SOPA - Stop censorship!

[BrainBlow]

If you like the internet, you'll want to sign this:
American Censorship - Join the fight to stop SOPA

[Panta]

It's amazing how politics allows dinosaurs to run the country. America, the land of progression and freedom? Please. I like humour but that is too far below the belt.

Enjoy your Dark Ages America. Won't be long before the UK picks up on this (you know, being the brown-nosing, weak spined twats our government is).

[hamletsmage]

So, we're going through our Dark Age period a little late. Give us a break, we're only 200. We weren't around when you guys went though your Dark Age. v.v

So, it has supporters. Big whoop. Yeah, they support it, but they also like their seats in the Senate. They know that if they upset the voters too much (especially the newest demographic of 20-somethings), they're going to lose that seat. Support doesn't mean they'll vote for it, the corrupt bastards.

[BrainBlow]

eh, in the west we're too apathetic.
This could pass, and bloggers would rant, and people would bitch and complain and wonder what happened, and then the herd would follow the new norm soon enough.

[KyuuAL]

Yup. Here in America. We have a mix of:

SOPA, E-PARASITE, and PROTECT IP.

Who supports SOPA?
The three organizations that have probably been the most vocal are the MPAA, the Recording Industry Association of America, and the U.S. Chamber of Commerce. A Politico chart shows that Hollywood has outspent Silicon Valley by about ten-fold on lobbyists in the last two years.

How SOPA would affect you: FAQ | Privacy Inc. - CNET News

All lobbied by big media in the RIAA/MPAA. Remember these two? They've been at this sort of fight for at least a decade now, ever since Napster. This kind of legislation is their wet dream.

[randomredneck]

Originally Posted by BrainBlow

eh, in the west we're too apathetic.
This could pass, and bloggers would rant, and people would bitch and complain and wonder what happened, and then the herd would follow the new norm soon enough.

How come when i said something like that, people said i was an idiot?

[hamletsmage]

*starts to comment on random's post* No, it's too easy...

SOPA, E-PARASITE, and PROTECT IP - still bills as far as I know. They have yet to pass in either House or Senate, and would still need to be approved by the president, and then given time to be judged by the Supreme Court.

So, say a website host (no, let's make this reasonable) several hundred website hosts, bloggers, etc get their sites taken down because someone who visited their site posted an illegal link. Everything else about their site could be completely legit, except that one link. This pretty much opens the flood gates for having people flood government websites with the illegal links. So, the Senators/Representatives either take down their own sites or start facing heavy opposition the next time elections come around. These are bills that will literally bite the hand that feeds them. And if the government hasn't figured it already, they will soon enough.

And we've been dealing with censorship for decades. It's why books like Ray Bradbury's Fahrenheit 451 are so popular. Some community dinosaurs see something they don't like in a book and watch how fast libraries retract them from circulation. Now take that philosophy and insert "website" instead of "book". Most schools already have blocked websites here in the states. It was pretty much only a matter of time until it went to the government. My question though is, if Facebook and Twitter end up in the crosshairs, will we see the first "hipster" revolution?

[kirant]

After consoltation by actually reading the proposed bill, I'm finding several flaws in the statements being made in the opening image. It doesn't paint a fair image of the bill:
1) The actual ruling is that it has to be knowledgable and willing transmission of copyright infringement. In the case of forums and other media sharing websites, in that long list of things you probably don't read when saying that "I agree with to the Terms and Conditions", it says that you yourself are responsible for your links and postings...that everything you state is of your opinion. But wait...the forums will still be closed while that's being explained in court, right? Except...
2) In order to shut down a website, the government must recieve a court order. The judge in this must agree that there is substantial evidence in the trial that would make it fair game. It's actually quite hard when you realize they've been trying for years to cut down music piracy. Not to mention, the judge will act rationally, as he or she will have a pretty good awareness of the circumstances and the culture of the website before allowing government shutdown. Much like how they don't go after every forum that throws in a single child porn link, they go after the major sources of it. I cannot see a rational judge asking the government to pursue charges against Facebook because some kids got carried away and put up links to illegal wares. They'll be chasing after those with large movie supplies hosted on their website.
3) This only affects websites the US can actually pursue...IE American grown websites. Worst comes to worst and the US actually manages to bribe all the judges to go overboard with them, all sites pack up and leave to host their sites from a new location.
4) Not to mention, copyright infringement has a huge fair use side to it...it's something quite often forgotten when people discuss copyright and copyright infringement.

Will it have impacts? Possibly. I'm betting though on closer to nothing. Again, worst comes to worst, companies up and leave US servers, host elsewhere, where this bill has no effect and doesn't do anything against them.

EDIT - And didn't we already have a topic on this? That degenerated into name calling?

[Panta]

Originally Posted by KyuuAL

Yup. Here in America. We have a mix of:

SOPA, E-PARASITE, and PROTECT IP.



How SOPA would affect you: FAQ | Privacy Inc. - CNET News

All lobbied by big media in the RIAA/MPAA. Remember these two? They've been at this sort of fight for at least a decade now, ever since Napster. This kind of legislation is their wet dream.

A pity the RIAA and MPAA (to a lesser extent) are full of douchebags.

[Viduus]

Originally Posted by Panta

It's amazing how politics allows dinosaurs to run the country. America, the land of progression and freedom? Please. I like humour but that is too far below the belt.

Enjoy your Dark Ages America. Won't be long before the UK picks up on this (you know, being the brown-nosing, weak spined twats our government is).

Y'know, just because there's bills out there proposing for this to happen doesn't actually mean it will or has happened >.>