Defend our freedom to share (or why SOPA is a bad idea)

**kniteowl** · 01-18-2012, 04:23 PM

http://www.ted.com/talks/defend_our_..._bad_idea.html

All this information about Sopa, made confused as hell of what it was exactly but this video explained it to me, so now I know a lot better.

**98abaile** · 01-19-2012, 05:47 AM

Without watching the video, I believe that the general gist of it is that websites become culpable for the content of their users and the government gets the right to force ISPs to block infringing sites. Meaning that if a corporation doesn't like something they can effectively shut down an entire site by anonymously posting a copy righted IP and bitching about it to the government. Extrapolating from this, the internet can basically be controlled and censored by copyright holders and the government.

Is that right? That makes this even worse than the net neutrality issue.

**Stuyvesant** · 01-19-2012, 06:01 AM

Hmmm. I hadn't thought about it, but that does seem like a nifty way to sabotage a competitor.
It's a huge problem when the people passing the laws don't understand the damage that they will cause.