Dear Rep. Jenkins/Sen. Moran/Sen. Roberts,
www.allthingsimpossible.com
From this moment on, this is me blogging:
My first thought is that the word senator is from the Latin word senex meaning 'old man'. Aren't you happy you learned something today?
If you are an American citizen, please contact your representatives and senators today. If you are not an American citizen, and are just as incensed about this as we are, you can petition the State Department. More details are at www.americancensorship.org. Although, honestly, I'm not sure I would petition a foreign government, but hey, this will affect the ENTIRE internet, so maybe it's worth it.
UPDATE 1/13/12 Author of the SOPA bill is technically guilty of his own online copyright violation, see this Forbes article.So, under SOPA, he could have his own website taken down without due process.
UPDATE 1/18/12 Here's what a host of law professors have to say about it. They're not happy either.
My greatest fear with SOPA is that this removes due process for many legitimate websites. A person wouldn’t be convicted in court before a trial. I fear that many innocent people and sites will be made out like criminals and turned into victims by a system that’s apparent goal is to protect them.
I run a website. I have registered all my own copyrights and I don’t link to sites that offer pirated material. However, I do have spaces where users can comment and interact with me. My fear is that one bad apple may link to an untrusted site with pirated content on my pages. I’m only one person, and I’m afraid of what will happen to me and my site if I don’t delete almost instantly. I don’t have the time to police everything immediately. No one does. I don’t want to shut off interaction with my users; that would be a death blow to my website.
The majority of my users would never do this. So, why are you debating legislation that would affect everyone when the majority are not doing this?
This is guilty-until-proven-innocent legislation would punish everyone for the criminal actions of a few rogues offering pirated content. The internet troll who put up the offending link will never be punished under this system, but I would be.
Where is a small person like me going to find my due process if my site is removed from all search engines first? Who do I contact? What am I supposed to do? It’s just me. I don’t have a team of lawyers, and couldn’t afford them anyway.
What do I do if I am hacked and someone puts up offending material? I wouldn’t know what to do to regain the good reputation of my site!
Some of my own material has been pirated, and people have tried to sell it on Ebay and Amazon without my permission or offering me any compensation. I’ve chased down the offending sites and links and had them removed with ease.
Why deny due process when it was so enshrined in the Constitution? This bill, as it is now, is a travesty! It’s disgusting! Why punish all the innocent people as well as the guilty ones?
Please vote against SOPA and PROTECT IP, or work to amend them so that they do not deny due process to legitimate website owners, please. I will remember how you voted come election time.
Thank you for reading this letter. I am also posting this publicly on my blog in order to spread the word.
Sincerely,
Deborah Daltonwww.allthingsimpossible.com
From this moment on, this is me blogging:
My first thought is that the word senator is from the Latin word senex meaning 'old man'. Aren't you happy you learned something today?
If you are an American citizen, please contact your representatives and senators today. If you are not an American citizen, and are just as incensed about this as we are, you can petition the State Department. More details are at www.americancensorship.org. Although, honestly, I'm not sure I would petition a foreign government, but hey, this will affect the ENTIRE internet, so maybe it's worth it.
UPDATE 1/13/12 Author of the SOPA bill is technically guilty of his own online copyright violation, see this Forbes article.So, under SOPA, he could have his own website taken down without due process.
UPDATE 1/18/12 Here's what a host of law professors have to say about it. They're not happy either.
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