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SOPA: Had it coming I guess...


Nick Vader

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The Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA) is a bill that was introduced in the United States House of Representatives on October 26, 2011, by Representative Lamar Smith and a bipartisan group of 12 initial co-sponsors. The bill expands the ability of U.S. law enforcement and copyright holders to fight online trafficking in copyrighted intellectual property and counterfeit goods. Now before the House Judiciary Committee, it builds on the similar PRO-IP Act of 2008 and the corresponding Senate bill, the PROTECT IP Act.

The originally proposed bill would allow the U.S. Department of Justice, as well as copyright holders, to seek court orders against websites accused of enabling or facilitating copyright infringement. Depending on who requests the court orders, the actions could include barring online advertising networks and payment facilitators such as PayPal from doing business with the allegedly infringing website, barring search engines from linking to such sites, and requiring Internet service providers to block access to such sites. The bill would make unauthorized streaming of copyrighted content a crime, with a maximum penalty of five years in prison for 10 such infringements within six months. The bill also gives immunity to Internet services that voluntarily take action against websites dedicated to infringement, while making liable for damages any copyright holder who knowingly misrepresents that a website is dedicated to infringement.

Proponents of the bill say it protects the intellectual property market and corresponding industry, jobs and revenue, and is necessary to bolster enforcement of copyright laws especially against foreign websites. They cite examples such as Google's $500 million settlement with the Department of Justice for its role in a scheme to target U.S. consumers with ads to buy illegal prescription drugs from Canadian pharmacies. Opponents say that it violates the First Amendment, is Internet censorship, will cripple the Internet, and will threaten whistle-blowing and other free speech.

The House Judiciary Committee held hearings on SOPA on November 16 and December 15, 2011. The Committee is scheduled to continue debate when Congress returns from its winter recess.

During December 2011 and early January 2012, support of the bill began to be described as "toxic" for supporting companies and an "election liability" for legislators. Subsequently proponents began hinting that key provisions might be deferred with opponents stating this was inadequate. Ex-supporter Go Daddy switched after "hemorrhaging" in a mass customer exodus. Wider protests have been considered and in some cases committed to by major internet sites, with high profile bodies such as Google, Facebook, Twitter, Yahoo, Amazon, AOL, Reddit, Mozilla, LinkedIn, IAC, Ebay, Paypal, Wordpress and Wikimedia being widely named as "considering" or committed to an "unprecedented" internet blackout on the day of the 18 January 2012 hearing.

 

 

 

Any thoughts on this?

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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."

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*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

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I'm not too fond of this subforum anymore.

 

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?

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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:

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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.

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^

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.

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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.

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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'm not clear if this is sarcasm or not?

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