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Ask HN: What if SOPA passes?

12 points by djacobs ↗ HN
We've talked about how to stop SOPA from passing.

But what measures are you taking now to make sure that, even if it passes, you have access to an open Internet?

Will you use the Firefox alternate DNS plugins? Will you route your traffic over TOR? Have you archived TOR and its documentation in case you do need it?

What preparations should we, as a community, take to counteract SOPA? Should countermeasure software be stored in a private torrent tracker that won't likely be blocked?

Tell me your strategies for the worst case. What will you do if SOPA passes?

8 comments

[ 2.8 ms ] story [ 27.9 ms ] thread
epc
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
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
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
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
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.
hendrix
The only people that really need to worry about SOPA are the little guys with personal connections/local businesses in the USA. If the USA kills their golden goose then it is their own damn fault and business will move elsewhere.

To access the internet all you have to do is get swissvpn or a proxy and you're set. If the .gov makes VPNs/proxies illegal then the USA suddenly is more oppressive than china/saudi Arabia.

djacobs
So SwissVPN is a trusted way to go? I'll have to look into them. I thought the only secure option would be TOR.
pasbesoin
I am at the point of needing to set up a few new or reconstituted personal (non-business) sites. One had substantial traffic in the past and consisted of user contributed original content. (But long experience has taught me that no amount of rules, guidelines, and policing will stop some users from copy/pasting content from other sites, posing dubious links (all the more pertinent, these days), etc.)

I'm considering the merits and risks of setting them up outside the U.S. (Domain registration and hosting, with a longer term perspective towards establishing and routing payments through offshore accounts. Initially, I might pay in advance for a year or two (or several, if the outfit and local law/regulation looked stable enough), to avoid the risk of future cutoff of payment.)

Since I've mentioned that, I'll add that I'm uncertain as to suitable locations/providers.

+ The Swiss response to the Wikileaks debacle, some recent rulings there, and the general attitude towards privacy has put Switzerland on my list.

+ I have read about some non-logging VPN providers in certain favorable Caribbean countries (though I'm not sure about stability and resistance to real pressure).

+ Sweden used to seem attractive (bomb proof data centers, hmm? ;-), but it seems increasingly apparent that their government is more or less pwned by U.S. interests.

+ I don't have the knowledge to and wouldn't want to attempt the "Wild West" of hosting in some other geographic regions.

I'm not into infringing. I just don't want the hassle and the risk attendant to spurious accusations and prosecutions (something epc mentions in another comment). Then again, as I reside in the U.S., I'm not sure I'd escape the risk, even if the site were less subject to a takedown action.

Longer term, if this goes through, I'll be looking to move my communications activities abroad. The U.S. is becoming a bad place to do business, if you're part of the tritely termed "99%".

(Granted, much of the world has it worse off, both specifically and in general. But the local delta is negative, and it's best to be/act in advance of the changes if possible.)