US DESTROYS WEBSITES WITHOUT NOTICE?

ICE, which is supposed to be doing homeland security, has closed a hip hop website for a year due to unproven copyright violations. No hearing was ever held. The site is now back up. Check out Dajaz1.com for more information.

Now the US Congress wants to allow copyright holders to shut down a website upon a no hearing complaint. The SOPA act (HR 3261) would also make felons out of teenage movie sharers.

Internet companies believe that the best way to address copyright infringement is to pass the OPEN (Online Protection and Enforcement of Digital Trade) Act.

I believe that if the internet is a community, it needs the same things that other communities have. The internet especially needs courts, judges, police officers, prosecutors, defense attorneys. If anyone expects to fairly stop the con artists and copyright violators, then the internet needs a judicial system.

I envision that an internet judical system would operate on line courts, where people can appear to tell the judge their side of the case.

The artists opposing the OPEN Act say that the ITC court is too far away from them. The artists would like to be able to say, "stop that", and have it stopped without any court hearing at all.

Artists should remember that all art is derivative, and if they can stop someone from internet publishing with just their word alone, they can also be stopped from internet publishing on someone else's word alone.

These are serious issues. These issues can not be solved unless the solution comes from people who understand how the internet works.