12 ms·

I'm not a US citizen. 1) To what extent am I really going to get affected by such a bill? 2) Is there anything I can do to prevent it?

holmesworcester 15y ago
Hey, I'm one of the protest organizers. Here's how it affects non-US citizens: 1) Links to any blacklisted site will get removed from US search engines, directories, and maybe even blogs through lawsuits. Google, Twitter, maybe even HackerNews. 2) Your non-US site can get blocked to all US users (ouch) and lose most of its search / social traffic (see #1) 3) Non-US sites can get cut off from US-based payment processors and advertisers. This will push sites you use into bankruptcy, and discourage others from starting. 4) Hollywood and (I'm ashamed to say it) US trade representatives and embassies will be busy convincing other countries to pass similar laws. If this law passes, that process goes better. 5) Countries that want cover for their own internet censorship regimes will be able to say "The US does it". Russian politics in particular loves these (sometimes false, sometimes not) equivalencies as excuses for anti-democratic measures. As for how you can prevent it, if your run a site or product with content in English, your site has American visitors, potentially lots of them. Same goes for just spreading the word on social networks. Participate in American Censorship Day and direct them to call their reps!
- julian37 15y ago
  Also noteworthy in this context, a site owner who issues a counter-notice automatically consents to being sued in U.S. courts (a strong disincentive for sites based abroad) (http://torrentfreak.com/the-privatization-of-copyright-lawmaking-111112/ http://torrentfreak.com/the-privatization-of-copyright-lawma...)
- thret 15y ago
  5) Is what bothers me the most. If the US goes to hell, I have no doubt the first world will follow.
- damncabbage 15y ago
  5) Countries that want cover for their own internet censorship regimes will be able to say "The US does it". This is what I am most worried about. (America says "Jump", Australia asks "How high?")
  - westbywest 15y ago
    From my limited recollection, Australia has tended to implement such restrictions even more aggressively than the US legislation/policies they took inspiration from. So the 2nd-order trickle down effect could be worse in Australia, and presumably other countries.
- sandee 15y ago
  > Links to any blacklisted site will get removed from US search engines, directories, and maybe even blogs through lawsuits. Google, Twitter, maybe even HackerNews. It doesn't work that way anymore. Google, fb , twitter etc operates across the world. Assuming the worst case, US residents will face the some error page like "This website is blocked" etc .. but rest of the world will be OK. If even that is restricted, then this will raise a opportunity for clone solutions across the world. Like china has its own search, social software, blogs etc , now rest of the world will have a new opportunity. Many in HN would mint gold if this happens! All in all this looks like the familiar path to take for US politician. (remember how the created the platform for screwing up the economy. > Non-US sites can get cut off from US-based payment processors and advertisers. This will push sites you use into bankruptcy, and discourage others from starting. Its the competition from US sites that is restricting clone solutions in local markets. US is not the target market for many-many businesses !( is it so difficult to understand)
  - vidarh 15y ago
    > Its the competition from US sites that is restricting clone solutions in local markets. US is not the target market for many-many businesses !( is it so difficult to understand) The problem is you need a critical mass of customers with cards handled by someone other than Visa and Mastercard. This is not currently the case in most countries. Doesn't help if you're not targeting US consumers if a large portion of your customer base will go elsewhere if they can't use their existing credit cards.
sehugg 15y ago
I may be able to answer #1. If you have a site that is based outside of the US, and a copyright holder accuses you of infringement, the US Attorney General could order your DNS record removed (as well as disable payment processing and advertising services). If you file a counter-notice contesting this action, you implicitly consent to being sued in the US court system. On the flip side, foreign nations may benefit from this legislation, as it will indicate the US is relinquishing their leadership role as custodian of core internet features such as DNS, and may open up opportunities abroad.
avar 15y ago
1) I don't know about (I'm not a US citizen either), but you could just write to US representatives pretending to be one of their constituents. They're not going to do some ID check, and it'll count towards the "X number of people have contacted us about issue Y" count, which'll count for something.
- chimeracoder 15y ago
  > They're not going to do some ID check, and it'll count towards the "X number of people have contacted us about issue Y" count, which'll count for something. First of all - yes, they do check, and they have no obligation to listen to you if you are not a constituent. Second, calling someone who isn't your elected official is legal, but calling and pretending to be a constituent is not.
  - avar 15y ago
    Maybe you're right about them doing a check. It's been a while since I contacted a US representative (and I didn't claim to be a US citizen) but I remember that at the time I could simply enter any address / zip code in his/her contact form, so you could have easily claimed to be from their state. And regarding the legality remember that this would be a foreign national contacting a US representative. It's not like they're going to go to the trouble of finding out who you really are and extraditing you for such a small matter.
    - anigbrowl 15y ago
      There is a small but non-zero chance that engaging in any deception about this will rebound upon you if you are seeking a US visa or green card at some time in the future.
artichokeheart 15y ago
1) If you are an Australian I'd be worried, because if this passes I'm pretty sure that the Australian Government will be quick to enact similar legislation under the guise of the AUS-US free-trade agreement to appease the copyright cartels and their own political egos as they finally have an excuse to implement the great firewall of Australia (which in turn will appease the Australia Christian Lobby). 2) This I don't know, but I do think it's time that we as consumers started boycotting the copyright bullies. Stop buying, watching, listening, reading and yes absolutely downloading (legally or otherwise) their stuff. It's time to take away their power. If you consume only copyleft materials then it won't matter how draconian they get on using copyrighted material* they will just further restrict who will consume it. (*I understand the issue with SOPA is to do with censorship and freedom of speech)
- damncabbage 15y ago
  (which in turn will appease the Australia Christian Lobby). At the risk of dragging this off-topic: I think it's becoming increasingly obvious that politicians are just using the ACL as an excuse to do whatever they want.

holmesworcester 15y ago

Hey, I'm one of the protest organizers. Here's how it affects non-US citizens: 1) Links to any blacklisted site will get removed from US search engines, directories, and maybe even blogs through lawsuits. Google, Twitter, maybe even HackerNews. 2) Your non-US site can get blocked to all US users (ouch) and lose most of its search / social traffic (see #1) 3) Non-US sites can get cut off from US-based payment processors and advertisers. This will push sites you use into bankruptcy, and discourage others from starting. 4) Hollywood and (I'm ashamed to say it) US trade representatives and embassies will be busy convincing other countries to pass similar laws. If this law passes, that process goes better. 5) Countries that want cover for their own internet censorship regimes will be able to say "The US does it". Russian politics in particular loves these (sometimes false, sometimes not) equivalencies as excuses for anti-democratic measures. As for how you can prevent it, if your run a site or product with content in English, your site has American visitors, potentially lots of them. Same goes for just spreading the word on social networks. Participate in American Censorship Day and direct them to call their reps!

julian37 15y ago
Also noteworthy in this context, a site owner who issues a counter-notice automatically consents to being sued in U.S. courts (a strong disincentive for sites based abroad) (http://torrentfreak.com/the-privatization-of-copyright-lawmaking-111112/ http://torrentfreak.com/the-privatization-of-copyright-lawma...)
thret 15y ago
5) Is what bothers me the most. If the US goes to hell, I have no doubt the first world will follow.
damncabbage 15y ago
5) Countries that want cover for their own internet censorship regimes will be able to say "The US does it". This is what I am most worried about. (America says "Jump", Australia asks "How high?")
- westbywest 15y ago
  From my limited recollection, Australia has tended to implement such restrictions even more aggressively than the US legislation/policies they took inspiration from. So the 2nd-order trickle down effect could be worse in Australia, and presumably other countries.
sandee 15y ago
> Links to any blacklisted site will get removed from US search engines, directories, and maybe even blogs through lawsuits. Google, Twitter, maybe even HackerNews. It doesn't work that way anymore. Google, fb , twitter etc operates across the world. Assuming the worst case, US residents will face the some error page like "This website is blocked" etc .. but rest of the world will be OK. If even that is restricted, then this will raise a opportunity for clone solutions across the world. Like china has its own search, social software, blogs etc , now rest of the world will have a new opportunity. Many in HN would mint gold if this happens! All in all this looks like the familiar path to take for US politician. (remember how the created the platform for screwing up the economy. > Non-US sites can get cut off from US-based payment processors and advertisers. This will push sites you use into bankruptcy, and discourage others from starting. Its the competition from US sites that is restricting clone solutions in local markets. US is not the target market for many-many businesses !( is it so difficult to understand)
- vidarh 15y ago
  > Its the competition from US sites that is restricting clone solutions in local markets. US is not the target market for many-many businesses !( is it so difficult to understand) The problem is you need a critical mass of customers with cards handled by someone other than Visa and Mastercard. This is not currently the case in most countries. Doesn't help if you're not targeting US consumers if a large portion of your customer base will go elsewhere if they can't use their existing credit cards.

sehugg 15y ago

I may be able to answer #1. If you have a site that is based outside of the US, and a copyright holder accuses you of infringement, the US Attorney General could order your DNS record removed (as well as disable payment processing and advertising services). If you file a counter-notice contesting this action, you implicitly consent to being sued in the US court system. On the flip side, foreign nations may benefit from this legislation, as it will indicate the US is relinquishing their leadership role as custodian of core internet features such as DNS, and may open up opportunities abroad.

avar 15y ago

1) I don't know about (I'm not a US citizen either), but you could just write to US representatives pretending to be one of their constituents. They're not going to do some ID check, and it'll count towards the "X number of people have contacted us about issue Y" count, which'll count for something.

chimeracoder 15y ago
> They're not going to do some ID check, and it'll count towards the "X number of people have contacted us about issue Y" count, which'll count for something. First of all - yes, they do check, and they have no obligation to listen to you if you are not a constituent. Second, calling someone who isn't your elected official is legal, but calling and pretending to be a constituent is not.
- avar 15y ago
  Maybe you're right about them doing a check. It's been a while since I contacted a US representative (and I didn't claim to be a US citizen) but I remember that at the time I could simply enter any address / zip code in his/her contact form, so you could have easily claimed to be from their state. And regarding the legality remember that this would be a foreign national contacting a US representative. It's not like they're going to go to the trouble of finding out who you really are and extraditing you for such a small matter.
  - anigbrowl 15y ago
    There is a small but non-zero chance that engaging in any deception about this will rebound upon you if you are seeking a US visa or green card at some time in the future.

artichokeheart 15y ago

1) If you are an Australian I'd be worried, because if this passes I'm pretty sure that the Australian Government will be quick to enact similar legislation under the guise of the AUS-US free-trade agreement to appease the copyright cartels and their own political egos as they finally have an excuse to implement the great firewall of Australia (which in turn will appease the Australia Christian Lobby). 2) This I don't know, but I do think it's time that we as consumers started boycotting the copyright bullies. Stop buying, watching, listening, reading and yes absolutely downloading (legally or otherwise) their stuff. It's time to take away their power. If you consume only copyleft materials then it won't matter how draconian they get on using copyrighted material* they will just further restrict who will consume it. (*I understand the issue with SOPA is to do with censorship and freedom of speech)

damncabbage 15y ago
(which in turn will appease the Australia Christian Lobby). At the risk of dragging this off-topic: I think it's becoming increasingly obvious that politicians are just using the ACL as an excuse to do whatever they want.