Filesonic stops infringing . I guess the site’s leadership didn’t want to go to jail like Ninjavideo , or get hit like Megaupload did. People put up with ad-laden, obnoxious ‘file sharing’ sites when they want to download something that can’t be distributed legally, by less annoying sites. Everyone knows this. It’s a good thing that Megaupload was taken down. That was a blow for property rights. But not all in the anti-SOPA coalition support property rights. They don’t want prudent copyright protection laws to fix the problem of foreign free riders, and want us to wink and nod at infringers. Look, even if we repealed the Sonny Bono act, or even the copyright act before that, we’d still have copyrights that needed protection. Europe regulates the Internet again. “Right to be forgotten?” I say Brussels has a right to take a long walk off a short pier. Chuck Grassley, convert to our side on SOPA , gets his Twitter account attacked. Hijacking someone’s communications accounts is to attack political discourse in an open society. I hope those responsible are prosecuted. Also, way to reward people for doing the right thing, not.
The rest is here:
Tech at Night: War on Copyright intensifies as infringers fall, Grassley hacked
It was a long fight. I can’t tell you how many times I kept saying that SOPA and PROTECT IP were in trouble. But they’re getting shelved now . Sure, there’s whining about it . And the President still is too cowardly to lead . Now it’s time to move on to the next step, though, and find a sensible way to attack the foreign infringers , who essentially are free riders on the American copyright system, taking advantage of the scarcity imposed by copyright without themselves respecting the rules that create that scarcity. You can tell who’s trying to make this into a fight against copyright though, by the way Megaupload is being made out as a victim . When Megaupload in fact was a company that was making big bucks as a place you could stash files for broad distribution without regard for copyright, and they’re rightfully being shut down. So it’s not surprising that the terror group Anonymous is defending them and attacking the United States of America in the process. This is an anti-American lawless band of thugs that needs to be be made to pay. And they always do get caught. We just have to wonder whether there will be a backlash against an open Internet thanks to that anarchist scum. I’m glad Marsha Blackburn flipped on SOPA, because she’s making fantastic points on spectrum . FCC management of spectrum holds back even good policies like auctions. Those failures keep spectrum idle, and thus harm the public by creating artificial scarcity. They don’t do the job right, and so now we need to stand over them and tell them what to do. They had a chance, they failed. Read the whole thing. Google has a long way do go before it earns trust from a lot of people. People aren’t going to forget soon how closely Google allied with Barack Obama, and then how Google allied with the radical left to push for Internet regulation. So Google’s position on SOPA is being met with skepticism from some , and it’s hard to say it’s unwarranted. Ah, the open Internet .
According to Darrell Issa, SOPA is officially postponed by House Judiciary Chairman Lamar Smith. Issa broke the news on Twitter , which only underscores how important it is that we protect the Internet from capricious censorship, as was the risk under a SOPA-like regime. On the Senate side, Harry Reid has canceled the vote on PROTECT IP , killing momentum for the proposal in both houses of Congress. Smith’s and Reid’s decisions comes on the heels of disgraced former Senator and current MPAA head Chris Dodd calling for cross-industry discussions on property protection . It may have been the death blow for PROTECT IP and SOPA’s biggest industry supporter to start talking compromise, when in the past the Dodd MPAA had taken a hard line against any deviation from the bills. In other SOPA news, Marsha Blackburn also announced a change of heart on SOPA . I agree with Blackburn’s new position: scrap SOPA and start with something new. Issa’s and Ron Wyden’s OPEN Act is also worthy of consideration.
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Smith and Reid give in, setting aside SOPA and PROTECT IP
I’m back. I ended up taking an extended Christmas break because well, I liked having a break, plus there wasn’t a whole lot going on anyway. But, back to work! Lamar Smith and Chris Dodd still want to censor the Internet, by pushing the SOPA bill that we need to defeat. Why is it bad? Victims get no due process, ISPs have the burden of proof if government makes economically or technically unreasonable demands on them, and of course the largest reason of all is that it amounts to censoring the Internet without actually stopping foreign infringers of American copyrights. Let’s make sure to watch the SOPA sponsor list . They must be primary targets this cycle if they don’t turn. I don’t care who they are. Marsha Blackburn is one of my favorite members, but Erick Erickson is right to call her out . This is a bad bill, a terrible bill. Yes, the foreign leeches are annoying , but the problem is that SOPA doesn’t actually stop them. It attempts (poorly) to censor what Americans can see online. It doesn’t protect American property rights, but instead threatens them in an ostrich-like attempt to hide us from the rest of the world. Activists are already at work . There’s also an alternative to SOPA that actually will work. The OPEN act promoted by Darrell Issa and Ron Wyden would use proven techniques for stopping foreign infringers; Apple uses it already against patent infringement. The ITC exists for a reason. But, Chris Dodd’s MPAA and now the RIAA are demanding SOPA, not OPEN. They don’t care if the Internet is open; they think if they shut down the Internet in America that you’ll buy more CDs and DVDs. They want government to pick winners and losers, not just protect rights. OPEN protects rights. SOPA pits one industry against all others. Kill the bill. Primary the offenders. For those of us thinking of focusing on races other than the Presidential race, that’d be a great project to work on. I’m glad FCC censorship has its limits at least . Cable TV can show respected works without worry. PATENT WARS: The great, peace-loving Soviet Google buys more patents in bulk , though the firm continues to insist it uses patents only defensively. Meanwhile Some make the case that Apple should fight Android less and instead offer up patent licenses, to cash in on Android the way Microsoft does. Imagine if we ended the arbitrary scarcity of top level domains (think of .com, .net, .us, .ly, etc.). ICANN wants to expand our choices , but some in government want to hinder and slow down the process . I’m torn. On one hand it’s an obvious cash grab on the part of ICANN and the registrars, as they know deep-pocketed big businesses will buy up many more domains to try to protect their expensive brands. On the other hand, for the rest of us, the expanded choices will reduce costs. So in this case, self-interest on the part of registrars seems to benefit the public. The invisible hand moves. Some people give lawyers a bad name. Righthaven was one of those firms , trolling around the internet making suing people a business model. Moe Lane says they’re getting “force choked,” and I’m not about to cry about it, despite being a strong proponent of copyright. Online terror group Anonymous won’t quit. Like any other crime syndicate, they make threats against innocents at will , and make attacks that harm bystanders. Even when they try to do “good,” by attacking members of the fringe, fascist, racist, literally Nazi-loving political party in Germany, the Nationalist Party of Germany or the NPD *, they mess up badly. By breaking the law, they’re making the Nazis out to be victims, which is counterproductive.
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Tech at Night: The Return. Also, we still need to kill SOPA.
Wednesday night I put off all Tech at Night topics except for SOPA because the critical mark up votes in Committee were coming up. We weren’t supposed to be able to stop SOPA, but we could at least raise awareness, put up a fight, and prepare for the floor votes. And sure enough, the vote to keep the Internet censorship provisions went in favor of censorship 22-11. Well, it turns out, we managed to slow the process down. After we made our threats to start working on primary challenges over that 22-11 vote, Lamar Smith put off SOPA , halting the current process until next week at the earliest . Stay sharp, but feel good about this delay. The longer we delay, the more we can gain support for the OPEN Act instead of SOPA. SOPA opponents Darrell Issa, Zoe Lofgren, Jared Polis, and Jason Chaffetz also deserve credit. Why yes, that list does include a Democrat. Just shows how wrong Lamar Smith is to side with disgraced former Senator Chris Dodd and the MPAA on this. Two men who between them have no clue how the Internet works. LightSquared. I complained early on that I could see no fire there, but even I’m having to concede there’s a whole lot of smoke. Chuck Grassley’s demands for transparency on LightSquared and the FCC still aren’t being met. Reports bad for LightSquared and its effects on GPS users continue to come out despite further word that the testing is unfinished but being released prematurely. Sanjiv Ahuja and LightSquared continue to insist that it’s not their fault, and I’m seeing no clear refutation to that point, but then again, why is the FCC stonewalling Grassley? I’m not sure I agree with House legislation on LightSquared , though. Not until we get straight answers given to Chuck Grassley’s questions do we have enough information to act on this. What do Barack Obama and Julius Genachowski have to hide here? Is it spectrum policy? FCC’s spectrum screen policies are being exposed as controversial. Republican attempts to enhance the use of free markets in spectrum policy are being attacked. And Republicans are apparently holding firm on the matter . Spectrum matters, folks . I did not expect Barack Obama of all people to exercise parental rights, rather than demand more regulation, to achieve sensible outcomes on privacy for his kids. If only Michelle would follow suit when it comes to food for her kids. Wow, we’re not done yet? Nope. Hang on. It was a busy week even without SOPA hogging all the attention. Anonymous : not as good at staying anonymous as they think. This is good, though: we need to keep putting attackers in jail, not passing new regulations. But again, information sharing is fine as long as it’s not putting burdens on anyone or hindering innovation and job growth in any way. Remember the proposed regulations to require cars to act as Faraday cages and block all phone transmissions? The next wave of that proposal is here . NTSB wants to ban all phone use in cars, which is even dumber than the phone restrictions on planes. You know those FCC subsidies that rural phone carriers are fighting with ISPs over? You’re paying for them , don’t forget. SOPA is not the only example of copyright holders flipping out over pro-customer innovation and new technology. Remember: pro-business is not the same as pro-liberty. Man, I wish my lone self could go around hiring people all the time with a wad of George Soros cash. Maybe then I could write about this stuff more than three nights a week.
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Tech at Night: We won a battle on SOPA; LightSquared heating up; OBAMA shows sense on privacy
