I seldom get political on this blog. But this is important.
Both Houses of Congress are looking at legislation aimed at curtailing online piracy… copyright violations. This movement is largely backed by the photography community and the music and movie industries… as well as many professional sports leagues.
But all isn’t well. The current legislation is VERY poorly written. In fact, they are written so loosely as to allow the government to shut down a website because of a comment. Not after any sort of warning… but instead of a warning. A website owner’s income could be cut off without warning or proof, and then he would have to engage in a protracted legal battle to regain access to their own website. And it wouldn’t have to be from content generated by the owner of the site.
But, I think that the largest part of the problem is that property (a website/domain) could be seized without due process. Possibly even at the behest of a competitor… since a violation could be recorded because of something placed on the site by a commentor.
The goal is appropriate. The method of trying to achieve the goal is SERIOUSLY flawed. Call your Congressmen and Senators.
***UPDATE*** After writing and scheduling the post, but before publication, Congress dropped the legislation from consideration… for now. Of course, that doesn’t mean that they won’t pick it up again when they think nobody is paying attention. “We’ve got to pass the bill to find out what’s in it.” Nancy Pelosi, referring to ObamaCare…
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