The great Firewall of America: E-PARASITES Act
 

Ladies and Gentlemen, I present to you the newest bill in the Senate that will have massive consequences for gamers, and purveyors of the internet. People believed that the six strikes bill is bad. I can point to a bill that I've been paying close attention to. It passed the Senated and is now in the House, attempting to take away the rights of not only this site, but also the sites of foreign domains without any regard to due process. If you followed the Protect IP Act, it has now been changed to the "E-PARASITES" as it makes its way through the House. Before I go on, I will say that the tech industry (Google), legal professionals (100+ law professors), investors and entrepreneurs have come out against this bill.

Link

The first part to notice is the actions taken by the Attorney General under this legislation.

1) If a foreign site has even ONE American able to enter it, it's liable.

2) If you commit infringement from any other part of the copyright law, you're liable

3) Your site is subject to US law, even if you're in another country.

4) If you've made it difficult for the AG to find you, and you operate a website within the US, your site is automatically forfeited.

5) The AG has to make an attempt to notify you of the action. However, it's not clear to what lengths they have to go. One AG might try three emails. Another may try one phone call.

6) Not only does your site become forfeited, but also the proceeds from any ads, and profits from pay processors such as Visa, Mastercard, American Express, etc.

In a nutshell, the AG is allowed to takedown a website, cut off funding, and cause severe financial damage to it before you have a chance to be heard.

But this isn't the worst part. The fact is, the work can be outsourced to others that have the AG's favor such as the MPAA and RIAA. They can apply for injunctive relief through a one sided court where you have no right to habeas corpus. You are not present, and possibly, you are in another country while your domain is seized.

Copyright holders have to give notice to payment processors and ad providers before taking away funds without a court review. And the worst part? It lumps in the anti-streaming bill. So not only will you be screwed over due to a copyright claim, this new bill makes it damn near impossible to fight against the government!

This bill is the worst kind. It impedes on the First Amendment and your right to free speech. It impedes on your right to privacy and habeas corpus. This also infringes upon your right to redress the government, making you guilty before you're ever considered innocent.

If there's ever been a time to talk to your Senator, please let them know, this bill MUST NOT PASS!


TL;DR version of how this breaks the internet: Link

Ars Technica article on the matter

Wired article

How you can take action through the EFF

Demand Progress' link

You make me sad every time you post.

It's not the quality or anything like that, in a cerebral way I enjoy your posts and the thought provoking material. It's just that I have come to associate you starting a thread with bad news.

Still, I am hoping that entities like Google can hopefully give the backlash on laws like this enough clout to stop this. Barring that, someone takes it to court.

Well, Google is a company, so at least we know they will be able to buy the death of this from our eager elected criminals.

:(

or out behind an old barn with a shotgun. That'd get some forward progression accomplished.

its not that passing this wouldn't be horrible, it would be, but I dont see this getting too far. No company wants to limit their market, and honestly it would be a hit to the economy, not to mention vast majority of Americans dont want limitations implemented either.

Heck if one person just points out, this is what China and North Korea have implemented and it should kill momentum.

Biggest shock to me was who was the idiot that purposed this in the first place

My biggest issue on why anyone would even want this to go on the floor is that it will be such a big blow to the internet that anyone who supports or is associated with this bill will be forever condemned by the ever-growing online community. Career suicide in the form of paper that will never get to do anything.

I hope this burns with fire along with the reputations of anyone who supports this.

It was three in the Senate which it passed. John Cornyn, Amy Klobuchar, and Patrick Leahy.

When it was introduced yesterday, that was from Lamar Sith, John Conyers Jr, Bob Goodlatte, and Mel Watt.

That's because some people still think they can get that Internet fad to reverse itself. And think they should, because protecting the copyrights of the wealthiest companies is much more important than anything the Internet can offer.

That's what I think this is all about: The RIAA and MPAA have so competely bought a number of lawmakers that they actually think it's a good idea for the Internet to be controlled by corporate interests, if not downsized to such a degree it might as well not exist. A global community? An exchange of ideas on a scale unimagined ten years ago? The collective knowledge of humanity at our fingertips? Wikileaks? Email? That's all crap. All they see is file sharing that's costing important people such as the Walt Disney Company* untold amounts of potential profit. And putting it all back in order would be much easier than figuring out how to do digital distribution.

Not that I'm disappointed or anything.

No you see if civilized Western nonsocialist countries do it it's for the protection of democracy and their citizen's rights and to ensure the economy's ability to grow.

Did it pass a broad vote on the FLOOR, did it pass the vote to start debate, or did it pass committee? I see it was sent to the House, I don't see where the article says the Senate voted on and passed the bill. One would hope Barack "The Islamic Shock" Superallah HUSSEIN Fartbongo will veto it if it does come to that, and failing that, the Supreme Court will likely strike it down. The arguments are easy enough to wage, and not only that but the RIAA and MPAA don't have nearly the power of Google and its comrades-in-arms who are opposed to this bill. I daresay $500 billion can buy more congressmen than $200 billion, or whatever.

Anyways this is all retarded and should die, but it won't until the media runs with it and creates a real backlash. Which, for once, they should, becuase this bill can make a media siteb e taken down if it links to, references, or depicts a video of copyrighted content of any kind....