If the principles behind SOPA were applied to other things,
- police would close gardening shops if someone says they saw a client bought anything that was later used to grow pot
- pharmacies would be shut down by the police for selling syringes if someone says one of these was used for drugs
- gun producers would be shut down for selling guns if one of them was said to have been used to commit a crime.
And if you think "well, in theory, but of course it isn't going to be used like that" - well, it definitely IS going to be used like that. DMCA is being used like that (and part of the reasons SOPA is being introduced is because DMCA has some fairness provisions that make it harder to abuse , even though it is very easy to use ).
Also, PATRIOT act was for terrorists, and wouldn't be used for anything else, right? That's why 99% of the times it was used have nothing to do with terrorism.
SOPA is designed to be abused the way those people cry about. Make no mistake. And you'll suffer its consequences like the rest of wolf criers, even if you wouldn't know it.
Yeah, you're completely right. But I don't understand why so many are against his comments. He's making a good point that there are a lot of people defending torrent and file sharing sites like they're bastions of freedom and the good guys. The reality is that theyre known to be used for sharing copyrighted files illegally. Some even advertise it. There's really not much of a defense for them, we all know what they do. Hell, even I use them at times which I know is wrong (I'm sorry, I'm only human).
The GP's intent wasn't to support SOPA. Read his comments again, please, as he makes a good point. These sites are fighting SOPA because they know they'll be easily shut down if it passes and they know they're providing copyrighted content.
The difference between people like us here on HN and those that run the sites in question is that our aim would most likely be to disrupt content delivery legitimately through a startup and they're just trying to keep getting that CPC ad revenue. Our reasons for being against SOPA are very different and he sees no defense for the sites in question.
- police would close gardening shops if someone says they saw a client bought anything that was later used to grow pot
- pharmacies would be shut down by the police for selling syringes if someone says one of these was used for drugs
- gun producers would be shut down for selling guns if one of them was said to have been used to commit a crime.
And if you think "well, in theory, but of course it isn't going to be used like that" - well, it definitely IS going to be used like that. DMCA is being used like that (and part of the reasons SOPA is being introduced is because DMCA has some fairness provisions that make it harder to abuse , even though it is very easy to use ).
Also, PATRIOT act was for terrorists, and wouldn't be used for anything else, right? That's why 99% of the times it was used have nothing to do with terrorism.
SOPA is designed to be abused the way those people cry about. Make no mistake. And you'll suffer its consequences like the rest of wolf criers, even if you wouldn't know it.