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Poll: Do you think HN should go dark in protest of SOPA?

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Re: Poll: Do you think HN should go dark in protest of SOPA?

#151

Post by Geee »

I don't think it makes any sense to black out HN.

The purpose of the black out is to wake up people who have never heard of SOPA and educate them about the effects it will have on the Internet. It's not about some 'sacrifice' as some are calling it. It's the ultimate wake up call.

Rather, people of HN should black out their websites to get the message as far as possible. Let's keep HN up, so there's at least one place where we can stay somewhat organized and can keep track of things happening.

Re: Poll: Do you think HN should go dark in protest of SOPA?

#152

Post by cheald »

tzs wrote: post #149
cheald wrote: post #138

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The grammar is exceedingly thick and difficult to parse, but if you look closely, you'll see: "the U.S.-directed site...enables or facilitates (a violation of USC Title 17, section 501 and section 1201/ title 17; loosely, the copyright infringement code and copyright protection circumvention code)" Basically, what this means is that if the core functionality of your site even enables copyright infringment (by, say, s…

Here's how 103(a)(1)(A)(B)(i) starts: the U.S.-directed site is primarily designed or operated for the purpose of, has only limited purpose or use other than, or is marketed by its operator or another acting in concert with that operator for use in, offering goods or services in a manner that engages in, enables, or facilitates-- That looks like a three way "or" to me. If the three branches were separated, they would…

I guess the vagueness of the language is why we have lawyers, but the way I read the first "or" clause, HN could be painted as infringing. It is primarily designed to offer services (link posting and comment discussion) that (happen to) enable copyright infringement (see the DVD key I posted above). It's not designed for the explicit purpose of enabling copyright infringement, but it is designed to offer a service that, by its nature, enable and facilitates copyright infringement, if users were to use it for such.

To paraphrase:

   the U.S.-directed site is primarily designed for the
   purpose of offering services that enable
   copyright infringement.
The way I'd expect a reasonable person to read that clause would be "you're a bad guy if you build a site that is specifically for distributing infringing content". The way I expect a lawyer would read that is "you're a bad guy if you build a site that includes functionality that can be used to distribute infringing content". Intent doesn't seem to be in play; only the fact that you offer a service that enables copyright infringement matters.

My understanding of it seems to be the thing that so many people have an issue with; the concern is that SOPA's loose language makes any content platform effectively illegal, giving the media cartels a sledgehammer that they can swing at just about anyone they please.

Re: Poll: Do you think HN should go dark in protest of SOPA?

#155

Post by pettazz »

Apreche wrote: post #24

No because anyone who already reads HN already knows SOPA. The only thing that will be effective is if sites that normal non-tech people visit go dark.

And how better to convince Google, Facebook, twitter, etc. to join us on a blackout or at least a "blackout" than by _all_ of us being a part of it and spreading the word as best we can?

Re: Poll: Do you think HN should go dark in protest of SOPA?

#157

Post by jezclaremurugan »

abibibo wrote: post #143
Samuel_Michon wrote: post #10

1) The more sites decide to shut down on the 18th, the easier it becomes for major websites like Google, Twitter, and Facebook to join. It also increases the chances that this is going to be covered by the mainstream media. 2) Perhaps a blackout will give some HNers the final push (and time) to make some phone calls to their representatives. 3) It can serve as a demonstration of what the web will be like if SOPA kick…

>> 2) Perhaps a blackout will give some HNers the final push (and time) to make some phone calls to their representatives. I think far more effective than a complete blackout would be requiring HNers contact their representatives before they can access HN content. Not sure how best to implement, but a email form that grants a token upon completion should be feasible (you'd need to decide how to handle non-US based IP…

and what will people from other countries do?

Re: Poll: Do you think HN should go dark in protest of SOPA?

#160

Post by Natsu »

tzs wrote: post #69
cheald wrote: post #67

Absolutely. HN's effectively dead if SOPA passes. I know that there aren't a lot of SOPA supporters that use it, but as I said elsewhere, the point of a blackout isn't to punish supporters - it's to motivate people to get involved against SOPA. If your favorite site is inaccessible in protest of SOPA, it might get you more involved in fighting it, which is the whole point.

> HN's effectively dead if SOPA passes How so? I'm having trouble recalling offhand anything posted to HN that would cause HN to run into SOPA trouble.

Full Gameboy Color Emulator in Javascript

http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=3446871

It was on HN the other day.

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