To take a black and white view of it, the extreme consequences of SOPA and from my understanding of it, VideoSift would need to remove all copyrighted content... film clips, music, comedy clips etc. that are deemed copyrighted.

But it would be messy. Some clips can be used under fair use. Some content providers allow clips to be used, even providing embeds for us to use.

Additionally, VideoSift is not hosting the copyrighted content, it's merely embedding it. Is VideoSift therefore responsible for the hosting of copyrighted material? I doubt it.

In the messiest scenario, it could end up being a lot of admin work. Copyrighted videos may need to be *killed... perhaps a new invocation like *sopablocked would be needed to limit a videos access to those users who fall under SOPA jurisdiction?

One thing is for sure though. SOPA needs to die a quick death.

Invocations (kill) cannot be called by Hybrid because Hybrid is not privileged - sorry.

Comment hidden because you are ignoring dag. (show it anyway)

I really don't think SOPA will pass, but if it does - I suspect it could have an effect on us - but honestly it seems to me that it would effect most sites on the Internet. If it does pass expect to see a fracturing of the Internet - with DNS control wrested from the US and other countries creating alternative paths to content.

Hmm. It´d be a shame if all of this accumulated video goodness went to waste.
VS to me is like a wikipedia of webvideo content. Hope it survives this.

SOPA seriously needs to be aborted.

Yes it will.

Call and write your representatives:

https://writerep.house.gov/writerep/welcome.shtml

http://www.senate.gov/general/contact_information/senators_cfm.cfm

I'll just go back to masturbating in the library if the internet gets that complicated.

look at the sites that get targeted already. Those are the sites that are going to get targeted by SOPA.

however, if we start seeing dozens of video sharing sites removed from the USA, then that's going to make life here difficult

In that sense it could be a blessing in disguise. DNS control should be decentralized. It just introduces a billion other problems.

The internet is essentially a libertarian paradise - no control, no centralized power. A free market of information. Heh. Now corporations are trying to reign it in, and I say boo.
>> ^dag:

I really don't think SOPA will pass, but if it does - I suspect it could have an effect on us - but honestly it seems to me that it would effect most sites on the Internet. If it does pass expect to see a fracturing of the Internet - with DNS control wrested from the US and other countries creating alternative paths to content.

>> ^gwiz665:

In that sense it could be a blessing in disguise. DNS control should be decentralized. It just introduces a billion other problems.
The internet is essentially a libertarian paradise - no control, no centralized power. A free market of information. Heh. Now corporations are trying to reign it in, and I say boo.

Corporate control is what libertarian philosophy demands. It's not like the internet is some communal property that belongs to everyone, it belongs to the wealthy people who own the wires and the content, and we only get to use it with their explicit consent, according to the rules they demand, or we can go pound sand.

Or, there's a more sane view of the world, which takes into account that a lot of what's cool about human civilization runs entirely counter to libertarian principles.

*promote
Please talk about this more with everyone you know. This law is really slipping under the radar. Every time I bring it up I'm guaranteed a cockeyed "huh?"

Promoting this Sift Talk post - promote requested by JiggaJonson.

We already have the war on drugs. SOPA is the first step to outlaw independent media. Indy media will be ok, as long as it never uses any kind of copyrighted content. The instant it does, Indy media gets gets shutdown by financial sanctions, and gets shut off the web.

Sure, it's not the end of the world. But try making a news site without using "clips from the news"
Try making a comedy site without having a George carlin or Jon Stewart clip.
Try making a music site without having a sample of commerical music. (or a copyrighted melody, or copyrighted lyrics)

People on the internet are free to remix culture, to reinvent it. Until SOPA passes we are free.

I did some reading about "fair use" which lets you use clips of copyrighted material.

It comes down to: If you "transform" the clip, to retool it for a different purpose than the original.
And if you use a "small" amount of the clip, the clip must not have a significant value, on it's own.

long blog here

So if you use such a short clip, that nobody can claim value of it, and rework it into a different use than the original. You can use copyrighted work under fair use.

The wording is intractable vague though, so while the heart of fairuse is in the right place, you aren't going to have a hand full of 1000 dollar an hour lawyers like large corporate media firms. Modern copyrights aren't about people making things at all, they are completely about making money. Ask any real artist why they did something and it was art first, and money some other priority down the line. I know the things I make in minecraft have nothing to do with money, but I value them greatly. This is where the entire body of legal mess around providing monetary "insensitives" to art and science; the people who do REAL art and science don't really have that as the primary motivation. All copyright laws have it wrong, they are broken and exist in a completely different world of reality. It would be like trying to provide monetary insensitive for having a family, having a family isn't about money first...ect ect. All copyrights do is encourage media domination by content holders, not the explosion of content makers like it planned. That is the one real lesson the net has taught us all, that people create all the time, and not for money (thanks @dag and all the rest).

>> ^marinara:

I did some reading about "fair use" which lets you use clips of copyrighted material.
It comes down to: If you "transform" the clip, to retool it for a different purpose than the original.
And if you use a "small" amount of the clip, the clip must not have a significant value, on it's own.
long blog here
So if you use such a short clip, that nobody can claim value of it, and rework it into a different use than the original. You can use copyrighted work under fair use.

Comment hidden because you are ignoring dag. (show it anyway)

Seems like the root cause of bills like this is the money pouring into the US congress. It's a corrupt institution run by corporate interests.

Don't let "SOPA killed the videosift" happen!

http://yro.slashdot.org/story/12/01/03/229233/why-politicians-should-never-make-laws-about-technology

Couple of good links in there...like Congress prides itself in not being technological hip.