President of the non-profit Internet Systems Consortium Paul Vixie is far from sold on H.R. 3261, the Stop Online Piracy Act. On the contrary, the web guru believes the anti-piracy bill and its Senate-based sibling PROTECT IP will do little to prevent consumers from illegally downloading content. If someone is determined to pirate a new movie or album, said Vixie, they're going to find a way to do it.
In a blog post for The Hill, Vixie and a few like-minded associates argued that Rep. Lamar Smith's proposal would "alter fundamentally the way [Internet Service Providers'] connected customers access the Domain Name System." Doing so, they said, would only lead to American citizens utilizing foreign domain-name servers - even at their own peril.
"The cost of providing such off-shore services is minimal, and for off-shore pirates, the bounty is great," wrote Vixie and co. "Sadly, many American citizens will trade both their privacy and their safety to retain their online freedoms, and their resulting losses will be felt by the rest of the American economy."
Even if SOPA and PROTECT IP are passed into law, the group doesn't believe the U.S. government could counter what would happen next:
"If the DNS provisions of the pending legislation pass unchanged, we can expect the sellers of these fraudulent or stolen goods to respond to the loss of their 100 or so most valuable and recognized web site domain names with a flotilla of tens of thousands of new names," they said. "There is no way the Justice Department, or the American ISP industry, would be able to keep pace and block every new infringing domain name."
SOPA and PROTECT IP are both slated for renewed consideration in January. (via TechDirt)
