Re: The interwebz fights back
Sorry that post was directed at Chris who I know to have a degree as a law assistant or something of that nature.
As for China censoring... you play into all the peoples here fears with that statement. That is exactly what I would expect to lead to a civil war with 100 million dead... and pray every day it started sooner rather than later.
Even though it could cost as high as a billion dead, I still say my prayers for China to overthrow their government.
Now for the rest of your post. I have been a web developer, with roughly 30 sites developed for businesses. Now some I hos (in leased space)t, some I outsource the hosting, some they host themselves. There is your first problem. If you want me to shut one down go laugh a while. Once made I do not look at the site unless the client calls me.
I also do not look at emails (all autoforwarded when possible) pertaining to the site. In the last four years I have gone through six phone numbers (good luck contacting me, lol). Some of my customers change adresses on the site, but not the site registration.
Contacting people is not always workable.
Then there is government idiocy.
Our government had laws allowing this in the case of child porn. To take down 36 websites they killed 84,000 business websites. Collateral damage much?
Some law proffesors say SOPA/PIP even allow for any claim of a violation to require (under an abusive government) deletion of content, even if you were the author.
And anyone can make an anonymous report. What if I made a bot (I have made eggdrop bots beforem e.g. warbot) that made complaints for me, made it on every post in the IC Forum... there is not enough players able to help the mods clear that mess up in time to prevent closure. I just killed IC or IC deleted all of their forums.
Remember upon complaint burden of proof is the defendent... you are guilty until proven innocent.
Under existing law:
The FBI can arrest any American and imprison them for up to 20 years
The Digital Millenium Act allows for copyright holders to request sites holding copyrighted material be removed (which Google does in about 6 hours average, as Chris noted) with the person reporting required to sign a document that if they are lying will make them guilty of perjury.
Ron Wyden (whom I mostly detest) proposed that the International Trade Commission be given teeth to persue real facilitators of copyright theft (e.g. the torrent servers). His proposed law could reduce filesharing to 30% or less of current levels, and not negatively affect the internet or the honest people.
Remember though... this fails on a basic level. "Innocent before being proven guilty"
Kemp currently not being responded to until he makes CONCISE posts.
Avogardo and Noir ignored by me for life so people know why I do not respond to them. (Informational)