@JPBarlow not really seeing an enforcement problem. I’m talking about more of a shadow situation. Every step they take toward us, we take one toward them. I would like to defend our rights offensively instead of defensively.

One of the most offensive parts of SOPA was the power to shut down a website because of pirated content. Why not just encode into US law the right of people to run a website and within this right create the dispute process that would allow the claim of copyright to be examined and if it is valid for the infringing material to be taken down, not the entire website. Then when Hollywood wished to try this provision again, they would first have to overturn the existing protection law and then create their own new enforcement law. We would then be able to defend the protection law and if we lost that battle, then fight against the enforcement law. It would stop this constant problem/reaction cycle we seem to be trapped in.

Pro-IP act, PIPA, SOPA, ACTA, ETCera. They keep getting knocked down and they keep getting propped back up. We need to develop (or at the very least chart out) a pro-internet rights coalition that could match the hollywood groups. (though we couldn’t fund an equal group, hollywood having the money, if we diagrammed the forces we were up against we could have a public organizational chart for volunteers, and a public listing for donations to create positions for the volunteers. Our groups could work on creating affirmative leglislation to defend internet rights before they are taken away by the overzealous protectors of the dead idea of copyright. It’s time to stop reacting and being proactive. A good defense is a good offense.

(I guess in a way I’m describing the EFF, and I feel kinda stupid describing this to one of the founders of the EFF, but I just don’t see direct affirmitive action happening on the legislative front. I once wrote to the ACLU asking them why they only asked me for money and never told me to go to meetings in their mailings, but they just kept asking me for money. Again their are larger problems of the corporate controlled world, but if we were going to talk nuts and bolts, and put all that stuff to the side and really try to defend our rights, I would like to read about a serious coalition and a serious legal attempt to codify and defend our rights, creating a huge problem for those who are attempting to take them away. I’m not a big fan of walls, but in this case, I’m suggesting we build some. At least it would keep the mongol hordes occupied. I’ll also leave the whole side issue of the computer itself being a copy machine and if you stop it from copying you can’t use it in the same way…)

At a worldwide level we could enforce the promotion of internet rights by creating internet rights groups to create local legislation in each country. Obviously there is a sliding scale of problems from the United States (where we need laws to protect our rights from the copyright holding corporations) to China (more complex problem). Again, I acknowledge that the EFF is this group, I just want to see more wall building.

@JPBarlow Thanks again for responding. And thanks very much for reading all this, presuming you do. I find twitter very exciting! Even shy guys like me can share their ideas. (which I’m doing more and more of lately) =>