Comments on: Stopping SOPA’s Anti-Circumvention http://wendy.seltzer.org/blog/archives/2011/12/15/stopping-sopas-anti-circumvention.html Musings of a techie lawyer Sun, 20 May 2012 19:49:13 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.7-bleeding By: Wendy’s Blog: Legal Tags » Keep Copyright Balance: Stop SOPA and PIPA http://wendy.seltzer.org/blog/archives/2011/12/15/stopping-sopas-anti-circumvention.html#comment-7104 Wendy’s Blog: Legal Tags » Keep Copyright Balance: Stop SOPA and PIPA Wed, 18 Jan 2012 12:48:35 +0000 http://wendy.seltzer.org/blog/?p=777#comment-7104 [...] “circumvention” of court-ordered blocking that was written broadly enough that it could apply to Tor — which helps its users to “circumvent” local-network censorship. Further, both [...] [...] “circumvention” of court-ordered blocking that was written broadly enough that it could apply to Tor — which helps its users to “circumvent” local-network censorship. Further, both [...]

]]> By: robin http://wendy.seltzer.org/blog/archives/2011/12/15/stopping-sopas-anti-circumvention.html#comment-6050 robin Sat, 17 Dec 2011 15:37:35 +0000 http://wendy.seltzer.org/blog/?p=777#comment-6050 +1 for Mr. Wright above. In fact some enterprising folks at the huge discussion site reddit.com have assembled a rudimentary hosts file http://bit.ly/rKoyH5. The discussion rightly turned to issues of security, and the dangers of letting unknown third parties determine IP addresses on your computer in your hosts file. The opportunity for abuse is enormous, and imho points pretty much to the Vixie et al letter referenced above. Alternatively, the possibility for good behavior exists as well, some kind of "Open Source"/transparent community effort to create and vet such lists similar to the AdBlock list subscriptions. +1 for Mr. Wright above. In fact some enterprising folks at the huge discussion site reddit.com have assembled a rudimentary hosts file http://bit.ly/rKoyH5.

The discussion rightly turned to issues of security, and the dangers of letting unknown third parties determine IP addresses on your computer in your hosts file. The opportunity for abuse is enormous, and imho points pretty much to the Vixie et al letter referenced above.

Alternatively, the possibility for good behavior exists as well, some kind of “Open Source”/transparent community effort to create and vet such lists similar to the AdBlock list subscriptions.

]]> By: Jonathan Wright http://wendy.seltzer.org/blog/archives/2011/12/15/stopping-sopas-anti-circumvention.html#comment-6043 Jonathan Wright Thu, 15 Dec 2011 16:29:49 +0000 http://wendy.seltzer.org/blog/?p=777#comment-6043 One of the things I find interesting is that, although Firefox/MAFIAAfire provides a convent workaround to DNS blocks, every operating system (Windows, Mac OSX, Linux & Unix all alike) has a built-in bypass: The /etc/hosts file (or c:/Windows/System32/drivers/etc/hosts for modern Windows systems) allows you to manually put in an IP address against a hostname. With this set, any time a program next connects to that URL it will goto that new address, bypassing any DNS override put in place by your ISP! It's hard not to see that with this being included as standard within pretty much every operating system on every computer connected to the internet, does this not in fact make every OS and PC illegal with the stroke of a single pen? One of the things I find interesting is that, although Firefox/MAFIAAfire provides a convent workaround to DNS blocks, every operating system (Windows, Mac OSX, Linux & Unix all alike) has a built-in bypass: The /etc/hosts file (or c:/Windows/System32/drivers/etc/hosts for modern Windows systems) allows you to manually put in an IP address against a hostname.

With this set, any time a program next connects to that URL it will goto that new address, bypassing any DNS override put in place by your ISP! It’s hard not to see that with this being included as standard within pretty much every operating system on every computer connected to the internet, does this not in fact make every OS and PC illegal with the stroke of a single pen?

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