Could SOPA Strangle Second Life? Sadly, Seems So.

SOPA, the "Stop Online Piracy Act" currently being debated in Congress, to massive opposition by much of the Internet industry, would probably be a grave threat to Second Life, if passed. Since SOPA seems mainly aimed at website-based copyright "piracy", I initially assumed that Second Life, being a non-web, 3D client-driven Internet software, might fall outside its jurisdiction. However, here's some of what the President of League of Legends, another 3D client-driven Internet application, says about SOPA:

How would SOPA/PIPA impact League of Legends players?

• Kills streaming. If any single streamer plays copyrighted music (or alt tabs into a movie or other owned content) on their stream, there is a significant risk of the entire streaming service being taken down. In some cases, it could even result in criminal penalties for the streamer.
• Threatens independent content creation. Services we all use to create and share League of Legends related content, such as YouTube, Reddit, DeviantArt, streaming websites such as Own3d and Twitch, and more would be at risk of shutting down or greatly restricting the scope of legitimate content allowed on their sites.
• Attacks our community. Aspects of our service such as the official forums and potentially even in-game chat, could be taken down or have their features reduced based on user behavior.

Replace "League of Legends" with Second Life (or for that matter, many other client-based Internet services), and the implications remain the same. Says Wikipedia: "The bill would make unauthorized streaming of copyrighted content a crime, with a maximum penalty of five years in prison for 10 pieces of music or movies within six months." And again, that would seem to threaten many SLers, in quite drastic ways.

I'm checking with the Electronic Frontier Foundation on this point, and will report anything they tell me. However, when I asked Linden Lab if they had a statement about SOPA, spokesman Peter Gray said this: "I'm not able to offer a comment at this time."

Hat tip: Brokentoys.org

Comments

[Pussycat Catnap]

Basically...

In a matter of weeks, the internet is getting turned off in the USA, if this passes.

Its so insane its hard to take serious, but there's really no other way to look at it.

[Nalates Urriah]

The Internet has been a problem for politicians for some time. As more people are learning to use it, the problem increases.

While the Internet is good for people, it is bad for politicians and those that want to control information.

SOPA comes to us under the guise of solving problems. But, the behind the scenes maneuvering by corporations and political factions is far more complex. In http://blog.nalates.net/2011/12/23/sopa-is-still-a-problem/ we start to see some of the conspiratorial aspects and some of the reasons The US House of Rep is pushing H.R. 3261 (http://hdl.loc.gov/loc.uscongress/legislation.112hr3261). Whatever the reasons, this is a bad idea for citizens any where in the world.

Look in Thomas Law, find the names of those sponsoring the bill and email them your objections. In my blog post you can find links to their contact information and Thomas Law. While non-US citizens don't have as much influence as US citizens, they have some. So, every one contact the sponsoring politicians. US citizens should be going nuts. Phone calls are most effective... provided you are coherent.

[Rin Tae]

.. you know .. would you kind of .. not sure how to say it but .. would you please fix your country? The would would be thankfull if such things like that one described here would not happen.

However since this would affect a lot of interet streaming and communication I would not be surprised if it turns out to be against some WTO iternational trade rules. So it might get axed or has to be changed significantly before taking effect.

However I do fear that once it would be passed there then certain law and order and protect the 'values' kind of people in other countries will copy the idea. So it better get stopepd before it is too late.

[Arcadia Codesmith]

We've reached a point where artists can deliver content directly to an audience without the need for agents, brokers, studios, producers, publishers, distributors, and other assorted parasites.

Did you think the parasites were going to take that lying down? They've been stealing from artists for a long time now. They have deep pockets, no scruples and the most powerful friends that money can buy.

Let's stop pretending this has any relationship to piracy and be honest about the intent -- to suppress individual free speech without due process.

And when it's clear that Congress is collaborating with Big Business to take away our rights in direct violation of the highest law of the land, it becomes equally clear that we are obligated to oppose them.

[Ann Otoole InSL]

The author of the SOPA garbage is a copyright infringer himself so he needs to resign immediately in disgrace for selling his vote. Ref: http://www.vice.com/read/lamar-smith-sopa-copyright-whoops

People need to be openly questioning why the major news media services refuse to give this SOPA fiasco any coverage. It appears the USA already has white house controlled news media in effect.

It may be too late for a peaceful resolution to the current state of a fascist US government.

[Jo yardley]

Although this would have little or no effect on our sim (most media we use is no longer copyrighted), I understand how this might be bad for others.
Maybe if LL moves to a different country, we can avoid at least some of these problems?

[Pussycat Catnap]

And Jo: They won't come after your sim. They'll just shut off SL entirely.

the burden will be on LLs to prove there is no infringement anywhere on its network, and it has to go offline until it can prove that to the satisfaction of anyone who wants to raise such a challenge, each time they raise it, over and over again...

[jjccc coronet (@JJcccART)]

Yay does this mean we wont have to watch american politician spouting end shit any more, some how i doubt it and it will probably mean that there will be an increase in propaganda spewed out by the state turning the big brother one clk closer to being true

[Ezra]

Yeah..there's no way anyone pursuing a court order is going to be so diligent they hit the 'Help' button in the viewer, grab the simulator IP and ask Linden Lab's ISP to block that one simulator. More than likely Linden Lab's ISP is going to shut down Second Life period.

And its more than ISPs SOPA can leverage; PayPal could be forced to cut Second Life off. Google could be forced to delist Second Life from its search engine.

SOPA is all about going for vitals, not giving Linden Lab a fair chance to selectively participate in protecting others IPs.

[Arcadia Codesmith]

"Although this would have little or no effect on our sim..."

Don't bank on it. Any site could be muzzled on an accusation of infringement, no trial required. If there is one infringement anywhere in Second Life, the entire service could be shut down by court order.

The same goes for every service that allows people to upload anything (including comments).

The practical effect is to strangle the Internet as a many-to-many medium and move it towards a one-to-many broadcast model, where the broadcasters hold all the power.

[Pussycat Catnap]

Many SL users view SL as a bunch of independently disconnected things brought together by the viewer.

The rest of the world just sees one big single MMO, that has a lot of illegal pron on it.

If Resident A is violating IP, under SOPA, so are residents B-Z and LLs themselves. If some random internet-hero thinks resident A is violating -without proving it at all- then we all get to go to jail for failing to comply if we don't smack A upside the head fast enough...

[Ann Otoole InSL]

The solution to elected reps selling votes is to take action to curtail the income of the people buying the votes. Stop paying for any music or movies. Stop using itunes. Stop supporting hollywood and music artists. Let the entire system die. New music sounds like crap and the new movies all suck anyway. Remove the dollars and they can't buy the votes. Any "additional activities" that erode the vote buyers revenue streams are welcome IMHO.

I.e.; the source of this crap has to be taken down. The aging dinosaurs in DC don't even read the legislation their pages type up on computers the elected reps don't even know how to operate. How can they? Too many cataracts, dementia, Alzheimers, etc. Maybe we need a max age of 55 to be elected or appointed to any government role. Clean the senile old people out to pasture and get rid of their useless selves.

[Emperor Norton]

Ann Otoole @ "Stop paying for any music or movies. Stop using itunes. Stop supporting hollywood and music artists. Let the entire system die."

You're not paying attention, Hollywood is dying and Hollywood blames internet for it because the internet provides an alternative Hollywood can't compete in. That's why they are gunning to destroy the Internet. It's pure protectionism.

[eliana zaytsev]

so, next.. if i sing the song, i can be in trouble for singing a copyrighted song?

[Ann Otoole InSL]

@Emperor All the more reason to raise a war on Hollywood and drive them down faster. Who was at the White House just now? Angelina Jolie. Hollywood and EMI own the US government. They bought the US Government. Obama is their puppet.

[Hamlet Au]

That might be too harsh. Also, President Obama got huge backing from Silicon Valley in 2008. If he wants to win re-election, he'll probably need their help, and listen to what they're saying against SOPA.

[Tateru Nino]

@eliana zaytsev: That's a derived work, so that's copyright country. However what you do is what DJs do, and that is to pay a performance fee for every song you play/sing/perform.

[Ezra]

@eliana

There's no reason they'd bother with you anymore when they could bully the companies Linden Lab relies on and shut down Second Life.

I don't think its extreme to think Second Life would be snuffed out -quick-. The Twilight author could take offense to the frontpage. The Gor guy could log in and trip over evidence of infringement. Soulja Boy could take offense to his dance being for sale. Everyone with a scripted YouTube media-on-prim TV could jeopardize Second Life for watching illegally uploaded shows inside of the viewer.

Second Life is a landmine of liability and why due process cannot be shifted as egregiously as SOPA would have it.

[Nyoko Salome]

SOPA no more surprises me than the Homeland Security Act, or the NSA Carnivore boxes they started rolling out long over ten years ago (in the few Bush Jr. months just before 9-11, if memory serves me correctly)... just 'codifying' our de-humanizations/de-civil-rights-isizing of our country. do we -really- need to worry?? well... always depends who is in office, isn't it??

god bless our troops, but there's no guarantee who's giving out the orders. i hate to just go 'hitler' here, but really - so many germans were 'good germans', but had such bad leadership. i don't dismiss the moral lacksness of germans who did not fight against their own nazi party, but -really- ... do you picture your own parents so against their government that they would actively resist/assist the 'enemy', whoever their govt defines as such... or, if you are married and have family/kids living with you, -could you resist- in the face of penalty of death??

that is what all these questions come down to, sometimes... this may 'just be about the internet', something we'd lived without and fought revolutions without before... but considering it would be a 'weapon still left in the possession of the aggressor', it is a bit disconcerting.

then again, read of the still fairly recent failures in nsa computing centers (where they simply did not plan to have enough power stations just to power all the new computers they install - let alone coffee pots!)... along with all the storage/processing probs of monitoring human communications, in -all- its forms, seems to be a still-escalating battle for those who want to monitor private speech.

SOPA, compared to DMCA filings, is a nuclear bomb compared to a nice heavy .38 revolver. as a content creator who has had to protect my IP, i've only ever needed a .38... i -do not- need a nuclear bomb.

[Ann Otoole InSL]

What is endlessly hilarious is that the big internet companies could castrate SOPA with big fat vote buying donations. Learn the beltway 2-step or take it up the arse. That is reality until everyone over 55 is wiped out of congress.

[Cheap Shoes China]

Wow!! I can’t believe it took me so long to find you! THANKYOU!

[nexus burbclave]

On the 18th, Reddit and several other Web sites will be participating in a black-out to bring attention to the dangers of SOPA and PIPA. I'm trying to figure out the best approach to "black out" my parcels in-world. Perhaps blacked-out police tape/ barricades with links to various anti-SOPA information?

[Leondra]

Here's one place to register a complaint-

http://www.change.org/petitions/tell-electronic-arts-to-oppose-internet-censorship

[Caliburn Susanto]

It takes more than hand-wringing and digital petitions to fight such things, it takes MONEY MONEY MONEY and lots of it.

Send money to the Electronic Frontier Foundation, or whatever organization you choose that can put lobbyists in Washington D.C. offices to fight against it face-to-face. Wishing doesn't make it so ... money does.

https://supporters.eff.org/donate

[Kelton]

I was discussing this yesterday in terms of risks and one scenario was discussed for user generated content:

1- X Company received a counterfile (false) against a valid DMCA.
2 - X Company goes to Court in US and files as they have registered copyright in the US. Case is found in their favor under 17 U.S.C. § 504.
3 - X Company can evidence multiple previous DMCA against the same or separate individuals for repeated IP infringement.
4 - Host (or in this example Linden Research Inc.) had to date failed to remove access from the user so they could continue to infringe. Plaintiff can evidence the multiple count / submissions to evidence awareness of continued infringement. So if the court rules in favor and passes judgement to uphold the infringement - where does that leave the hosting company under the SOPA changes.

I was trying to read through also today to see if it changes the other aspect which currently can be done- as the defendant (using the host service) has submitted to the jurisdiction of the US court, the plaintiff can then under common law in some countries request the court of their place of residence, if non US, to uphold the judgement. So for registered copyright this would include damages / lawyer costs. That can be a hefty cost and either way legal costs could be incurred to defend in the US court.

SOPA I am still wading through it including the criminalization elements, so I don't yet have a good working understanding - either way it looks very concerning for user generated content and in what real terms this will mean for companies hosting in the US.

[Anrodily]

SOPA supercedes the DMCA takedown process.

However, the non resident aspect would still be valid to enforce the civil aspect for countries who allow for it.

Let's face it Linden Lab haven't been great to date on complying with the DMCA process and also cutting off accounts who infringe on a continual basis. SOPA in it's current form (and I believe updates came out today on DNS) could be crippling/game ending.

[Lovana Mellow]

Who was it again that made the US government the police men of the world? They need a good slap!
I would have thought that Congress had more important things to do than attacking the internet. How about running the country and fixing your economy? Stop taking the rest of the world down with you.
This stupidity will impact on internet users everywhere. Stop it! Now go to the naughty corner SOPA!