SOPA sponsors deride criticisms as ‘myths’

“Each bill also enables private corporations to cut off
infringing websites at the financial knees: if a copyright holder
finds content on a website that they believe infringes on their
copyright, then they can go to any vendor who helps provide revenue
to that site and request that the vendor cease working with the
site. For instance, the request could go to any ad providers for
the allegedly infringing site, and under the new law the ad
provider would have five days to cut their ads from the site. Or,
if the site uses credit cards or an online payment system like
PayPal, the copyright holder can also get those organizations to
stop supporting the website.

“The problem protestors have with both of these bills are that
all of these wheels will be set in motion by private
corporations–movie studios and recording companies being at the
top of that list–and there would be no requirement for proving
anything in a court of law before the site is taken down. A
copyright holder need only accuse a website of infringement, and
the search engine, advertisement, and payment system would be cut
off in five days. The DNS filtering would still need the
involvement of the Department of Justice to get a court order, but
again, there would be no need to prove anything to obtain such an
order from a judge. “

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