SOPA & PIPA More good things thrown away than bad things

Posted on January 19, 2012. Filed under: Announcement | Tags: Christadelphian, Copyright, Copyright infringement, criminal act, Facebook, Intellectual property, MSN, PIPA, Protect IP Act, Social network, United States, Wikipedia, Wordpress |

In certain countries our websites are not allowed to be shown on the internet. We can find many of our articles being blocked.

Being Christian and on plus non-trinitarian we are considered to be dangerous and fulfilling a criminal act also by trying to convert Muslims. When we publicised on MSN in the Groups we often had to take away articles and more than once certain people we helped to escape from Iran, Iak, Afghanistan and Turkey asked us to take away their name from the site and to remove the articles of the success of our actions, because of repercussions to family members.

Because we are also active in helping people to flee violence and torturing, and spreading the Good News in different areas in the world, we are also sometimes considered working in illegality. Therefore we are by some governements blacklisted and accused of being part of  ‘terror groups’. Though we can assure you we only want to preach Good News and peace and are totally against any form of violence.

For our publications we pay perhaps not so much for copyrights (last year 280.99€ for the extra copyrights), because we also try to use copyright free material (older photographs and illustrations) and limited allowed quotes. Though we are voluntary working and have to face much higher costs to be able to put our writings on the net and to get them publicised. For bigger companies they shall have to face a much higher bill.

We agree, and do have no objection that we and other people do have to pay copyrights to the rightful owners. But there are limitations in how far you can go. For example in case we use music in a place where more people are present we should pay the copyright office. So for our meetings where we use only Christadelphian music, we honestly agree that we do not pay extra, and do not fulfil all the paperwork for the Copyright registration office, because our Christadelphian brothers never receive any penny for it.

In Belgium you get such absurdities that when you go to the dentist he has not his radio on, because then he has to pay extra fees to the Copyright office, but he switches his computer on and let the music stream that way. (Using a loophole in the law.) (Plus we already do pay copyrights for listening with our subscription with the server, radio and television providers. Why to pay once more?)

For the articles on the internet we provide the readers also with quotes from other related articles on other, even non- Christadelphian and trinitarian sites. In case we should have to pay extra for it we would abandon such a service. But that way people become limited to know more and to look further or to compare other opinions. We think it is important for the matter of freedom that people should be able to get as  much information as possible about a certain subject. Providing free information, either by taking care of presenting free visible articles on several research sites or free encyclopaedic works, like Wikipedia, are important to give as much people as possible the opportunity to broaden their mind and to form their own opinion.

Three years ago the Belgian government wanted already to limit publication on Social Networks, because the Muslim groups had found a means to get people together for their protest marches. Also the Occupy Movement and Indignados caused a problem that way, and therefore the government is looking for ways to restrict such gatherings by be able in the future to cut down certain websites and social networks.

Also in the United States of America they have noted the danger social networks can do for certain governments when people can get mobilized by such electronic networks. They are also aware that in case in an other country an uproar happens their own people could get to know about it and ask them to react, while other while they would prefer not to interfere and not to spend any money to actions.

The “Protect IP Act (Preventing Real Online Threats to Economic Creativity and Theft of Intellectual Property Act of 2011 or PIPA), also known as Senate Bill 968 or S. 968, is now be put forward as a proposed law with the stated goal of giving the US government and copyright holders additional tools to curb access to “rogue websites dedicated to infringing or counterfeit goods”, especially those registered outside the U.S.. { The legislation should not be confused with HR 2391, or the Intellectual Property Protection Act of 2004, which was an earlier collection of intellectual property related legislation. Although the 2006 legislation does involve a very similar representation of the 2004 legislation, it is more of an expansion and addition rather than a refurbished copy.}

We are totally aware of the difficulty of fighting against malicious groups, and that there is a relationship between terrorist organizations and intellectual property infringement and infringement of IP. We also know that , especially pirated CDs and DVDs and other counterfeit goods, have become the main source of terrorist organization funding, but to put all the publications on the net on chains is a step to far.

People should consider the danger of such a text as “”making available” for civil violation, regardless of whether there is any distribution or copying, let alone infringement. ” in the new law, where you can wonder when we can speak of a “civil violation”? For many countries we as a religious group are bringing their population in danger, because we could be able to convert them to a dreadful belief. We are considered as dreadful liars so therefor we should be blacked out.

A good thing would be H.R. 5136 The Preservation of Orphan Works Act which would allow libraries to create copies of certain copyrighted works that, in their last twenty years of copyright term, are no longer commercially exploited, and are not available at a reasonable price. Introduced Sept. 23, 2004.But at such an instance we would find it better that as in Belgium the photocopy copyrights would still be taken into account.

On the other hand what about occasional or not intentional copies of an art work or monument, like by private family pictures in front of a painting, statue or monument. When they would have to pay for the copyrights using the painting, statue or monument in their picture this would be ridiculous. It would be even more ridiculous if the server company who allowed to have the photo or film be placed on the net would also be taken accountable for the publication and infringement of copyright laws. can yo imagine which fines and problems Facebook is going to encounter?

Also for schools and institutions the “Piracy Deterrence in Education” is too vague, and could include material stored on computers and shared on networks, bringing those institutions in big problems.

The last decennia we could find in the internet a blessing to be able to communicate more easily with each other and to share opinions. This open free space is under threat.

We should be careful that we are not choosing for a money making ‘so called’  “Democracy” that is in favor of intrest and maximum gain profit, without counting the human factor. The freedom  of Free speech is important for everybody. Even when we have to face that certain things we do not agree with are written so that everybody can read them. We should give everybody also the freedom to choose what they want to read and how they want to interpret it. Though we do agree there are certain limitations like pornographic material and extreme violence which should be filtered down.

The Christadelphians are non-political, and normally we would not interfere with political matters as such, though we greatly react to injustice, violation of human rights, and any form of violence against humankind.

We also are for the freedom of mind and the freedom of intellectual exchange.

We are pleased WordPress, Wikipedia and Zemanta with several servercompanies provide us with tools to bring our ideas across many borders. Limited in our own resources, being dependant on free gifts, as non-paid preachers we are thankful for the provisions certain companies make to give us the opportunity to publish our ideas.

With the proposed bill we can see that a lot of freedom of speech can be dangered, and therefore want to express our opinion and stand up with many protesters against the new proposal.

Yesterday you could perhaps find our site also blacked out in your country and until the 24th of November you shall be able to see a black banner at the right-hand corner of the screen. We may not forget that in case the United States of America gets this bill accepted by parliament, many other countries would follow and by doing so will close all the good things about the internet as well.

We would propose that they at first would concentrate more on all the spammers and fishing companies and got those before court. In case they are able to find the right IP addresses and servers for the other things why not for those malicious companies? Why do they tackle them first?

Joe Biden filled in for Hillary Clinton at the London Conference on Cyberspace (LCC) on November 1st, giving a speech on the importance of freedom in cyberspace and talking up the importance of freedom on the internet and not regulating the internet. Meanwhile, the Obama Administration stands with congress in full support of H.R 3261, the Stop Online Piracy Act, which would give copyright holders the ability to censor websites on the net. We need to stand up now and let Congress know that they shouldn’t mess with the Internet!

Biden on Internet Freedom = Anti-SOPA from Fight for the Future on Vimeo.

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Read also:

Intellectual Property (IP) Definition & What is Intellectual Property (IP) law?

In Dutch:

• Gevaar voor censuur op het internet
• Religie verwerpelijk en gevaarlijk
• Ook GroenLinks-site op zwart uit protest tegen SOPA

And find:

• A dangereous way of censorship
• EU Legislation – Intellectual Property
• International Intellectual Property Institute (IIPI)
• WTO – Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS)
• World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO)
• H.R. 2391: The Intellectual Property Protection Act

Related articles

In case we are infringing copyright rules here by quoting underneath articles, we are at least giving more readers to find these articles, and we do suppose the writers wrote them to be read by as much readers as possible, therefore we would still like to help them to get more readers and to let our readers get more information and more opportunity to think about this and other matters:

• What’s with the blackouts? (iamnotfromhere.wordpress.com)
  For those of you NOT in the US, you may be wondering why there are “blackouts” on websites all over the place. Google.com, Wikipedia and yes, even WordPress. What is going on?
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  SOPA/PIPA just gives companies and the US government too much power.
• January 18th: The Internet Revolts Against SOPA and PIPA and the General Trend Towards the Censorship of the World Wide Web (todayifoundout.com)
  This day in history thousands of websites, including Wikipedia, Reddit, Boing Boing, TheOatmeal (which gives the most amusing of all the protests, though slightly inappropriate for younger audiences), WordPress, Makezine, Mozilla, and the entire O’Reilly Media network went black (complete list of confirmed websites that are participating), their owners voluntarily taking the sites down specifically in protest of proposed legislation in the United States, SOPA and PIPA, but more generally in protest of the disturbing trend of internet censorship; this time some of the most drastic such legislation ironically coming from a government who is constantly criticizing other governments for doing just this.  Many other websites, most notably Google, are also taking part in the protest, not by taking their site(s) down, but by promoting awareness of an issue that previous to today has conspicuously stayed mostly out of the main stream media (whose owners almost unanimously support and are lobbying for SOPA and PIPA to pass).
• SOPA & PIPA pt. 2 (chunterfactor.wordpress.com)
  The Internet is an international treaty. Although the computers that make up the Internet are under the jurisdiction of many different countries, and particular parts of its network are governed by these countries’ laws, the Internet in its entirety belongs to the whole world and is without precedent.Only a body with worldwide scope should have the jurisdiction to decide what can or cannot be accessed on the Internet.
• How SOPA Could Kill Libraries (portrayaloftichwi.wordpress.com)
  Someone complains that Wikipedia has posted an article containing information that infringes on their copyright. The library’s ISP blocks access to Wikipedia. Students can no longer use the site to begin their research, librarians can no longer look there for a quick answer, or even a link to a more reputable site for an answer. (This situation could also work for any site that is used for ready reference style questions.)
  A library posts a video from a program on their YouTube channel. In the background, you can hear a radio playing a song. The video is flagged, YouTube is blocked, and instead of just being asked to remove the video, the library is held on copyright infringement charges.
• Blog resumes, hopefully reuncensored (thenakedlistener.wordpress.com)
  two pieces of proposed Great Firewall of America legislation:

  

  The censored Freshly Press page at WordPress.com

• SOPA Outside The U.S.: What it Means for The Rest of The World (currenteditorials.wordpress.com)
  PIPA and SOPA will not stop piracy. There are ways around DNS blocking, and piracy will persist. In truth, the entertainment companies already have the power to fight piracy. They can get a video taken off of YouTube. They can sue companies using their intellectual property without permission. SOPA and PIPA were created to give the media companies the ability to target and take-down previously untouchable foreign piracy sites by blocking their domain and cutting off their revenue. But it includes loopholes that, when abused (consciously or not), would allow the government to effectively censor the internet. This effect would be far-reaching, and would have global ramifications.Say goodbye to your favourite sites.
  To an uninformed judge, social networks like YouTube, Tumblr, Facebook, Twitter, and SoundCloud might seem like they support piracy due to the amount of copyrighted content that appears on their respective websites. And under SOPA, a website is responsible for any content its users upload, and the government could block any site that contains even one infringing link. Sites such as these would constantly have to worry about the content their users are uploading, posting, and sharing. This is a huge legal burden to carry, and social networks and other similar online sharing services would find it impossible to exist with laws like SOPA and PIPA in place. Those of us outside the U.S. would have to say goodbye to our favorite sites.
• Ask the Attorneys: Intellectual Property & The Web, Part 2 (fracturedatlas.org)
  You have a script, a video camera, and a great performance to launch your web series.
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  Uploading your video content for your web series onto social media websites such as Facebook.com and Youtube.com does not mean that you are relinquishing your copyright ownership. Instead, you are granting these websites a license to use, display and store that content in connection with the services that they provide.
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  Always be sure to review a website’s Terms of Service before uploading your content, since deleting your content from your account usually does not terminate all of the website service’s rights to your content.
• SOPA and PIPA vs The Internet: The Epic Copyright Battle (tacticalip.com)
• intellectual property symposium (ublawcareer.wordpress.com)
• On Censorship: Millions Say No To SOPA & PIPA…(eof737.wordpress.com)“The fact is that censorship always defeats its own purpose, for it creates, in the end, the kind of society that is incapable of exercising real discretion.” Henry Steele Commager
• New York Intellectual Property Attorney Covers Artist Protection from Three Perspectives (prweb.com)
  “Reputation, ownership of creativity, and freedom of speech are the commercial currency of the artist,” says Faux. “Trademark, copyright, and censorship, then, must be the predominant concerns of any artist, whether a fashion designer, author, photographer, actor, or any other creative.”
• Why is there going to be a Wikipedia blackout and what is SOPA? (news.nationalpost.com)
• History as it Happens: SOPA and PIPA protests (saintleoinkblot.com)
• SOPA – What you need to know (haute-law.com)
• Google to ‘change’ its homepage but refuses to join Wikipedia in blacking out … – Daily Mail (dailymail.co.uk)
• What is SOPA/PIPA and Why the Web is Going Dark on January 18, 2012 (aisjournal.com)
• Have you seen the blackout? (famelessramblings.wordpress.com)
  For user-content heavy sites (Facebook, Twitter, any and all blogging sites, etc) this is impossible.  It would mean reading every post, every comment, every everything 24 hours a day, seven days a week.  This would, in effect, kill the internet.  Goodbye self-expression.  Goodbye self-promotion for authors and small business owners, and anyone else who uses the internet to create something.
• SOPA Will Effect Black Folk,Too (ashy2classy.net)
  From Madam CJ Walker to Tyler Perry, African-Americans have an entrepreneurial history of making a way where there is none. SOPA, while well-meaning in its attempt to limit the “bootlegging” of music, media and intellectual property, will also effectively bottleneck, and inadvertently choke the frontier of modern entrepreneurship. Think about it. Video sharing is what allowed a homeless man to go from “nobody” to “Ted Williams, the Man with the Golden Voice”. While the inability to download the latest movie may hinder your Friday night, the inability to share YouTube videos will kill the career of the next Soulja Boy, Justin Bieber or Greyson Chance.But it doesn’t stop there.
• Internet Blackout! (justmejewel.wordpress.com)
  I have learned more, researched many things, hence my dismay about Wikipedia this morning, and I have even reconnected with old friends, some of whom live in other countries!  I know there are people who use the internet for the wrong reasons.  If you ever watch the show “In Session,” you will see the evidence against those sitting in the court room can be traced back to their internet searches.  But I also know that a lot of good comes from the internet as well.  Many school projects have been completed because of the information we were able to obtain through the wonderful world that exists beyond our computer screens.
• Sopa: Another country’s legislation messing with my Internet (journomel.com)
  One analyst provided this metaphor: “Imagine lawmakers saw that bank robbers are using getaway cars, so they banned all cars to cut down on robberies.”
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  So a policy, whipped up in a (admittedly beloved neighbour) country other than my own, affects my access to information.
• A Breakdown of SOPA and PIPA: What It Means For All Of Us…with Videos (grizzlybomb.com)
• Stop SOPA / PIPA (popbytes.com)
• Anti-SOPA Blackout Day. LNN Declares TheOatmeal.com The Winners (levynewsnetwork.wordpress.com)
• Don’t Stop Until SOPA & PIPA Are Stopped (greg.org)
  a grave threat to the Internet as a platform for economic, cultural, and political exchange. They are unnecessarily broad and ambiguous and give vast, new, unchecked power to corporations who have consistently lied and misrepresented their case and the supposed threat they face.
• VIDEO REPORT: Why SOPA is a bad idea (greginsd.wordpress.com)
• What Mark Zuckerberg Says About SOPA/PIPA (readwriteweb.com)
  Today Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg voiced his personal opposition to the proposed SOPA/PIPA legislation, joining the ranks of fellow Internet powerhouses Google, Wikipedia, Craigslist and Reddit.”The Internet is the most powerful tool we have for creating a more open and connected world,” writes Zuck. “We can’t let poorly thought out laws get in the way of the Internet’s development.”
• Stop Censorship! Protect Internet Freedoms! (ansionnachfionn.com)
  The dangerous nature of the proposed US bill is not just an American concern but an international one since it threatens freedoms across the world wide web, and I felt it only right that the site join in with the campaign. As an Irish Republican website An Sionnach Fionn faces its own troubles with would-be censors, so I’m quiet aware of the issue of restricted internet freedoms (yes Facebook, Yahoo, Flickr, et al, I do mean you).
• Are our internet giants allowed to have political agendas? (theabyssment.wordpress.com)
  While the internet is indeed a place full of an infinite number of diverse and opposed opinions, it has come to represent a space in the world free of standards for political prerogative. In acting as a housing place for so many agendas the internet itself has generally been held as a bastion of the ideals of a free society.
• Wikipedia to go offline to protest anti-piracy legislation – Los Angeles Times (latimes.com)
• Learn All About SOPA: Why Wiki and WordPress Closed for the Day (buzfairy.com)
  Mashable [link] did an excellent job summarizing the threats of the proposed bills:
• Why Canadians Should Participate in the SOPA/PIPA Protest (michaelgeist.ca)
  … millions of Canadians rely on the legitimate sites that are affected by the legislation. Whether creating a Wikipedia entry, posting a comment on Reddit, running a WordPress blog, participating in an open source software project, or reading a posting on BoingBoing, the lifeblood of the Internet is a direct target of SOPA. If Canadians remain silent, they may ultimately find the sites and services they rely upon silenced by this legislation.
• SOPA/PIPA And A Virtual Blackout (theknockingthrush.wordpress.com)
• What Is SOPA? [Sopa] (gizmodo.com)
  Potential for abuse is rampant. As Public Knowledge points out, Google could easily take it upon itself to delist every viral video site on the internet with a “good faith belief” that they’re hosting copyrighted material. Leaving YouTube as the only major video portal. Comcast (an ISP) owns NBC (a content provider). Think they might have an interest in shuttering some rival domains? Under SOPA, they can do it without even asking for permission….while exacting a huge cost from nearly every site you use daily…
• Wikipedia Blackout: Websites Wikipedia, Reddit, Others Go Dark on Wednesday to Protest SOPA, PIPA (aquariuschannelings.com)
  the devil is in the details, said NetCoalition’s Erickson.

  “This bill reverses the policy that has been in place since the beginning of the Web,” he said, “that Internet companies shouldn’t be liable, nor should they be required to police or snoop on their users.”

• We’re sorry, you’re not allowed to read this. (const4ntinos.com)
  All they have to do is file notice (not prove to a court, but simply file notice) that their copyright has been infringed to a service provider, such as the one which registers the name greenpeace.org on the Internet, and that entity has 5 days to take action to end service to the site.If in fact there was no copyright infringement, the service provider is immune from lawsuit by Greenpeace for taking the site down or suspending any other services.
• Join the Fight Against SOPA and PIPA: immoral US internet legislation that WILL affect you regardless of what country you live in (davidjrodger.wordpress.com)
• All Lathered Up About SOPA (wallstreetpit.com)
• SOPA And PIPA May Cripple The Web Video Ecosystem, Unless We Fight It (reelseo.com)
• Canada would feel effects of U.S. web-piracy laws (cbc.ca)
• SOPA and PIPA: Why the Internet is Going Black (towleroad.com)
• Fab Flash: Senate Bill Targets Knockoffs (fabsugar.com)
• Get Help With IP Infringement From Intellectual Property Lawyers – Law (rawbusinesslaw.com)
  Intellectual property plays an important part in many people’s lives as they spend a lot of time and effort in creating an idea which will help them earn financially. However it is a fact of life that some other people will just come along and steal ideas through counterfeiting and infringement.