A Technical Examination of SOPA & PIPA

A TECHNICAL EXAMINATION OF SOPA&PIPA Stop Online Piracy Act House Bill 3261 or H.R. 3261 PROTECT IP Act Senate Bill 968 or S. 968 THE MAIN PROBLEM Google These bills make website owners responsible and punishable for how users interact with their sites. You Tube The language of these bills can be easily manipulated and abused, resulting in many websites being severely limited or blocked. twitter facebook. WE Be Teople 1st Amendment: Prior Restraint • The doctrine of Prior Restraint, set forth by the 1st amendment, means the government can't censor most things before their publication; only AFTER, if found in violation of the law. DMCA • The internet is already in compliance with this doctrine (DMCA). For example, Youtube can't pre-censor absolutely all copyright material, but it can take down videos one-by-one AFTER they're posted, by DMCA requests. DIGITAL MILLENIUM COPYRIGHT ACT • These bills attempt to wipe out prior restraint, making websites responsible for pre-censorship of ANY illegal or copyright material. This is unconstitutional. The definition of illegal and copyright material has been stretched to the limits in the past by interested parties. IMPORTANT NOTE As such, those terms cannot always be taken at face value. THE BATTLEFIELDS Bill sponsors say: "THIS LEGISLATION BILL SPONSOR PRIMARILY TARGETS FOREIGN SITES" However, SOPA & PIPA separate sites by domain name DOMESTIC FOREIGN .COM, .ORG, .US ETC. .LY, .IT ETC. Under this definition, many sites would be mis-labeled ACTUAL DOMESTIC SITES ACTUAL FOREIGN SITES wikileaks.org E thepiratebay.org = redd.it bit.ly This problematic system for defining "domestic" vs. "foreign" sites leaves itself wide open for abuse. Many top-level sites use services like image hosting and server distribution etc. which can divide the site as a whole between domestic and non-domestic servers. THE PLAYERS вотн SOPA SERVICE PROVIDER PAYMENT NETWORK PROVIDER A service that hosts non- A service that handles payment transactions authoritative DNS server. (e.g. PayPal) This includes ISPS, sites like OpenDNS, Google's public nameserv- ers, and any other service providing a public DNS resolution server. PIPA FINANCIAL TRANSACTION PROVIDER [Same as above] SOPA U.S. DIRECTED SITES SOPA INTERNET SEARCH ENGINE A site, or portion thereof, that is used to conduct A service that provides links to other sites based on a user business or provide services to U.S. residents. query or selection. Besides search engines themselves, other sites likely to fall within this definition are news aggregators like Reddit and Digg, live blogs, link shorteners, wikis, and blog networks. "...OR PORTION" Entire domains can be blacklisted if ANY PART of the site is found in violation. PIPA INFORMATION LOCATION TOOL Any service that displays links or 'pointers' to other sites. вотн QUALIFYING PLAINTIFF A holder of intellectual property who is harmed by the activity of a foreign infringing site. THE POWERS Most of the power in these bills is granted to the office of the Attorney General. PARTMENT The Attorney General can obtain a court order to take action against a foreign infringing site, or portions thereof, as defined by the following: DOMINA JUSTITIA SOPA CRITERIA FOR LEGAL ACTION PIPA • The site is U.S. directed. • The owner or operator of the site is "committing or facilitating the commission of criminal violations". • The site is used or has been designed by its operator "primarily as a means for engaging in, enabling, or facilitating the activities" of copyright infringement or counterfeit products Criminal violations means activities that are punishable under section 2318, 2319, 2319A, 2319B, or 2320, or chapter 90, of title 18, United “...OR FACILITATING" States Code. Those sections primarily deal with copyright infringement and counterfeit products. This vague language found in both bills leaves this legislation open for abuse. If domestic the site is subject to seizure Ox For example: If Google search finds links to illegal material (i.e. "How to rip a Blu-Ray), the entire Google search service can SITE BLOCKED be held accountable. IF A SITE IS FOUND IN VIOLATION, THE FOLLOWING WOULD BE REQUIRED: Sites and search engines must remove links to "foreign" site. Advertising services can no longer serve ads link- ing to the site, or display ads (e.g. AdSense) on the foreign site. ADS U.S. payment networks must cease any transac- tions between the foreign site and U.S. customers. 123. 456. 7.89 U.S. service providers must block customer access to the foreign site (DNS blacklisting). вотн ACTIONS WHICH CAN BE TAKEN BY QUALIFIED PLAINTIFFS Qualifying plaintiffs can send notice to advertising services and payment networks requiring them to cease interaction with a foreign infringing site, without involvement of the Attorney General. PLAINTIFF DEFENDANT ATTTORNEY GENERAL SOPA “NO DUTY TO MONITOR" SOPA states that Ad networks and payment networks are in compliance if they take the action described on the date the notice is "Search engines" do not have this qualification, and could be required to CONTINUALLY MONITOR content. received. THE FALLOUT Not content removal, but entire site censorship SOPA and PROTECT IP do not focus on the removal of actual infringing content, but rather the censorship of links to entire domains. Why this doesn't actually stop piracy Tor • This legislation does nothing to stop actual infringement, but rather, forces private U.S. sites to police links to it. • Internet users interested in illegal material will continue to find ways to access banned sites. In fact, tools used to circumvent such censorship have been or currently are funded by the U.S. State department to aid citizens under "repressive regimes". Popular online anonymity software "Tor" has recieved funding from the U.S. government. This will hurt startups and tech innovation CASE # 123 • Startups may not be able to fund systems to help them comply with SOPA and PIPA. • Startups may not have the funds required to protect themselves against legal penalties from SOPA and PIPA. startups should this legislation • Some venture capitalists have already said they would cut back on funding for become law. IN CONCLUSION SOPA & PIPA... CO: loophole SITE BLOCKED Will not stop the Contain ambiguous Introduce an piracy they intend to prevent. language which makes them ripe unprecedented level of censorship to the for abuse. open internet Brought to you by: Designed by: LUMIN İNTERACTIVE condor consulting (luminconsulting.com) (condorconsulting.com) Sources: http://hdl.loc.gov/loc.uscongress/legislation.112s968 http://hdl.loc.gov/loc.uscongress/legislation.112hr3261 http://blog.reddit.com/2012/01/technical-examination-of-sopa-and.html#citel http://www.cnn.com/2011/TECH/web/06/11/hiding.online.identity/index.html?&hpt=hp_c2 http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/on-small-business/post/5-ways-sopapipa-would-impact-web-start-ups/2012/01/18/glQA PWFF8P_blog.html OF JUSTIC