Congress can you hear us sopa

Up to 7, websites shut down in whole or part yesterday, and many bloggers and tweeters went silent, as a protest against SOPA. The most notable site to act was Wikipedia, which blacked out its English-language version as a protest following discussion among nearly 2, users other versions, including the simple-English one, were running as normal.

The bills do not appear to target sites such as Wikipedia, but users appeared to want to use its profile to raise their concerns. You said no. You melted their servers. From all around the world your messages dominated social media and the news.

Millions of people have spoken in defense of a free and open Internet. It is worth noting that Wikipedia is a charitable institution with no paying customers, shareholders or investors. Sites such as Facebook, Twitter and Google functioned as normal — though the latter did black out its dynamic logo. Petitions opposing the bills have attracted more than 50, signatures. Mastercard and Visa are also listed. The list includes many trade associations and unions in IP-related industries.

The movie industry alone claims that it supports 2. The Business Software Alliance, which counts both copyright owners and tech companies among its members, originally backed SOPA but later withdrew its support. In fact, though, many of the issues highlighted by Wikipedia and others were already being discussed. It addressed much of what tech companies complained about, such as removing the requirement for intermediaries to act within five days; not specifying domain name blocking; and removing the requirement to target sub-domains.

But the statement went on to emphasise the need to tackle rogue sites both through legislation and voluntary measures. Meanwhile, some sponsors of the bills have recently withdrawn their support. The European Parliament adopted a resolution last week stressing "the need to protect the integrity of the global Internet and freedom of communication by refraining from unilateral measures to revoke IP addresses or domain names.

A letter signed by Reps. Ron Paul, the Republican presidential candidate from Texas, predicts that SOPA will invite "an explosion of innovation-killing lawsuits and litigation. And yes, there is a protest song. How would SOPA work? It allows the U. It's kind of an Internet death penalty.

Protect IP targeted only domain name system providers, financial companies, and ad networks--not companies that provide Internet connectivity. Because SOPA is broader, even some companies who liked, or at least weren't vocally opposed to, the Senate bill aren't exactly delighted with the House version. What are the security-related implications of SOPA? The idea of DNSSEC is to promote end-to-end encryption of domain names, meaning there's no break in the chain between, say, Wellsfargo.

The Sandia National Laboratories, part of the U. Department of Energy, has also raised concerns about SOPA, saying it is "unlikely to be effective" and will "negatively impact U. Among them: it's "incompatible" with DNSSEC, innocent Web sites will be swept in as "collateral damage," and the blacklist can be bypassed by using the numeric Internet address of a Web site. The address for CNET. A little-noticed portion of the proposed law, which CNET highlighted in an article , goes further than Protect IP and could require Internet providers to monitor customers' traffic and block Web sites suspected of copyright infringement.

The exact requirements will depend on what the removal order says. Deep packet inspection, meaning forcing an Internet provider to intercept and analyze customers' Web traffic, is the only way to block access to specific URLs. Its "safe harbor" language indicates that not resolving "the domain name of the foreign infringing site" may be sufficient, but some ambiguity remains. Jump to main content. Jump to navigation. The White House has responded to two petitions about legislative approaches to combat online piracy.

Chief Technology Officer, and Howard Schmidt, Special Assistant to the President and Cybersecurity Coordinator for National Security Staff stress that the important task of protecting intellectual property online must not threaten an open and innovative internet. You are here Home Blog. Twitter Facebook Email. The White House has responded to two petitions about proposed legislation intended to combat online piracy. Thanks for taking the time to sign this petition. Both your words and actions illustrate the importance of maintaining an open and democratic Internet.

We want to take this opportunity to tell you what the Administration will support—and what we will not support. Any effective legislation should reflect a wide range of stakeholders, including everyone from content creators to the engineers that build and maintain the infrastructure of the Internet. For more information on cookies please refer to our cookies policy. News images provided by Press Association and Photocall Ireland unless otherwise stated.

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