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Just months after the internet censorship bills SOPA and PIPA were taken off the floor, a new and similarly scrutinized bill, the Cyber Intelligence Sharing and Protection Act (CISPA) has been gaining momentum and support from big technology companies like Microsoft, Facebook, IBM, and others. Although the bill is fundamentally different than SOPA it raises many of the same privacy concerns. Let’s take a look at the basics of how it might work and dig into why tech companies are currently supporting the bill. More »

Tijdens het hele gedoe rondom het wel niet invoeren van de SOPA/PIPA/ACTA wetgeving is het enige wat het grote publiek te horen krijgt dat filmstudio’s in Hollywood het slecht hebben omdat er mensen die hun beroven van talloze miljoenen dollars als gevolgd van auteursrecht schending.

Een deel van de artiesten die je waarschijnlijk niet veel over SOPA hebt gehoord zijn schrijvers. Een schrijver heeft een hele duidelijke mening over het hele SOPA debat: Paulo Coelho. Hij noemt het “een gevaar dat de hele planeet zal beïnvloeden.“

Veel mensen, politici en anti-SOPA voorstanders hebben soortgelijke uitspraken gedaan maar Coelho ging nog een stap verder om zijn statemant kracht bij te zetten. “Pirates of the world, unite and pirate everything I’ve ever written!” Serieus. Ga ze downloaden. Dat wil hij echt.

In een blogpost, schrijft Coelho: “Deste vaker je een nummer op de radio hoort, deste eerder je geneigd bent om de CD te kopen. Hetzelfde met literatuur, deste meer mensen “pirate” een boek, deste…

Happy new year, Social Media Club members.  Given the recent protest over the SOPA and PIPA acts via web blackouts of sites like Wikipedia, 2012 is looking to be another banner year of interesting issues at the intersection of the law and social media.  I thought it would be fitting to offer my predictions as to 5 topics to watch in 2012 in social media law.

Here are my predictions for areas at the intersection of the law and social media that will be hot in 2012, or in some cases continue to be hot.

1. Privacy

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You probably already heard about SOPA/PIPA and the whole debate around it, right? Last Wednesday it was a really interesting day on the Internet, probably representing the biggest online activism movement ever, with all major online companies and websites protesting against the bills.

The movement was pretty successful, with many senators reversing their stance on the SOPA/PIPA bills, and making it much harder to get them approved now (i.e., the Internet folks won the first battle of the war).

The day after, however, another blow stroke. The founders and key employees of the site MegaUpload.com (no direct link, to play on the safe side…) were all arrested (in New Zealand), and the domain name was seized by the FBI. The reason was alleged copyright infringement, racketeering and money laundering.

According to Google MegaUpload was the 90th most popular website in the world, with 34 million unique visitors per month. The owners were making millions with it. If you visit the site now you’ll see the following message:

Ouch!

It’s the first time I have seen something like this with such a huge website online.

Will there be more sites following? I am not sure, but it sure will be interesting to watch what will happen over the coming months.

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On Friday The House withdrew the Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA) from being put to a vote and the Senate postponed voting on its version of the bill, the Protect IP Act (PIPA). As the debate continues over the best way to shield copyrighted material from being pirated, we invited David Sohn, General Counsel for the Center for Democracy and Technology and Viacom’s General Counsel, Michael Fricklas to discuss language that should be included in any future SOPA/PIPA legislation.

Part I of their debate is here. Part II is here.

“Before SOPA was pulled from the House yesterday, opponents of the bill argued (among other things) that sites accused of making copyrighted material available could be shut down without being given full, adverserial, due process.” Was this an accurate assessment? Viacom’s General Counsel and EVP Michael Fricklas and David Sohn, General Counsel and Director of the Center for Democracy and Technology defend their respective positions in part II of TCTV’s SOPA/PIPA debate.

Part I of this debate here. Part III is coming up.

The controversial Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA) has been pulled and its Senate counterpart, the Protect IP Act (PIPA) is on hold. The Internet won this round, it seems. But don’t celebrate just yet. The forces behind these acts are simply regrouping. Should SOPA and PIPA be killed, or can they be fixed? We invited Viacom’s General Counsel and EVP Michael Fricklas and David Sohn, General Counsel and Director of the Center for Democracy And Technology, to debate the issue in the video above.

This is Part I of the debate. We will put up the rest later.

Following the news that the senate is delaying a vote the Protect Intellectual Property Act (PIPA), House Judiciary Committee Chairman Lamar Smith (R-Texas) issued a statement today admitting that congress may need to rethink its approach to thwarting piracy.

Smith is the author of the House version of PIPA, the Stop Online Piracy Act. Last week, he announced that a vote on SOPA would be delayed until February, but the delay could actually end up being much longer.

“I have heard from the critics and I take seriously their concerns regarding proposed legislation to address the problem of online piracy,” Smith said. “It is clear that we need to revisit the approach on how best to address the problem of foreign thieves that steal and sell American inventions and products.”

PIPA and SOPA give the U.S. government and copyright holders the authority to seek court orders against websites associated with infringing, pirating and/or counterfeiting intellectual property. It could drastically change the way the Internet operates if either bill is voted into law. For instance, if a website is accused of containing copyright-infringing content (like a song, picture, video clip etc.), the site could be blocked by ISPs (like Comcast), de-indexed from search engines, and even prevented from doing business online with services like PayPal.

Based on Smith’s statements, it seems unlikely that SOPA will get sent to the House floor for a vote before the country holds elections for the 113th Congress — meaning that SOPA is essentially dead.

“The House Judiciary Committee will postpone consideration of the legislation until there is wider agreement on a solution,” Smith said.

Much of the initial push behind SOPA and PIPA came from large media companies (Hollywood) that claim they take millions of dollars in financial losses due to piracy from organizations outside of the U.S. However, the methods SOPA and PIPA want to use for thwarting piracy have raised lots of opposition from the technology industry as well as millions of U.S. citizens.

So, reaching a legislative solution for curbing piracy that both tech business leaders and Hollywood can agree on probably won’t happen anytime soon.

However, both sides do seem willing to start talking about the issue of stopping piracy. The pro-SOPA Motion Picture Association of America’s president and former senator Chris Dodd has recently even suggested that the two sides start meeting.

We’ve pasted the House Judiciary Committee’s full statement below:

Washington, D.C. — House Judiciary Committee Chairman Lamar Smith (R-Texas) today issued the following statement in response to the Senate decision to postpone consideration of legislation to help combat online piracy.

Chairman Smith:  “I have heard from the critics and I take seriously their concerns regarding proposed legislation to address the problem of online piracy. It is clear that we need to revisit the approach on how best to address the problem of foreign thieves that steal and sell American inventions and products.

“The problem of online piracy is too big to ignore. American intellectual property industries provide 19 million high-paying jobs and account for more than 60 percent of U.S. exports. The theft of America’s intellectual property costs the U.S. economy more than $100 billion annually and results in the loss of thousands of American jobs.  Congress cannot stand by and do nothing while American innovators and job creators are under attack.

“The online theft of American intellectual property is no different than the theft of products from a store.  It is illegal and the law should be enforced both in the store and online.

“The Committee will continue work with copyright owners, Internet companies, financial institutions to develop proposals that combat online piracy and protect America’s intellectual property.  We welcome input from all organizations and individuals who have an honest difference of opinion about how best to address this widespread problem.  The Committee remains committed to finding a solution to the problem of online piracy that protects American intellectual property and innovation.”

The House Judiciary Committee will postpone consideration of the legislation until there is wider agreement on a solution.

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