Balkinization   |
Balkinization
Jack Balkin: jackbalkin at yahoo.com Bruce Ackerman bruce.ackerman at yale.edu Ian Ayres ian.ayres at yale.edu Corey Brettschneider corey_brettschneider at brown.edu Mary Dudziak mary.l.dudziak at emory.edu Joey Fishkin joey.fishkin at gmail.com Heather Gerken heather.gerken at yale.edu Abbe Gluck abbe.gluck at yale.edu Mark Graber mgraber at law.umaryland.edu Stephen Griffin sgriffin at tulane.edu Jonathan Hafetz jonathan.hafetz at shu.edu Jeremy Kessler jkessler at law.columbia.edu Andrew Koppelman akoppelman at law.northwestern.edu Marty Lederman msl46 at law.georgetown.edu Sanford Levinson slevinson at law.utexas.edu David Luban david.luban at gmail.com Gerard Magliocca gmaglioc at iupui.edu Jason Mazzone mazzonej at illinois.edu Linda McClain lmcclain at bu.edu John Mikhail mikhail at law.georgetown.edu Frank Pasquale pasquale.frank at gmail.com Nate Persily npersily at gmail.com Michael Stokes Paulsen michaelstokespaulsen at gmail.com Deborah Pearlstein dpearlst at yu.edu Rick Pildes rick.pildes at nyu.edu David Pozen dpozen at law.columbia.edu Richard Primus raprimus at umich.edu K. Sabeel Rahmansabeel.rahman at brooklaw.edu Alice Ristroph alice.ristroph at shu.edu Neil Siegel siegel at law.duke.edu David Super david.super at law.georgetown.edu Brian Tamanaha btamanaha at wulaw.wustl.edu Nelson Tebbe nelson.tebbe at brooklaw.edu Mark Tushnet mtushnet at law.harvard.edu Adam Winkler winkler at ucla.edu Compendium of posts on Hobby Lobby and related cases The Anti-Torture Memos: Balkinization Posts on Torture, Interrogation, Detention, War Powers, and OLC The Anti-Torture Memos (arranged by topic) Recent Posts First Amendment & Stop Online Piracy Act's Manager's Amendment: Some Thoughts
|
Wednesday, December 14, 2011
First Amendment & Stop Online Piracy Act's Manager's Amendment: Some Thoughts
Marvin Ammori
The tech and civil liberties communities are all focused on a pair of bills in Congress aimed at "rogue foreign sites" like All of MP3 and The Pirate Bay, but that actually appear to target Tumblr, Twitter, and YouTube--and commandeer search engines, domain name services, and advertisers to target these legitimate sites. Today, dozens of top tech CEOs have taken out full page ads in major papers across the country. And thousands of Americans are contacting Congress through the amazing effort of AmericanCensorship.org, a joint project of several civil liberties groups.
In reviewing these bills, I produced a memorandum for Congress analyzing their First Amendment problems. Professor Laurence Tribe filed a letter on the same day, he on behalf of the consumer electronics industry and I on behalf of tech companies. We agreed on several, fundamental key points, including that the bills were overbroad and unconstitutional as written. I discussed the pieces on Balkinization.
The House version of the bills--called the Stop Online Piracy Act, or SOPA--will face a Committee vote tomorrow. Two nights ago, the Committee leadership swapped out the original bill for a new bill. The new version, substituted through a procedure known as a Manager's Amendment, is designed to address some objections raised by tech companies, civil liberties groups, and academics. As a result, in the past 36 hours, those interested in Internet freedom and copyright have moved quickly to analyze the new bill. (See here, here, and here.)
Yesterday, I joined in a staff briefing organized by friends at Net Coalition to discuss the new version.
At the briefing, I made three points:
My suggestion would be to require the DOJ to prove that a site is liable for secondary infringement under existing Supreme Court precedent. If the goal is to target The Pirate Bay and All of MP3, the current tests would clearly capture them--as they captured Napster and Grokster.
Second, the definitions for sites subject to private rights of action are a novel creation, one that does not track existing Supreme Court precedent. This provides uncertainty because tech companies will undoubtedly be subject to a decade of litigation to define this new standard. The existing precedent--pertaining to secondary liability and the Digital Millennium Copyright Act--would clearly capture The Pirate Bay and All of MP3. There is no reason to create a new definition, unless Congress wants to target YouTube and Twitter and Facebook. If that is the intent of Congressmen, they have not said so. The simpler method is to stick with existing tests. That way, this section does not change the substantive requirements of infringement; it would merely expand the remedies available to copyright holders. (Many others have discussed the problems with the remedies, such as DNS blocking and search engine manipulation, which should be considered.)
Third, one section of the bill enables service providers to block sites based merely on "good faith" and "credible evidence" that a site is covered by another section of the bill. That is very dangerous, as no court order is required for such action. Could Viacom have notified Comcast and Verizon to block YouTube? Viacom probably had "credible evidence" to present, even if that evidence was not enough to win in district court. And Comcast and Verizon would have been subject to a simple choice: immunity through blocking or potential suit from Viacom. Immunity is the surer route. In my memorandum, I discussed the district court case CDT v. Pappert (pdf, pp. 77-79) and its reliance on the Supreme Court decision of United States v. Playboy to demonstrate that Congress will violate the First Amendment by encouraging private parties to restrict more speech, not less, to comply with a law. This immunity provision encourages intermediaries to restrict more, not less, speech, and lacks the necessary judicial determinations set out in the Court's prior restraint jurisprudence. It should be deleted.
Fourth, the search engine provisions and the domain name provisions will encourage global censorship. The OECD, the European Parliament, the State Department, the Internet Society, and others have emphasized the importance of a unified, open Internet. Blocking domains and search results is a tactic used by repressive regimes. And messing with the domain name system is something the US has consistently opposed--when repressive regimes, have, for example, attempted to transfer more domain name authority to the International Telecommunications Union.
To provide a concrete example, the bill might make The Tor Project illegal. That project, funded by the State Department, creates encryption technology used by dissidents in repressive regimes. Repressive regimes would outlaw this American-sponsored free-speech technology. So would SOPA. Tor is used heavily, by users unconnected to creating Tor, to transfer copyrighted files. It would be illegal for that purpose. Moreover, the technology would end-run around many of the copyright-bills' remedies, and be illegal for this second purpose. Any American legislation that makes State Department-sponsored free-speech technology illegal in the United States for two separate reasons should give us pause.
Finally, I would recommend processes to permit intervenors in litigation involving foreign sites. The seminal case of Lamont v. Postmaster makes it clear that Americans have the First Amendment right to read and listen to foreign speech, even if the foreigners lack a First Amendment speech right. And our system of law is based on adversarial hearings. If foreign sites are unwilling to submit to American jurisdiction, but their users in the US wish to defend these sites as not engaged in infringement, the users' rights should be vindicated with at least a simple ability to intervene and litigate the issues. The users would likely lose a case involving The Pirate Bay or All of MP3, but an adversarial hearing would be the best route to determining legality.
These are just some quick thoughts, and there are others out there. Because of the rush to vote on this legislation tomorrow(!), my thoughts, like others, must necessarily be rushed and quick on matters of grave importance.
|
Books by Balkinization Bloggers ![]() Gerard N. Magliocca, Washington's Heir: The Life of Justice Bushrod Washington (Oxford University Press, 2022) Mark Tushnet and Bojan Bugaric, Power to the People: Constitutionalism in the Age of Populism (Oxford University Press 2021). ![]() Jack M. Balkin, What Obergefell v. Hodges Should Have Said: The Nation's Top Legal Experts Rewrite America's Same-Sex Marriage Decision (Yale University Press, 2020) ![]() Frank Pasquale, New Laws of Robotics: Defending Human Expertise in the Age of AI (Belknap Press, 2020) ![]() Jack M. Balkin, The Cycles of Constitutional Time (Oxford University Press, 2020) ![]() Mark Tushnet, Taking Back the Constitution: Activist Judges and the Next Age of American Law (Yale University Press 2020). ![]() Andrew Koppelman, Gay Rights vs. Religious Liberty?: The Unnecessary Conflict (Oxford University Press, 2020) ![]() Ezekiel J Emanuel and Abbe R. Gluck, The Trillion Dollar Revolution: How the Affordable Care Act Transformed Politics, Law, and Health Care in America (PublicAffairs, 2020) ![]() Linda C. McClain, Who's the Bigot?: Learning from Conflicts over Marriage and Civil Rights Law (Oxford University Press, 2020) ![]() Sanford Levinson and Jack M. Balkin, Democracy and Dysfunction (University of Chicago Press, 2019) ![]() Sanford Levinson, Written in Stone: Public Monuments in Changing Societies (Duke University Press 2018) ![]() Mark A. Graber, Sanford Levinson, and Mark Tushnet, eds., Constitutional Democracy in Crisis? (Oxford University Press 2018) ![]() Gerard Magliocca, The Heart of the Constitution: How the Bill of Rights became the Bill of Rights (Oxford University Press, 2018) ![]() Cynthia Levinson and Sanford Levinson, Fault Lines in the Constitution: The Framers, Their Fights, and the Flaws that Affect Us Today (Peachtree Publishers, 2017) ![]() Brian Z. Tamanaha, A Realistic Theory of Law (Cambridge University Press 2017) ![]() Sanford Levinson, Nullification and Secession in Modern Constitutional Thought (University Press of Kansas 2016) ![]() Sanford Levinson, An Argument Open to All: Reading The Federalist in the 21st Century (Yale University Press 2015) ![]() Stephen M. Griffin, Broken Trust: Dysfunctional Government and Constitutional Reform (University Press of Kansas, 2015) ![]() Frank Pasquale, The Black Box Society: The Secret Algorithms That Control Money and Information (Harvard University Press, 2015) ![]() Bruce Ackerman, We the People, Volume 3: The Civil Rights Revolution (Harvard University Press, 2014) Balkinization Symposium on We the People, Volume 3: The Civil Rights Revolution ![]() Joseph Fishkin, Bottlenecks: A New Theory of Equal Opportunity (Oxford University Press, 2014) ![]() Mark A. Graber, A New Introduction to American Constitutionalism (Oxford University Press, 2013) ![]() John Mikhail, Elements of Moral Cognition: Rawls' Linguistic Analogy and the Cognitive Science of Moral and Legal Judgment (Cambridge University Press, 2013) ![]() Gerard N. Magliocca, American Founding Son: John Bingham and the Invention of the Fourteenth Amendment (New York University Press, 2013) ![]() Stephen M. Griffin, Long Wars and the Constitution (Harvard University Press, 2013) Andrew Koppelman, The Tough Luck Constitution and the Assault on Health Care Reform (Oxford University Press, 2013) ![]() James E. Fleming and Linda C. McClain, Ordered Liberty: Rights, Responsibilities, and Virtues (Harvard University Press, 2013) Balkinization Symposium on Ordered Liberty: Rights, Responsibilities, and Virtues Andrew Koppelman, Defending American Religious Neutrality (Harvard University Press, 2013) ![]() Brian Z. Tamanaha, Failing Law Schools (University of Chicago Press, 2012) ![]() Sanford Levinson, Framed: America's 51 Constitutions and the Crisis of Governance (Oxford University Press, 2012) ![]() Linda C. McClain and Joanna L. Grossman, Gender Equality: Dimensions of Women's Equal Citizenship (Cambridge University Press, 2012) ![]() Mary Dudziak, War Time: An Idea, Its History, Its Consequences (Oxford University Press, 2012) ![]() Jack M. Balkin, Living Originalism (Harvard University Press, 2011) ![]() Jason Mazzone, Copyfraud and Other Abuses of Intellectual Property Law (Stanford University Press, 2011) ![]() Richard W. Garnett and Andrew Koppelman, First Amendment Stories, (Foundation Press 2011) ![]() Jack M. Balkin, Constitutional Redemption: Political Faith in an Unjust World (Harvard University Press, 2011) ![]() Gerard Magliocca, The Tragedy of William Jennings Bryan: Constitutional Law and the Politics of Backlash (Yale University Press, 2011) ![]() Bernard Harcourt, The Illusion of Free Markets: Punishment and the Myth of Natural Order (Harvard University Press, 2010) ![]() Bruce Ackerman, The Decline and Fall of the American Republic (Harvard University Press, 2010) Balkinization Symposium on The Decline and Fall of the American Republic ![]() Ian Ayres. Carrots and Sticks: Unlock the Power of Incentives to Get Things Done (Bantam Books, 2010) ![]() Mark Tushnet, Why the Constitution Matters (Yale University Press 2010) Ian Ayres and Barry Nalebuff: Lifecycle Investing: A New, Safe, and Audacious Way to Improve the Performance of Your Retirement Portfolio (Basic Books, 2010) Jack M. Balkin, The Laws of Change: I Ching and the Philosophy of Life (2d Edition, Sybil Creek Press 2009) ![]() Brian Z. Tamanaha, Beyond the Formalist-Realist Divide: The Role of Politics in Judging (Princeton University Press 2009) Andrew Koppelman and Tobias Barrington Wolff, A Right to Discriminate?: How the Case of Boy Scouts of America v. James Dale Warped the Law of Free Association (Yale University Press 2009) Jack M. Balkin and Reva B. Siegel, The Constitution in 2020 (Oxford University Press 2009) Heather K. Gerken, The Democracy Index: Why Our Election System Is Failing and How to Fix It (Princeton University Press 2009) ![]() Mary Dudziak, Exporting American Dreams: Thurgood Marshall's African Journey (Oxford University Press 2008) ![]() David Luban, Legal Ethics and Human Dignity (Cambridge Univ. Press 2007) ![]() Ian Ayres, Super Crunchers: Why Thinking-By-Numbers is the New Way to be Smart (Bantam 2007) ![]() Jack M. Balkin, James Grimmelmann, Eddan Katz, Nimrod Kozlovski, Shlomit Wagman and Tal Zarsky, eds., Cybercrime: Digital Cops in a Networked Environment (N.Y.U. Press 2007) ![]() Jack M. Balkin and Beth Simone Noveck, The State of Play: Law, Games, and Virtual Worlds (N.Y.U. Press 2006) Andrew Koppelman, Same Sex, Different States: When Same-Sex Marriages Cross State Lines (Yale University Press 2006) Brian Tamanaha, Law as a Means to an End (Cambridge University Press 2006) Sanford Levinson, Our Undemocratic Constitution (Oxford University Press 2006) Mark Graber, Dred Scott and the Problem of Constitutional Evil (Cambridge University Press 2006) Jack M. Balkin, ed., What Roe v. Wade Should Have Said (N.Y.U. Press 2005) Sanford Levinson, ed., Torture: A Collection (Oxford University Press 2004) Balkin.com homepage Bibliography Conlaw.net Cultural Software Writings Opeds The Information Society Project BrownvBoard.com Useful Links Syllabi and Exams |