AfterDawn: Tech news

120 companies and groups come out in favor of SOPA

Written by Andre Yoskowitz @ 23 Dec 2011 12:32 User comments (32)

120 companies and groups come out in favor of SOPA The judiciary committee and its chairman Lamar Smith have revealed the 120 formal supporters of SOPA (Stop Online Piracy Act), the draconian bill that will mark the end of free Internet, putting the U.S. in the illustrious group that includes North Korea, Iran and China.
SOPA was proposed earlier this year. SOPA is the first of two bills being considered by Congress. The second is E-PARASITE/Protect-IP. The bills are created to prevent piracy, copyright infringement, and block access to "rogue foreign sites." The bills have been generally panned by the public and the major tech companies due to the fact that companies can get domains and websites shut down if they "engage in, enable or facilitate infringement" or are even accused of it. By creating this blacklist, governments and companies can choose to get sites cut off from search engines and from accepting payments for ads. SOPA only gives accused websites 5 days to file an appeal before they get shut down. If a user posts pirated material in the comments or forum section, the entire site can be shut down for good.



Additionally, the legislation gives the attorney general the power to change DNS entries, blocking users from visiting infringing sites.

While the list is not surprising in the least, there are a few strange entries in there, including GoDaddy, Tiffany Co (jewelry maker), L'Oreal (cosmetics maker) and BeachBody LLC (the team behind the P90X workouts). Regardless, you can't go wrong with boycotting all the following companies, and moving your domains from GoDaddy.

The list:
60 Plus Association
ABC
Alliance for Safe Online Pharmacies (ASOP)
American Federation of Musicians (AFM)
American Federation of Television and Radio Artists (AFTRA)
American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers (ASCAP)
Americans for Tax Reform
Artists and Allied Crafts of the United States
Association of American Publishers (AAP)
Association of State Criminal Investigative Agencies
Association of Talent Agents (ATA)
Baker & Hostetler LLP
Beachbody, LLC
BMI
BMG Chrysalis
Building and Construction Trades Department
Capitol Records Nashville
CBS
Cengage Learning
Christian Music Trade Association
Church Music Publishers? Association
Coalition Against Online Video Piracy (CAOVP)
Comcast/NBCUniversal
Concerned Women for America (CWA)
Congressional Fire Services Institute
Copyhype
Copyright Alliance
Coty, Inc.
Council of Better Business Bureaus (CBBB)
Council of State Governments
Country Music Association
Country Music Television
Covington & Burling LLP
Cowan, DeBaets, Abrahams & Sheppard LLP
Cowan, Liebowitz & Latman, P.C.
Creative America
Davis Wright Tremaine LLP
Deluxe2
Directors Guild of America (DGA)
Disney Publishing Worldwide, Inc.
Elsevier
EMI Christian Music Group
EMI Music Publishing
ESPN
Estée Lauder Companies
Fraternal Order of Police (FOP)
Go Daddy
Gospel Music Association
Graphic Artists Guild
Hachette Book Group
HarperCollins Publishers Worldwide, Inc.
Hyperion
Independent Film & Television Alliance (IFTA)
International Alliance of Theatrical and Stage Employees (IATSE)
International AntiCounterfeiting Coalition (IACC)
International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers (IBEW)
International Brotherhood of Teamsters (IBT)
International Trademark Association (INTA)
International Union of Police Associations
Irell & Manella LLP
Jenner & Block LLP
Kelley Drye & Warren LLP
Kendall Brill & Klieger LLP
Kinsella Weitzman Iser Kump & Aldisert LLP
L?Oreal
Lathrop & Gage LLP
Loeb & Loeb LLP
Lost Highway Records
Macmillan
Major County Sheriffs
Major League Baseball
Majority City Chiefs
Marvel Entertainment, LLC
MasterCard Worldwide
MCA Records
McGraw-Hill Education
Mercury Nashville
Minor League Baseball (MiLB)
Minority Media & Telecom Council (MMTC)
Mitchell Silberberg & Knupp LLP
Morrison & Foerster LLP
Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA)
Moving Picture Technicians3
MPA ? The Association of Magazine Media
National Association of Manufacturers (NAM)
National Association of Prosecutor Coordinators
National Association of State Chief Information Officers
National Cable & Telecommunications Association (NCTA)
National Center for Victims of Crime
National Crime Justice Association
National District Attorneys Association
National Domestic Preparedness Coalition
National Football League
National Governors Association, Economic Development and Commerce Committee
National League of Cities
National Narcotics Offers? Associations? Coalition
National Sheriffs? Association (NSA)
National Songwriters Association
National Troopers Coalition
News Corporation
Patterson Belknap Webb & Tyler LLP
Pearson Education
Penguin Group (USA), Inc.
Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America (PhRMA)
Phillips Nizer, LLP
Pfizer, Inc.
Proskauer Rose LLP
Provident Music Group
Random House
Raulet Property Partners
Republic Nashville
Revlon
Robins, Kaplan, Miller & Ciresi LLP
Scholastic, Inc.
Screen Actors Guild (SAG)
Shearman & Sterling LLP
Showdog Universal Music
Simpson Thacher & Bartlett LLP
Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom LLP
Sony/ATV Music Publishing
Sony Music Entertainment
Sony Music Nashville
State International Development Organization (SIDO)
The National Association of Theatre Owners (NATO)
The Perseus Books Groups
The United States Conference of Mayors
Tiffany & Co.
Time Warner4
Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC)
UMG Publishing Group Nashville
United States Chamber of Commerce
United States Tennis Association
Universal Music
Universal Music Publishing Group
Viacom
Visa, Inc.
W.W. Norton & Company
Warner Music Group
Warner Music Nashville
White & Case LLP
Wolters Kluewer Health
Word Entertainment


On the other hand, there are at least 40 very strong Internet-based companies that are against the bill, and Crunch has listed them:



AOL
Boing Boing
Creative Commons
Daily Kos
Disqus
eBay
Etsy
Facebook
foursquare
Google
Grooveshark
Hype Machine
Kickstarter
Kaspersky
LinkedIn
Mozilla
MetaFilter
OpenDNS
O?Reilly Radar
Reddit
Techdirt
PayPal
Torrentfreak
Tumblr
Twitter
TechCrunch
Yahoo!
Zynga
Scribd
YCombinator
Wikipedia
Reddit
Namecheap
Petzel
ICanHasCheezburger
Quora
Embedly
MediaTemple
CloudFlare
StackExchange (Stack Overflow)
Github
Linode
Hostgator
Square
The Huffington Post
Craigslist
ESET
4chan



Please, everyone, help keep America's Internet free and open, and not in the hands of politicians and dying media companies: http://americancensorship.org/

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32 user comments

123.12.2011 12:33

Once again:

Please, everyone, help keep America's Internet free and open, and not in the hands of politicians and dying media companies: http://americancensorship.org/

223.12.2011 13:04

The United State's government is so backwards its ridiculous. I REALLY hope Canada does not follow suit with this crap. Otherwise I'm moving away once I finish school...

323.12.2011 13:26

The first thing I notice glancing at these lists are that the Tech based companies are against it, and the physical product retail organizations are against. The biggest questions that come to mind is why do real estate or drug compnies GAF?

On a side note, I can see why Beach Body would be concerned and for it as their products can be found on any torrent site.

423.12.2011 17:14

Freedom of speech is still freedom of speech.

Even though it is illegal as hell to yell Fire in a crowded theater, you are still allowed to yell it at the top of your lungs if you so decide. The choice still remains yours.

This SOPA crap, is not our choice folks. I didn't fight for this. I sure as hell didn't vote for this.

These idiots act as though my computer is a firearm. It's not. What site I may or may not visit has no inclination as to whether or not a violent action will or not occur or a legal or illegal action has been made. That decision is still left up to "ME".

Unlike saying 'fire' in the crowded theater, believe it or not, I can ensue a riot in a theater without ever having to say the word. Banning web sites may be the first step to being just as bad as burning books. Mark my words.

That's what censorship does. That's what SOPA & the MPAA/RIAA wants and it starts with control. They already have the government's ear folks.

This message has been edited since its posting. Latest edit was made on 23 Dec 2011 @ 5:15

523.12.2011 18:24

"rogue foreign sites"=TPB

This message has been edited since its posting. Latest edit was made on 23 Dec 2011 @ 6:25

623.12.2011 19:11

Even if it passes, it might back fire on em. Lets see what happens

724.12.2011 02:06

SOPA has just amount of a chance to stop piracy as the world is going to end in December 2012.

This is just an excuse for the US goverment to enforce control over the American people. The founding fathers of the United States of America would be appauled at what our government has become.

824.12.2011 08:34

Building and Construction Trades Department ???

Don't tell me people have been downloading pirate houses :)

924.12.2011 18:35

Originally posted by POGK:
The biggest questions that come to mind is why do real estate or drug compnies GAF?

As far as the drug companies go, you have to understand that part of this bill is about keeping Canadian pharmacies from selling drugs online to US customers cheaper than they could get them in the US.

The real estate thing is hard to tell, but it could very well just be a question of some congress critter soliciting them for support and getting it without anyone looking at the bill.


1025.12.2011 13:40
Jf0
Unverified new user

Go Daddy backed down, no ?
Joe Rogan's podcast 168 talked about this for 20 minutes

1125.12.2011 13:56

Originally posted by palwill:
"rogue foreign sites"=TPB
In fact it's not nearly that simple. First off, there is no actual definition of "dedicated to intellectual property infringement" given in SOPA (or PIPA for that matter). That's not a coincidence. It's the same language used by the entertainment industry in lawsuits against sites like YouTube. By failing to define it, the standard is lowered to "whatever we can convince a judge to buy." From the entertainment industry's POV any site that uses their IP in a way that doesn't make them money, particularly if it forces them to start offering content in a new way to compete, is a rogue site. To their way of thinking, any tactic to take such a site down is legitimate, even if they haven't actually done anything illegal.

1225.12.2011 14:25

Originally posted by vurbal:
Originally posted by palwill:
"rogue foreign sites"=TPB
In fact it's not nearly that simple. First off, there is no actual definition of "dedicated to intellectual property infringement" given in SOPA (or PIPA for that matter). That's not a coincidence. It's the same language used by the entertainment industry in lawsuits against sites like YouTube. By failing to define it, the standard is lowered to "whatever we can convince a judge to buy." From the entertainment industry's POV any site that uses their IP in a way that doesn't make them money, particularly if it forces them to start offering content in a new way to compete, is a rogue site. To their way of thinking, any tactic to take such a site down is legitimate, even if they haven't actually done anything illegal.
thank you for educating me. what the hell do they think they are doing? if this passes i see dark times ahead.

1325.12.2011 14:45

Originally posted by palwill:
Originally posted by vurbal:
Originally posted by palwill:
"rogue foreign sites"=TPB
In fact it's not nearly that simple. First off, there is no actual definition of "dedicated to intellectual property infringement" given in SOPA (or PIPA for that matter). That's not a coincidence. It's the same language used by the entertainment industry in lawsuits against sites like YouTube. By failing to define it, the standard is lowered to "whatever we can convince a judge to buy." From the entertainment industry's POV any site that uses their IP in a way that doesn't make them money, particularly if it forces them to start offering content in a new way to compete, is a rogue site. To their way of thinking, any tactic to take such a site down is legitimate, even if they haven't actually done anything illegal.
thank you for educating me. what the hell do they think they are doing? if this passes i see dark times ahead.
This is exactly why so many individuals and organizations, including many who don't agree on much of anything, are opposed to these bills.

1427.12.2011 13:05

People need to boycot members of associations, clients of the law firms and the comapnies supporting this insane idea. Worked for Godaddy...

Congress passes what they are paid to pass. Paid by companies, lawyers and associations, which is illegal, but campaign contributions are "legal" but payment to do something that is their job is illegal. The system is broken, and only a constitutional amendment can fix it...

1527.12.2011 15:06

Originally posted by FreddyF:
Congress passes what they are paid to pass. Paid by companies, lawyers and associations, which is illegal, but campaign contributions are "legal" but payment to do something that is their job is illegal. The system is broken, and only a constitutional amendment can fix it...
Laws & amendments mean little to those who feel they are above such... More so when they actually have the means to buy their way out of the very thing they judicially voted for.

We have laws & papers saying what is/isn't acceptable behavior, yet everyone physically witnesses someone breaking the rules in some varying degree or another on virtually a daily basis.

If we can't make an example out of someone (primarily these twerps) from which to learn from (sans victim of circumstance or trying to feed a family) then the only solution is to literally remove those individuals from any & all exposure of influence of their cancerous infection in hopes of putting a stop to the bulk of this behavior. I.e., kill off the breeding behavior. A reversal of the 'strongest surviving' if you will.

They're obviously no longer working toward a common good & decimating a larger number of folks who are actually working toward a richer environment. Amoral as the logic may seem, our society has allowed it to rotate to this point. How else do you get rid of a wart than to dig its oily root?
This message has been edited since its posting. Latest edit was made on 27 Dec 2011 @ 3:09

1627.12.2011 22:51

once sopa passes the only logical thing to do would be to go to a local library and upload pirated content on all the websites that supported it and then bring it to the publics attention when the websites dont get shut down.

i live in australia and it seems stupid to me that america's government can throw millions of $$$ around getting a bill passed but they are lacking in health care and have so many homeless and poor people.

btw why call it sopa they should just call it american dictating internet bill or (adib).

1729.12.2011 11:17

So let's stop buying or renting theses dvd's and cd's and go the the public library and rip them for our own use. They're the biggest sharer in the world.

1829.12.2011 13:05

SOPA?... jaja is a word in spanish that means soup.,ridiculous name.
Is this happens the internet is dead for me

1929.12.2011 13:31

Originally posted by FreddyF:
People need to boycot members of associations, clients of the law firms and the comapnies supporting this insane idea. Worked for Godaddy...

Congress passes what they are paid to pass. Paid by companies, lawyers and associations, which is illegal, but campaign contributions are "legal" but payment to do something that is their job is illegal. The system is broken, and only a constitutional amendment can fix it...
a friend pointed out to me the other day, i'm supprized i didn't realize it myself, america isn't a country, it is a company for the rich for the rich to make them richer while walking all over america and americans rights.

2029.12.2011 21:04

Originally posted by ximwoem:
Originally posted by FreddyF:
People need to boycot members of associations, clients of the law firms and the comapnies supporting this insane idea. Worked for Godaddy...

Congress passes what they are paid to pass. Paid by companies, lawyers and associations, which is illegal, but campaign contributions are "legal" but payment to do something that is their job is illegal. The system is broken, and only a constitutional amendment can fix it...
a friend pointed out to me the other day, i'm supprized i didn't realize it myself, america isn't a country, it is a company for the rich for the rich to make them richer while walking all over america and americans rights.
That is true of most countries or better yet of any power structure, power corrupts absolutely (loosely stated).

An amendment wouldn't help either as they already ignore/violate so many constraints formed in amendments it isn't funny.

Why are they going after Barry Bonds for lying to the oversight comity when Bill Clinton purger-ed himself 4 times to a Supreme Court and they hardly slapped his hands. Sure he was impeached but that didn't change anything he still kept his job and did NO JAIL TIME.

Joseph Wrangle violated 10 counts of the tax code, code he is in charge of forming, and they did nothing to him. You or I would be in jail and heavily penalized if we did what he did and we don't make the rules. Plus the lying piece of shat stated he didn't know of his violations which would make him incompetent, he should be fired just for that alone.

There are too many other examples (infractions) to list all but this just shows the deep do-do we are in, and things aren't looking up for the future either.

2129.12.2011 22:20
Zoo_Look
Inactive

Quote:
SOPA only gives accused websites 5 days to file an appeal before they get shut down. If a user posts pirated material in the comments or forum section, the entire site can be shut down for good.

So use it against them: post an infringing link on the forum site of, for example EMI music (maybe even under the guise of informing them of illegal material), then inform SOPA directly of the infringing link. Then EMI have 5 days to file the appeal before being shut down permanently.

If enough people do this, EMI will not have the time to file all the appeals before the backlog gets the better of them. Then they either get shut down or SOPA gets amended. If amended, rinse an repeat.
This message has been edited since its posting. Latest edit was made on 29 Dec 2011 @ 10:21

2230.12.2011 03:13

All Crimes and inhumanities comes from UK. The Devil starts first and then impose it on his Child Mr USA. many sites are being blocked in UK. Don't even think about that your democratic leaders are going to do anything for you. they are not elected by you, they are elected by big corporations and whatever they say our politicians do. the only thing that we can do is fight back, by not using their products. hey I will cancel my internet for start. stop going to theater, or any places that these big ass PIG MFs have hands on. Gas is expensive, don't drive car for a while. imagine if 1000,000, of us do that for few months. they will kiss our asses for the rest of century. But are we United? or just bunch of you know what?

2330.12.2011 05:09
Zoo_Look
Inactive

I would suggest that all crimes and inhumanities come from religion and/or monetary wealth.

But of course, outlawing religion on a global scale is far less profitable then selling guns, tanks and attack helicopters (X-Box avatar anyone?), and rebuilding the countries we impose our iron fisted, God fearing will onto.

*shakes fist defiantly* I've still got my own teeth you know!

2430.12.2011 12:41

Originally posted by xzone:
All Crimes and inhumanities comes from UK. The Devil starts first and then impose it on his Child Mr USA. many sites are being blocked in UK. Dont even think about that your democratic leaders are going to do anything for you. they are not elected by you, they are elected by big corporations and whatever they say our politicians do. the only thing that we can do is fight back, by not using their products. hey I will cancel my internet for start. stop going to theater, or any places that these big ass PIG MFs have hands on. Gas is expensive, dont drive car for a while. imagine if 1000,000, of us do that for few months. they will kiss our asses for the rest of century. But are we United? or just bunch of you know what?
Well put...everybody talks but when it realy comes time to act, we all tuck our tails between our legs and live with what all the big companies (and big company bought goverment officials)tell us to do. We all unite for a pointless "flashmob" but when it comes to the important stuff, we all have excuses not to be there.

2530.12.2011 13:29

Originally posted by Hamatime:
We all unite for a pointless "flashmob" but when it comes to the important stuff, we all have excuses not to be there.
Interestingly stated... we can seem to organize a few hundred people for little or no compensation for hours on end for their time to shake their ass for a little notoriety, but can't get them to do shite for their own benefit.

Myself, I joined the military for at least one of my many reasons (as well as I am sure some of the other folks in here did as well), figuring that 'some' good would come of it. But one voice in that mess is not the solution. Hind sight, as they say, is 20/20.

Creative thought, listening to the ideas that have already been tried & known to have failed; then throwing those out, then getting the multitudes of couch humping assholes out of their prozaic funks & into a 'take back control of their life' mentality would be a nice start.

I don't know, jump starting whole neighborhoods with mandatory jalapeno enemas might be a good start?
This message has been edited since its posting. Latest edit was made on 30 Dec 2011 @ 2:21

265.1.2012 21:30
Lolokjade
Unverified new user

A word about SOPA (Stop Online Piracy Act). It's easy today to get free music, movies, software etc... Google, Facebook and company are favored by this common and accepted method of steeling! Google, Facebook, Twitter etc... will take a force measure on January 23rd closing down in the name of...WHAT? Just to protect their own business even if they have to rob from artists and creators around the world... May be SOPA is not the best answer... let's find a way that is fair for all the parties.

2718.1.2012 01:36
suyashxp
Unverified new user

ALL Big Website Companies are against it (Fb,Gog,yahooetc etc..)

Only Company Which are still in profit, even after mass selling of there pirated items like sony , BMI, universal etc etc just want to Pass this bill to Increase there revenue and Loot people as Much as Possible...

Even if to stop Piracy come up with new ideas Like , Itunes came up with best way to Buy music (why buy whole album for One single fav song??)

many counties US , India, UAE etc etc are trying to Tame Internet so they can again be rulers of there areas and mend internet as per there choice and Close the voice of Public / free voice... (mainly against them)

1st site to get blocked
1. Wikileaks
2. torrents sites like The- pir- bay etc etc
3. Youtube and all video steaming site.
4. Facebook as it promotes free content..
5. All free sites will be down..

This is mix support of Govts and MNC corporates to become superpower and loot there customers

Gone are the days when Internet was a Free place!!!

2818.1.2012 08:52
Safenetting
Unverified new user

All you have to do is look at the list of supporters and (with a little intelligence, instead of liberal rhetoric) you can understand WHY they want it stopped.

Heck, even "NameCheap" and "OpenDNS" are on the list -- there's the true tell-tail of that 'AGAINST' list -- supporters of the phishing, cybercrime industry! (We just tracked a malware attack SPOOFING U.S. brands on domains by NameCheap this morning!!! Hello???) Sure they want it stopped. How many billions are they all making from illegal activities ... Google? Yahoo? Techdirt? Torrentfreak? Are you kidding me??? Of course they want the gravy train to contine. Duh.

Kind of makes one wonder what is AfterDawn's stake in allowing fraud to go free ????

2918.1.2012 12:39
0_________o
Unverified new user

Wow, I guess I know about 120 small time piece of garbage companies and foundations not getting a dime from me ever again. What the hell do Christian music orgs give a shit about SOPA, besides to rid the internet of porn for their sheltered child not to find? No one buys their CDs, or wishes to download/pirate their songs anyway. Take a few laps!

3018.1.2012 13:06

Originally posted by Safenetting:
All you have to do is look at the list of supporters and (with a little intelligence, instead of liberal rhetoric) you can understand WHY they want it stopped.

Heck, even "NameCheap" and "OpenDNS" are on the list -- there's the true tell-tail of that 'AGAINST' list -- supporters of the phishing, cybercrime industry! (We just tracked a malware attack SPOOFING U.S. brands on domains by NameCheap this morning!!! Hello???) Sure they want it stopped. How many billions are they all making from illegal activities ... Google? Yahoo? Techdirt? Torrentfreak? Are you kidding me??? Of course they want the gravy train to contine. Duh.

Kind of makes one wonder what is AfterDawn's stake in allowing fraud to go free ????
Very short sited, not unusual though, maybe we need to start burning books & witches again... LOL

3118.1.2012 13:57

Look here...

One thing folks need to realize about this whole issue.. REPUTATION!!!

The US cannot and will not allow itself to be characterized as a "police state" by this form of censorship. IMHO, supporters of these two bills should be cited and exposed as possible enemies of democracy. I can assure you that this piece of legislation will never be enacted nor excepted by true patriots of the United States.

If the media industry is having financial issues, then provide acceptable alternatives instead of rhetoric that may be considered anti-democratic. The industry is loosing this war against piracy miserably. So why not channel the money your wasting on this failing mission into suitable and acceptable alternatives!

3218.1.2012 16:04

To Mr-Movies & CaptHook I say, Here, Here!!! I didn't defend the US for this kind of legislation to stifle creativity or cripple entrepreneurship.

Yes, theft is a crime, but until it's stolen, quick smacking hands!!! Just cause a person has a scowl on their face doesn't mean their out to kill 'you' or that they have evil in their hearts for impending doom. We're not living in a day of the "Minority Report", so get off of it!

Guns don't kill people, just as knives don't. People will find a way to do whatever the hell they feel like doing & these facacta laws do nothing but screw up the lives of the folks obeying the rules in the first place.

Here's an idea Congress... Quit playing the game of 'thumbs to Mouth/Asshole, Now switch!' & possibly flatten the nuts of the extortionists causing piracy to begin with. I.e., quit treating the symptoms?

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