3 ms·

Probably not what you are looking for but I plan to shut down my personal site, actively campaign (politically) against candidates/office holders who support(ed

by epc 15y ago

Probably not what you are looking for but I plan to shut down my personal site, actively campaign (politically) against candidates/office holders who support(ed) SOPA/PIPA (even when it means crossing traditional party lines). I've been on the fence about a business idea and may well either kill it entirely or develop it outside the US should SOPA/PIPA be enacted (though with the EU going along with much of this copyright crap I'm not sure where I'd develop it). I'm shutting down my personal site because it's a blog with 12+ years of entries plus non-blog pages dating back to the 1990s. I have zero interest in reviewing the links in each entry to see if they link to potentially infringing content. The language in SOPA/PIPA is so vague that even if I removed all suspect links it's unclear that that would eliminate the chance for being taken down. On the flip side: I have already cataloged many sites which have misappropriated content which I theoretically have the copyright on. Several are SOPA supporters. Should SOPA be enacted I plan to file takedown notices with their service providers until the copyrighted content is removed. If the media companies are going to declare war on consumer generated content then we might as well fight back using their own weapons against them.

benburleson 15y ago
Somehow I doubt anybody will go after a personal site that isn't directly distributing copyrighted material. There's just no financial incentive. And if you play that scenario out to the extreme, every site would have to be shut down because there are extremely few sites that do not link to anything, and eventually one has copyrighted content. However, I like your idea of lining up takedown notices for SOPA supporters. I would love to see their Oh-shit faces when they realize what they've done.
- epc 15y ago
  Taking down the site may not seem to have financial incentive, but using the site as a vector to litigate against the owner of the site for infringement just introduces too much risk/liability against my personal financial assets. I mean, these bozos have gone after unemployed stay at home mothers for hundreds of thousands of dollars (and won). I just don't have the interest in intentionally being a litigation target for the copyright goons. But to your point: yes, if you play the scenario to the extreme, every site would have to be shut down. But if you read the text of the proposed laws and the existing precedents, as well as the statements of the proponents of these laws, I think that's the very point. They say the laws are targeted at foreign sites, but the text of the laws and existing precedent would lead to the shutdown of any consumer owned/generated site. The point of PIPA/SOPA isn't to stop piracy, it's to stop consumers from publishing their own content. And to the media HNers out there: better make damn sure you have written copyright releases for every piece of user generated content on your site.
malandrew 15y ago
I do like the idea of using their own weapons against them. Do we have a list of websites to target? All we need are two groups. One group that actively posts copyrighted content on the sites and another that actively barrages those sites with takedown notices. It would basically be a DDoS using the legal system.
djacobs 15y ago
While I'm very much interested in a technical solution/workaround to SOPA (with community support), I'm also liking this answer. I might have to look at doing the same thing.

by epc 15y ago

benburleson 15y ago

Somehow I doubt anybody will go after a personal site that isn't directly distributing copyrighted material. There's just no financial incentive. And if you play that scenario out to the extreme, every site would have to be shut down because there are extremely few sites that do not link to anything, and eventually one has copyrighted content. However, I like your idea of lining up takedown notices for SOPA supporters. I would love to see their Oh-shit faces when they realize what they've done.

epc 15y ago
Taking down the site may not seem to have financial incentive, but using the site as a vector to litigate against the owner of the site for infringement just introduces too much risk/liability against my personal financial assets. I mean, these bozos have gone after unemployed stay at home mothers for hundreds of thousands of dollars (and won). I just don't have the interest in intentionally being a litigation target for the copyright goons. But to your point: yes, if you play the scenario to the extreme, every site would have to be shut down. But if you read the text of the proposed laws and the existing precedents, as well as the statements of the proponents of these laws, I think that's the very point. They say the laws are targeted at foreign sites, but the text of the laws and existing precedent would lead to the shutdown of any consumer owned/generated site. The point of PIPA/SOPA isn't to stop piracy, it's to stop consumers from publishing their own content. And to the media HNers out there: better make damn sure you have written copyright releases for every piece of user generated content on your site.

malandrew 15y ago

I do like the idea of using their own weapons against them. Do we have a list of websites to target? All we need are two groups. One group that actively posts copyrighted content on the sites and another that actively barrages those sites with takedown notices. It would basically be a DDoS using the legal system.

djacobs 15y ago

While I'm very much interested in a technical solution/workaround to SOPA (with community support), I'm also liking this answer. I might have to look at doing the same thing.