LHFC joins the opposition to SOPA and PIPA

dimopoulos

dimopoulos

Crazy Greek
Staff member
The Long Hair Care Forum is the largest online community of its kind worldwide. We are the ultimate Hair Care and Beauty resource for women of color.

However this site is in jeopardy. The free exchange of information and ideas, the free expression, the link exchange that our members enjoy, can effectively become the reasons why this and other sites could very well disappear from the Internet.

The US Congress is considering legislation that will affect the operation of the Internet and censor websites including ours.

Internet experts, the innovators behind the Internet, organizations, companies, entrepreneurs, legal experts, journalists, and individuals have repeatedly expressed how dangerous this bill is. Staying in apathy, Congress will most likely pass the Protect IP Act (in the Senate) or the Stop Online Piracy Act (in the House), and then the President will probably sign it into law.

The intention of these laws is to fight piracy. However alongside with punishing the offenders, these laws can be used to censor the Internet entirely. According to these laws, if a vendor sees an infringement of their copyright (which can be a quote from their website, a link exchange, posting an article without their approval/consent etc.) they can contact the Internet Service Provider (ISP) of the site and demand that the site is blocked.

The ISP according to the proposed laws will be granted immunity if they act proactively so they will block the site. Irrespective of whether the claim was accurate or not, these laws can easily censor every website on the planet.

The Long Hair Care Forum will be blacked January 18th from 8am–8pm EST (1300–0100 UTC)..

We will be joining a number of websites that have already committed to this blackout as a form of protest against these bills.

Although the US White House has issued a statement and some parts of these bills have been removed so as to be revised, both bills must be removed completely since they create a dangerous precedence for the freedom of the Internet.

There is a plethora of articles and blog posts regarding SOPA and PIPA. We encourage you to spend some time and read about these proposed bills which endanger one of the greatest resource of news and communication in our world - the Internet. If you wish to take some action, contact your elected representatives with your views on these bills and sign relevant petitions around the Internet.

Some sources:
https://wwws.whitehouse.gov/petitio...while-protecting-open-and-innovative-internet
http://blog.reddit.com/2012/01/stopped-they-must-be-on-this-all.html
http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20...sites-join-reddit-january-18th-blackout.shtml
http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-501465_...ited-with-reddit-blackout-wikipedia-may-join/
 
Thank you for doing this! I would not have known about this if it weren't for this forum!
 
Good. I wonder whether the likes of Facebook, Twitter and Wikipedia will also join the blackout. If this had come into law years ago, they probably wouldn't exist.
 
ebsalita said:
Good. I wonder whether the likes of Facebook, Twitter and Wikipedia will also join the blackout. If this had come into law years ago, they probably wouldn't exist.
Click to expand...

I hope they do! I just changed my Facebook profile picture and posted a link about this, because I'm sure most people haven't even heard about this yet!
 
ebsalita said:
Good. I wonder whether the likes of Facebook, Twitter and Wikipedia will also join the blackout. If this had come into law years ago, they probably wouldn't exist.
Click to expand...

Most likely not.

I am personally against piracy and definitely respect someone else's copyrighted work. However there are better ways to combat piracy and SOPA is not one of them.

We have in our rules that members cannot post copyrighted material without permission. However you cannot stop someone from sharing information. It might happen and actually it has happened in the past. We did receive in the past tickets of copyright owners that pointed us to content that was infringing their copyright and we have duly removed that content. However if this bill passes, the copyright owner will no longer contact us (webmaster for instance) and just contact any ISP so that this site is completely blocked.

I can count no more than 10 instances in 10 years that we had complaints from copyright owners regarding infringing content (and again we removed the content as soon as we were alerted to its existence).

Banning a website which serves as a great resource for its audience because 10 posts out of 8.5 MILLION in a period of 10 years is very harsh and this is why we oppose to it.

I will also adjust everyone's subscription to +1 day so as not to lose any time from your subscription time. I know that some might say that one day is really cents, but we want to be fair to everyone :)
 
Geez. What's the world coming to. Thanks Nikos! And thanks for the extra day too! I will surely be suffering some withdrawal that day. This forum is my primary source of information. It surely can't be shut down


Sent from my iPhone using LHCF :)
 
I'm glad I clicked this thread because I had no idea. It's frightening what lawmakers are willing to slip past us. Thanks! I'll read up on SOPA and PIPA.
 
Thanks Nikos and Bev,

I was wondering how you guys felt about this. I'm in the process of moving all my domains from NoDaddy even though they are trying to act all righteous now because all their revenue is being impacted.

We gotta stand together of fall apart...and we cannot have that!:lachen:
 
I'm not sure what's going on. I heard they may be charging for the internet soon but instead they have decided to shutdown certain sites?
 
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/01/14/white-house-sopa-pipa_n_1206347.html

White House Will Not Support SOPA, PIPA
First Posted: 1/14/12 12:19 PM ET Updated: 1/15/12 04:51 PM ET

Saturday marked a major victory for opponents of proposed anti-piracy legislation Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA) and PROTECT IP Act (PIPA), which would target foreign-based websites violating U.S. copyrights.

House of Representatives bill SOPA and its Senate counterpart PIPA are designed to punish websites that make available, for example, free movies and music without the permission of the U.S. rights holders. Opponents of the bills, however, worry that the proposed laws would grant the Department of Justice too much regulatory power. Google Chairman Eric Schmidt has called the measures "draconian." Other Internet giants who oppose the bill include Facebook, eBay, Mozilla, Twitter, and Huffington Post parent company AOL.

The White House on Saturday officially responded to two online petitions, "Stop the E-PARASITE Act" and "Veto the SOPA bill and any other future bills that threaten to diminish the free flow of information," urging the President to reject SOPA and PIPA.

The statement was drawn up by Victoria Espinel, Intellectual Property Enforcement Coordinator at Office of Management and Budget, Aneesh Chopra, U.S. Chief Technology Officer, and Howard Schmidt, Special Assistant to the President and Cybersecurity Coordinator for National Security Staff. They made clear that the White House will not support legislation that disrupts the open standards of the Internet.

"While we believe that online piracy by foreign websites is a serious problem that requires a serious legislative response, we will not support legislation that reduces freedom of expression, increases cybersecurity risk, or undermines the dynamic, innovative global Internet," the statement read in part.

The White House statement went on to say, however, that the Obama Administration believes "online piracy is a real problem that harms the American economy" and that 2012 should see the passage of narrower legislation that targets the source of foreign copyright infringement.

The letter also highlighted the following four points:

Any effort to combat online piracy must guard against the risk of online censorship of lawful activity and must not inhibit innovation by our dynamic businesses large and small. [...] We must avoid creating new cybersecurity risks or disrupting the underlying architecture of the Internet. [...] That is why the Administration calls on all sides to work together to pass sound legislation this year that provides prosecutors and rights holders new legal tools to combat online piracy originating beyond U.S. borders [...] We expect and encourage all private parties, including both content creators and Internet platform providers working together, to adopt voluntary measures and best practices to reduce online piracy.
This is not the end of the debate, the White House statement emphasized. "Moving forward, we will continue to work with Congress on a bipartisan basis on legislation that provides new tools needed in the global fight against piracy and counterfeiting, while vigorously defending an open Internet based on the values of free expression, privacy, security and innovation," the letter also read.

Following the release of the White House's statement, SOPA sponsor and House Judiciary Chairman (R-Texas) Lamar Smith issued a statement of his own.

“I welcome today’s announcement that the White House will support legislation to combat online piracy that protects free speech, the Internet and America’s intellectual property," Smith said, according to The Hill. "That’s precisely what the Stop Online Piracy Act does."

On Friday, CNET reported that Smith said he will remove from the bill one of the most hotly contested provisions, Domain Name System requirements. Previously, SOPA had called for DNS blocking of infringing websites.

On Thursday, PIPA author Senator Patrick Leahy (D-Vermont) said that "more study" was needed to asses the bill's DNS-blocking provision, the Wall Street Journal wrote.

The White House's statement condemned DNS blocking in regulatory efforts and said that it "pose a real risk to cybersecurity and yet leave contraband goods and services accessible online. We must avoid legislation that drives users to dangerous, unreliable DNS servers and puts next-generation security policies, such as the deployment of DNSSEC, at risk."

A House Oversight Committee hearing on SOPA's DNS-blocking provision had previously been scheduled for January 18. However, according to Tech Dirt, Oversight Committee Chairman Darrell Issa (R-California) said that the hearing will be postponed for the time being and that the focus now should be placed on the Senate's PIPA bill, which Senate Majority leader Harry Reid has committed to moving forward in the next two weeks.

UPDATE: The Motion Picture Association of America Inc. (MPAA), the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) and the U.S. Chamber of Commerce have each released a response to the White House's position on SOPA and PIPA.

Michael O’Leary, Senior Executive Vice President for Global Policy and External Affairs for the MPAA said the following in a statement emailed to the HuffPost:
While we agree with the White House that protection against online piracy is vital, that protection must be meaningful to protect the people who have been and will continue to be victimized if legislation is not enacted. Meaningful legislation must include measured and reasonable remedies that include ad brokers, payment processors and search engines. They must be part of a solution that stops theft and protects American consumers. [...] On behalf of the 2.2 million Americans whose jobs depend on the film and television industries, we look forward to the Administration playing a constructive role in this process and working with us to pass legislation that will offer real protection for American jobs.
In the same email, Mitch Glazier, Senior Executive Vice President of the RIAA, said, "[L]egislation is of no benefit, nor will we support it, if it allows the leading Internet companies to direct law abiding consumers to unlawful and dangerous sites."

David Hirschmann, President and CEO of the Global Intellectual Property Center at the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, reiterated the Chamber's strong support for both SOPA and PIPA. "The Administration's main concern, centered on DNS issues, has already been addressed by both Senator Leahy and Representative Smith. We also applaud Senator Reid, Senator Leahy, and Representative Smith for their commitment to move forward with pending legislation through an open and bipartisan process," Hirschmann said.
 
Thanks Nikos and Bev for this info! I saw it on Craigs list the other night and had no idea what it was/meant. This is really scary...we are going to be more in the dark than N. Korea if this ish passes.:nono: I am shocked at how many are supporting it..:perplexed
 
Controversial online piracy bill shelved until 'consensus' is found
By Brendan Sasso - 01/14/12 09:41 AM ET
http://thehill.com/blogs/hillicon-valley/technology/204167-sopa-shelved-until-consensus-is-found

House Oversight Chairman Darrell Issa (R-Calif.) said early Saturday morning that Majority Leader Eric Cantor (R-Va.) promised him the House will not vote on the controversial Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA) unless there is consensus on the bill.

"While I remain concerned about Senate action on the Protect IP Act, I am confident that flawed legislation will not be taken up by this House," Issa said in a statement. "Majority Leader Cantor has assured me that we will continue to work to address outstanding concerns and work to build consensus prior to any anti-piracy legislation coming before the House for a vote."

The announcement comes just hours after Judiciary Chairman Lamar Smith (R-Texas), SOPA's sponsor, made a major concession to the bill's critics by agreeing to drop a controversial provision that would have required Internet service providers to block infringing websites.

SOPA is designed to go after foreign websites that offer illegal copies of music, movies and TV shows with impunity. Even without the provision allowing sites to be blocked, the bill would empower the Justice Department and copyright holders to demand that search engines delete links to sites “dedicated” to copyright infringement. Ad networks and payment processors would be prohibited from doing business with the sites.

The bill has sparked a backlash from Internet freedom advocates and Web companies, including Google, Yahoo and Facebook, who say it would stifle innovation and suppress free speech.

The provision that would have required Internet providers to block infringing websites was one of the most controversial aspects of the bill. Google Chairman Eric Schmidt compared the provision to how China censors political speech online.

Issa, who is a former chairman of the Consumer Electronics Association, is close with the tech community and has been an outspoken critic of SOPA. He had scheduled a hearing for next Wednesday to examine the potential consequences of the bill's site-blocking provision, but he announced in his statement Saturday that he would cancel the hearing in light of Smith's decision to drop the provision.

Issa said that even without the site-blocking provision, the bill is "fundamentally flawed."

"Right now, the focus of protecting the Internet needs to be on the Senate where Majority Leader Reid has announced his intention to try to move similar legislation in less than two weeks," he said.

The Senate bill's sponsor, Sen. Patrick Leahy's (D-Vt.), said on Thursday that he is open to changes to the site-blocking provision.



Well, one down.
 
Really good description of what might happen.

What happened in Denmark.

7 years ago we got a child pornography filter on the Internet in Denmark. Some people said that it was a bad idea, but others said these people were just paedophiles, or trying to help paedophiles. Some people said that it was against our constitution, which it was. So the censorship was implemented in a way so it was formally (but not in reality) voluntary, which ensured that it was not formally a violation of our constitution.

Some people warned that once the censorship infrastructure was in place, it would most likely be used to censor other things. But they were told "Never! This is ONLY to prevent this horrible crime, and will never be used for other censorship."

Fast-forward a few years, and the Danish recording industry did not like allofmp3.com, so they went to court to get a court order against the Danish ISPs to start censoring allofmp3 off the Danish Internet. The judge basically said "ahh, you already have the infrastructure in place, so there will be no extra cost", and issued the order to censor allofmp3.com. It was not a violation of our constitution because it was ordered by a judge.

Since then other "pirate" sites have been censored. Most notably The Pirate Bay, which found out that the court would not even allow them to speak their case in court, or even submit a written brief.

Then our politicians found out that they wanted to protect and expand income from taxes. In particular the high taxes gambling providers pay. The official excuse was to limit the horrible disease of ludomania. So they decided that foreign gambling providers had to pay the taxes in Denmark too if they were on the Internet and could be seen in Denmark. If they refused to pay taxes, they should be censored off the Danish internet. So they passed a law saying that if a foreign gambling provider refused to pay taxes in Denmark, a court would - on the request of our government - have to order ISPs to censor its sites off the net, and payment processors to block all payments to it. If an ISP does not censor, or a payment processor or bank does not block payment, hefty fines are issued.

Now our politicians worry that some foreign companies selling medicines on the net are not licensed to sell medicines in Denmark. So they are preparing new legislation that will censor these sites off the net, and block payments to them.

So our Internet censorship started a few years ago with a very limited purpose and good intentions. And it was solemnly promised that nothing else than child pornography would be censored.

But once the infrastructure for censorship was in place, the censorship started spreading to other areas. And the censorship is getting more and more widespread.
 
Last edited:
Dak said:
Really good description of what might happen.

What happened in Denmark.

7 years ago we got a child pornography filter on the Internet in Denmark. Some people said that it was a bad idea, but others said these people were just paedophiles, or trying to help paedophiles. Some people said that it was against our constitution, which it was. So the censorship was implemented in a way so it was formally (but not in reality) voluntary, which ensured that it was not formally a violation of our constitution.

Some people warned that once the censorship infrastructure was in place, it would most likely be used to censor other things. But they were told "Never! This is ONLY to prevent this horrible crime, and will never be used for other censorship."

Fast-forward a few years, and the Danish recording industry did not like allofmp3.com, so they went to court to get a court order against the Danish ISPs to start censoring allofmp3 off the Danish Internet. The judge basically said "ahh, you already have the infrastructure in place, so there will be no extra cost", and issued the order to censor allofmp3.com. It was not a violation of our constitution because it was ordered by a judge.

Since then other "pirate" sites have been censored. Most notably The Pirate Bay, which found out that the court would not even allow them to speak their case in court, or even submit a written brief.

Then our politicians found out that they wanted to protect and expand income from taxes. In particular the high taxes gambling providers pay. The official excuse was to limit the horrible disease of ludomania. So they decided that foreign gambling providers had to pay the taxes in Denmark too if they were on the Internet and could be seen in Denmark. If they refused to pay taxes, they should be censored off the Danish internet. So they passed a law saying that if a foreign gambling provider refused to pay taxes in Denmark, a court would - on the request of our government - have to order ISPs to censor its sites off the net, and payment processors to block all payments to it. If an ISP does not censor, or a payment processor or bank does not block payment, hefty fines are issued.

Now our politicians worry that some foreign companies selling medicines on the net are not licensed to sell medicines in Denmark. So they are preparing new legislation that will censor these sites off the net, and block payments to them.

So our Internet censorship started a few years ago with a very limited purpose and good intentions. And it was solemnly promised that nothing else than child pornography would be censored.

But once the infrastructure for censorship was in place, the censorship started spreading to other areas. And the censorship is getting more and more widespread.
Click to expand...

Frightening! I can't stand the thought that this might happen in the U.S. as well.
 
http://www.examiner.com/computers-in-denver/house-kills-sopa

In a surprise move today, Representative Eric Cantor(R-VA) announced that he will stop all action on SOPA, effectively killing the bill. This move was most likely due to several things. One of those things is that SOPA and PIPA met huge online protest against the bills. Another reason would be that the White House threatened to veto the bill if it had passed. However, it isn't quite time yet to celebrate, as PIPA(the Senate's version of SOPA) is still up for consideration.

The online protests about the bill were surprising and large. They ranged anywhere from callng Representatives, companies, and senators to get them to change their mind, to actively moving domain's away from and targeting the business model of the companies that supported/lobbied for the bill. GoDaddy lost well over 100,000 domains in the space of about 10 days due to their involvement with these bills, along with other various targets. Reddit in particular has been influential in turning the tide against SOPA and PIPA, and is a good demonstration of how the Internet enables Democracy.


PIPA is less well known than SOPA, but the provisions are basicly the same. It still includes the same DNS blocking and censoring system that the original SOPA did, just without the SOPA name. There are around 40 co-sponsors of the bill in the Senate so far, with no word on how many senators support the bill in addition to that. There will most likely need to be 60 votes in the Senate in order to invoke cloture and end an almost guaranteed filibuster.
 
The blocking system that will be used is technically identical as to what is being used in China and Iran. :nono:
 
I'm so glad that LHCF is participating in this. Despite SOPA being beaten, PIPA is still alive and well. I hope we will continue with the blackout as planned
 
@belleama I think so, because when you go the main page you get blackout info. As long as you stay off the main page you can get around the board. But I think I'm going to log off until 8pm
 
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