U.S. threaten to blacklist Spain for not implementing site blocking law.

by Ali Thu 5 Jan - 23:28:55

https://torrentfreak.com/us-threatened-to-blacklist-spain-for-not-implementing-site-blocking-law-120105/

In a leaked letter sent to Spain’s outgoing President, the US ambassador to the country warned that as punishment for not passing a SOPA-style file-sharing site blocking law, Spain risked being put on a United States trade blacklist . Inclusion would have left Spain open to a range of “retaliatory options” but already the US was working with the incoming government to reach its goals.

United States government interference in Spain’s intellectual property laws had long been suspected, but it was revelations from Wikileaks that finally confirmed the depth of its involvement.

More than 100 leaked cables showed that the US had helped draft new Spanish copyright legislation and had heavily influenced the decisions of both the government and opposition.

Now, another diplomatic leak has revealed how the US voiced its anger towards outgoing President Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero last month upon realizing that his government was unlikely to pass the US-drafted Sinde (site blocking) Law before leaving office.

In a letter dated December 12th and sent by US Ambassador Alan D. Solomont to the Spanish Prime Minister’s office, the US expressed “deep concern” over the failure to implement the SOPA-style censorship law.

“The government has unfortunately failed to finish the job for political reasons, to the detriment of the reputation and economy of Spain,” read the letter obtained by El Pais.

Racing against the clock in the final days of the government, Solomont had one last push.

“I encourage the Government of Spain to implement the Sinde Law immediately to safeguard the reputation of Spain as an innovative country that does what it says it will, and as a country that breeds confidence,” he wrote.

But along with the pleas came the stick.

In the letter, which was also sent to Minister of Culture Ángeles González-Sinde after whom the law is named, Solomont noted that Spain is already on the Special 301, the annual report prepared by the Office of the United States Trade Representative (USTR) detailing ‘trade barriers’ based on intellectual property issues.

Solomont’s threat was that should Spain not pass the Sinde Law (described by some as the Spanish SOPA) then the country would be degraded further and placed on the Priority Watch List. This serious step would mean that Spain was in breach of trade agreements and could be subjected to a range of “retaliatory actions”.

In the event Zapatero’s government left office without passing the law, but the incoming Partido Popular (People’s Party) were quickly pressured by the US to take the necessary action.

In another media leak it’s now been revealed that American Chamber of Commerce in Spain chief Jaime Malet wrote a cautionary letter to incoming Spanish Prime Minister, Mariano Rajoy. He warned of the potential flight of foreign investment from Spain and urged him to take action on the protection of intellectual property once in office.

“[The law's] lack of approval before the elections has been a blow to the country’s seriousness in this matter of such importance,” said Malet, while urging Rajoy to “to retrieve the consensus reached.”

Rajoy’s government quickly responded and fully implemented the legislation within 10 days of taking office.

by che Thu 5 Jan - 23:35:34

spanish president :facepalm:

anyway, i hope the eu tells america to *bleep* off

by Le Samourai Thu 5 Jan - 23:39:57

This isn't going to pass you know............it's basically a political move.

SOPA on the table.

Some sites: Wikipedia, youtube, Google etc stand to lose Trillions.........they pay politicians to lobby against the bill.

Some sites: Domain websites, Movie Studios, Stuff in the Entertainment and leisure industry stand to make Billions.........they pay politicians to lobby for the bill.

In the end.......trillions > millions.

In the end politicians are rich.

/thread.

by Senor Penguin Thu 5 Jan - 23:52:11

Why can't they just mind their own business?

by Le Samourai Thu 5 Jan - 23:53:43

Senor Penguin wrote:Why can't they just mind their own business?

U.S. threaten to blacklist Spain for not implementing site blocking law. 35bnl7

by Senor Penguin Fri 6 Jan - 0:03:14

ragbirjosh wrote:
Senor Penguin wrote:Why can't they just mind their own business?

U.S. threaten to blacklist Spain for not implementing site blocking law. Kim-jong-il-twn

You talking to me, imperialist?

by El Chelsea Fuerte Fri 6 Jan - 0:11:17

Wikileaks

by Ali Fri 6 Jan - 2:24:02

ragbirjosh wrote:This isn't going to pass you know............it's basically a political move.

SOPA on the table.

Some sites: Wikipedia, youtube, Google etc stand to lose Trillions.........they pay politicians to lobby against the bill.

Some sites: Domain websites, Movie Studios, Stuff in the Entertainment and leisure industry stand to make Billions.........they pay politicians to lobby for the bill.

In the end.......trillions > millions.

In the end politicians are rich.

/thread.

Godaddy is feeling the loss, but it looks like they are bent on making it happen

by Le Samourai Fri 6 Jan - 2:27:28

Ali

As the controversial online piracy bill SOPA (Stop Online Piracy Act) makes its way through the House of Representatives, Go Daddy, the world’s largest domain name registrar, has withdrawn its support of the bill after seeing a flood of sudden domain name transfers protesting the company's position. While major internet companies were united in their opposition of the bill, Go Daddy welcomed the move and called the bill’s opponents “myopic.” Go Daddy has long been a prickly giant on the Internet with its offensive, sexist advertising, inflexible rules restricting ordinary usage, and its split customer service personality where half the phone reps are gracious and the other half are combative. No wonder, users seized the opportunity to punish Go Daddy for a political position on pending legislation which has mixed attributes.

The bill in question aims to curb online piracy of music, television shows, movies and counterfeit goods. With a court order, the US Attorney General could sentence piracy-networked websites to death within days by shutting them down. Financial support would be cut off from sites outside of the U.S and search engines will be forced to remove sites that infringe on copyright from their indexes. Supporters of SOPA include the U.S Chamber of Commerce, the Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA), and the Recording Industry Association of America. The MPAA says that the act is completely constitutional but huge internet names such as Google, Yahoo and Twitter stand in complete resistance.

The tech community has reacted with an unprecedented political response, hitting Congress with 2 million emails, petitions and phone calls but Silicon Valley lobbyists are being spectacularly outspent by their Hollywood counterparts.

Go Daddy’s initial support of the bill was made clear in a letter of support to the House of Representatives, applauding the Committee for considering all parties and stating their intention to assist in the fine-tuning of the legislation. The company stated that ‘Go Daddy is committed to doing everything it can to ensure that the Internet is a safe and trustworthy way to communicate and conduct business. We are grateful that this Committee agrees that it’s time for increased enforcement action because U.S. businesses are hurting, and those of us in the Internet ecosystem are in a unique position to help.’ Adding that ‘It is ironic that some companies that initially opposed the enactment of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) are now saying that it is working just fine, and that its notice and takedown procedures are sufficient to protect the rights of intellectual property holders.’

Go Daddy, which manages over 50 million domain names, found themselves on the receiving end of an online boycott. Reddit, a social news website owned by Condé Nast Digital, organized the boycott in retaliation to Go Daddy’s support of SOPA. The website set December, 29 as ‘move your domain day’ and transferred 51 of their own domains from Go Daddy. The boycott saw some 72,000 customers transfer their domains.

The company’s swift, apologetic U-turn was met with scepticism from the online community and media, no doubt inspired by Go Daddy's obnoxious business style. As an example, when one customer expressed his disdain with a Go Daddy customer service representative for combative phone conduct over a minor question involving port numbers, the customer said he would publish a resume of the exchange. To this, the CSR named Art declared, "Good, I always wanted to be famous."

Now, its unashamed withdrawal of support for SOPA has critics doubting the company’s integrity and viewing the move as more of a change of tactic than a change of heart. These sentiments are hardly redressed by the companies statement regarding their change of position. “We have observed a spike in domain name transfers, which are running above normal rates and which we attribute to Go Daddy’s prior support for SOPA, which was reversed,” said Go Daddy CEO Warren Adelman. “Go Daddy opposes SOPA because the legislation has not fulfilled its basic requirement to build a consensus among stake-holders in the technology and Internet communities. Our company regrets the loss of any of our customers, who remain our highest priority, and we hope to repair those relationships and win back their business over time.”

The company’s SOPA reversal is not the first time their integrity has been in question. Its backing of the act was seen by some as a strategic reaction to an ongoing legal battle with Oscar organization, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (AMPAS) who claim that Go Daddy were facilitators of trademark infringement. AMPAS objects to the purchase of famous names, allowing customers to buy a domain name and leave it in limbo with the owners gaining revenue from Go Daddy’s advertising partners. Other allegations include the aiding and abetting of trademark infringement, one in particularly being a $100 lawsuit for an unauthorised Michael Jackson Casino.

Go Daddy, which has previously been criticized for their sexist and exploitative advertisements are now raising eyebrows with a New York Times advertisement featuring a nearly naked Danica Patrick. Whether she will be enough to turn around the ill-feeling, remains to be seen.

by Ali Fri 6 Jan - 3:24:33

Haha I was a part of all this! It was an attack by Reddit.com ! Brilliant what a mass of determined individuals can do

by Ali Fri 6 Jan - 3:26:19

Its funny, does GoDaddy really think twitter users won't notice that the line the CSR fed you is almost exactly word for word what their General Counsel has been telling folks on Twitter? Coincidence? I think not. The CSR fed you the GoDaddy legal department's corporate line, not the truth.
Just as I doubt its a coincidence that the day after the MoveYourDomain day, GoDaddy announced they were "opposing" SOPA, not just dropping support, and then there were a whole bunch of twitter users posting links to THAT announcement, and also to the article that claimed the GoDaddy boycott was a failure. Or that most of the same tweeters who posted these links never responded to any responsive tweets that corrected or commented on the issue, just kept tweeting the corporate line, ignoring all responders. I'm sure that was just a coincidence, too.
For those who are interested, in just 24 hours on the MoveYourDomain day, Namecheap got around 28,000 domains transferred in that used the SOPAsucks coupon code (they had a tally of their donations because of the transfers on their homepage). In 36 hours, they got over 32,000 domains transferred in. I'm sure some of those weren't from GoDaddy, and some were probably because of the steep discount, and they did advertise heavily on twitter, but even so, a substantial amount of those domains were likely from GoDaddy. If just one registrar got 20 or 25,000 domains from GoDaddy in that time frame, imagine how many domains they were losing at that time.
I also know that GoDaddy was calling the customers who were leaving, that they were offering steep discounts to come back, or to their existing customers who hadn't left. There were discount offers and GD affiliates working on twitter during that time. I saw on twitter that they were advertising in Australia for the first time the Tweeter had ever seen, and saw comments about how much advertising they had going in India. Clearly, GoDaddy was making a push in the Asian / Pacific region hoping they hadn't heard about SOPA, or didn't care. GoDaddy must have been hurting, and worried, to react in that way, to have people on the phone calling customers who had already fired them, to be cutting deeply into their margins, and with advertising campaigns overseas.
So if anyone tells you the boycott didn't work, don't believe them.

by Le Samourai Fri 6 Jan - 4:36:51

Summary:

GoDaddy : Sees Bill "Yessssss Moaaaarrrr , Moaaaaarrr profits evryone will have to re register their domain after it is seized , Moaaarrrr".They support the bill.

!/4 of their clientle threaten to leave....which will destroy their solvency and destroy their credibility in the long run Embarassed

.

GoDaddy : "We are firmly against the bill ...it's an injustice ....some democracy rhetoric bla bla bla."

It'll never pass dude....in reality what we get is some watered down version of the bill.....protecting copyrighted material like movies and songs etc being leaked less than 2 weeks after their official release and a couple torrent sites get shut down only to start back up again somewhere else.

HOWEVER: they're imposing themself here on other countries.....who'se citizens might not have the delusions of democracy enough to bounce back from this shit....dunno what's their game there.