[X] My Assistant

[The Void]

"To promote prosperity, creativity, entrepreneurship, and innovation by combating the theft of U.S. property, and for other purposes."

Most of you know this already. It's quite old.
But for those of you who don't know, SOPA (or Stop Online Piracy Act) is a bill introduced last October. Here's some information from Wikipedia:

The bill, if made law, would expand the ability of U.S. law enforcement and copyright holders to fight online trafficking in copyrighted intellectual property and counterfeit goods.

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 makes the request, the court order 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 ten 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.

I knew of this only recently, when I noticed Wikipedia was shutting itself down to go on strike against SOPA and PIPA, since if this bill were to be passed as a law, then it would seriously damage the free and open Internet, including Wikipedia itself. Other sites such as Tumblr, Mozilla, and Techdirt have taken action against the bill as well.

So I just wanted to know what are everyone's opinions about the bill, if it should be passed or not...

[Spokesman]

So SOPA/PIPA is intended to stop copyright infringement from what I understand. That would shut down countless websites, including big ones like YouTube and music streaming sites. That would take away an even bigger number of jobs. But the part I'm pissed about is the fact that I can't listen to music on YouTube or anything because I'd get arrested. I find this bill to be a piece of shit. /2 cents

[Yamper]

Bill passes?

Bye bye Internet. It's dumb.

There are other ways to go about piracy acts, however this is going the wrong way about things.

[Stark Coyote]

MEGAUPLOAD.COM IS DELETED!
The worlds most used site to upload links/pictures/videos/movies/ect. is now shut down.

http://www.foxnews.com/scitech/2012/01/19/...haring-website/

[Temporal Lizardo]

There's too many technical issues, and there's bound to be ways around it. If it were to pass I'm sure some Anon would figure a way around it in a week.

[Rua]

MEGAUPLOAD.COM IS DELETED!
The worlds most used site to upload links/pictures/videos/movies/ect. is now shut down.

http://www.foxnews.com/scitech/2012/01/19/...haring-website/

^^

Why we don't need SOPA/PIPA. If they want to shut something down (rightfully or wrongfully) they can already shut it down. This is just catering to the RIAA and other big interest groups.

[Wastelander]

I was following this on and off over the past months. It's complete and utter communism limiting and totalitarian - the very things, irony would have it, that America has been striving to fight against since way back when.

[Lokiva]

It's unconstitutional, it will never get passed because of that. It goes against our 1st amendment rights.

[Dazmi]

When you actually see the arguments the politicians use against piracy, it comes down to some rhetoric about China and THEY TOOK OUR JOBS. I'm being serious, that's more or less what they are saying. They're all old men who don't know how computers or the internet work and they think online piracy is the same thing as stealing from a store. Yes, it's not a good thing, but it's still more nuanced than a direct comparison between the two.

Senator Dodd was on Andrea Mitchell today and he couldn't even get the words to the DMCA correct. He replaced "Digital" with "Domestic", because they're turning this piracy issue into "China is stealing our material, reselling it and costing US jobs" (China has absolutely no regard to copyright whatsoever, fyi) instead of the real core issue and solution of how can people combat piracy by making buying things worth it. It almost feels like we need to keep Senator Grandpa away from the computer because he has no idea what he's doing.

All in all, I think this bill needs to be scrapped (rather than just put on hold) and they need to go back to the drawing boards. Hell, screw piracy, how about using your time doing something constructive? There's a lot to choose from, pick a card.

This post has been edited by Dazmi: Jan 21 2012, 04:46 AM

[Wastelander]

As far as I can tell, SOPA and even PIPA, too, have been postponed indefinitely after the protests waged this week and Anonymous' subsequent retaliation. But the motivation for such legislations is still there. So, we are by no means, to use the proverbial cliché, 'out of the woods' yet.

On a side note, I agree that places in Asia, and other less developed countries are snatching up IT jobs once abundant in the first world. Sure, it provides much needed jobs, but signs on, the quality of said services/products produced have been severely lacking. So much for saving money...

[Lord Raven]

My rant on how piracy does nothing but help our economy, adding to the fact that this does not result in a net sales lost. In fact, most people downloading this shit can't otherwise shell out the 30-60 bucks for a video game, couple hundred for a console, and 10 dollars/10 songs for many, many songs. That's not a net loss in the slightest, and if anything it builds up to a net gain.

[Wastelander]

Exactly, and sometimes you can only get certain movies, songs, etc via pirating 'cause you can't find them in shops in your area or else they're too expensive to buy online.

[Rua]

Oh, I do like that 'rant' of yours (I wouldn't call it a rant, I'd call it a well-thought out post on your position :P). On the same topic, what do you guys think about ACTA? Especially considering that a lot of countries (including USA and Canada) have already signed on?

[Lord Raven]

I actually have never heard of ACTA and I can't find a nice layman's terms version of it (like I could with SOPA) so I have no opinion yet.

[Yalorda]

I first saw it on GPX PLUS but then all youtube channels followed with uploads about SOPA...

[Rua]

I actually have never heard of ACTA and I can't find a nice layman's terms version of it (like I could with SOPA) so I have no opinion yet.

I'd say ACTA is more serious than SOPA. Here:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=citzRjwk-sQ

It's very similar to ACTA. The biggest difference I can think of is that SOPA is just USA, ACTA is multiple countries INCLUDING the USA.

This post has been edited by Rua: Jan 21 2012, 04:09 PM

[Ryuko]

The 'it's to protect kids from the internet' card. Real smooth.

[Wastelander]

ACTA's been described as a trade agreement on the prevention of the distribution of generic drugs and the sowing of certain, patented seeds, but it actually goes waaay beyond that;

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N8Xg_C2YmG0
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=citzRjwk-sQ

[Thiinka]

I wish I was British, and of legal age, to be able to contact the Parliament to not vote yes on ACTA.

That'll be the last straw: people will take to the streets and go to the centers of politics to protest. You can't keep the freedom of the Internet down without serious consequences.

[The Unholy Diver]

The bill, if made law, would expand the ability of U.S. law enforcement and copyright holders to fight online trafficking in copyrighted intellectual property and counterfeit goods.

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 makes the request, the court order 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 ten 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.

"Block the entire website???????!!!"

wth?
If a website is infringing a copyright, delete the infringed material and move on!!!
Or better yet, make it harder to make illeagal copys of copyright material!!!
I'm not sure i know much about this, but I heard from my geography teacher that it would comepletely end sites like youtube. even material that didn't violate a copyright...


either way, I still wish i could vote "no" to this law. They can make a way better approach to this