SOPA: Had it coming I guess...
 

Any thoughts on this?

Absolutely horrific, in terms of what it will do to the Internet and free speech. If I put the word "Coke" in my blog, will that be considered copyright infringement? I sure hope not.

Yet another unconstitutional power-grab by our beloved, benevolent federal government. :roleyess:

C'mon, Q, don't be paranoid. You know the govt only has the best of intentions with regard to us cattle, er, I mean citizens. :xp: Seriously, though, I suppose this is where people have to find out which web sites support this stuff and then punish them with heavily reduced web traffic. "Go Daddy" them and they might get the picture. I do have to wonder just how restrictively "copyright infringement" is defined by any of this legislation and how loosely defined the "crimes" will be with regard to that definition.

As if the copyright rules weren't crap as they are...I'd heard about this a bit ago and kept hoping it would go away or that someone would step up and quash it, but it doesn't sound like that is the case.

Heard that the Indian delegation suggested a UN body to monitor and supervise the Internet.

I'll apologise on their behalf.

They can smoke their peace pipe up their asses, they don't know jack about our internets!

We were foolish to create a realm of impersonal interface data transfer without police or rules. How would they be enforced? Almost all internet denizens break laws regularly for piracy, privacy, and copyright sharing. We are used to our excessive online freedoms and I shudder to think of more restrictive alternatives TBH.

Good riddance I say! The last thing I need is my internert priveliges stripped because someone at a forum or a blog that I frequent, may or may not have described seeing a new movie without the expressed written consent of the film company. It's bad enough where in some states they're taking big brother up to the max with anti-smoking such as checking your neighborhood door-to-door and citing you for smoking in your own house or backyard.

Looks like the logo of Google is blacked out, and when I go on Wikipedia is says,

"For over a decade, we have spent millions of hours building the largest encyclopedia in human history. Right now, the U.S. Congress is considering legislation that could fatally damage the free and open Internet. For 24 hours, to raise awareness, we are blacking out Wikipedia."

*pokes head in*

It's after midnight here in CA and I participated in the protest blackout. It isn't about tightening up copyrights and avoiding pirating, it's trying to take freedoms away by way of a creeping incrimentalism.

Now yes, I understand their sentiment about the undermining of profits and yes it needs to be addressed for the future of internet commerce, BUT they are going about it the *wrong* way. This can only backfire in the severest ways culminating in limitations on communications and in turn it would hinder the very business they are trying to protect.

Black Knight of Keno had something in his sig (from memory or lack thereof) about how copyrights are on an inevitable collision course with freedom in communication. Either we give up copyright and privacy in communications continues, or copyright laws prevail and we give up private communications as a concept.

If you want my opinion or further discussion with me personally on SOPA, VM or PM me. I'm not too fond of this subforum anymore.
/thread

I am extremely offended by this and demand that you amend and change your ways. You offer no rational reason behind your opinion and you think you are on top of the world and know everything - well take this, YOU ARE WRONG AND I AM RIGHT.

I bet you're not too fond of pudding either, HUH?

Megaupload executives arrested and site closed down.

Now they've gone too far.

You got to be kidding me, they've gone too far. I had an important file on Megaupload that was for a guy makng a mod for JKJA, it was a texture. he was supposed to get it after his vacation as he doesn't have internet currently in his area. And I don't have a backup (Which I should have made, but forgot). I just hope SOPA ends soon :mad:

I heard that Anonymous has DDoSed the Department of Justice in retaliation. :p

Now it's war.

Does that have anything to do with SOPA?

Supposedly not. Don't you find the timing a bit too convenient, though?

Gizmodo article listing which sites have been taken down.

fbi.gov?! :eyepop

Gotta hand it to 'em. These guys have brass 'uns.

Let's see them try taking down Mossad's website. :carms:

Mossad would hunt them down and kill them all.

SOPA IS DEAD. Long live the internet!
 

SOPA APPEARS TO BE DEAD. SCORE ONE FOR THE INTERNETZ. Well, 'until there is a wider agreement on a solution.'

But still, rejoice, internet nerds!

^
There's still the PIPA vote due the 24 of this month, and Smith is pushing SOPA for February.

Crazier citizens will shoot it down with threats. I don't think these laws will change how we experience this kind of media within a four year radius, at any rate. But grab what you can. Imagine a perfectly legal internet, where goods are sold legitimately at the rate we consume music of illegitimacy, lets say. Now imagine laws that snap some sense into our current system, and a reasonable system of server and domain jurisdiction in cooperation with the various governments... hey, a way for us to all get together! And systems preventing the piracy of said content. Establishment of information sharing and sharing licenses, music players and subscription systems? Why not. Technology to enhance and redistribute the delivery of media and information.

I myself would love to see the end of internet piracy and... lets say, copletely lax usage of popular culture power by people... literally decked out in illegality, who do not understand the real risk of pushing these types of goods without properly purchasing them.

^
I believe in the old addage "give credit, where credit is do" and of course these artists and copyright holders by all means SHOULD be entitled to payment for their hard earned work. However, as it stands with such a poorly written, ambiguously vague bill as SOPA anyone seen photographed wearing a T-shirt with the Pepsi logo on it potentially could get hammered for copyright infringment. That Is from what I understand to be the bigger "scope" that has everyone up in arms, if this thing passes things are seriously going to get out of hand. But hey I will give my U.S. government one thing; when they qactually see something through until the end they tend to get 100% results - that is of course excluding a 99% jobless ecconomy, healthcare crisis, and a US economy on the verge of bankruptcy nigh due to all of these future fantastic lawsuits that will be popping up. But of course the internet right now is much, much more important than getting the ecconomy back on its feet or those jobs that were promised three years ago. How about that healthcare package? Naw the interwebz is way more important.

Perhaps the key to order is for the citizenry to determine when the time is right to sober our internet laws and methods. I feel as though the government is not getting personal enough with their involvement of citizens in the decision making process for these new laws.

I'm not clear if this is sarcasm or not?

Not true, my friend. It has merely been shelved until next month. As for a post that follows this, where someone considers working 'with' the governments involved, the government will partner with a corporate entity, but never with it's people. Our lawmakers no longer respond to the grass roots, rather they listen to the ones who hand them money or favors.

my buzz = killed

Here's a buzz killer for you; the first rule of dealing with a new law is to remember that until it is tested in court, it only has potential, like the attempt during the Clinton Administration to make the hand gun manufacturers liable for violent crime.

Picture this; I am joe blow on another unaffiliated SW website. I find out that some one has taken some of my work and posted it on this site as theirs. Under DMCA (Digital Millienium Copyright Act, the present law) I send a nastyo note to the mods on this site. They check, find out it's true, and delete the posts, sending nasty notes to the guy who did it and maybe 86 him.

Now use the SOPA rules as written; (and remember, a lawyer can twist a law into a pretzel to make money) the same thing occurs. As the owner of that material, I can sue not only the plagerist, I can also sue the big man, GL as a coroporate entity. How is that for ruining your buzz?

^ I feel like I will never smile again.

Just hope enough of us internet users inundated our reps with 'vote for this, and we'll vote in the Hippo from the local zoo instead of you'.

Not really, just cynicism.

Ctrl Alt Del replied to that perfectly. How crappy.

As I'm probably the oldest one here, I can tell you for a fact that every time the government decides to do things like this, it's because they wrote checks with their mouths that they can't cash with their own butt. After the Branch Davidian slaughter at Waco, Congress decided to investigate the way BATF works.

There had been complaints before when the agency had seized personally owned weapons then ran the owners around in court as if it were an Organized Crime case, then when the weapons were finally returned, it was discovered they had been dumped in a barrel without a cover and left in a warehouse without guards so half were missing but hey, that's not BATF's problem, so no recompense.

Then before the investigation can happen, we have Oklahoma City (My favorite conspiracy theory [Old crime adage, who profits]) because the only Federal Agency that got what they wanted out of that was the BATF.

The problem with SOPA and PIPA is that ANY site that is deemed to have access to the intellectual property of someone else can be sued into non-existence even as a hyperlink. For instance, a person on here has a link in their signature that goes to Megaupload. Mega Upload has a clip hosted and uploaded by someone else that has music in the background that is owned by another company. That company can get Mega Upload, and even this site closed down. Even worse, a competing company can have an employee host a clip with their own product and put a link to it on their competitor's web site and get them shut down. It's a great tool for a big company to kill competition.

^
LF may as well shutdown if these things get accepted, I mean unless we all have question marks (unless the question mark is also copyrighted)for avatars and nothing for signatures because even a text quote is considered "intellectual property".

Sounds convinient. And next thing you know the army is patrolling outside your house for your own safety. And then they vote for you, just so they're sure you vote whats best for you.

It may sound far-fetched but as far as the US government is concerned it (i.e. the Entertainment Industry) can make much more money by severely limiting the country's personal freedoms and replace them with those that they will profit from (and in return Hollywood will continue to purchase more politicians & congressmen and the democratic system will continue to stagnate). It's enslavement if you ask me.

Seconded.