Combating Online Infringement and Counterfeits Act
Over the past few days the U.S. Justice Department seized 82 domain names of websites that they accuse were actively enrolled in the sale and circulation of counterfeit goods and illegal copyrighted works. This is just the beginning of the kind of forceful enforcement we may see if the Congress passes the Combating Online Infringement and Counterfeits Act (COICA). The bill, which was recently approved by the Senate Judiciary Committee on Nov 18, 2010, gives the government remarkable new copyright enforcement powers. In specific the government would theoretically have the ability to make entire websites disappear from the Internet if infringement, links to infringement, or illegal sharing are judged to be "the primary" purpose of the site. The approach by the COICA is quite drastic if you ask me. Simply instead of targeting files that break copyright infringement laws, they go for the destructive option of completely blacklisting entire sites out of the domain name system. The fact of the matter is that “yes” it does provide to be a reliable weapon in the fight against copyright infringement but it is overkill and in the process can undermine Internet infrastructure and quite possibly censor legitimate online speech. If this bill had been passed five or ten years ago many sites such as YouTube might not even have existed today.
The next point this brings me too is how the COICA is a false hope for a way to stop internet piracy. In reality mere hours later a majority of the seized sites were available online again thru other domain names. As pressure is increased on sites and the blacklist continues to grow you will most likely see a large percentage of the Internet will shift to alternative DNS mechanisms that are located outside the US. Sites such as Pirate Bay have been ordered to cease and desist numerous times and have even been seized but within no time they are up and running at the normal rate with a slight change of the domain name. It is very hard to believe that this the best use of our Department of Homeland Security manpower. The mockery in this whole deal is that the U.S. government has recently made a great campaign of fighting Internet DNS blocking and censorship in countries like China. What kind of picture does that represent for America when we are actively speaking out about governments controlling its inhabitants, yet we are engaged in similar procedures here at home? There has got to be a better way to protect artists’ copyrights other than dismantling the fundamental building blocks of the Internet. As Tim Berners-Lee, creator of the Web once said "We all use the web now for all kinds of parts our lives, some trivial, and some critical to our life as part of a social world.”
This is an interesting blog. It shows how the government desperately wants to control the internet and the people who use it while wasting away tax payers dollars on something that will never go away. For as long as there has been money to be made off of bootleg copies of music and movies there have been those willing to capitalize on it. The copyright laws that currently exist haven't been very effective to begin with, at least not in Montgomery, Al. There is a guy known to me only as the "boot-leg man" that always has the latest movies on DVD selling 2 for $5.00. He doesn't seem to be worried about copyright infringement. Also, as far as youtube is concerned, there are so many people who use the site and videos can be uploaded from anywhere making it virtually impossible to find out who is breaking the law. For example, if someone goes into a public library or "borrows" someone else's computer, they can upload or download whatever they want and since multiple people use the same computer, there would be no telling who was responsible. As someone who uses the internet to upload original music, I do think there should be copyright laws that extend into the internet world but I also believe it should be the responsibility of the artist or music/movie companies to make sure their product isn't being boot-legged, not the government.
ReplyDeleteinternet pirating is defintiely a huge problem, but I'm gonna play devil's advocate here.
ReplyDeleteI'm gonna use an example extremely familiar to me.
there is a blooming fan base for asian entertainment across the world. not just eh video games and anime of japan, but the musiciancs, entertainers, tv shows, and culture of countries such as thailand, taiwan, china, ans south korea.
many of us in other countries have no way to acess these materials through anything other than pirated stuff of the internet. and even if we can, we need subtitles which aren't avaible from the companies which we can find on the internet.
but when the companies realize these potential markets, the remove them from the internet.
wouldn't it be better for them to find some way of working these things out to allow access while still making some profit instead of completely removing and eradicating it?
thats just my thoughts~