charges of copyright violations but three ACCUSATIONS!

This obviously unconstitutional proposed law throws out due process.

If it is actually unconstitutional, if it does actually prevent due process, it will not go into effect without a 14th amendment challenge which will inevitably succeed. Legislators love to pass **** that makes them look concerned, intelligent, patriotic--you name it--but which they know will not actually pass muster, so that they won't be held to account for the consequences.

I am very much against SOPA (and I also maintain a copyright on several of my own works). The problem is it is a sledgehammer that does a lot more than stop privacy.

If you post a picture or a video or even a quote from a book you can be accused of piracy. The problem is that the penalties start before before the issue has been resolved. Is the cute kid in the video singing a Shakira song violating copyright? or is it fair use? Blog owners will have to play it safe meaning that in effect lots of perfectly legal content will be squashed.

This is a big deal for blogs like Able2know which will have to spend a lot more time and money pouring over our posts to look for possible piracy, and if there is any question they will be under pressure to yank your posts.

I don't think it is actually unconstitutional, although it should be.

This is why if you like the freedom you have on blogs like Able2Know, you should be calling your congress people.

DailyKos (a prominent lefty blog) is suggesting that a coalition of internet companies including Google, Facebook, Yahoo and AOL are talking about using their services to fight this legislation. I suppose this might mean you will see a "blackout page" explaining why this bill is so bad.

Redstate (a prominent righty blog) is also strongly opposing this bill. This is the only thing I have ever seen these two sites agree about, which shows you that blogs see this as a real threat to freedom of expression.

First, able2know is not a blog. Second, my remark was conditional--if this legislation would intervene in an individual's right of due process, then it is unconstitutional, and there is no question of that.

I called mine (Rep. Carolyn Maloney) a couple of weeks ago to express my concerns and contempt for the proposed law).

Able2Know is a place where you can express your self without being constantly watched. This legislation would mean that Able2know could be targeted as a piracy facilitator if they don't start censoring us. This would mean that Able2know could be effectively shut down (i.e. removed from search engines and cut off from advertising revenue).

Due process for an individual isn't the issue. The charges and the resulting penalties would be against the site (in this case Able2know) for not doing a good enough job policing its members.

For example there could be a complaint about the number of Leonard Cohen songs posted here. Under SOPA, if whatever legal panel decides that there are too many Leonard Cohen songs being posted (against copyright) the government would shut down the entire site. (not just the alleged copyright violation).

This means that sites like Able2Know would have the burden (under a risk of great harm to themselves and their members) of policing every post. The self-censorship will be done by sites motivated by self-preservation. This will cost time and money as Able2know would likely hire people for the express purpose of censorship. And since the issues surrounding copyright issues (i.e. fair use) are sometimes fuzzy and the stakes are so high, you can bet that censors will err on the safe side meaning that content that should be permitted will be removed.

The self-censorship by website owners that will be forced by self-preservation is the most insidious part of this bill. Since the censorship is technically being done by the private website owners, the issue of due process doesn't come into play.

Here's another video that might interest you on this topic.