[Ger-Poland-Volhynia] OT but important

[gswilson19 at aol.com]

I hope this doesn't violate any list rules here. I found this on another of my lists. Seems to be real. How many of our genealogy sites would this effect if passed? 



Message: 1
Date: Sat, 14 Jan 2012 18:50:36 -0600
From: Debbie Greenlee <daveg at airmail.net>
Subject: [POLAND] Copyright Blacklist
To: Polish Genius <polish_genius at yahoogroups.com>, Poland Roots
<POLAND-ROOTS at rootsweb.com>, Bukowsko Triangle
<bukowsko_triangle at yahoogroups.com>, Sanok Group
<Sanok at yahoogroups.com>
Message-ID: <4F1222DC.9050300 at airmail.net>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=UTF-8; format=flowed

On Wednesday, January 18, 2012 many web sites will be black in protest
to the upcoming government bill (Stop Online Piracy Act) which makes 
individual web sites responsible for copyright violations. This bill 
includes any site that has user-uploaded files including email list 
groups such as this one.

Other valuable web sites which would be affected are Wikipedia, 
YouTube, Facebook, Twitter, Google and Yahoo. Ebay and Amazon are 
protesting SOPA even though they are not particularly vulnerable.

What will probably happen is that the large hosting sites will end up 
policing themselves but sloppily, rather than wait for the government 
to shut them down for only one (1) copyright violation. So, if a host, 
(Wikipedia) for instance, thinks there is a copyright violation, 
rather than checking it out (costly) they'll just remove the item.

The blackout will last for 12 hours, 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. Some sites will 
just put up a banner allowing people to click through to the site. 
Other sites may not allow you to click through for the 12 hours.

Many of the major sites are against the "Stop Online Piracy Act" 
(SOPA). The bill just doesn't cover music but it seems to be fueled by 
the music, movie, and graphic artist industry though it will affect 
written material as well and that's where the genealogy lists come in.

I am sorry to say that a Texas Representative came up with SOPA.
http://news.cnet.com/8301-31921_3-57329001-281/how-sopa-would-affect-you-faq/

For more information about SOPA: 
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stop_Online_Piracy_Act

Forbes article:
http://tinyurl.com/6rjaztn

Debbie