Re: [us-marketing] SOPA

On Thursday, January 19, 2012 10:54:06 AM webmaster for Kracked Press 
Productions wrote:
> On 01/18/2012 08:23 PM, upscope wrote:
> > On Wednesday, January 18, 2012 04:06:28 PM webmaster for Kracked
> > Press> 
> For software like LibreOffice, the hosting company would have to find
> out if the client has a legal right to have a download link on the
> page they host.  Then they have to determine if the software was
> legally obtained for the source and it was legal to either post the
> link for downloading or hosting the file on their site.  There are
> some things, as far as I remember over the years, that is legal to
> have a link to another host so you can download, but not legal to
> place the software on your server and have it downloaded from there.
>
> I have a list of free, FOSS or other types of, software in a list.  I
> provide links to the software's home page, and not host the software
> itself.  That is legal.  If I downloaded and then hosted the software
> on my hosting account, then 90% of that would be illegal.  There are
> only a few non FOSS packages that will allow you to do that.  So it
> can be very difficult for your hosting company to determine which
> ones is which and do this for all their 1000's of clients and their
> 100,000's of web pages and their millions of links.  Then do this
> every time a web page file changes.  The manpower costs for the legal
> teams and the people who do the researching would make hosting a
> domain and web pages too expensive for the average person.  I can
> have 100 or even 1000 domains on my hosting account for one monthly
> fee of less than $7 a month.  This new law would force the hosting
> company to charge per domain.  But the real result would be that
> EVERY hosting company in the USA would close its doors do to the
> costs of doing business in the USA.  People viewing a web page mostly
> do not care where the web page is hosted.  It does not matter that
> they are getting their information from a European based server
> instead of one physically in New York.  It does not cost the reader
> any more money to do "business" with a web site in a different
> country.
>
> SO the real result will be that there will be less companies in the
> USA that are willing to host web pages and can afford to do what the
> proposed law will require them to do to stay in business in the USA.
> SOPA will shut down a large percentage of hosting companies whos
> clients are all doing legal "business".  They would not be able to
> afford to do business in the USA.  We now have companies who move
> from one state to another after the original state changes their tax
> laws.  The USA will make it so the companies will have to leave the
> country to stay in business legally.  On a local note, my city has
> just passed a law that requires a swap-shop, or used-item store, to
> prove that the items were legally allowed to be sold to them.  They
> have to prove that the item was not stolen or was not owned by more
> than the one person who was selling it.  That goes for garage sales
> and yard sales.  You have to prove that you own the child's toy that
> you have had for 10 years and not want to sell it for a $1.  This law
> went into effect on Jan. 1st and every used item store, except the
> used book store [books seem exempt], are closing their doors after
> being open for 10 to 30 years.  So locally we have a type of SOPA law
> and it is closing good businesses.  SOPA will do the same across the
> USA.

I'm all for free distribution etc, and agree many companies would 
probably move off shore. Small businesses are the ones that would be 
hurt the most.  

Sounds like you live in a city like San Francisco. Its getting where 
government wants to control everything we do. My state is talking about 
outlawing plastic bags completely. They are the ones that forced us from 
paper (which is recyclable) to plastic in first place.

I just concerned for people like my wife who took 15 years before she 
sold her first book and now that she is successful, people steal the 
work.  

Its like a developer who comes out with a proprietary application. Then 
someone steals and gives it way or charges for it. The developer doesn’t 
get any return for their work. FOSS is different. 

SOPA is probably not the right answer . It would be nice if someone 
(group) could come up with a good way to enforce some of these problem 
without a huge burden on companies.
--- 
Russ

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