Professoren : “Maak het internet niet kapot”

Het verzet tegen SOPA en Protect IP neemt toe. Ook onderstaande brief op Stanford Law Review laat niets aan duidelijkheid over: een drietal Amerikaanse professoren fileert de wetsvoorstellen SOPA en Protect IP. Enkele citaten:

• The bills represent an unprecedented, legally sanctioned assault on the Internet’s critical technical infrastructure.
• Directing the remedial power of the courts towards the Internet’s core technical infrastructure in this sledgehammer fashion has impact far beyond intellectual property rights enforcement—it threatens the fundamental principle of interconnectivity that is at the very heart of the Internet.
• Both bills suggest that these remedies can be meted out by courts after nothing more than ex parte proceedings—proceedings at which only one side (the prosecutor or even a private plaintiff) need present evidence and the operator of the allegedly infringing site need not be present nor even made aware that the action was pending against his or her “property.” This not only violates basic principles of due process by depriving persons of property without a fair hearing and a reasonable opportunity to be heard, it also constitutes an unconstitutional abridgement of the freedom of speech protected by the First Amendment.
• Under SOPA, IP rights holders can proceed vigilante-style against allegedly offending sites, without any court hearing or any judicial intervention or oversight whatsoever.
• Laws protecting Internet intermediaries from liability for content on the Internet are responsible for transforming the Internet into the revolutionary communications medium that it is today. They reflect a policy that has not only helped make the United States the world leader in a wide range of Internet-related industries, but that has also enabled the Internet’s uniquely decentralized structure to serve as a global platform for innovation, speech, collaboration, civic engagement, and economic growth. These bills would undermine that leadership and dramatically diminish the Internet’s capability as a communications medium.

De brief besluit met het benadrukken van de ironie dat de Verenigde Staten, voorvechter van het vrije woord, zich bij goedkeuring van de wetten schaart in een illuster rijtje van repressieve regimes. Een overzicht daarvan werd eerder op de avond samengebracht op Techdirt. Daar kan senator Lamar Smith mee thuiskomen.

bron: Boing Boing

Don’t Break the Internet (by Mark Lemley, David S. Levine, & David G. Post)