Link Round-Up: Yesterday’s Anti-SOPA/PIPA Protests
“‘Least restrictive means’? One way that SOPA could die in court” by Matthew Lasar at ArsTechnica’s Law & Disorder. Lasar ponders whether SOPA/PIPA could meet the same legal challenges and fate as legislation such as the Child Online Protection Act (COPA), which was found not to be the “least restrictive means” of addressing the issue of access to online materials by minors. Is SOPA/PIPA the least restrictive means of addressing online privacy or, rather, as the Supreme Court declared in the COPA matter: “If the State has open to it a less drastic way of satisfying its legitimate interests, it may not choose a legislative scheme that broadly stifles the exercise of fundamental personal liberties.”
“Why Canadians Should Participate in the SOPA/PIPA Protest” by Michael Geist, law professor at the University of Ottawa. Professor Geist summarizes the reasons why SOPA/PIPA, including its extra-territorial effects, should concern individuals and businesses outside the U.S.
“The Google Anti-Stop-Online-Piracy-Act Statement, Corporate Speech, and the First Amendment” by UCLA law professor, Eugene Volokh, asking how those who oppose 1st Amendment rights for entities such as corporations square those beliefs with support of yesterday’s anti-SOPA protest actions by prominent technology companies.
“SOPA and Censorship Spillovers” by University of Chicago Law Professor, Randal C. Picker. Professor Picker (a former classmate of mine in law school at the University of Chicago) examines claims regarding how foreign governments that desire to engage in censorship will respond to U.S. efforts to implement DNS filtering to address copyright infringement.
“Why SOPA is Dangerous” a close look at the bill itself at Mashable.com, and “An Updated Analysis: Why SOPA & PIPA Are A Bad Idea, Dangerous & Unnecessary” a more general effort to summarize the ill effects of the bills at TechDirt.com.
“Forget SOPA, Hollywood Already Had a Field Day with the Justice System” by Fenwick & West attorney, Alan P. Bridges, arguing at PandoDaily.com that content owners already have a good deal under current law given the oversized nature of current statutory copyright penalties that may be applicable even if there is no commensurate actual economic damage to any particular content owner.