WEBVTT 00:00:02.866 --> 00:00:04.933 Let's say that you´re the owner of some type of copyrighted material- 00:00:04.933 --> 00:00:08.267 maybe it's a movie, maybe it's music of some kind- 00:00:08.267 --> 00:00:10.918 and you observe that there is a site that is operating 00:00:10.918 --> 00:00:14.048 outside of the United States and that site-at least in your mind- 00:00:14.333 --> 00:00:20.000 seems to be infringing on your copyright by US law. 00:00:20.000 --> 00:00:28.933 So this is the site in question - and you're saying that it is doing illegal things, at least by US standards. 00:00:28.933 --> 00:00:30.867 The problem is that there's nothing you can do - 00:00:30.867 --> 00:00:34.200 it's operating outside of US soil and outside of US laws. 00:00:34.200 --> 00:00:37.800 You can even go to the government, even if the government wanted to do something about it, 00:00:37.800 --> 00:00:42.267 it really couldn't. Because once again, it's outside the US jurisdiction. 00:00:42.267 --> 00:00:45.800 The purpose of SOPA-and it seems fairly benign at first- 00:00:45.800 --> 00:00:49.600 is to give some tools to these actors to stop this. 00:00:49.600 --> 00:00:52.667 The problem-and we´ll see that its quite a large problem- 00:00:52.667 --> 00:00:56.667 is that it gives tools to these actors to do much more than just stopping illegal activity; 00:00:56.667 --> 00:01:00.867 it allows them essentially to go on, to some degree, a kind of a witch hunt 00:01:00.867 --> 00:01:04.867 for anyone that might even have a whiff of enabling this type of activity. 00:01:04.867 --> 00:01:07.867 -it won´t even just be for foreign sites. 00:01:07.867 --> 00:01:10.200 So lets write this down, so SOPA stands for: 00:01:10.200 --> 00:01:12.533 Stop Online Piracy Act - 00:01:12.533 --> 00:01:14.200 and it sounds pretty reasonable - 00:01:14.200 --> 00:01:17.600 and this is the version of the bill that's coming from the House of Representatives. 00:01:17.600 --> 00:01:20.133 The one from the Senate, that's slightly different 00:01:20.133 --> 00:01:23.267 but they have the same intent, is PIPA. 00:01:23.267 --> 00:01:26.067 And what it does is, if you can´t go after this site itself 00:01:26.067 --> 00:01:30.467 maybe you can go after sites that is somehow benefiting this site. 00:01:30.467 --> 00:01:32.933 And those sites are inside the United States. 00:01:32.933 --> 00:01:36.400 So this is outside, this is inside the United States. 00:01:36.400 --> 00:01:39.600 So things that are doing that might include search engines. 00:01:39.600 --> 00:01:43.133 So search engines like Google or Bing. 00:01:43.133 --> 00:01:46.933 They obviously link to this site over here. You might have ad networks - 00:01:46.933 --> 00:01:53.533 so sites that allow this site over here to display ads and to get revenue from them - 00:01:53.533 --> 00:01:55.867 that are benefiting this site over here. 00:01:55.867 --> 00:01:58.733 You might have payment sites like PayPal 00:01:58.733 --> 00:02:04.133 or credit card processors that this site uses to collect revenue. 00:02:04.133 --> 00:02:09.600 And, maybe most importantly, you have things like the DNS servers within the US 00:02:09.600 --> 00:02:13.467 that associate this site's domain name with the actual servers. 00:02:13.467 --> 00:02:17.133 And I wont get too technical about it, but when you type in 00:02:17.133 --> 00:02:22.533 something like www.shady.foreign 00:02:22.533 --> 00:02:24.800 , and once again, we´re gonna see that this site might 00:02:24.800 --> 00:02:27.267 not even have to be shady or foreign- 00:02:27.267 --> 00:02:29.200 but when you type something like that in - 00:02:29.200 --> 00:02:31.800 there´re servers in the United states that associate that with these servers 00:02:31.800 --> 00:02:38.067 that might be operated outside the United States - that associate this text with a number 00:02:38.067 --> 00:02:42.867 that points to this website, that points to this website's servers. 00:02:42.867 --> 00:02:44.800 So these are all things within the United States - 00:02:44.800 --> 00:02:47.667 that to some degree this site is dependent on. 00:02:47.667 --> 00:02:51.800 So what SOPA does is, it allows these actors here - 00:02:51.800 --> 00:02:56.267 the ones that are obviously concerned with enforcing their copyrights - 00:02:56.267 --> 00:03:01.333 to issue court orders and notices to these actors right over here 00:03:01.333 --> 00:03:05.000 that essentially compels them, very strongly, to immediately 00:03:05.000 --> 00:03:12.533 cut off ties with this illegal site - or what they think is an illegal site. 00:03:12.533 --> 00:03:16.333 Now that might seem reasonable to you, except for the fact that 00:03:16.333 --> 00:03:19.600 it's kind of a "shoot first and think later" type of policy. 00:03:19.600 --> 00:03:23.533 The basic way it works is, you presume guilt until this guy 00:03:23.533 --> 00:03:26.467 somehow tries to prove his innocence and we´ll see 00:03:26.467 --> 00:03:29.133 this guy isn't necessarily outside the US. 00:03:29.133 --> 00:03:31.667 It might even be completely legal, or what I would consider 00:03:31.667 --> 00:03:34.667 completely legal sites inside the US. 00:03:34.667 --> 00:03:37.267 Essentially as soon as this allegation is made and either a court order 00:03:37.267 --> 00:03:42.000 or a notice is payed, these enablers have to cut off ties to this site - 00:03:42.000 --> 00:03:45.467 and you can imagine that if these cut off ties to this site, 00:03:45.467 --> 00:03:48.800 - this sites´ business - whatever it might be - whether illegal or legal, 00:03:48.800 --> 00:03:51.333 immediately gets obliterated, especially this one here 00:03:51.333 --> 00:03:53.200 including search engines, ad networks and payments. 00:03:53.200 --> 00:03:58.267 And if they don´t comply then these guys are going to start having illegal balast. 00:03:58.267 --> 00:04:02.067 So these guys are not going to have to comply and that by itself is hard 00:04:02.067 --> 00:04:04.800 but if they don´t comply, then they themselves are going to be in trouble. 00:04:04.800 --> 00:04:08.333 Now it gets really obviously creepy, when you start 00:04:08.333 --> 00:04:10.867 going into - so when you thing of this - you´re like 00:04:10.867 --> 00:04:13.667 okay, so maybe we can work around this a little bit. 00:04:13.667 --> 00:04:16.800 But it gets creepy when you even know this is the spirit of the legislation, 00:04:16.800 --> 00:04:19.067 when you actually read the wording of the legislation- 00:04:19.067 --> 00:04:21.200 and obviously that's what matters, not the name or the intent- 00:04:21.200 --> 00:04:23.533 But actually how it's worded-I mean, the way it's worded 00:04:23.533 --> 00:04:27.600 - it´s pretty clear that its intent is to go after much more 00:04:27.600 --> 00:04:31.267 than just a site that's explicitly selling illegal pharmaceuticals or 00:04:31.267 --> 00:04:37.631 allowing people to download movies or, or videos or music 00:04:37.662 --> 00:04:40.425 that these owners don´t have access to. 00:04:40.425 --> 00:04:43.518 When you read the wording, its pretty clear that they want to be able 00:04:43.564 --> 00:04:47.000 to shut down anything that is in any way associating with itself - 00:04:47.000 --> 00:04:49.200 or in any way enabling it. 00:04:49.200 --> 00:04:53.333 And you see it in the wording. So this is actually section 1.0.3 of the SOPA legislation 00:04:53.333 --> 00:04:59.267 - and this is how they define a site that is dedicated to theft of US property. 00:05:01.933 --> 00:05:03.333 So an internet site is dedicated to theft of US property if - 00:05:03.333 --> 00:05:06.800 and, so you know, it's useable by people in the United States - 00:05:08.500 --> 00:05:10.200 and this is interesting: It´s "primarily designed or operated for the purpose of," 00:05:10.200 --> 00:05:12.200 "has only limited purpose or use other than," 00:05:12.200 --> 00:05:14.800 "or is marketed by its operator or another acting in concert" 00:05:14.800 --> 00:05:18.133 "with that operator for use in, offering goods or services in a manner" 00:05:18.133 --> 00:05:22.867 "that engages in, enables, or facilitates" - now this is interesting - 00:05:22.867 --> 00:05:26.800 enables or facilitates all of these violations. 00:05:26.800 --> 00:05:29.333 And these are the violations that would be illegal: 00:05:29.333 --> 00:05:31.333 You´re selling things that you can´t sell, 00:05:31.333 --> 00:05:34.200 you´re infringing on other people´s copyright. 00:05:34.200 --> 00:05:38.533 And it might seem harmless, this "enables or facilitates", until you think about 00:05:38.533 --> 00:05:40.600 what that could encapsulate. 00:05:40.600 --> 00:05:44.200 If I have a site, like this, I am part of a site: Khan Academy 00:05:44.200 --> 00:05:46.600 Let´s say someone puts a message on Khan Academy 00:05:46.600 --> 00:05:53.267 and from Khan Academy they link to a site that actually is really illegal 00:05:53.267 --> 00:05:56.815 and that is really shady and they link to it in the message boards. 00:05:56.831 --> 00:06:01.000 Well, under this am I enabling, is Khan Academy enabling or facilitating? 00:06:01.000 --> 00:06:04.667 And if that's the case, then Khan Academy - by this definition - 00:06:04.667 --> 00:06:08.702 would be considered to be a site that is dedicated to theft of US property. 00:06:08.810 --> 00:06:12.400 And there are much bigger players than just Khan Academy, 00:06:12.400 --> 00:06:16.067 that can be thrown into this bucket, players like YouTube or Vimeo or any site. 00:06:16.067 --> 00:06:19.800 Or even a news site, that allows people to put comments, 00:06:19.800 --> 00:06:22.338 or allows people to put images, things like Flickr. 00:06:22.338 --> 00:06:26.800 That maybe had - in some way - their users infringing on the copyright 00:06:26.800 --> 00:06:30.400 now all of the sudden the whole site - based on this definition - the entire site 00:06:30.400 --> 00:06:34.800 can be defined as a site dedicated to theft of US property. 00:06:34.800 --> 00:06:38.533 By this definition YouTube could be that, if its viewed in kind of 00:06:38.533 --> 00:06:41.267 enabling or facilitating. 00:06:41.267 --> 00:06:43.667 Khan Academy, any news site could be viewed like that. 00:06:43.667 --> 00:06:45.200 Vimeo could be viewed that way, 00:06:45.200 --> 00:06:47.067 a photo sharing site could be viewed like that. 00:06:47.067 --> 00:06:49.267 People might take a photo or something that they don´t have the copyright 00:06:49.267 --> 00:06:52.000 and upload an image and all the sudden - by this definition - 00:06:52.000 --> 00:06:57.133 based on just a sense that that's being violated, 00:06:57.133 --> 00:07:00.467 they won´t just be able to shut down these illegal sites; 00:07:00.467 --> 00:07:03.600 they would be able to shut down things like YouTube, or Vimeo, 00:07:03.600 --> 00:07:08.200 or even things like CNN.com, if someone puts a message 00:07:08.200 --> 00:07:11.533 or an image, that they think is somehow violating. 00:07:11.533 --> 00:07:14.333 And so it's not just going-right now the methodology is, 00:07:14.333 --> 00:07:17.600 if there is some content on YouTube or Vimeo or some other site, 00:07:17.600 --> 00:07:20.533 that they feel is infringing on their copyright, 00:07:20.533 --> 00:07:22.800 there are laws, where they contact YouTube directly, 00:07:22.800 --> 00:07:25.267 they point them to the content, that seems to be infringing 00:07:25.267 --> 00:07:30.067 and YouTube, or Vimeo, or whoever will take down that content. 00:07:30.067 --> 00:07:32.667 But what this allows them to do is shoot first and think later: 00:07:33.834 --> 00:07:35.000 "Oh, look: You´re enabling that"; if they could convince some court 00:07:35.000 --> 00:07:39.733 to give a court order, they can start giving notice to these players right over here 00:07:39.733 --> 00:07:44.200 to cut off ties with major - what I would consider very legal sites - 00:07:44.200 --> 00:07:46.841 like YouTube or Vimeo or CNN. 00:07:46.841 --> 00:07:49.633 It´s really almost any site that allows people to upload things onto it, 00:07:49.633 --> 00:07:55.267 or put links on it, which is almost - Facebook is another one - 00:07:55.267 --> 00:07:59.200 anything that has user generated content. 00:07:59.200 --> 00:08:02.000 On just a whim they could take down the entire site - 00:08:02.000 --> 00:08:03.800 not just take down that user generated content - 00:08:03.800 --> 00:08:08.133 they could, on just convincing one judge, or convincing just any of these, 00:08:08.133 --> 00:08:10.133 they could cut off ties with Facebook. 00:08:10.133 --> 00:08:13.733 Not even making Facebook.com point to Facebook anymore. 00:08:13.733 --> 00:08:17.333 CNN - they could just completely take down these sites on a whim. 00:08:17.333 --> 00:08:19.533 And it gets worse than that, because you would say: 00:08:19.533 --> 00:08:21.467 "well, look, if they can take this down on a whim and, you know," 00:08:21.467 --> 00:08:23.600 "maybe they kind of thought it was, but they didn't do their homework" 00:08:23.600 --> 00:08:26.133 "and then they realize that it wasn't copyright infringement," 00:08:26.133 --> 00:08:29.800 "couldn't these guys sue back?"-although, already, the damage would have been done, 00:08:29.800 --> 00:08:31.431 these sites would have been taken down; 00:08:31.431 --> 00:08:33.400 they would have lost millions or billions of dollars; 00:08:33.400 --> 00:08:37.113 millions, or tens or hundreds of millions, of users would not be able to access these things 00:08:38.082 --> 00:08:39.052 and this would also be true for Wikipedia, 00:08:39.052 --> 00:08:43.533 if someone uploaded something that wasn't completely, 100%, vetted, 00:08:43.533 --> 00:08:48.867 they could take down the entire site, not just that content. 00:08:48.867 --> 00:08:50.421 And you say: "Okay, that's bad enough!" 00:08:50.421 --> 00:08:53.667 "But couldn't these people say: `Hey, look, you wrongfully took us down,`" 00:08:53.667 --> 00:08:56.467 "`we´re going to sue you now`". Well to see that they can´t and 00:08:56.467 --> 00:08:59.600 to see how one-sided this legislation is, notice: 00:08:59.600 --> 00:09:03.267 The threshold for being able to sued back, if you kind of 00:09:03.267 --> 00:09:07.333 misrepresented a violation - the only way you´re kind of held 00:09:07.333 --> 00:09:12.133 accountable is if you´re knowingly materially misrepresented the violation. 00:09:12.133 --> 00:09:16.600 So, if the copyright holder just says: "Oh, I think someone on YouTube"-you know- 00:09:16.600 --> 00:09:19.867 "I feel pretty good that someone on YouTube is violating" 00:09:19.867 --> 00:09:22.533 and that YouTube is enabling a violation and, therefore, YouTube 00:09:22.533 --> 00:09:26.600 is a site dedicated to theft of US property and it later on 00:09:26.600 --> 00:09:30.333 it finds out that it wasn't, it was fair use or maybe that person 00:09:30.333 --> 00:09:32.133 actually did have the copyright to it, 00:09:32.133 --> 00:09:34.200 they can´t be sued, because they said: "Oh, I just thought it was"; 00:09:34.200 --> 00:09:39.933 they weren't knowingly materially misrepresenting themselves. 00:09:39.933 --> 00:09:43.800 So even if it ends up not even being a violation, these guys 00:09:43.800 --> 00:09:46.267 could take the site down. Maybe some small producers actually 00:09:46.267 --> 00:09:49.133 secured the rights, put it up on YouTube and then, 00:09:49.133 --> 00:09:52.200 all of the sudden, these guys take down all of YouTube based on 00:09:52.200 --> 00:09:54.867 not actually knowing what they are talking about. 00:09:54.867 --> 00:09:59.133 And there can´t even be a counter suit in that case, based on the law. 00:09:59.133 --> 00:10:02.533 And it gets even creepier than that, because to be considered this 00:10:02.533 --> 00:10:06.200 you don´t even just have to enable or facilitate - which is almost anything- 00:10:06.200 --> 00:10:09.667 one could argue a computer is enabling or facilitating this on some level. 00:10:09.667 --> 00:10:15.867 But you are considered to be a site dedicated to theft of US property. 00:10:15.867 --> 00:10:18.800 Even if you do nothing illegal, even if you don´t enable anything illegal - 00:10:18.800 --> 00:10:24.333 but if you just take actions that make it difficult for authorities to confirm 00:10:24.333 --> 00:10:28.333 that you´re doing something illegal. So if you view this in the physical world: 00:10:28.333 --> 00:10:31.800 Obviously, some people are doing illegal things in their homes 00:10:31.800 --> 00:10:35.733 and, obviously, some people lock their doors to keep people out of their homes. 00:10:35.733 --> 00:10:38.333 And maybe people are doing illegal things, it would even be 00:10:38.333 --> 00:10:40.769 more likely to lock their doors and close their shutters. 00:10:40.769 --> 00:10:43.733 What this would do-and this would do it in the virtual sense- 00:10:43.733 --> 00:10:48.467 is say: "Look! Just by taking the deliberate action of closing your shutters" 00:10:48.467 --> 00:10:51.067 "and looking your doors, which makes it hard for federal agents to confirm" 00:10:51.067 --> 00:10:56.800 "that you´re doing illegal things - just by doing that - that itself is an illegal act". 00:10:56.800 --> 00:11:01.333 This is maybe one of the creepiest and draconian Intrusions of privacy, 00:11:01.333 --> 00:11:03.533 that I have actually heard of, 00:11:03.533 --> 00:11:06.000 that was even attempted to be passed into law. 00:11:06.000 --> 99:59:59.999 So if I where you - just as a kind of a privacy and liberty loving American - I´d be worried.