Internet giants place full-page anti-SOPA ad in NYT • Hacker News Board

Re: Internet giants place full-page anti-SOPA ad in NYT

#71

Post by dylangs1030 » Thu, Nov 17, 2011, 1:53 AM UTC

dmboyd wrote: post #68

> We support the bills’ stated goals "providing additional enforcement tools to combat foreign "rogue" websites that are dedicated to copyright infringement or counterfeiting"... Why doesn't anyone just call bullshit on the whole concept of the US extending its law to apply to the rest of the world?

Well, because while that's a popular theme in United States history, it's not relevant here. The websites in other countries would not be literally sued into oblivion if their servers aren't in U.S. territory - they'd be blocked via DNS intervention.

So, really, the United States wouldn't be extending its law to apply anywhere else but the United States. It would be blocking what content is viewable within the borders. But this isn't even the real issue - because you can still bypass this using the IP address directly instead of the domain name. The real issue is the corporate abuses which could be allowed to take place within our borders if websites aren't deemed to be doing enough. It could make the internet environment tyrannical in content control for fear of websites being shut down.

Re: Internet giants place full-page anti-SOPA ad in NYT

#72

Post by dylangs1030 » Thu, Nov 17, 2011, 1:57 AM UTC

damoncali wrote: post #48

Am I the only one that did a double-take when I saw Zynga on there?

Despite their recent PR blunder (and what a blunder it was), they're still considered a tech giant. Their IPO passed a billion benchmark, so they are in a position to say, "Hey, look at us, we kinda know a thing or two about the internet."

Re: Internet giants place full-page anti-SOPA ad in NYT

#73

Post by fpgeek » Thu, Nov 17, 2011, 1:58 AM UTC

yahelc wrote: post #13

chollida1 wrote: post #4

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't want this to sound snarky but.... Do you know that they were invited and declined? is it possible that no one asked them to join, or declined to let them join?

It's certainly in Apple's interest that this pass. Less piracy -> More iTunes customers. More iTunes customers -> More iOS devices sold. More iOS devices sold -> More profit for Apple.

What about iCloud?

Wouldn't they be liable for every song, every photo, every video, every document their users store? Maybe they've got songs (mostly) covered via the agreements for iTunes Match, but the rest seem hard to pull off (especially since, IIRC, taking a picture (or video) of a copyrighted painting, sculpture, etc. can be infringement in some cases).

Re: Internet giants place full-page anti-SOPA ad in NYT

#74

Post by rbanffy » Thu, Nov 17, 2011, 2:01 AM UTC

Joakal wrote: post #50

fmota wrote: post #43

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Allow me to be cynical but, if SOPA passes and breaks the Internet, these software companies would gain a lot. Especially Microsoft. Remember the "good old days" of Microsoft Everything? I hope you're as fond of them as these software companies seem to be.

I hope Bill Gates with his philanthropy drive goes publicly against Microsoft company's support for censorship.

I envy your optimism.

Re: Internet giants place full-page anti-SOPA ad in NYT

#75

Post by damoncali » Thu, Nov 17, 2011, 2:01 AM UTC

dylangs1030 wrote: post #72

damoncali wrote: post #48

Am I the only one that did a double-take when I saw Zynga on there?

Despite their recent PR blunder (and what a blunder it was), they're still considered a tech giant. Their IPO passed a billion benchmark, so they are in a position to say, "Hey, look at us, we kinda know a thing or two about the internet."

Giant? There are a bajillion small tech companies across the country that make more money than that.

Re: Internet giants place full-page anti-SOPA ad in NYT

#76

Post by rbanffy » Thu, Nov 17, 2011, 2:02 AM UTC

einhverfr wrote: post #49

fmota wrote: post #43

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Allow me to be cynical but, if SOPA passes and breaks the Internet, these software companies would gain a lot. Especially Microsoft. Remember the "good old days" of Microsoft Everything? I hope you're as fond of them as these software companies seem to be.

The paranoid security geek in me says "You know those Microsoft contributions to SAMBA lately? Could they go for a takedown order of the open source project on the allegation of copyright infringement now and make the SAMBA project fight to get their domain back?"

No. If they contributed something, it's now under a free license.

Re: Internet giants place full-page anti-SOPA ad in NYT

#77

Post by fpgeek » Thu, Nov 17, 2011, 2:04 AM UTC

enmaku wrote: post #66

MBlume wrote: post #62

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> SOPA is evil, but it's not going to severely injure Google. Am I reading the bill in an overly alarmist way? It sounded to me like SOPA would make YouTube basically impossible to run.

No, that's about right. It would make YouTube legally responsible for all user-created content. According to YouTube's press statistics, 48 hours of video are uploaded every minute. If you were to hire a team of people to watch all the videos and make sure they aren't copyrighted, you'd need 2,880 people working around the clock - and that's just to keep up with the NEW videos, letalone the backlog of stuff that's al…

Why would they bother trying to vet YouTube? It seems like it would be more practical to move the servers outside the US and stop providing YouTube access to US IPs. Maybe throw in "CrippledTube" for US visitors (only registered media companies allowed to upload) if they think the cross-company infringement danger is small enough.

Re: Internet giants place full-page anti-SOPA ad in NYT

#78

Post by natch » Thu, Nov 17, 2011, 2:06 AM UTC

A TLDR skim of this ad by the average NYT reader will see only this: We support the bill.

Yes, I omitted the words "goals of the" [edit: 's stated goals] but I'm talking about what the average reader will get out of the ad before they flip to the next page.

Not good, imho. And yes, they do care about the average reader. If they were trying to reach people other than the average reader, there are better ways to do that.

Re: Internet giants place full-page anti-SOPA ad in NYT

#79

Post by rbanffy » Thu, Nov 17, 2011, 2:09 AM UTC

damoncali wrote: post #48

Am I the only one that did a double-take when I saw Zynga on there?

Remember: companies are not your friends. The may be your allies this time, but the may also turn against you if the tide changes.

Re: Internet giants place full-page anti-SOPA ad in NYT

#80

Post by rbanffy » Thu, Nov 17, 2011, 2:26 AM UTC

thematt wrote: post #19

Hates_ wrote: post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

They are in a totally different market. Why would they be a signee?

What are you talking about? Microsoft is in the same market as at least 5 of those companies listed.

Imagine Microsoft being able to block Google at the DNS level because Android infringes on their IP. Imagine Apple wielding the same power against Samsung and every retailer carrying Samsung phones.

They may never use that power, but it would certainly make negotiating much easier.