Say No to Ireland's SOPA (stopsopaireland.com)
SOPA is the name of a piece of US legislation, the Stop Online Piracy Act.
A similar proposal is about to become law in Ireland. And while 7 million Americans contacted their representatives to say No to SOPA in the US, Irish citizens will not get that chance because the new law in Ireland is not being voted on in the Oireachtas.
Instead, <b>the law is being enacted by ministerial order</b>. This new law will give music and movie companies the legal leverage to force Irish ISPs like UPC, Eircom and mobile networks to block access to sites suspected of having copyrighted material on them. It also means judges can order ISPs to block access to sites like YouTube, Facebook and Twitter where an individual user from anywhere in the world has shared infringing material.
21 comments
[ 2.9 ms ] story [ 55.6 ms ] threadIt is unclear at this time if infringing websites will be given notice that they are about to be blocked. Again, the final draft hasn't been released.
The scary thing is that they are trying to get this passed without a vote in parliament.
That being said, I'm in Sean's constituency and I voted for him, so I'd better call him quick.
But, unlike the USA, a vote in parliament is a rubber stamp of government's opinion, based on the party whip being used, and pairing with the opposition parties.
When I signed the petition, the link that says "Find out what else you can do" at the bottom does not work for me. (Windows 7, Chrome 16)
I'll say this: Linode rocks. It's getting battered here and seems to be barely breaking sweat.
Action count just hit 14,000 since last night at 10pm local time.
1st they failed to push SOPA in USA.
But, they may force Ireland and other smaller countries to pass SOPA like laws.
Then, they can push again in USA claiming that it is good since everyone else is using it.
Irish Times article with more information: http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/breaking/2012/0124/break...
BTW, I just posted the link to HN, I've no affiliation with the site. Fully support what they're trying to do though.
you can find links for listening online here. http://www.rte.ie/radio/
This FAQ: http://www.tjmcintyre.com/2012/01/irelands-sopa-faq.html written by someone who is a university law lecturer, and solicitor, is about as good as you are going to find.
This article: http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/frontpage/2011/1219/1224... in a national newspaper (which almost reads like it could have been written by a lobbyist) provides context on what is happening here.
Basically, IANAL, but my understanding is that EMI (the recording company) took a case against UPC (a big ISP here), demanding that UPC block websites linking to illegal content (e.g. pirate bay). EMI lost the case, as the judge decided that copyright law did not provide that remedy.
But the judge in the case interpreted EU law as requiring such a remedy (I believe this is a controversial interpretation), and so the government (or rather, relevant junior minister) is going to update the law accordingly.
And that update, which we probably will not see, until after it is signed, is what the current campaign is about.
Personally, I think its great to see this campaign, and terrible that law with such potentially wide consequences could be enacted without debate. (I should note, this is all only a laymans interpretation; I'm not familiar with any legal subtitles.)
[1] http://stopsopaireland.com/privacy/
(I just had a word in person - I'm the one keeping the server up but that's the beginning and ending of my involvement.)
Response: "Yes. Sorry. That needs fixing and will be fixed asafp. We're not going to mail people, and 'market analysis' means 'analytics' in this case but is moot because we have none enabled anyway. It'll get removed/replaced as soon as the phones stop melting and we can put 10 mins into it."