Friday, November 19, 2010

COICA: A Federal Official Deciding Who Gets to Stay Online

"Web Censorship Bill Sails Through Senate Committee"
Sam Gustin, Epicenter, Wired (November 18, 2010)

"Who says Congress never gets anything done?

"On Thursday, the Senate Judiciary Committee unanimously approved a bill that would give the Attorney General the right to shut down websites with a court order if copyright infringement is deemed 'central to the activity' of the site — regardless if the website has actually committed a crime. The Combating Online Infringement and Counterfeits Act (COICA) is among the most draconian laws ever considered to combat digital piracy, and contains what some have called the 'nuclear option,' which would essentially allow the Attorney General to turn suspected websites 'off.'

"COICA is the latest effort by Hollywood, the recording industry and the big media companies to stem the tidal wave of internet file sharing that has upended those industries and, they claim, cost them tens of billions of dollars over the last decade...."

Okay: the Lemming isn't "political," and I do think that intellectual property rights need to be protected.

The Lemming also thinks that COICA has 'bad idea' written all over it.

Not the basic notion of making it harder to rip off someone's work and pass it off as your own - or get the profits that should have gone to the owner. That actually makes sense.

It's the Senate, right after an election - with another reality check a couple years away and some of them at the end of the line in Congress - putting a bill through that lets a Federal official decide who's allowed to be online.

Sure - it's not for 'honest citizens like me.' The only people who have to worry are those low-life pirates. Or folks who might be pirates. Or might become pirates.

'It can't happen here?' The Lemming sure hopes so.

Related posts:

2 comments:

Brigid said...

There's a word missing: "that lets a Federal official who's allowed"

The Friendly Neighborhood Proofreader

Brian H. Gill said...

Brigid,

Right you are! Found, fixed. (You'd think I'd pay attention to what my fingers do.)

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