SOPA Support Goes Sour

The support for this was based on the premise, from media companies, that somehow "online" the law wasn’t as effective, or harsh, as in the real world. My own description of the effect was that, if applied to the real world, an entire convention center, or other place of business, could be effectively erased from the maps (the equivalent of removing all DNS entries to it), and kept closed, without presumption of innocence, based on what one person posted on their public ad board, or opted to sell from a booth, without the owners having any clue it was happening.

Someone else made the much of succinct statement that it was a bit like holding road crews liable for the criminals that shipped illegal goods, or attempted to escape, while driving on the roads they built.

In short, it doesn’t fit any real world law at all.

But, I then had a huge thought. Its also bloody useless. These people never heard of peer to peer? What would stop every single person in the world installing something like a p2p DNS service, where the only link in the chain they need to "know" via normal DNS is one of multiple points where one links to the initial network? Everyone on the planet would become a DNS server, and, like p2p sharing, if you don’t have the DNS for a site, someone else in the network you are connected to would. Every DNS on the planet could go offline, and everyone, including the original offending site, would still be accessible, as long as you had the p2p running.

The only provision in the things that has any teeth at all is the idea that you can, arbitrarily, freeze all US banking assets for the site. Which… is a) useless for most pirates, who don’t need to us them, and b) would bankrupt thousands of people, as a result of legit sites, and businesses, being targeted for everything from "claims" of copyright infringement, not proof mind, but just "claims", to occasional real infringement, which the owner didn’t have the staff, or time, to notice before someone else pointed it out to the Fed.

All around, the "technology" behind the idea isn’t at all sound, since its so damn easy to effectively circumvent its main, "kill all DNS, so people can’t find it on the map", part. And the parts of it that would work are completely insane, go against the very principles of due process, could be used against the very people that created the bill, without them having any recourse but to shut down, until they could absolutely prove it was false, and would turn large swaths of the internet into wastelands, all over an attempt to stop bootleggers, who are already using darknets, alternative DNS systems (if they are not total idiots), non-US banking, non-US servers, etc. And, all so that media companies can do things like they do in Russia, from what I understand, where if you want a movie, or music, that isn’t 20 years old, you have ***no*** option other than buy the bootleg copy, unless you just happen to have relatives in some place where they "can" get it (getting it from there, to you, however…).

Heck, I have that problem just trying to buy British stuff in the US, since its the wrong region code. But, its my fault that I have to wait 10 years for them to re-release the same thing in the US? And they wonder why some people find it easier to steal things, and think laws like these are a sound solution instead… :head->desk: