325 WHEN INNOVATION BYTES BACK CASE 7.6 The Internet\'s Intolerable Acts ames Lo

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325 WHEN INNOVATION BYTES BACK CASE 7.6 The Internet's Intolerable Acts ames Losey You shoukd be very afraid of a pair of bills that protection ment of expression on the threaten Internet freedom The United States of Inter PROTECT IP and SOPA create mutually America was forged in resistance to collective repri exclusive trajectories for these two priorities. sals-the punishment of many for the acts of few. bills are driven by technologically naive thinking that In 1774. following the Boston Tea Party, the Britishitpse to censor information witout affecting Parliament passed a series of laws-including the reedom of speech. SOPA even goes so far as to make mandated closure of the port of Bostonean to the key circmvention tools used by human rights penalize the people of Massachusetts. These abses advocates and democracy organizers throughout the of power, labeled the "Intolerable Acts . catalyzed Middle East illegal. While we're certainthat Sol%- the American Revoluton by making plain the auos did not mean to craft a bill tailor-made to sup- oppression of the British crown. These port the future Qaddafis ad Mubaraks of the world. The interconnected nature of the Internet fosteredis precisely what they've done the growth of online communities such as Tumblr Twitter, and Facebook. These sites t o m men, legislation like SOPA and Protect IP would rum daily interactions and serve as a public soap nstigate a data obfuscation arms race, making legi- box for our political voice. Both the PROTECT IP mate law enforcement efforts all the more difficult. Act and SOPA would create a national firewall by the United States decides that copyright infringe censoring the domain names of websites accused of ment must be stopped at any cost, the required cen- hosting infringing copyrighted materials. This leg sorship regime will depend on ever more invasive islation would enable law enforcement to take down practices, such as monitoring users personal Web the entire tumblr.com domain due to something raffic. This counterproductive cat-and-mouse game posted on a single blog. Yes. an entire, largely inno- of censorship and circumvention woukd drive savvy cent online community could be punished for the scofflaws to actions of a tiny minority Rather than blocking online copyright infringe- darknets while increasing surveillance of less technically proficient Internet users Given that the Intolerable Acts sparked a revolu- SOPA would go even further, creating a system of private regulation to shut down websites that are tion. it should be no surprise that this proposed leg- accused of not doing enough to prevent infringe- isl ment. Keep in mind that these shutdowns would States However, this at ation has generated a massive outcry in the United censw tempt to uni the Internet has spurred worldwide tion. w a site owner could defend himself nish sites without even several dozen international organizations signing a n court-SOPA could pu establishing whether they are guilty of the charges brought against them. letter tating that "tjhrough SOPA. the United States is attempting to dominate a shared global resource." In January 2010. Hillary Clinton launched the Last month, the European Parliament adopt tumping for open access contradiction between intellectual property rights addresses or domain names a reso dom initia ion underscoring "the nced to protect the integrity to information worldwide of theglobal internet and freedom of communication u tment's Internet Freedom initiative Though Secretary Clinton has said that "there is no by efraning m unateral measures to revoke IP on Slate com. Thuday, December 8. 201l at 719 A.M. ET

Explanation / Answer

1. Intellectual property rights covers the intangible assets of the company. These are the creations of the company and help the company in maintaining its competitive edge in the market. IP rights cover patents, copyrights, trade marks, trade secrets, etc.

Freedom of expression or free speech expresses the rights of individuals to hold opinion or seek information, without being oppressed or interfered by anyone.

This right has been identified under Article 19 of the ICCPR.

Both IP rights as well as free speech or freedom of expression help in developing a creative and innovative society. However there is a conflict between these 2 rights. While IP rights try to limit the access of the intangibles by only the owners, the free speech gives the right to individuals to access anything available to them. This becomes conflicting in nature.

2. Websites that enable piracy must be given a last chance to sanitize their processing, so as to incline their business model in favor of IP rights protection. The revamp of the business model can be done by integration of encryption techniques and data access protection layers. After the revamp of their business model, if there is any scope of piracy in the website, that website can be pulled down completely.

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