To say that the vast majority of people oppose SOPA would be an understatement. The name Stop Online Piracy Act may suggest a noble cause, but the tech-savvy amongst us see it as a clever mask for legislation that would put copyright holders interests over internet freedom. While the acts passage isnt certain, measures are already being taken to bypass its potential consequences: a new Firefox add-on, DeSopa, lets you bypass domestic DNS blockades with one click.
The Firefox extension circumvents SOPA by routing a website through foreign DNS servers. If youve ever used a VPN, this basically does the same thing; the big difference is that its applied on-demand to specific websites, rather than rerouting all of your traffic.
DeSopas developer, Tamer Rizk, created the add-on to help raise a red flag to the ineffectiveness of SOPA. He believes that the public is uneducated about the dire consequences of the bill, and that his Firefox work-around will help non-tech-savvy legislators to see how pointless SOPA is. His logic is slightly wonky, as something cant have severe consequences yet be ineffective, but the thrust of his argument is clear nonetheless.
DeSopa wont work on every site. For starters, a page will need to be accessible in the countries that your DNS is being routed through. This could also potentially lead to some pages being displayed in foreign languages. Still, its more than just a proof of concept and should successfully bypass DNS blocks for most sites.
Of course the DeSopa add-on isnt necessary right now. Congress wont be voting on the bill until January, and even if it passes, it will take time to implement it. Still, if having defenses in place ahead of time helps you to sleep better, then you can pick up DeSopa here*.
*https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/desopa/
The Firefox extension circumvents SOPA by routing a website through foreign DNS servers. If youve ever used a VPN, this basically does the same thing; the big difference is that its applied on-demand to specific websites, rather than rerouting all of your traffic.
DeSopas developer, Tamer Rizk, created the add-on to help raise a red flag to the ineffectiveness of SOPA. He believes that the public is uneducated about the dire consequences of the bill, and that his Firefox work-around will help non-tech-savvy legislators to see how pointless SOPA is. His logic is slightly wonky, as something cant have severe consequences yet be ineffective, but the thrust of his argument is clear nonetheless.
DeSopa wont work on every site. For starters, a page will need to be accessible in the countries that your DNS is being routed through. This could also potentially lead to some pages being displayed in foreign languages. Still, its more than just a proof of concept and should successfully bypass DNS blocks for most sites.
Of course the DeSopa add-on isnt necessary right now. Congress wont be voting on the bill until January, and even if it passes, it will take time to implement it. Still, if having defenses in place ahead of time helps you to sleep better, then you can pick up DeSopa here*.
*https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/desopa/