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[–]HemoKhan 2 points3 points ago*

The discussion was between NBC Universal General Council Rick Cotton and Alexis Ohanian, cofounder of our dear Reddit. I'll edit to post a link as soon as Chris puts it up on his site. Edit: The discussion in question can be found here.

Mr. Cotton seemed incredibly adamant that the provisions explicitly prohibit any prosecution or even secondary liability for websites based in the United States. Given the backlash by such sites (Google, Yahoo, Reddit, etc.), I'm wondering what in the bill gives him such confidence. Can anyone point it out to me, perhaps, or else explain why he's incorrect?

[–]hueypriest 2 points3 points ago

He is incorrect (no matter how loudly or forcefully he asserts otherwise) because the definitions involved are very broad and vague, and are ruled upon without adequate due process. For example, there are plenty of circumstances one could imagine a judge ruling that reddit is "foreign site" based on the broad definitions in the actual language of the bills. Furthermore, the burden on enforcing the "blacklist" upon sites like reddit (which would be considered a search engine under the definition of the bill) would either be technically difficult and/or financially prohibitive. It also opens up whole new areas of liability for users and websites, while making services that comply with private rights of action requested by copyright holders and the copyright holders themselves immune from liability should their copyright claims be invalid.

When he was talking about liability he was referring to the liability of service providers that comply with copyright holders private rights of action. As in, reddit would not be liable for making a mistake or removing links from our site, which later turned out to be based on invalid copyright claims by private parties. Neither would copyright holders be liable for sending out fraudulent claims, as they have repeatedly and aggressively done under DMCA. The entire bill is designed to give maximum power and minimum responsibility to copyright holders. the unintended consequences and potential for abuse are potentially devastating. But he seemed to be talking very forcefully, so I guess we're just supposed to trust him on it.

[–]sje46 1 point2 points ago

I thought SOPA didn't apply to US TLD's, like .com?

[–]hueypriest 2 points3 points ago

Certain provisions do not apply, however as with everything in these bills the definitions are far too broad and vague. There are parts of SOPA that only apply to "US sites", others like the blacklist enforcement that apply to only US companies. As just one example, reddit uses the Italian TLD .it for it's link shortener redd.it. Under the wording of the bill this could be viewed as a foreign site.

[–]EnjoyMyDownvote 0 points1 point ago

Why are you ignoring me :(

[–]gamerlen 0 points1 point ago

Can't wait to see it. Sounds like it'll be interesting.

[–]Jduasdh23 3 points4 points ago*

Holy crap, the reddit guy got owned. I thought SOPA was going away after yesterday's news but I can see it passing after this. If all the debates are gonna be anything like this people are gonna be cool with it.

The intro by Hayes was totally anti-SOPA and really nice for MSM, but Alexis Ohanian wasn't prepared at all. He obviously didn't study the text so he didn't know how to answer to Rick Cotton's point that it would only affect foreigner wholesale piracy sites, which is kind of sad. He probably thought it was gonna be a slam dunk.

I'm kinda angry right now, I mean, I know I have no right whatsoever to be, but god damn it, I would have studied the shit out of the SOPA and PIPA texts if I was going to be on network TV, most people would. God damn hipster dotcom millionaires.

[–][deleted] 0 points1 point ago

Damn, I must have just missed it. I was making breakfast in the other room.

[–]MatrixFrog 0 points1 point ago

[–]Kutharos 0 points1 point ago

Given that our man entered a lions den, he did pretty well. Kudos to mention Valve. They mention Hulu.. Hulu is a bad service. They offer videos at crappy resolution and it's looks like crap.

I didn't expect much out of this, but yeah. Good to get the ball rolling on it.

[–]Remsyk 0 points1 point ago

That douchebag just kept interrupting Alexis when he was trying to talk. And repeating the same phrase over and over was just annoying.

On a side note, I thought he looked a lot like Denethor from LotR:RotK. He just needs to light himself on fire and jump off a tall building to make the cosplay complete.