Ask HN: Can university sites be shut down by SOPA?

3 points by npcomplete 14 years ago | 1 comment

It's common to post full pdf of one's own publications (have done it myself during my grad school days). Most of these are copyrighted by the corresponding organization (like ACM/IEEE etc) where the publication had appeared/about to appear. This is common practice and usually considered "ok" if you authored/co-authored the paper. Does this violate sopa (since it's technically copyrighted material and you need to pay IEEE/ACM to access it)? Can university sites be shut down?

epc 14 years ago |

Under one iteration of SOPA, the copyright holder could file a private action to have the infringing site shutdown. Alternately the copyright holder could file an action with the US DOJ to have the site shut down. In either scneario the first action is to shut down the site, then notify the site of infringement.

Since SOPA has not been enacted into law yet it’s really an open question. If you trust the supporters of the law you have absolutely nothing to worry about because magical ponies will ensure that the law only is enforced against evil nasty "foreign" web sites.