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Will COICA Help or Hurt Internet Marketing? (What do you think?)

by Jack Duncan
8 replies
Yesterday, the U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee approved COICA.

You can read more about it here: Web Censorship Bill Sails Through Senate Committee | Epicenter*| Wired.com

To briefly summarize, if signed into law, the Attorney General would be able to shut down any site that they believe copyright infringement to be the "central activity" of the site.

I'm sure you can name quite a few of these...especially if you have ever searched for your own product and seen how many places were offering it as a free download.

If you want to see first hand what happens when they step in and "stop" a site...just look at this example from earlier in the year: http://www.movies-links.tv/index.html

Lights out. Closed. Finished.

Here's the question...

In the short term, do you think this law would be good/bad/neither for those who sell digital products online?

In the long run, do you think this law will be good/bad/neither for those who sell digital products online?



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#coica #hurt #internet #laws #marketing #regulations
  • Profile picture of the author Rob Howard
    Short term - neither.

    Long term - possible problems and abuse - competition claiming that you copied their book etc.

    Personally, I don't see the point of the law. We already HAVE laws against piracy. The problem is that you can get an offshore host and it doesn't matter if the country hosted in doesn't give a rip about copyright or the US.

    I don't see how they could just shut sites down.

    And then if they could - the problem becomes we get like china - sites could be censored and blocked - which goes against our First Amendment Rights.

    So - bad news I think.

    Rob
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  • Profile picture of the author Tim Franklin
    It would be the beginning of the end, allowing Large Corporations sweeping power to eliminate competition by just making an accusation.

    No proof required.

    I hope this never makes it to the floor, because if it does it will generate huge issues for everyone in this business.

    Of course there will be detractors, that say oh this is just for pirates, but I say that common sense tells us that

    "Power tends to corrupt, and absolute power corrupts absolutely.
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  • Profile picture of the author Jack Duncan
    Rob,
    Very well said...and I tend to agree along this line as well.

    I just sent a DMCA takedown notice to a server in the Netherlands yesterday...and I doubt if anything will happen...because they see themselves as outside the boundaries of U.S. law.

    So in some respects, I think it could help.

    However, I am more concerned with the abuse of something like this...and can see how easy it could turn against just about anyone...especially since the law is very vague about the criteria being used to decide who gets shut down.


    As for how it will be administered...from what I can tell, there will be a "blacklist", and all ISP's will be required to block any domains on that list. (Source: Here)

    .
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  • Profile picture of the author Rus Sells
    Lets not forget that this is focused at sites who's "central activity" is committing copyright infringement.

    I don't think this will effect anything those of us are doing unless that is our central activity.

    Lets not get all worked up about it either, the law is not a law. "YET" = )
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  • Profile picture of the author Wally Conger
    ANY government restrictions on the internet, IMHO, are a big problem. Once they really get rolling, they're gonna be tough to stop.
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  • Profile picture of the author Jack Duncan
    @Rus,
    I'm with you...except that I think the law of unintended consequences could be the monkey wrench here.

    There is a really good section about the effect COICA could have on the entire internet DNS system here: UPDATE: The Case Against COICA | Electronic Frontier Foundation

    Here are 3 unintended consequences of COICA that some are arguing:

    • Inconsistencies between the current official DNS hierarchy and the new censorship-free alternatives. As new domains are added to the official hierarchy, propagation delay inconsistencies will inevitably cause non-blacklisted websites to be unreachable at various times.
    • Currently, almost all high-traffic websites use content delivery networks like Akamai, Limelight, EdgeCast and AmazonAWS to ensure that data never has to travel long physical distances over the network before it gets to your web browser. Because COICA will lead to the widespread adoption of encrypted offshore DNS and other tunneling systems, it will get harder for CDNs to send clients to the right server. Instead of connecting to a data center in their own US city, people will be just as likely to connect to one in Europe or Asia. While modeling is urgently required to establish the precise consequences, this effect could easily result in an increase of 20% or more in the cost of Internet backbone infrastructure.
    • Cybersecurity problems will grow.Currently, ISPs are in a position to keep DNS servers well-maintained and secure, to the benefit of their users. As a large percentage of the population moves to encrypted offshore DNS -- to escape the censoring effects of the procedures outlined in COICA -- those alternative DNS systems will become targets for security attacks. COICA will also complicate the urgently needed process of DNSSEC deployment.
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  • Profile picture of the author InternetSuccess001
    Not really a good idea, because like a few have already said, there (unfortunately) is the opportunity for too much abuse in the other direction.
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  • Profile picture of the author kindsvater
    It will be entirely irrelevant.

    I was thinking it could be the foot in the door to more attempted government control over speech and websites, but the courts would make quick work of that.

    Assuming anyone is ever targeted under this law, and that is a big if, the courts would likely nuke the law.
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