Migration?

[tinyjo]

Dear people who've been paying more attention than me,

In the light of the SOPA and PIPA legislation going through US legislatures, should I be worried about hosting my data on US sites? These seem like blanket ban type things - will LJ or DW be knocked off air if they're passed?

Comments

[ferrell.livejournal.com]

They are both incredibly vague in identifying what constitutes a violation, so it's a hard question to answer. A broad interpretation of them would say that essentially any website which allows data to be submitted by others is at risk, which includes both LJ & DW.

That, of course, is more of a worst case scenario. I suspect if SOPA, PIPA, or something similar does pass in the future, service providers will be expected to make a "good faith effort" to prevent copyright infringement. This would likely mean more policing/monitoring in general, rejecting files/links based on keywords or the domain it's on, and removing any portion of the service being where any significant amount of copyright infringement is occurring (e.g. filesharing communities, possibly fanfiction based on copyright works).

[tinyjo.livejournal.com]

Yeah, the blanket nature of it was what looked so worrying. I guess it's so impractical if you try to enforce it that it's hard to believe it'll end up that way. Perhaps we'll just end up with all the fanfic friends locked, which would be a shame, but at least sustainable.

[asciident]

I suspect that DW at least would consider moving hosting outside the US if it's feasible (and I don't know what LJ would do--moving the data to Russia doesn't seem like an appealing step for them, but I'm out of the loop on LJ management).

My concern is, should the SOPA/PIPA bills get passed, when the US starts negotiating treaties with other countries to cooperate, as with the Berne Convention.

[tinyjo.livejournal.com]

Yeah, that might be the most practical solution, although, as you say, who knows where will be safe long term.