Sony plan to have Search Engines De-Index, Deprioritize sites it disapproves of

Related Projects
1

I renamed the thread title because it didn’t seem to capture the gravity of what Sony is doing. What follows is a repost verbatim from reddit,

"Wikileaks has proof Fox, Disney, NBCUniversal, Paramount/Viacom, Sony, Warner Bros., and the MPAA are attempting to influence ISPs to block sites entirely.(

The objective of the session is to put us in the best position possible to make a decision as to whether we should proceed to the next steps in seeking site blocking in the US.

    The first step is a pre-phase in which we will get prepared and try to create a more favorable environment for site blocking. This would involve multiple parallel tracks. Without attempting to be exhaustive, those tracks include:
        Outreach to respected technologists to begin to forge agreement on technical facts and site blocking efficacy — and, where possible, garner policy support for site blocking (or at least dampen opposition to it).
        Continued research and record building on the effectiveness of site blocking.
        Outreach to academics, think tanks and other third parties to foster the publication of research papers, white papers and other articles that tell the positive story of site blocking: e.g., it is commonplace around the world and working smoothly; it has not broken the internet; it is not incompatible with DNSSEC; it is effective; legitimate sites/content have not been blocked; etc.
        Building the record (and telling the story) that the sorts of sites at issue are dangerous. It is not just copyright infringement. Kids are one-click away from identity theft, graphic porn, malware, etc. Parent groups, consumer protection groups and other third parties can be cultivated to speak out against such predatory sites.
        Telling the positive story of the widespread availability of legitimate content.

    At the right time, we would quietly approach ISPs with which we have good relationships and which we believe might consider cooperating with us to test US site blocking. If any US ISPs are prepared to cooperate — and we can create a track record of effective site blocking in the US — the environment for US site blocking more broadly will become significantly more favorable.

We do not need to decide in advance how to proceed if no US ISP is prepared to work with us cooperatively. We recommend that we cross that bridge only if and when we need to, in context of the landscape we face at that point in time.

https://wikileaks.org/sony/emails/emailid/104331

edit: Found another email about this. WikiLeaks - Sony Archives

US Site-Blocking: We can review the four supplemental analyses that have been circulated. Ultimately, we need to decide whether we want to move forward with a site-blocking strategy and, if so, what the next steps should be. Search “Asks”: A 2013 exercise resulted in a list of six antipiracy asks for search engines. At the GSM, there was consensus that the GCs should attempt to reduce the list to one or two principal asks that we can use in all public advocacy and negotiation venues. For your reference, here are the six asks from the 2013 process: Promote authorized sites. Search engines should obtain and use information from authoritative sources on which sites have been authorized to provide copyrighted content, and use that information to prioritize legitimate sites in rankings for search. De-prioritize rogue sites. Search engines should make meaningful changes to algorithms to ensure that results from infringing sites do not appear on the first pages of search results and to promote the elevation of legitimate sites to take their place. De-index rogue sites.

edit the 2nd: Wikileaks’ twitter account is helping to put the word out. https://twitter.com/wikileaks/status/589627346052853760"

Personally it seems like these businesses have declared war on the public and in so doing undermined any legitimate right to continue to exist. So much for corporate rights transnational or otherwise. For those that like conspiracy and collusion it doesnt get any clearer.

5 Likes
2

"First they came for the Socialists, and I did not speak out—
Because I was not a Socialist.

Then they came for the Trade Unionists, and I did not speak out—
Because I was not a Trade Unionist.

Then they came for the Jews, and I did not speak out—
Because I was not a Jew.

Then they came for me—and there was no one left to speak for me." – Pastor Martin Niemöller

4 Likes
3

Interesting, but the title is jumping to conclusions.

Outreach to academics, think tanks and other third parties to foster the publication of research papers, white papers and other articles that tell the positive story of site blocking: e.g., it is commonplace around the world and working smoothly; it has not broken the internet; it is not incompatible with DNSSEC; it is effective; legitimate sites/content have not been blocked; etc.

Sounds like they’re wanting research to match their message rather than being objective.

Building the record (and telling the story) that the sorts of sites at issue are dangerous. It is not just copyright infringement. Kids are one-click away from identity theft, graphic porn, malware, etc. Parent groups, consumer protection groups and other third parties can be cultivated to speak out against such predatory sites.

And why should this be solved at the ISP level and not client-side, where the user has control over what kind of filters apply to his browsing? It’s a shitty excuse for censorship, i.e. a power grab.

2 Likes
4

De-index sites they disapprove of. No way that is acceptable. Reinstate the spam and sponsored politician and sponsored law. This is what a broken market looks like where the end buyer is productized. But it can’t be allowed with media markets because then we get indoctrinated back into a pure extraction system where we ourselves get bought and sold and rights ate inefficient etc. The selling of labor or labor market without alternative or a right to be idle in a tech age was bad enough but broken media can take almost all of us back to the plantation as property but this time instead of us breaking the machines to slow the whip we will be made to compete with machines. This is why we need to get rid of sponsored search and get rid of sponsored media, replace it with better un-sponsored search and superior tech, then use tax to make sponsorship prohibitively expensive and then make it an enforced felony with civil fines equal to a certain number of years worth of profit at a mandatory minimum. Sponsorship kills democracy like nothing else.

5

Site blocking legislation is being introduced in Australia as we speak.

It allows the media companies to go before a Judge and claim that xyz site is infringing (or enabling such) and obtain a warrant for ISPs to block said “location”. All ISPs have to comply.

It has not passed yet but the media companies have already bought out the 2 major parties so there is no reason it will not pass in due course. Millions of dollars in donations to both of the parties is a powerful force.

2 Likes
6

More from reddit on the Sony war on the global public, one local public at a time.

"Sony emails prove that Sony/MPAA are actively lobbying governments to push the TPP/TTIP and are even helping to create ‘criminal enforcement strategies’ to enforce the draconian copyright laws.

Today I stumbled across a post concerning the Sony email leaks that seemed too important to ignore, it contained the two following images.

http://imgur.com/a/tjzgT

These two images are absolute concrete proof that Sony/MPAA are lobbying governments to push the TPP/TTIP’s extensive copyright laws. One part reads,

"Finally, in regards to trade, the MPAA/MPA with the strong support of your studios, continue to advocate to governments around the world about the pressing need for strong pro-IP trade policies such as TPP and the proposed EU/US trade agreement (TTIP)"

This here is concrete proof that corporations globally are pushing laws for their own profit at the expense of the people, this will be basically SOPA/CISPA on steroids.

But wait there’s more, they even said that they have formed an,

"MPAA/Studio working group to study and develop the next generation of criminal enforcement strategies to present to federal prosecutors".

This is worse than we thought /r/technology, not only have the MPAA influenced and crafted some of the strictest copyright laws in the history of the internet for its own gain, they have been put in charge of implementing the punishments for breaking these laws.

This whole deal is completely beyond repair and needs to be shot down, but with the majority of the world economy on board, it seems like it will be a difficult task.

Bare in mind that the TPP not only includes copyright, but it will allow corporations to sue governments for ‘cutting into their future profits’ and to get the countries to repeal laws like environmental and food safety standards to maximise profits. As seen on wikileaks about the TPP:

...WikiLeaks has released the "Investment Chapter," which highlights the intent of U.S.-led negotiators to create a tribunal where corporations can sue governments if their laws interfere with a company’s claimed future profits.

And as I’m sure it’s a sensitive topic of discussion right now, the UK will likely lose the NHS as well since this also allows US pharmaceutical companies to sue governments.

For those who don’t know about the TPP/TTIP, they are trade agreements between major world powers that are currently being negotiated in complete secrecy with corporations playing a big role. We only know most of what we do because of wikileaks:

https://www.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trans-Pacific_Partnership https://www.wikipedia.org/wiki/Transatlantic_Trade_and_Investment_Partnership https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DnC1mqyAXmw

It’s also being fastracked through congress so we don’t have much time to stop it.

Do WHATEVER you can to help raise awareness about this, this is a life or death situation for the internet and most of modern society. Call your representatives. Send it to your family and friends. Post it on social media. Show your dog.

https://stop-ttip.org/

We need to do absolutely everything we can to stop this monster of a treaty from taking the internet out of the hands of the people completely. Also, try to help organise efforts against it, we need all the help we can get.

Edit: thank you /u/jamescolespardon on /r/worldpolitics for finding this:

Here is a link to the 114 page, bipartisan, bicameral draft of legislation by former Vice-Presidential nominee Paul Ryan, which would establish fast track status for this type of agreement. It was introduced two days ago. You may not have heard of it because Star Wars released a trailer for a movie in 2016. Or that Australia stopped an alleged ISIS plot. Or ISIL beheaded more people (did you watch the video yet? It's only 29 minutes... And you can skip to ~24:30 for the good stuff), or something something Hilary Clinton.

Here is a link to Pivot 2.0, a paper put out in January for the Center For Strategic & International Studies, a Washington, DC based Think Tank with extremely notable members on their board and as trustees, including the CEOs for major defense contractors and other multinational corporations, as well as former high ranking members of the US Government, including Dick Army (my favorite name, by far, I mean come on!), Richard Armitage, and Henry Kissinger.

The first chapter is dedicated to the TTP/TTIP trade agreements, with a deadline of June of this year.

And Paul Ryan's bill will make it one step closer to reality.

So - let's see who votes for this bill. And who reads it.

...anyone want to read it with me?

By the way, before Sony or something tries to get me to remove this, I did NOT hack the emails (I don’t even have the slightest clue on how to do that, find the real hacker, not me :)), so I am not responsible for these images, I simply found them are am relaying the message to reddit because it is INCREDIBLY important. If I didn’t do it, someone else would have, these laws are incredibly immoral and need to have a proper public review. I do not condone hacking at all, but these emails are proof that Sony/MPAA are involved in something more sinister than hacking.

I’ve just put together and organised information that is practically freely available on the internet, I cannot be sued :slight_smile: Speak to the mods/admins if you have a problem. A Barrett Brown situation can’t happen this time, since the linked information is now practically in the public domain, it has been reported on thousands of times, and it contains no personal information what so ever (what got the guy arrested), it is a snippet of a converation that someone posted. Also, I didn’t post an actual link to the leaks, only a screenshot from someone else of something that contains no personal information whatsoever.

This train has set off and cannot be stopped now. Let’s stop this reddit."

“Who runs this world? Sony Pictures CEO jokes about getting UK culture minister fired
And replacing him with former PM’s grandson”

If our legal systems were working Sony would be in massive trouble right now, much more than MS ever was for what it did. But these leaks show the power of transparency and its vetting!
Along the way to getting rid of these dinosaur extractive media firms that exist to kill and prevent democracy we can make very big firms and every government in the world fully transparent in real time.
None of them should ever have expectation of secrecy or doing anything out of the lime light, and unlike today where bringing them into the lime light risks prison them trying to hide from it future should be considered
conspiracy and collusion and invoke prison.

7

Unless laws enforce all search engines to do this, no search engine will do it.

The business model of a search engine is to return what is being searched for efficiently and accurately. De-ranking useful results will be like shooting themselves in the foot in the long run.

3 Likes
8

Each time this sort of thing is enacted, it improves the business case for safe net.

Prohibition - preventing free people from doing peaceful things - will always be pushed back against. The harder the squeeze, the more it will escape their grip.

3 Likes
9

And yet Sony thinks Google works for it or that it represents sponsors and Google and others should screw end users because they are the real customers. And if I am not mistaken Google already announced sponsor optimized search which ought to be called lost instead of search as it will grow more and more misleading. I noticed it in trying to find the part afiliations of local Republican politicians running in the last election Ca election- very difficult with Google.

This is why we need legitimate end user indexing and unsponsored DAO search, hopefully a system that recognizes sponsored cites themselves as spam- always got to follow the money and remember who the actual customer is. A market is broken where end users are not the actual customers. For clarity if I am a manufacuturer and I am buying parts I am the end user in that market and that market is broken if my upstream suppliers are given my customer power. In that case money is being used against me. Its infinitely worse with media.

10

This makes me sick. Like Warren said, these corporations don’t deserve to exist. There is a LOT I’m holding back but I’m sure others are thinking similar things…

Well it looks like Maidsafe is coming at the perfect time! I can’t wait til it comes, and the mesh networks, so we can shove that broomstick where it badly needs to go and we can maybe start the process of boycotting these people into oblivion.

3 Likes
11

Oh the irony. The heavier they try to be in controlling the web, the more people will find SAFENetwork attractive :slight_smile:

2 Likes
12

I suspect that they will eventually be forced to move away from their current lucrative sponsorship model (full ads spliced in between shows) as well as their high priced movies tickets and into fully sponsored films with lots of product placement. They don’t want to go this route as their revenues/profits will fall off the cliff, but what choice will they have in the era of maidsafe.

2 Likes
13

Here is Sony now threatening Journalists: Sony sends pre-emptive threat letter to journalists | Boing Boing Notice Sony seems to be threatening their sponsorship money. Same firm that had the payola scams and rootkit nonsense.

@TylerAbeoJordan I agree. Sony was already faltering before what must have been this series of insider assisted hacks. They were being pressured to spin off their entertainment division. Got to treat your people good.

I think the leak on Sony’s plan to have search engines de-index cites they don’t like is a special leak, but I wonder if it hasn’t already been happening. I think this leak spreads and leads to big change. I think this will turn out to be the most damaging and liberating leak there has yet been of any kind. Beyond Watergate, beyond prism, beyond the Bush Admin assassinating EU journalists to cover their Iraq cluster, beyond the aftermath of Katrina. Amazing what can happen when the denial comes off.

I think the global media and sponsorship is about to be tried in the global court of public opinion. It will be like releasing the energy pent up in a massive Earth quake. Sponsorship and media built on its conflict of interest is the reason we have fake jobs, work too many hours and have a decreasing quality of life with no light at the end of the tunnel with social mobility shut off. I think it will dawn on people that we’ve had the tech to free them for decades but as soon as it appeared we turned extractive and sponsored media and the resultant sponsored law is what denied us real freedom and abundance and replaced it with an ever deepening cycle of intentional impoverishment. Its like the point in a dream where you realize you are dreaming, this is the point in the global consensus dream where the denial ceases and people wake up.

1 Like
14

Sony saying its 3 hacks weren’t inside jobs. How do you get hacked 3 times in a row with record breaking hacks each time and try to say its not at least partly an inside job. After each time it must have radically tried to improve its security.

But here is the spin firm sponsoring its own spin as it tries to say its earnings are up as it uses its money to attack our freedoms. This is what sponsorship looks like.

http://recode.net/2015/04/21/sony-hack-was-not-an-inside-job-says-security-expert-kevin-mandia/