[BizzarreCoyote]

S.O.P.A is the Stop Online Piracy Act. It is currently running it's way through Congress, and has a very realistic chance of passing. In essence, it gives the Entertainment Industry the power to simply shut down websites they accuse of piracy and/or counterfeiting, or anything else the Entertainment Industry accuses of such. This includes websites such as Facebook, Youtube, Tumblr, DeviantArt, Reddit and many, MANY others.

This also includes Search Engines such as Google or Yahoo.

Here's a more in-depth description:


I implore all of you to sign the petition against this.

Link to the Petition: http://act.demandpro...JTkqV4&rd=1&t=2

Link to write your congressperson: https://writerep.hou...p/welcome.shtml

Remember, the Entertainment Industry are the people who sue 12 year olds using methods meant for big companies. If they're allowed to pass this...we Americans can pretty much kiss the internet goodbye.

This post has been edited by BizzarreCoyote: 18 November 2011 - 12:54 AM

[S13driftAZ]

Errrr..... I cant say I think its morally right to pirate stuff, or even sign the petition. But I'd be real sad if the Pirate Bay went bye bye.

[BizzarreCoyote]

No no no, you don't understand. This gives Entertainment companies the right to shut down sites such as youtube for *background music* playing. I agree that piracy is wrong, but the terms of the bill are far too broad. This targets absolutely anything with copyrighted material, regardless of it's use.

[CrossXchaos]

While I agree with its cause, I don't agree with its execution. I doubt there'd be any realistic use for it, but the Entertainment Industry's been known to be a bit copyright-crazy.
Eventually this'll just be used for them to sue each other and get monopolies. They shouldn't have powers that they should never use.

[One]

I have been following this for a little bit, but I can't sign anything cause I'm not an American. Hope Canada doesn't follow suite with this.

[S13driftAZ]

BizzarreCoyote, on 17 November 2011 - 06:28 PM, said:

No no no, you don't understand. This gives Entertainment companies the right to shut down sites such as youtube for *background music* playing. I agree that piracy is wrong, but the terms of the bill are far too broad.


This targets absolutely anything with copyrighted material, regardless of it's use.

Stop Online Piracy Act = The Pirate Bay

I'm not so sure you understand dude

This post has been edited by S13driftAZ: 18 November 2011 - 06:56 AM

[Polantaris]

S13driftAZ, on 18 November 2011 - 01:56 AM, said:

Stop Online Piracy Act = The Pirate Bay

I'm not so sure you understand dude

The title...means absolutely nothing.

It's the wording in the act itself. The wording is extremely vague, and basically allows the Entertainment Industry to ban any site they want under the guise of piracy. If someone posted a link to some piracy site here, the next day Minegarde is now banned by the government. Google, Facebook, Twitter, and plenty of other MAIN STREAM sites are not opposing this because they support piracy. They are opposing this because it's straight out bullshit. It violates everything we know, and shuts down free speech.

http://americancensorship.org

Quote

Website Blocking
The government can order service providers to block websites for infringing links posted by any users.

Risk of Jail for Ordinary Users
It becomes a felony with a potential 5 year sentence to stream a copyrighted work that would cost more than $2,500 to license, even if you are a totally noncommercial user, e.g. singing a pop song on Facebook.

Chaos for the Internet
Thousands of sites that are legal under the DMCA would face new legal threats. People trying to keep the internet more secure wouldn't be able to rely on the integrity of the DNS system.

You know all those gaming streams people enjoy? Illegal under this act.
You know how bots post links to illegal sites on your forums? Your forums are now blocked.
You know all those sites you enjoy, like Facebook, Twitter, and even Google? Potentially blocked.

If you're supporting this, you have no idea what you're supporting. It's that simple.

[S13driftAZ]

This is starting to sound like a plot to take over the internet....

Anonymous isnt gonna let that happen, not even if pigs fly and hell freezes over.

[SemajChaos]

CrossXchaos, on 17 November 2011 - 05:36 PM, said:

While I agree with its cause, I don't agree with its execution. I doubt there'd be any realistic use for it, but the Entertainment Industry's been known to be a bit copyright-crazy.
Eventually this'll just be used for them to sue each other and get monopolies. They shouldn't have powers that they should never use.

I heard that Obama vetoed the bill.

[Polantaris]

http://thehill.com/b...eutrality-rules

Obama being useful...amazing.

Outside of that, though, it's still possible to overrule his veto. It just requires two-thirds vote on both houses of Congress (Which is probably never going to happen).

Isn't America supposed to be owned by the people? Billions of Americans are opposing this (Just look at the American Censorship hashtag, it gets like 20-50 tweets a minute about it by different people every time)...this shouldn't even be considered. It's insane that a few corporations with hands in Congressmen's pockets can result in the people being ignored.

[tobyaG]

In NZ they recently passed a law to punish people who pirate

You get 3 strikes before they fine you $10,000

its pretty useless, i havent heard of anyone being caught yet lol

[Polantaris]

tobyaG, on 19 November 2011 - 05:19 PM, said:

In NZ they recently passed a law to punish people who pirate

You get 3 strikes before they fine you $10,000

its pretty useless, i havent heard of anyone being caught yet lol

I think it's more to catch people who UPLOAD the software, not the people who download them, since most people have downloaded at least one thing illegally in this day and age. The way to stop it is not to stop people who are downloading, but people who are uploading, because if there's no uploaders (Or it's too risky to upload), then no one will be able to download because there will be nothing to download.

It's like drugs. You're not going to stop drugs by arresting users. You're going to stop drugs by arresting distributors.

[UnsoundMrBlaze]

WHAT IS HAPPENING TO THE WORLD?

[Masamune]

^Its going to hell in a handbasket.

[S13driftAZ]

Whats the status of this?

[LoneSyndal]

Its up for review again today. Let's hope it burns and dies.

[HiddenStar]

http://www.virtualshackles.com/

hah...