Measures of the United States to fight piracy have centered on the law called SOPA. This is already infamous act, which, after becoming legislation, will extend its power abroad and take over any domain that violates copyright, regardless of the local copyright legislation. Online services, including Google, Facebook, and Yahoo! have already discussed this “online monarchy”, and now the European Parliament joins the dispute and takes a stand against this gross breach of online freedom.
The discussion started back in 2010, when the United States made domain name seizures part of their campaign aimed at stopping piracy. Finally, the United States introduced the Stop Online Piracy Act, a law bringing in new and dangerous meanings to copyright. The best example of their methods was Rojadirecta case, a Spanish website seized by American authorities regardless of numerous Spanish court decisions on the legality of the service.
Now the European Parliament joins the opposition to the new US law by criticizing domain name seizures. In November the EU-US Summit is going to hold a resolution destined to highlight the necessity to protect the integrity of the web and freedom of communication. The SOPA is backed by two outfits waiting for it to be enforced – they are the Recording Industry Association of America and Motion Picture Association of America. Everyone knows that both of them care about foreign sites, like Russian social network InTouch (VKontakte) or Chinese media service Xunlei. This can refer to whichever website that comes into conflict with the industry’s interests. The interests mean money-makers like Hollywood’s studios or other big-shot corporations.
Over sixty press freedom and human rights advocate outfits have already signed a letter addressed to the representatives of the United States, saying that it is as unacceptable to the global community as it would be if any foreign country were to impose the same measures on the US. The industry experts keep discussing the details of SOPA legislation and effects it can have on the worldwide web as people know it. Meanwhile, they encourage everyone to get informed and spread the news about the tremendous danger SOPA poses, because it may help fighting the new copyright law.
The discussion started back in 2010, when the United States made domain name seizures part of their campaign aimed at stopping piracy. Finally, the United States introduced the Stop Online Piracy Act, a law bringing in new and dangerous meanings to copyright. The best example of their methods was Rojadirecta case, a Spanish website seized by American authorities regardless of numerous Spanish court decisions on the legality of the service.
Now the European Parliament joins the opposition to the new US law by criticizing domain name seizures. In November the EU-US Summit is going to hold a resolution destined to highlight the necessity to protect the integrity of the web and freedom of communication. The SOPA is backed by two outfits waiting for it to be enforced – they are the Recording Industry Association of America and Motion Picture Association of America. Everyone knows that both of them care about foreign sites, like Russian social network InTouch (VKontakte) or Chinese media service Xunlei. This can refer to whichever website that comes into conflict with the industry’s interests. The interests mean money-makers like Hollywood’s studios or other big-shot corporations.
Over sixty press freedom and human rights advocate outfits have already signed a letter addressed to the representatives of the United States, saying that it is as unacceptable to the global community as it would be if any foreign country were to impose the same measures on the US. The industry experts keep discussing the details of SOPA legislation and effects it can have on the worldwide web as people know it. Meanwhile, they encourage everyone to get informed and spread the news about the tremendous danger SOPA poses, because it may help fighting the new copyright law.
No comments:
Post a Comment