Very large book publishers Random House and Hachette Book Group have decided to support and lobby for The Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA) in the US. If SOPA or its backup bill Protect IP Act (PIPA) pass it will greatly change the Internet in many harmful ways for websites all over the web and their users. Random House handles distribution for both Vertical and the American division of Kodansha while Del Rey is a branch of Random House and Yen Press is apart of Hachette Book Group.

The Senate version is PIPA and SOPA is House of Representatives and if either passes it’ll include ways for the government to order American Internet service providers to block domain names of websites, payment services like PayPal to close accounts, search engines to modify their search results to not include sites, and ad services like AdSense from paying out to domains. Under SOPA Internet service providers gain immunity from blocking domains independently without request including if they’re blocking competitors if they themselves deem them as copyright infringing. Both bills would remove the provision of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act that protects web hosts if they make an effort to remove copyright materials upon request. Variations of fee, lawsuit, and prison penalties for unauthorized steaming and downloading of copyrighted materials are there too. All without being under the public eye and without any method to counter or dispute it before actions are taken.

Protecting copyrighted materials for artists is one thing, but this is an extreme and dangerous addition to already existing laws and abilities that can already be used against piracy. Many law professors already have declared the changes unconstitutional as entire sites would mean even protected speech is suppressed, burden of proof is on the accuser, and people are innocent until proven guilty. A blog or user of a site would have to be careful who they’re linking to that the site has original content or permission from copyright holders even if the site just has photos of a vacation, fan art, and screenshots. SOPA also means toying with DNS of domains which could mean a less stable Internet or even less secure, but neither SOPA or its sponsors address this.

Discussion of SOPA and PIPA isn’t enough and along with registering to vote there’s more. Contacting corporations who support these laws, canceling orders with SOPA and PIPA as cancelation reasons, not buying products and services from supporter and their companies, and contacting your politicians are more examples of taking action.

If you see any information as incorrect or have more ways to take action, you may comment here or on the forums and this entry will be edited. Merry Christmas.

Contact Politicians
Phone & email at AmericanCensorship.Org including email for US State Department if not in US
OpenCongress.org pages for SOPA and PIPA
Contact Publishers & Distributors
Contact page for Random House
Vertical info@vertical-inc.com and specific employees
Contact page for Hachette Book Group

Sometimes I wonder if I’m too critical towards shounen publications. I mean, they are intended for young boys, so perhaps I shouldn’t even be reading these things… Well, if that thought had ever crossed my mind I’d be doing something productive like finding a job. Here’s my ranking on various monthly magazines targeted toward teenage boys. more…

Ninjas have been a popular subject in manga and anime, even before Naruto took the world by storm and polluted the youths with delusions of summoning giant frogs and doppelgangers. So perhaps it should not come as a big surprise that Del Rey has gone and brought another “great” title to America.

Ninja Girls, otherwise known as Rappi Rangai in Japan, will be the latest ninja fecal matter to adorn the shelves of young boys and middle-aged men in America come August 11, 2009. Having read the first volume, also known as a tankoubon by weeaboos, nearly a year ago, I think this will be another grand addition to the already shallow manga assortment found in bookstores. The story is rather ordinary and uninteresting, so I won’t bother going into it here. I’m sure many reputable sites have already announced this manga’s acquisition by Random House’s less-reputable cousin years ago, so this isn’t even worth posting.

Unfortunately, I own six volumes of this (that’s right I buy my manga) and feel pissed that I went and bought the Japanese version when I could have waited four months and just read it in Borders like I usually do. Oh well, there isn’t a way to turn back time so at the very least writing this article makes me feel like it wasn’t a complete waste of my money. So where was I? Well, who cares. The art is pretty, and the covers are nice; though it isn’t original, and frankly the characters all look plain… so what I really want to say is don’t bother buying this one. I already paid for your share of this fantastic manga with my own purchase.

Japanese lesson for the day. ku-no-i-chi – means ninja. female ninja. Do yourself a favor and jump off a bridge.