- Jan 24, 2011
- 9,379
The controversial Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA) continues to divide those in the tech industry, with security firm Kaspersky Software today withdrawing from the Business Software Alliance (BSA) over the group's support of the measure.
"This law will lead to major legalized extortion," Eugene Kaspersky wrote in a post on his personal blog.
SOPA is intended to go after "rogue" Web sites—usually located overseas—that traffic in counterfeit goods (fake purses, prescription drugs, or software, for example), but detractors argue that it is too broad and could end up hurting legitimate Web sites.
Among the more controversial provisions is a section that would allow rights holders to contact the financial institutions that do business with a particular Web site and ask them to shut down access because of infringing content. If you ran a Web site that used PayPal or accepted payment via MasterCard, for example, and someone thought your site contained pirated content, they could contact PayPal or MasterCard and have those companies cut off access to your site, effectively shutting down your business.
When the bill was introduced in October, BSA championed it as a good first step in combating online piracy.
"More and more offshore Web sites are selling pirated software to buyers in the United States through illegal downloads and mail-order knock-offs," the BSA said at the time, while noting that there needed to be a balance to ensure "the law does not impede technology innovation or the evolution of software and the Internet."
Kaspersky, however, was concerned about how this U.S. bill might affect the worldwide Internet community.
"Under this law, the interests of non-American authors/creators are not protected at all, while the nationality of the perpetrators is of no importance," he wrote. "The saddest thing is that this law is going to be introduced in the rest of the world due to the actions of associations such as the BSA, which blindly supported SOPA while ignoring any other point of view. We had to withdraw from this association because we disagree with its decision."
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"This law will lead to major legalized extortion," Eugene Kaspersky wrote in a post on his personal blog.
SOPA is intended to go after "rogue" Web sites—usually located overseas—that traffic in counterfeit goods (fake purses, prescription drugs, or software, for example), but detractors argue that it is too broad and could end up hurting legitimate Web sites.
Among the more controversial provisions is a section that would allow rights holders to contact the financial institutions that do business with a particular Web site and ask them to shut down access because of infringing content. If you ran a Web site that used PayPal or accepted payment via MasterCard, for example, and someone thought your site contained pirated content, they could contact PayPal or MasterCard and have those companies cut off access to your site, effectively shutting down your business.
When the bill was introduced in October, BSA championed it as a good first step in combating online piracy.
"More and more offshore Web sites are selling pirated software to buyers in the United States through illegal downloads and mail-order knock-offs," the BSA said at the time, while noting that there needed to be a balance to ensure "the law does not impede technology innovation or the evolution of software and the Internet."
Kaspersky, however, was concerned about how this U.S. bill might affect the worldwide Internet community.
"Under this law, the interests of non-American authors/creators are not protected at all, while the nationality of the perpetrators is of no importance," he wrote. "The saddest thing is that this law is going to be introduced in the rest of the world due to the actions of associations such as the BSA, which blindly supported SOPA while ignoring any other point of view. We had to withdraw from this association because we disagree with its decision."
Read more
