SOPA Markup Runs Out Of Time; Likely Delayed Until 2012 [Update: Or Not…]
from the clock-ran-out dept
So this was a bit of a surprise. Lots of people expected Lamar Smith to keep the SOPA markup process going until he could get a vote out, even if it was late tonight. But it looks like he ran out of time. With Congress settling it’s other business and closing up shop, Smith abruptly ended the markup, saying they’ll resume at the next available date — which likely won’t be until late January. They only had time to go through two amendments, the second of which was withdrawn. That was from Rep. Chaffetz who asked that the DNS/IP blocking sections not be put into effect until after a thorough analysis was done by experts on their impact on online security. Somewhat surprisingly, Smith seemed willing to agree to something like this. He came close to suggesting that perhaps they should, in fact, have hearings with some of these experts concerned about the internet blocking part of SOPA (perhaps because he realized that SOPA wouldn’t get voted on today). Of course, now we’ll have to see what actually happens.
In the meantime, this represents a very brief, but significant, victory for those in favor of internet freedom and against internet censorship in the US. Have no fear, however, that Hollywood and the US Chamber of Commerce will be pushing very, very, very hard to get SOPA approved as soon as possible. This fight isn’t over by a long shot, but there does appear to be a brief and thankful reprieve. The momentum is also on the side of those opposed. When PROTECT IP came out early this year, it was seen as a slam dunk. Congress would bend over backwards to grant Hollywood its wishes. The fact that it’s getting pushed into the new year is big, big news. On top of that, people have really jumped up on this one. The grassroots efforts have been amazing — as an issue that normally gets little attention (copyright) has become a very mainstream issue in a matter of months. We keep hearing about SOPA from random and surprising places. This needs to keep up and Congress needs to learn that giving in to Hollywood’s short-sighted whims isn’t going to go over well with the public.
Update…. Or not. Despite the fact that Congress was supposed to be out of session until the end of January, the Judiciary Committee has just announced plans to come back to continue the markup this coming Wednesday. This is rather unusual and totally unnecessary. But it shows just how desperate Hollywood is to pass this bill as quickly as possible, before the momentum of opposition builds up even further.
Filed Under: 2012, congress, copyright, lamar smith, sopa
Comments on “SOPA Markup Runs Out Of Time; Likely Delayed Until 2012 [Update: Or Not…]”
Keep the screws tightened
Keep reminding your Senators and Representative about your opposition and disgust with the whole process and how utterly terrible these proposed laws would be. Don’t let them relax or enjoy their holidays in comfort – keep those phones ringing off the hook and their in-boxes full or this will get worse…
Re: Keep the screws tightened
This is possibly one of the best ideas I’ve heard yet, but I think the focus should be mostly concentrated on phone calls. Many of these people do nit use the internet for much, and emails may be too easy to let sit in the mail unread. Phone calls, not so much. Even if they hang up, they will know that the opposition has not backed down for even a moment.
Re: Keep the screws tightened
Mel Watt’s office: 202-225-1510. Just sayin.
Re: Keep the screws tightened
Just tell them that if they vote for this law, you’ll vote for their opponent in the next election, whoever that turns out to be.
And this is probably the reason they are trying to rush it through right now. Early enough the can work to placate their individual constituents or let the furor die down before an election.
SOPA/PIPA unintended consequences
If I understand rightly, and anybody can claim infringement against any web site, the MPAA and RIAA sites will be out of business everyday. People are vindictive when harassed, the big guys can make improper claims, so can anybody else.
Do they not need any web sites of their own? Very short-sighted.
Re: SOPA/PIPA unintended consequences
In case it wasn’t clear, the law does not apply to those with well paid legal teams.
Re: SOPA/PIPA unintended consequences
You’re forgetting about the high court vs low court treatment.
Re: SOPA/PIPA unintended consequences
If I understand rightly,
Like most Techdirtbags, you don’t. SOPA is limited to foreign websites.
Re: Re: SOPA/PIPA unintended consequences
SOPA is limited to foreign websites.
[Citation needed] (from the bill itself, not some doublespeaking lobbyist)
Re: Re: SOPA/PIPA unintended consequences
Please show me the specific section and language which restricts enforcement of SOPA to foreign websites.
Oh wait, you won’t because you can’t.
Re: Re: SOPA/PIPA unintended consequences
and like most greedtards – SOPA is limited to foreign websites. – is completely false, and an outright lie.
So either YOU don’t understand much or are an outright lair, both of which is believable with your types.
Re: Re: Re: SOPA/PIPA unintended consequences
SOPA clearly applies to domestic ISPs and domestic search engines. Plus, even where the bill is limited to foreign sites, the complaint is how the bill will *effect* domestic sites. For example, Wikipedia is a domestic search engine. To avoid being cut off from donors, it will have to police content.
Re: Re: Re:2 SOPA/PIPA unintended consequences
How the hell are they supposed to “police content”? In the US, infringement is NOT determined by the rightsholder, the accused infringer, nor any other entity other than a court.
Expecting site-owners to know infringement when they see it is like expecting the world’s population to suddenly be able to mindread.
Bad law is worse than no law, and this one needs to DIAF.
Re: Re: SOPA/PIPA unintended consequences
It isn’t limited to foreign websites are all. They say that is the target, but the terms are more broad in scope.
Re: SOPA/PIPA unintended consequences
No, the MPAA and the RIAA do not need websites of their own. They want the old distribution models of cable TV and CDs. Well, the RIAA will go along with legit MP3 sites, but they won’t have to worry about being shutdown themselves because they have lots of lawyers. The idea here is to control and/or break the internet.
Re: SOPA/PIPA unintended consequences
How can you call them “unintended consequences” when the consequences have been well laid out before hand? When you know going in that the intent of the legislation will not work but will break the Internet and put a break on free speech then we must assume they are all intended consequences and possibly even the primary intent of the legislation.
Re: SOPA/PIPA unintended consequences
They don’t need websites of their own to make money, and once this bill passes, our friends in congress won’t be harassed by silly little websites and their silly little rhetoric.
The American way of life will once again be safe.
And if anyone wants to protest, I mean, If any terrorists show up we don’t have to wallow in red tape to cart them off to Guantanamo.
And that, is how congress saved America.
Re: Re: SOPA/PIPA unintended consequences
I think you forgot the sarcasm tags. Surely you’re not serious.
Or are you?
Re: SOPA/PIPA unintended consequences
do you really think this is how it works?
Re: SOPA/PIPA unintended consequences
I personally intend to start using fox news discussion forms to post bit torrent and similar links. Joke ’em if they can’t take a #@%&
I said it before, I’ll say it again: NOW is the time to go on the offensive: Donate money, Lobby for repeal of DMCA, rollback of copyright terms, etc…
Re: Re:
Screw donating money; money is a means to an end. We want to get rid if this political crap so the game needs to be played on a whole other level.
What we need is a tech-centric PAC that directly calls out all the bad bad congresspersons with ultimate vilification, while simultaneously promoting any of their opponents with a clear track record of integrity and voting sensibly; including resisting campaign donations/bribes of any other kind and voting FOR structures that finally decouple public service from directed private dollars.
Re: Re: Re:
While we all may be using social media to get the message out, why aren’t all the tech companies that are against SOPA getting the word out. They can even be as impartial as possible, if they so choose.
Facebook, Google, Twitter, YouTube, Flickr, etc. should/could be putting data out there for people to read.
While at recess the tech savvy should be getting the word out to others who use the Internet but might not know this is happening. The tech industry could take a major hit if this passes so why aren’t they lobbying their users? They should be taking advantage of their strengths.
The more people who know the more the issue will be discussed. Regardless of which side you are on this should be a good thing unless the goal is to simply sneak it in under the radar.
Re: Re: Re: Re:
Facebook, Google, Twitter, YouTube, Flickr, etc. should/could be putting data out there for people to read.
many of those companies care much less now that SOPA applies only to foreign sites. And many more of those companies are wary of pissing off the chair of the House Judiciary Committee. Google has been pretty roundly vilified in hearings and likely won’t get much sympathy if they have business before the Committee. Few other companies are looking to take Google’s place as whipping boy.
Re: Re: Re:2 Re:
SOPA isn’t restricted to foreign sites.
Re: Re: Re:3 Re:
Read the manager’s amendment, then change your name to That Ignorant Freetard.
Re: Re: Re:3 Re:
SOPA isn’t restricted to foreign sites.
The new version of SOPA is slightly changed, such that section 103 *is* now restricted to foreign sites.
But every section still puts compliance costs on domestic sites.
Re: Re: Re:4 Re:
But every section still puts compliance costs on domestic sites.
Just like money laundering laws put compliance costs on banks and every other financial intermediary. Boo-fucking-hoo.
Re: Re: Re:5 Re:
Know what your movie would be worth if this wasn’t the case?
@ four potatoes.
Re: Re: Re: Re:
It’s not obvious that Facebook is against the revised SOPA, they were conspicuously silent this week. Indeed, some statements from Lamar Smith himself seemed to suggest that they may be on board. For this reason, I doubt Facebook should be posting anything.
Google, however, has a constant stream of posts about this issue (see posts by Brin and others) on Google+.
I’m curious if Facebook actually made a deal here.
Re: Re: Re: Re:
Tumblr put it on everyone’s dash when the bill was first introduced… That’s the only effort I’ve seen from any social networking site.
Re: Re: Re:
This is EXACTLY what we need. Some techsavvy people outiing ALL who participate in illegal and immoral activities. Track them and mad publicize the site. Of course, the site may be shut down under the new rules?
Re: Re: Re: Re:
This bill if passed in its present form could potentially result in the destruction of the Internet as we know it today. It has enormous potential for abuse and I see no safeguards against such abuse nor any way to undo the damage done by such abuse. Anyone could file false copyright infringement complaints against any website he/she had a disagreement or issue with, to censor, to hurt competitors, or just out of plain spite. I see no means provided for undoing such wrongful blocking in any kind of timely manner, meaning such sites could be off the Web for months, years or permanently.
This bill needs to go in the shredder, and quickly.
Re: Re: Re:2 Re:
Pure FUD. Only the DoJ can bring action. Only against foreign sites. “The sky is falling, the sky is falling” Bawk, bawk, bawk….
Re: Re: Re:3 Re:
If the sky isn’t falling, what is the hurry?
Re: Re: Re:3 Re:
“”The sky is falling, the sky is falling” Bawk, bawk, bawk….”
I see you’ve taken to quoting the labels and studios. Wait, oh you weren’t? That’s funny, I’m pretty sure that’s the exact same thing they have been saying with each new technological leap forward. Phonograph. Player piano. Cassette. VHS. CD. DVD. And so on and so forth, and here we are… decades later and somehow, despite their claims that “the sky is falling” and fretting over serial killers (ala Jack Valenti’s infamous quote), they’re still in business and making record profits.
Quite amusing. But Mike and the people here are the ones making the wild claims that “the sky is falling”? Lol. Oh you trolls have no shame or sense of history and irony. You guys are truly a riot.
Re: Re: Re:4 Re:
Actually I was quoting the hysteria that was first heard when the DMCA was passed, and now is being recycled for SOPA.
Re: Re: Re:5 Re:
“Actually I was quoting the hysteria that was first heard when the DMCA was passed, and now is being recycled for SOPA.”
I stand by my statement, so you’re quoting the studios/labels, who made the same “the sky is falling claims” BEFORE the DMCA was even a gleam in anyone’s eye.
The same “the sky is falling claims” that were heard multiple times in the past decade and a half. Oh no, blank cds. Oh no, mp3 players. Oh no, dvds. Oh no, blank dvds. Oh no, hd-dvd/blu-ray. Oh no, streaming. Oh no.
Seems to me doing recycling of “the sky is falling” is and always has been the entertainment industries. Also, sounds to me like the same hysteria they’ve been suffering from since forever.
I’m sorry, but history shows who the ones making the wild claims and being hysterical really is. It’s not the people who complained about the DMCA or SOPA. It’s the ones advocating for such things. (Hint: the studios and the labels)
Re: Re:
Demand complete removal and abolishment of copyright. No copyright at all, would solve a lot of the problems.
(and yes, I’m serious in this, this is not me trolling you)
Re: Re: Re:
Well, given the other side has adopted a sort of “all or nothing” mentality, I guess I’ll go with nothing. I agree, at this point the copyright extremists are so unreasonable I say dump it altogether.
So I Twittered a suggestion that with the likely delay, today was a good day to get in touch with your representatives. Then this happened: http://tumblr.absono.us/post/14317861585/oh-for-fucking-fucks-sake-if-sopa-passes-can-i
I guess the upside is that if SOPA ends up passing I can probably force Twitter to delete it. Or possibly shut Twitter down entirely.
Re: Re:
You realize Palin is against SOPA right?
Re: Re: Re:
Yes but she’s still Sarah Palin. Wouldn’t you be ashamed if she retweeted you?
Re: Re:
what is your twitter username? so i can follow up your tweets 🙂
Is it cynical of me to suppose that supporters hope the strong show of opposition was a fluke, and think they’ll have a better chance of getting their way if they wait until all the fuss has died down and try to slip it in next year?
Re: Re:
I think you mean “next Wednesday”
Unbelievable
Just as a little experiment, I decided to see exactly how much time and how much money it would take to completely bypass SOPA’s measures.
I’m not going to give ideas to anyone about how to do it, because that’s not my goal.
It turns out, it took me less then 10 minutes and it could cost less than $20 a month. It’s a good thing too, I wasn’t going to spend much more than 15 minutes on this just to satisfy my curiosity.
What is this bill supposed to accomplish again? Is it about making identity thieves and online scammers jobs easier?
Or did we just decide that since we exported our manufacturing to China and our military technology to Iran, we should import their criminal justice system and domestic laws to balance out the trade deficit?
Re: Unbelievable
You must be pretty computer illiterate as I can defeat any measure in SOPA in less than 30 seconds using the “circumvention tools” provided in every operating system.
Re: Re: Unbelievable
You must not be very computer literate, because SOPA includes IP blocking by ISPs.
Re: Re: Re: Unbelievable
That wasn’t in the bill I saw yesterday. Did they amend it in?
Re: Re: Re:2 Unbelievable
“A service provider shall take technically feasible and reasonable measures designed to prevent access”
It’s been there all along. A reasonable interpretation of the bill is that this can be used to mandate IP blocking and dpi to prevent access.
Re: Re: Re: Unbelievable
Rofl…ip blocking…child’s play to circumvent, again using tools already in any OS…try again nub
Re: Re: Re:2 Unbelievable
Hmmm…
Idiot or troll?
It’s hard to tell. Either way, troll grade 4/10
Re: Re: Unbelievable
Yes, but the point is you shouldn’t _have_ to do this.
Re: Unbelievable
> I’m not going to give ideas to anyone about how to do it,
> because that’s not my goal.
Actually it’s only $8.00/Month. See: http://www.supervpn.net/prices.html
You can connect/exit from any of the listed countries at will on your one account. When connected, you are DHCP’d to a foreign IP and DNS server.
I have been using them for a couple of years. Reliable and fast! You can be Japanese one minute, Polish the next, Dutch!…… any of the 10 countries in which they have exit nodes. Oh, and they keep no Logs.
Re: Re: Unbelievable
That may work. My method may be slightly more reliable.
Re: Re: Unbelievable
The government could shut down VPN too if it wanted to, when it wanted to; it could also make VPN ILLEGAL if it wanted to.
Re: Re: Re: Unbelievable
Which begs the question: Where will they stop in making things illegal which are perfectly legal now and necessary to keep the Internet secure and trustable?
What you’re hinting at is that there’s no end to this. Not that I disagree, once legislators start down this road on behalf of cause or for money in the campaign account or whatever it doesn’t end.
So I guess that people in border downs won’t be able to use a Canadian DNS as an alternate DNS or secondary one as they don’t block sites or mess with it. (Our “updated” copyright act is bad but it doesn’t get THAT bad.)
All to help a pair of industries that refuse to accept reality.
The old supply line is dead. Time for them to adapt or die.
Re: Re: Re: Unbelievable
> The government could … also make VPN
> ILLEGAL if it wanted to.
They could also make toilet paper illegal; that would be just as unenforceable, and won’t stop folks from using it.
here's a thought...
How ’bout a “skip out on movies for SOPA” day? A day when everyone boycotts buying, renting, or seeing movies in theaters? (Just watch what you already have. Sheesh!)
Christmas is the biggest theater-day of the year. Boycotting theaters would certainly make Holywood stand up and say Howdy…
Re: here's a thought...
I have been saying this for a long time now.YES and by all means YES.
I am boycotting the MPAA & RIAA already and I seriously mean it when I say for me this whole disgusting SOPA/PIPA meqans I shall NEVER PAY A DIME FOR ANY RIAA & MPAA Stuff EVER.
I used the caps because I really meanit.
This is what I have been doing so you will know my humble efforts.
1.I never go to a theater
2.I refuse to buy any online digital things or use Netflix,etc
3.I never buy new physical media
4.I only buy used physical stuff so it does cut out Hollywood.
For the last 6 years or so they have got no money out of me at all.
I am all for a real National Boycott Week by as masny US Citizens as possible.I was saying a little while ago if I had the money I would start a website called stophollywood or boycott hollywood ,etc and get as many to join in on a boycott.
And no I am not into donating a dime to either Democrat or Republicanj Party to fight these Bills.The best bet for us all might just be to vote the whole lot out or as many as possible thru your State Elections 2012.Just vote Indie and forget what the other guy will do.I do not want to support either Party any longer.Look at what both Parties have done to USA in the last 20 or so years as it is pretty sickening to say the least.
Re: Re: here's a thought...
“4.” I only agree to this because of my better half.
If it was up to me, I wouldn’t even buy used as that helps keep the new market strong.
Walk, bike, snowshoe, off-road adventure…
For the land of the free, why are so many tied to the couch?
And the rest in jail cells?
Re: Re: here's a thought...
Dude, boycotts won’t work. All that will happen if you manage to get enough people to boycott that it hurts their bottom line is that they will blame their lower profits on all those evil pirating pirates what pirate at midnight. “See, we told you! Look how much money we’re not making! We need stronger copyright laws more than ever!”
Re: Re: Re: here's a thought...
Yeah, they can claim that, but it wont make the money come in any quicker. They are also pushing about as hard as they can so any claims that the damaged from this theoretical boycott is due to piracy aren’t going to make their case any stronger.
They are already making such overly inflated claims about it that they can hardly make it seem much worse.
And… screw them and how they spin it. They have gotten their last penny from me. They might win and they might lose but I will be damned if I help finance this rubbish.
Re: here's a thought...
nice in theory, but just a quick sms blast to everyone in my contact list only 2 people out of 100 even knew what sopa was…
it simply won’t work to boycot movies.
not enough people are paying attention.
Re: here's a thought...
Way ahead of you since I’ve been doing that for the last year and thanks to SOPA, many more year to come.
Re: here's a thought...
not your idea! theif
Mike, thanks for your detailed coverage here and on Twitter. (Thanks to “PKFalcon” on Twitter as well.)
You wrote:
“…as an issue that normally gets little attention (copyright) has become a very mainstream issue in a matter of months.” I forget who it was who stated: Now, essentially all copyright regulation is Internet regulation.
There’s a reason why Smith and others want to draw this out even though it’s not in their best interests in terms of publicity. Campaign Contributions.
The anti-SOPA people don’t have anywhere near as big of a wallet as the Pro-SOPA groups like the Chamber of Commerce. The longer this bill is dragged out the longer the Pro-SOPA politicians can collect lots of campaign contributions from Pro-SOPA lobbyists and their clients.
Re: Re:
Uhh, the entire of the Big Studios and Labels comes to around ?30bn in America: Google alone, covers half of that. Imagine if MS and Apple were onside as well. Hell, they could each buy a label and solve half the equation, and the RIAA could go the way of the dodo, like all unadaptive species.
Re: Re: Re:
“and the RIAA could go the way of the dodo, like all unadaptive species.”
I think it’s sad to compare the dodo to the RIAA. Poor dodo, it didn’t do anything wrong and we had no reason to exterminate them. I have sympathy for the dodo, I have little sympathy for the MPAA/RIAA et al.
Re: Re: Re: Re:
(not to mention, comparing the dodo to the RIAA/MPAA is an insult to the intelligence of the poor birds).
Re: Re: Re:2 Re:
Actually, the Dodo die out because it had never faced competition, it evolved in a place where it nothing was hunting it. So the analogy is quite good.
Dodo Meet hunter.
Content industry meet the internet.
Re: Re: Re:
‘Google alone, covers half of that. Imagine if MS and Apple were onside as well.’
They are. Along with intel
Delay forever
Then we will be ok.
I’ve never called any politicians. Can someone please give me an idea how such a call usually goes?
In other words, do you ask to speak to the politician in question, or do you simply explain why you’re calling to whatever staffer answers the phone? Does your call get recorded so that they have an exact record of what you said, or does the person you speak to just scribble down some brief notes so that they get the gist of your message?
Note that I’m being optimistic here that whomever is on the other end of the line isn’t leaning back doing a crossword puzzle while just pretending to listen.
Re: Re:
At the village or town or city or even county level, you can often get the officeholder in person. If it’s a state or federal legislator, you’ll usually talk to a staffer. But don’t surprised if the politician himself answers once in awhile.
You usually say something like: ?Hi, my name is _______, I’m a voter who lives in ________. I’m calling about bill number XX. I’m (for/against) it.
Then see how it goes from there. They’ll usually ask for your address and telephone?spell your name for them if it’s difficult.
Be polite. Unless your message is that you’re mad as hell. In which case you should yell a little a bit. But not too much, or the poor staffer will just hang up on you.
Re: Re: Re:
Thank you for the advice. 🙂
Re: Re:
My experience has been that you talk to a staffer, and that it’s an entirely painless process. I doubt that calls are recorded, but I do believe that calls matter.
It’s anecdotal, but from a friend who works in the political arena:
– Phone calls have more weight than physical letters, which have more weight than emails.
– Assume that the person on the other end is taking notes, but taking the fewest possible notes, so have a short, coherent script that makes specific reference to the legislation in question (SOPA is H.R.3261) and your support or opposition to it (“I want to make it clear to XXX that I strongly oppose HR 3261, the stop online policy act”).
If you’re thinking about it, do it.
Re: Re: Re:
Thank you. 🙂
Re: Re: Re:
A stroll into the rep’s local office to express oppostion has more weight that all of the above.
Staffers remember face-to-face meetings with upset constituents, the good old human-to-human contact thing. Its important to be polite, though, or all the staffer remembers is a wing-nut.
Re: Talking to a Representative
You will talk to a very polite staffer who will listen to what you have to say but offer no justification for their employer’s position or in any other way engage with you. Good luck to talking to your actual Representative. And yes, your conversation will be recorded.
Except NOW we have to make sure people don’t just forget about it. We have to keep it on everyone’s mind or else it’ll just slip in under the radar later on when no one’s paying attention.
Happy New Year!
Should auld acquaintance be forgot,
and never brought to… wait…
Please correct me if I am wrong
I see lots of comments and posts about SOPA dealing with IP theft with a near nuclear approach. That aside I was thinking that could a lawyer for a well funded group(Group A)twist the law in order to use the “Private Right of Action” claim to bring down say…. A gay rights advocacy website (Site A)…
Assume that group A leader did an interview where he spouted his opinions on something. Then site A decided to take that interview and upload it to their site along with their take and commentary. Could Group A use the SOPA to cut off Site A before a judge could rule on fair use?
Re: Please correct me if I am wrong
Group A can’t do shit. Only the DOJ can can initiate DNS blocking, and only against a foreign website. And must perform due diligence to notify site owner in advance.
Re: Re: Please correct me if I am wrong
Group A can’t do shit. Only the DOJ can can initiate DNS blocking, and only against a foreign website. And must perform due diligence to notify site owner in advance.
Or they rely on Section 105 and seek “voluntary action” which they’ll get all the time so that companies get immunity.
But you like to ignore that mess.
Ugh
So much for that idea. Even though Congress is supposed to be out of session until late January, it appears Lamar Smith is calling everyone back to try to finish up the markup next week.
Just shows how desperate Hollywood is to get this bill passed before anti-SOPA momentum keeps growing.
Re: Ugh
I guess that means that they won’t be bringing experts in after all.
Re: Re: Ugh
Well at least not the experts that they should be talking to anyway.
Re: Re: Re: Ugh
Yeah the sort of experts that dance on laps normally do not go over well in session.
Re: Ugh
I wonder if Lamar is betting on some of the good guys (Issa, Chaffetz, Polis, Lofgren) leaving early for Christmas.
I hope Watt and Goodlatte are gone next week.
Re: Re: Ugh
No, that would be Christmas coming early. Goodlatte is basically there to make sure that this meeting fails though. He was part of the Super Committee on the Bush tax cuts. Suffice to say, it failed.
Re: Re: Ugh
Goodlatte and Watt are from Virginia and NC. Easy for them to get to DC. The others are from CA, Colorado and Utah. Not so easy, but they’ll be back.
Re: Ugh
So much for that idea. Even though Congress is supposed to be out of session until late January, it appears Lamar Smith is calling everyone back to try to finish up the markup next week.
Just shows how desperate Hollywood is to get this bill passed before anti-SOPA momentum keeps growing.
How about that? Chairman Smith didn’t just fall off the turnip truck after all. Wonder how many of the lukewarm members will return? I think you’ll see Issa, Lofgren and Polis back, maybe Chafetz. But I don’t think Jackson-Lee, Johnson, Sensenbrenner or Lundgren will be back before Christmas. Smith will have a quorum, the opposition will be pared down so the endless debates over virtually identical amendments will be mercifully abbreviated. The best thing that’s happened is that Smith is being bombarded with copies of self-congratulatory nonsense from piracy apologist groups touting the success of the delay tactics. I can only imagine the chairman now sees that these 70 amendments will offered largely for the purpose of drawing out the process hoping for an untimely death of his bill. I’d expect no mercy when the hearing reconvenes.
Re: Ugh
So much for that idea. Even though Congress is supposed to be out of session until late January, it appears Lamar Smith is calling everyone back to try to finish up the markup next week.
Just shows how desperate Hollywood is to get this bill passed before anti-SOPA momentum keeps growing.
When torrential water tosses boulders, it is because of its momentum. When the strike of a hawk breaks the body of its prey, it is because of timing.
– Sun Tzu
You’re about to see the latter against the backdrop of the former.
Basically what really happened here is that as soon as Lamar Smith seemed willing to concede to allowing experts to come in, someone texted his ass and told him to shut the meeting down for the day so he can be reprogrammed. It was effectively Hollywood saying “Cut! We need to reshoot that last scene. Next time, stick to the script!” The reconvene is now set for a day closer to the holiday in hopes that everyone will already be checked out and they will have an easier time shooting down these amendments.
I have heard alot about the Mayan calender, is S.O.P.A. The 2012 end of the world?
Re: Re:
It’s scary if that were true…
Re: (Just a paraphrasing of someone else's genius comment)
No, nonononono. The thing is, the Mayans didn’t predict 2012 to be the end of the world.
They predicted 2012 to be the end of the world wide web.
Some Mayans were probably like “World Wide Web? Is there a Moon Sized Spider to go along with that? Crap.”
Watching the SOPA saga is like watching a car crash in slow motion. You can see where its going, you can imagine the damage it will cause and no matter what you do you can’t stop it.
Those politicians may not have been bought and paid for in the traditional sense of being directly bribed but they know where there funds come from and they won’t risk them.
Watching it from this side of the pond makes me wonder if this is what Americans felt like watching the UK pass the Digital Economy Act, though it can’t have been quite so bad seeing as SOPA makes the DEA look like a sophisticated piece of legislation.
Internet Censorship
This is about copyright infringement, this is about censorship.
The government knows it doesn’t have much time until the financial ponzi system implodes and they want to make sure they have the ability to shut down critical websites at a moments notice when all hell breaks lose.
They will use SOPA as an excuse to get a blocking system put in place.
Much to do about nothing
Really! SOPA/PIPA is technically impotent on arrival. It requires U.S. based ISPs to falsify DNS records bound to their subscribers, and possibly falsify routing tables as well.
They can’t bugger with the actual Country-Code secondaries, nor with off-shore routers, as the U.S. doesn’t have legal or physical access to them. These kinds of “blocks” are trivially easy to circumvent. Why howl over something so innocuous? Why not let the fascist bums spin their wheels and squander their time and money?
All these laws are likely to accomplish, is to spark more extensive use of VPNs, encryption, private/local DNS servers, and Darknets, which in these days of Big Brother government, and corporate greed, would be a good and healthy practice SOPA or not.
I have been using VPNs for years, mainly to circumvent DPI, port-blocking, and DNS re-directs.
See: http://www.supervpn.net/anonymous-vpn.html
And: http://strongvpn.com/
I can vouch for these!
Re: Much to do about nothing
the problem is, once these laws are in place, they will get expanded, mission creep. And they’ll keep moving the goal posts, and get courts to pervert the laws into what Hollywood actually intended them to be. We’ve seen it before with other laws.
Once in place, you can’t get rid of it. Once in place, the world is fucked.
They’ll just get VPNs banned or something, calling it a tool solely used for infringing on their precious copyrightsesses. Like they are already saying about p2p tools that can be (and is) used for legal purposes.
Re: Re: Much to do about nothing
> They’ll just get VPNs banned or something, calling it a tool
> solely used for infringing …..
These laws are fundamentally unenforceable. The genie is out of the bag, and can’t be put back in. E-Commerce, banking….. depend on encryption. Corporate access and work from home depend on VPNs….. In the end, the network will not allow itself to be crippled in order to prop up an ancient and outdated business model of a corrupt industry. These attempts will fail, just like the attempts to stifel player-pianos, cassettes, and CDs, failed.
The Internet is International. The idea that the U.S. will be able to stop it’s natural development is absurd. These trogolodites are shooting themselves in the foot. They will simply drive business off shore, and all for what? To preserve an out-dated method of distribution?
This is the 21st century. It’s as absurd to think that the entertainment industry can force us to go back to buying vinyl records, 8-tracks, or DVDs, as it is to think they can force us to NOT obtain content on the Internet. THEY must move on with the times, or be left behind, and ruined.
They can evolve, or they can go extinct. I see no enforceable set of laws, which can stop progress. “Piracy” (and I really don’t like that term in this context) only exists because there is a market out there, a vacuum for content, which the entertainment industry is not filling. Until they do, no law will stop the fulfillment of the demand.
They need to take a look at the lessons learned about prohibition, and what it wrought upon our society before it was repealed. This is no different, and it’s end will be the same. These laws are an exercise in futility.
Re: Re: Re: Much to do about nothing
I agree, it won’t stop us, consumers. But it’ll make a hell for (VPN) service vendors and software creators.
Re: Re: Re:2 Much to do about nothing
“But it’ll make a hell for (VPN) service vendors and software creators.”
I agree with the first half of the sentence, well kinda, but I’m willing to wager there are a ton of coders out there who have been working on apps since this mess landed (splatted?) and have solutions worked out already.
Re: Re: Re:3 Much to do about nothing
Sure, the techs will solve the mess that yocks in Hollywood are creating in the techs backyard. It’s revenge of the nerds all over again.
Re: Re: Re: Much to do about nothing
“They need to take a look at the lessons learned about prohibition, and what it wrought upon our society before it was repealed.”
If they could do that, there would be no war on drugs.
Re: Re: Re: Much to do about nothing
Maybe so. But that doesn’t mean it won’t do a ton of damage before it dies.
HELP SOPA
hey guys! i made a facebook group about amonth ago regarding SOPA i really want to get everyone to know about this, cause we all deserve to know! please like and share!
https://www.facebook.com/helpthenet
Re: HELP SOPA
It’s not so clear Facebook is against the revised SOPA. Perhaps drive the traffic to Google+, which has a large community of people who definitely are.
SOPA induces revolution
Occupy was just a warm-up. Pass SOPA. We will ALL turn off our computers and smartphones and take to the streets to slay the buffoons. Ok, slay is an exaggeration, but we can VOTE them all out. Yes, every single house member could be sent packing, along with 1/3 of the senators. Wouldn’t that be fun? Let’s do it, people.
Is it Just me, or...?
Is it just me, or are the people behind SOPA trying to create another useless War on A Concept that’ll be largely ineffective against the people the War on a Concept is “supposed” to go after and waste billions of tax dollars?
Seems like another War on Drugs to me, and look how well that turned out.
Re: Is it Just me, or...?
Seems like another War on Drugs to me, and look how well that turned out for those governmental suppliers to the ‘war on drugs’… FTFY
The War is just the distraction, the real money is in ‘supplying and fighting’ the war, and in all the ‘war on X’ we’ve had over the years, companies have made billions supplying the government with the ‘tools’ they need to fight the war… These new Back-scatter Xray vans will let you drive around and look inside people’s homes to spot those dangerous ‘immigrants’ who might be hiding out inside… As an added bonus, we’ve included the ‘oops I overloaded the x ray machine’ button that ‘inadvertently’ doses the targets with lethal radiation, they may feel a little warm or dizzy for a few minutes, but they won’t know what hit them until they just fall over dead the next day…
Of course our government doesn’t have these vans right now (they are being tested on US citizens by the appropriate ‘military contractors’ before the government takes over), but you can bet someone is building them right now to license it to the government for the LOW LOW price of only .5 billion per year (with continual licensing fees of .5 billion per van per year…. government contractors are learning from the entertainment industry… don’t actually ‘sell’ the product to the government, only license the government to use it as long as they continue paying the licensing costs…
Yea, this is exactly what happened in the UK – where they passed bad IP legislation about 4 hours before parliament was due to close for the year, and no fucker turned up… and New Zealand, where it was passed under emergency earthquake legislation.
I’m getting sick to death of this shit. We should just kill these fuckers.
Revolt
This underhanded move will accomplish little. They still have to put it to a vote in the house and senate and the more flawed the bill is now the less likely it will be to pass.
This crap move will also further discredit SOPA and its supporters.
I’m doing my part by ceasing all purchases of movies and music for quite some time. My purchasing decisions matter little to the big guys but the fact that I am no longer financing these fiends does let me sleep a little better.
Don't Panic!
Don’t worry libtards, Obama to the rescue….whoops!
Can't we agree yet that these thieves and cons need out?
Seriously, isn’t this now only about the thousandth action taken by those who pretend to represent the People that has been intentionally designed to deceive us and attack our rights?
We need something historic here. We need every last one of the incumbent bums in Congress voted out. Every. Single. One.
For those of you wondering what kind of software would classify as circumvention that you already use.
1. Web browsers do HTTPS, this requires a secure connection, combine this with any existing proxy.
2. Proxy servers, which is how the Chinese keep blasting us with spam.
3. Onion Router, which is where lots of illegal crap goes down, and Congress definitely knows about one specific site that only exists on it.
4. SSH, which is used by all Unix System administrators
5. VNC and RDP, which are used for remote desktop sessions between computers, usually combined with a VPN
6. VPN, which tunnels traffic between two networks.
7. All Antivirus and Anti-malware software nowadays acts as a passive proxy when correctly configured to intercept malware. They can also modify the hosts file to blackhole sites. Chrome and Firefox already make use of internal blacklisting for malware.
8. DNSSEC. Won’t be implemented further, and may be stripped from existing implementations because it would be broken by ISP, or root server blocking.
The internet routes around damage. That is how it was designed. Blocking IP’s is damage, the internet will route around it with tunnels and bridges. Blocking DNS is damage, the internet will route around it by no longer using ISP level DNS. Blocking Payments is damage, the internet routes around it by cutting out the US based financial system as a whole (eg Bitcoin and similar.)
As you can see, SOPA does everything to penalize people who reside in the US and does nothing but balkanize the internet, having a censored internet for the US.
The correct solution already exists, and is already abused. It’s called the DMCA. Do you think SOPA isn’t going to be abused? DMCA is abused 20% of the time, largely by competitors that deal with the same content and merchandise.
Ask anyone who has had a listing removed from eBay how fair the DMCA process is. It isn’t fair, but you can send a counternotice if a mistake has been made, which means the guy who took your stuff down now has to sue to keep it off. This process actually works as far as reputation goes. It does nothing for drive-by spamming of counterfeit merchandise ads.
Re: Re:
“The correct solution already exists…”
Yes, we can reduce piracy by about 90% by reducing copyright back to its’ original value.
If 14 years was good enough hundreds of years ago, with their advanced distribution system, it should be more than ample today in a global market.
John Lennon won’t produce less music because of it.
Re: Re:
You forgot about a plain old offshore web page with a login page and a little custom php.
Re: Re:
[citation needed].
This looks more like a laundry list, a scare mongering list, than anything else. Where do you get your support for this list?
Re: Re: Re:
Seems accurate to me.
1. DPI can be circumvented via HTTPS. There’s a good reason for that. Financial services and those who deal with state/trade secrets, like military contractors, don’t want random people listening in. I don’t want random people listening to my conversations either.
2. Proxies allow traffic to be redirected through an intermediary. There are numerous uses for them, both legitimate and otherwise.
3. TOR was created to foster free speech in repressive regimes. All data is encrypted and randomly distributed over its network. It was originally designed by the US government to reach out to dissidents in repressive regimes. If it allows free speech there, it will allow free speech here.
4. SSH allows for administration of web servers and internet infrastructure, among other things. It is an encrypted protocol like HTTPS. Encrypted data prevents inspection by ISPs. If these data streams were not encrypted, any random hacker who managed to be in the right place on the network could take over the internet backbones, webpages, or practically anything else on the internet.
5. VNC and RDP allow you to see a webpage generated on another server. It is mostly used to ensure that only authorized people are able to use non public resources. It would also allow circumvention of any ISP blocking.
6. Every corporate, governmental, and many private networks use VPNs for privacy and network management. If they allow for privacy and network management, they allow for circumvention.
7. If you can redirect traffic to contain a malware outbreak on your home, work, or governmental network, you can redirect traffic to allow for circumvention.
8. DNSSEC prevents DNS hijacking by someone pretending to be your bank or employer. It would also prevent any government directed DNS hijacking, like SOPA mandates.
If it is made law and isn’t quickly declared unconstitutional, there will be a massive public backlash.
If you know nothing about the internet, what makes you think you know how to effectively manage it?
The american government showing once again why the rest of the world has no reason to trust or believe that America has any beneficial values. Thank you Government you constantly fail your outspoken people.
. ' .
Just remember, douchey corrupt little politicians, just like this obvious bought-and-paid-for piece of dildotic jibberish, your days are numbers as well.
United we stand against political corruption!
Happy Holidays
They’re convening on the first day of Hanukkah to censor the Internet?
It’s war on Hanukkah! War on Hanukkah!
Alternate DNS?
I’m surprised no one mention adding a foreign DNS server IP as your “alternate DNS” in your network settings. Even if the U.S. ISPs block the entry, it’ll still exist for your computer to find on the foreign DNS. It’d be a one time fix that would make you forget there was ever any blocking…
Re: Alternate DNS?
> I’m surprised no one mention adding a foreign DNS server
> IP as your “alternate DNS” in your network settings.
No, It’s trivial for your ISP to block all traffic destined for port 53 (DNS) outside their domain. The same way many ISPs block outbound port 25 access except to their servers.
The ONLY away around ISP meddling (for any service) is to tunnel outside their networks via a VPN.
Collapse of a once great society??
This has gotten completely out of hand! What happened to the USA being a free nation?? I could understand wanting to take down piracy websites, but censoring everything?? I have to say that is by far the most idiotic thing I have ever in my life heard of!!! To take away the freedom of the internet is to go against everything that our country and constitution stand for! Knowledge will be taken away from the people, and our opinions will soon become acts of criminal intent. Are we no better than China? Iraq? Remember those places we were fighting a war against? We have fought to give people the chance to be a democracy, though now the public has no say in how this country is run? This is what I believe being in Louis the XIV’s time would feel like if we were in France; this is becoming absolutism. The Estates’ General? Remember that? Well just think back to when the Tennis Court Oath came into play. The working class was taken out of the decision of whether the king should raise taxes, and instead they gathered up the people who would be the most for it, and locked the lower class out of the discussion. Is this not what is happening right now? Our country is suppose to be the land of the free, but this does not sound very free to me. When the founding fathers of our nation drew up the document that holds our society together they did so with a free country in mind, and the government taking away the first amendment given to us in said document means that they are basically saying that we are to be no better than any other nation that takes away rights from their citizens! What comes next? Will they begin to censor books as well? How about video games? Maybe they will start tapping all of the communication devices in the world so they can hear everything we say. Every day I am starting to wonder if I really want to live in this country anymore or if I should just go ahead and move somewhere else before the infrastructure of this nation implodes and kills us all in an anarchist uprising!
Re: Collapse of a once great society??
Oh, enough histrionics.
Once SOPA is passed, you will still be completely free to say anything the government wants you to say.
Get used to the new way. Once O is finished, everything will be prohibited for everyone, except for those few who can afford enough money to purchase waivers and exceptions to the Rules.
Y’all crack me up. My wild guess says 80% of y’all voted this philosophy into office, but now that it’s affecting you, well, it’s just wrong!
Sorry, Charlie. This is the future for everything. If the internet is truly important, do you think this current crop of thieves is gonna let it get away? There’s money to be stolen . . . er . . . . I mean, made . . . here!
Re: Re: Collapse of a once great society??
I actually did not vote this idiocracy in to office, because, as I am only 19, I have just recently gotten the right to vote. I was not able to vote Obama in, and was not able to vote anyone else in since I was unable to make it to the polls on the day senators were elected. None of these people in office are there because I voted for them or because I wished them to be. Also, people need to know about how history is repeating itself in this sense, because many people don’t care to see the parallels between what has been and what is going on now, or just have no idea that this is something that happened again back in 1789. History happens, and then we are made to take what was wrong from before and try to do things differently so that it won’t blow up in our nation’s face. “Histrionics” as you so pleasantly put it, are perhaps what we need right now so everyone can see the screw up of epic proportions that our nation is becoming.
congress -1 internets for this farce.
Enjoy what you chose
Enjoy what you chose. The worse is that even if you change your vote next time, nothing will change regarding this topic. Now think really if you live in a democratic country or not.
Are these congressmen on LSD or something? why would tey come up with such a stupi thing
Cowards and Wimps.
I’m sorry … but this;
“… What happened to the USA being a free nation?? …”
Had me in stitches.
The USA has only ever stood for freedom so long as they are to benefit, or have it as an excuse to bash others.
The immensly funny thing is, America bashed China for the treatment of their students in protest,
yet look at what tehy are getting ready to do!
Tell other countries how to run themselves, then roll right over and screw your own people … and threaten others!
*ing hypocrits.
And all you lot will do is sit and whinge … and then do nothing.
Christ people – WTF is wrong with you all?
DON’T MY FILMS
DON’T BUY MUSIC
DON’T GO TO THE CINEMA
See how they react when they get boycotted.
Better yet – Buy foreign artists, buy foreign films.
You know what will happen?
Nothihng.
As Hollywood et-al are an excuse.
And when they go runnign and crying, political hill will laugh, and prep the soldiers for their own reasons.
I hope you all enjoy being hated by the rest of the planet for being such a bunch of cowards.
Boycott won't work
I am sorry to tell you this but the weak minded average non computer obsessed citizens of America are not about to boycott the MPAA or the RIAA. I wish they were, but the fact is they would rather see the new marvel movie than have their freedom. Don’t believe me? How come these boycotts have never worked? Because only the most effected actually follow them and punish themselves. No, you can’t stop Hollywood that way, you need to use a more realistic approach.
First of all, I agree with some here in doubting we have a system that can avoid being bought out even if we vote new people in. However if their entire campaigns are no longer funded by big media then we have a fighting chance. What we need to do is learn to get our candidates in front of the real laymen in the country. The dumb rednecks who don’t use computers and think SOPA is short for a Mexican pastry or the illegal alien word for soup.
You know the Ron Paul supporters out there are always like “yeah we can win this” but you guys are only reaching other geeks and still we haven’t quite taken over the bulk of the populous yet. Rupert Murdoch and Roger Ailes use Faux to reach those guys remember? It goes right to their TV, when they are done plumbing for the day they sit down and watch the tube.
What can you do to start? Hit the districts of each of these representatives and pass out flyers with detailed information about their corruption but AVOID USING LANGUAGE WHICH WILL GET YOU SUED. Yes, this means we geeks have to crawl up out of our dark basements and face the sun, very creepy.
There is your solution. I am taking my happy ass to Hill County and telling the old fogies and rednecks all about ol’ Lamar Smith and his attempts to send their daughters to jail as felons for posting pictures of Justin Bieber on facebook. I bet they will be happy to vote for Mr. Smith next election after hearing that.
UK digital economy act, anyone?
This sounds a similar tactic to that employed to steam-roller the Digital Economy Act through our UK parliament without too much discussion. Despicable. From reports I read of USA politicians just dismissing expert opinion out of hand (or not even allowing them to speak), whilst admitting they don’t understand the technicalities, it could easily be assumed that they could be in the entertainment industry’s collective pockets. How they can profess to represent the people with the amount of opposition that has been demonstrated is beyond me.
If it Passes
Then you can still protest. Government Websites often ‘borrow’ images and information, and thus can fall under the scrutiny of the SOPA act.
Closing down all government websites, especially those like census data or others that could damage income to the federal government because of the act would become paramount
> But that doesn’t mean it won’t do a ton of damage before it dies.
In my opinion, the damage will be sustained by the industries pushing this. I see them doing irreparable damage to themselves, and to their paid congressional shills. If you see your enemy running towards a cliff, it’s tactically advantageous not to warn them.
The backlash to this and similar crap is already evident. Popular resistance is never born out of comfort, but rather out of discomfort. Make the American people a bit more uncomfortable, put the screws to them a bit harder, and they are more likely to get off their asses and resist. I see SOPA as another thorn of discomfort, a pinprick in their lazy butts, nothing more.
Fundamentally, SOPA is merely another symptom of the larger problem facing us. Benito Mussolini, the father of modern fascism, put it succinctly when he wrote: “Fascism should more properly be called corporatism because it is the merger of state and corporate power.”
Therein lies our core problem. Corporate power has subjegated and corrupted our democracy, our economy, and our culture. We the people no longer rule ourselves, corporations do. Science and facts have become irrelevant. The methods by which SOPA/PIPA have, at great financial expense, been purchased in congress is further testimony to that fact.
NOOOOOO
“What was expected in this contingency was for the committee to resume work whenever the House reconvenes in January. After all, with such controversial and far-reaching legislation, it is better to take one?s time. But no: the committee has announced it will continue markup this coming Wednesday, the 21st of December.”
Unbelievable they must got paid extra by MPAA and RIAA to go through the holidays.
Hell ya!
“In response to SOPA, Anonymous hackers target US government”
“Anonymous, a hacker organization that made headlines earlier this year by shutting down government websites during the uprisings in Tunisia and Egypt, said Friday it was preparing to launch what it called ?Operation Blackout,? and rallied Americans to participate in nationwide protests in an effort to stop the legislation from passing.”
Gamer
http://www.collegenews.com/article/what_sopa_means_for_gamers
guys go on every website you know that has a blog or something on it and TELL THEM ABOUT SOPA so that everyone knows about the threat that their precious blog on barbies and crap could be shut down
...
Too bad Obama won’t get any votes of young people if he doesn’t veto this, BYE bye Obama!
Too bad Obama won’t get any votes of young people if he doesn’t veto this, BYE bye Obama!
Do you seriously not understand that a Republican president would be delighted to sign this bill?
Re: Re:
yup,indeed they would.
Anyone remember the “blank tape tax” being pushed by the record companies back in the mid-1980s, meant to curb “piracy” (i.e. people making tapes of their own record collection)?
Deja vu all over again…
what?
Get cut off from my foreign friends? Being monitored everytime I open browser? Get jailed for watching online trailer?
Aw Hell No. Screw the SOPA.
...
Wouldn’t people just keep putting up sites when they take one down another one arises and this would keep going on. How can they police every site on the net.
R
I just can’t see how they can really pass this with so much attention on how bad it is, it’s outrageous I actually at this point would want them to pass it so they can see what a big fuck up they did. I’m sure MPAA and RIAA will come out with a report saying they’re doing better in sales because of it just to cover their asses on what a mistake they made.
Anonymous hackers show them what a fuck up they did we all support you!!
...
“It is way to kill jobs and business in USA. Internet was built to be fault tolerant, if you try to block a path, another is easily setted up. They are planning to mess with the root name servers, if they do, another set of, will be setted up by users, not by the dozen, but by milions, and worst, withou any control. This have not been done for only one reason:it works as is. By the time it is not working any more, anyone can set up a ner rootNS. USA will loose control of internet, less business, more p2p, more online videos, “alternative google” .. Less jobs in USA, no secure transaction, meaning in less on-line business.. And remember, once this “alternate” internet is running, there is no return…that is what they want, that is what they will get.
Remember when they divide the world in 5 dvd regions? They did not learn the lesson and tried to crypt the blue ray. Another fail, today you can find rip of blue ray much better than dvd… Well be prepared to new internet….”
Good audio to listen to about this.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=JhwuXNv8fJM
MPAA bitches
http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/thr-esq/x-men-wolverine-pirate-sentenced-hugh-jackman-275453
And now pushed back to 1/24/12.
FML
Why don’t we censor television? Why not censor the world? They’re going to make us censor the internet because a couple of friggin’ kids were messing around. That is what parental control is for. That’s not a solution that’s just a way to go around the actual problem.
Privacy?
SOPA is just the next step in electronic surveillance. Tapping your phone isn`t simply enough for these people, they want to control your online social life too. I`m all for catching the “bad guys” that use Internet for theft, terrorism etc, but losing our right for privacy is really not the way to do it.
However, there are some Internet services that can make a difference . I used http://www.sunvpn.com/ a while back from China, basically it`s a service to unblock Internet restrictions, but one can also use it to hide Internet traffic (it supposedly encrypts all your traffic to the government can`t log everything you do anymore). I`m really thinking to use it on a regular basis, even when I don`t travel.
privacy
Solid service that does what it says on the tin. I?ve used http://www.primovpn.net in UK and abroad. I was able to change my IP to a UK one while in Spain. Same goes for when I?m home in England, I can easily change my IP location for that extra bit of security online.