SOPA = End of SWM Podcasts and / or forums?

[philnlil]

A new bill in the United States congress (the Stop Online Piracy Act) could allow private media companies to shut down web sites with no due process. Every podcast done about Star Wars Minis, even these forums, could be shut down.

Worse, you likely have not heard of it because the media companies are not covering this new bill--they want it to pass quickly and quietly.

Please, take a moment to watch this video and learn about the new bill: fightforthefuture.org/pipa

My friend Arnie, from Star Wars Action News, wrote a full response to this bill, and the potential impact it could have on podcasting, here: Venganza Media Gazette. Granted, his article relates to his podcasts in general, but they hold equally true to ANY podcast. These forums themselves could be at risk.

[keith]

You're absolutely correct!

The bill would morph the internet into something none of us would recognize. (Ad servers and payment processors are exempt from SOPA though.)

Simply LINKING to copyrighted material is enough to confiscate your domain name!
www.theglobeandmail.com/news/technology/tech-news/sopas-most-frightening-flaw-is-the-future-it-predicts/article2285015/

“streaming copyrighted content” is one of the proposed felonies right up there with forgery and grand theft!

Under SOPA if someone puts a video with copyrighted material on youtube (such as a baby dancing to a Prince song playing in the background) and you then embed it on your site by pasting in a link, you can be convicted of a FELONY and go to prison for up to 5 years!

SOPA will cripple the best performing sector of our economy, destroying jobs when we can't afford to lose any more.

The video Mark mentioned on fightforthefuture.org is great! Everyone should watch it.

I just watched this excellent take on it last night:

28c3: The coming war on general computation
www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=HUEvRyemKSg

(OOPS, I need to stop linking to youtube videos )