Large internet companies like Google, LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter and Firefox-developer Mozilla action against a bill against piracy in the US. According to the firms is the freedom on the internet too much restricted.
Including eBay, Facebook, Google, LinkedIn, Twitter, Yahoo and Mozilla have a joint letter to the U.s. Congress sent, because they are worried about the so-called Sopa law. That law, which last month a proposal was filed in Congress, provides for more stringent measures against copyright infringement. According to the internetgiganten is the proposed law innovation in the way and creates a lot of uncertainty for internet companies. Especially start-ups could be hindered by additional legal responsibilities.
Internet companies fear that she is much more active will need to keep, or their users do not upload content that potentially violates copyrights. According to the bill can copyright holders ensure that websites that are too little against copyright infringement would, of internet be shut down. The intervention of the court is not required: an official complaint from a copyright holder is enough.
Would also ad networks and payment processors-in this case their ties with that website must be cut. American providers have dns filtering to ensure that such websites are not accessible when the servers of the website is not on U.s. territory. The law is according to the drafters especially referred to foreign websites to address, but according to the critics, this is not so: also, American sites would be affected.
For sites outside of U.s. territory means it is possible also that they are located on the U.s. copyright law will need to keep up, because otherwise they run the risk that payment providers and advertising networks their services terminate. Therefore, it is necessary that a site is to users in the United States, but it is unclear what that exactly the requirements are.
Until now, sites which internet users content can be places in the US indemnified from legal actions, as long as they responded to notice-and-takedown procedures. In such procedures is individual violations, while the new Sopa law would provide in the inaccessible of all the websites. The internetgiganten point out in their letter that the system of notice-and-takedown works well and is not on the side must be pushed.
In addition to internet companies are civil liberty organisations point dissatisfied, including the EFF, which suggests that sites such as Flickr and Vimeo in the problems can come if users of copyrighted material to upload without permission. The probability seems, however, that the law is there to them: in both chambers of the U.s. house of representatives, there would be a majority, reports Cnet. It is striking that the commission, which the law treats, no civil liberty organisations point invited to give their views. Only Google is allowed in the parliament his vision. That while five supporters of the law have been invited, including the American organization for the film industry MPAA and medicijnenfabrikant Pfizer.
The new law extends for an earlier bill that ultimately failed, inter alia because it is too vague. The old law spoke more about ‘unwanted sites’, while the definition in the new act is honed to sites that infringe the copyright.