Recently, a customer wrote in for more information on these two important pieces of legislation. Here’s the response from SWCP President Mark Costlow, that we thought was so good, it deserved to be posted: SOPA and PROTECT-IP are both very bad ideas. They are attempts to address something that is a real problem (theft of intellectual property) but they do it in such a flawed way that the cure would be much worse than the disease. One can argue back and forth about how much of a problem piracy really is. Both sides tend to blow their positions out of proportion. But giving people the power to turn off (read: destroy) web sites at will, without due process, is irresponsible and dangerous. The existing mechanisms for removing infringing material from the internet already have “baby vs bathwater” problems, and these bills would make it worse. Here’s one example. DMCA Takedowns are routinely used to remove videos from YouTube which are deemed to contain a media company’s copyrighted material, when in fact the usage is in a news or commentary context and therefore covered under the Fair Use doctrine. The harmed party can protest the takedown and get it reversed, but that process is lengthy. For someone who makes their living commenting on current events, the takedown essentially nullifies the content. It’s almost useless when they restore it 2 weeks later. Here’s a write-up of a recent case of this, but it’s … Continue reading
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