Tullsy
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SOPA/PIPA
Posted: Jan 18, 2012, 00:38:55
I'm going to start this discussion off on a light note. If you haven't noticed, already, a number of sites (apparently over 7000) have decided to enact various levels of blackouts today (January 18th) in protest of SOPA/PIPA, American legislation aimed over the shoulders of internet pirates and directly at the American consumer/content hoster.
One of the bigger names (besides, of course, Google - today's US Doodle is a black rectangle), is Wikipedia. They're blacking out the English version of Wikipedia (over 20,000,000 articles) for the next 24 hours. Of course, there are, sadly, idiots in this world who apparently can't read. This is what's being called a livestream-Wiki-panic and it's definitely putting a humorous twist on the situation. (NSFW language)
I'll perhaps continue a SOPA/PIPA discussion in the morning. Last Edited: Jan 18, 2012, 00:39:34
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cpnichol
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Re: SOPA/PIPA
Posted: Jan 18, 2012, 12:00:06
That Twitter feed is very funny.
I liked this:
http://theoatmeal.com/sopa
They're terrible bills, badly written by people who don't understand how the internet works, won't stop piracy and would have massive consequences for many websites that have nothing to do with piracy. |
Tullsy
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Re: SOPA/PIPA
Posted: Jan 18, 2012, 17:13:14
Apparently within the first 12 hours, 4 million people signed the petition on Google's Take Action site (also, if you haven't seen their US only Doodle, today, well, Google it). That's a pretty staggering number.
Also worth noting, the US Senate website was down for a few hours today, so obviously something's happening and the founder of Facebook came out publically against SOPA in a FB status (among all things :D) and it received 75,000 likes in its first 10 minutes O.o. It's good to see some of the largest names in the industry stand up and say something is seriously wrong with the government when Hollywood shows up on Capitol Hill with $97 million dollars and suddenly the entire House is on the same page. |
Tullsy
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Re: SOPA/PIPA
Posted: Jan 19, 2012, 23:12:10
So, with the take down of MegUpload today, the MPAA and the RIAA have effectly proved that they do not need a bill like SOPA or PIPA to combat piracy, revealing that the true intentions of the bills are purely for censorship of the American internet.
Rumors are that congress is going to take the important parts of SOPA (which is going to have a tough time passing after yesterday's mass exodus of bill sponsors ( http://projects.propublica.org/sopa/)) and tack them onto another bill, H.R.1981 or "Protecting Children From Internet Pornographers Act of 2011." |
cpnichol
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Re: SOPA/PIPA
Posted: Jan 19, 2012, 23:14:21
New twist:
http://www.news.com.au/technology/fbi-shuts-down-megauploadcom-charges-seven-with-online-piracy/story-e6frfro0-1226249114650
Great, all those map packs I put together for the anti cheat team just got deleted by the FBI. Thanks, they didn't take me ages or anything.
Start of the first World Wide Web War anyone? |
cpnichol
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Re: SOPA/PIPA
Posted: Jan 20, 2012, 13:30:22
This is quite a good explanation of the charges against Megaupload:
http://torrentfreak.com/megaupload-what-made-it-a-rogue-site-worthy-of-destruction-120120/
And:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-16642369
The charges basically say that not only was there copyrighted material but that some staff knew about it, didn't remove it as they should and paid people to upload copyrighted material. Megaupload deny this, calling the charges "grotesquely overblown".
There are going to be a lot of Megaupload users, as there are a lot of people who use it for perfectly legal purposes, wondering if they will ever be able to access their data again.
This is going to be very interesting, guilty or innocent Megaupload is most likely going to be destroyed by this. Being tied up in legal action and court cases for years has taken down other businesses, even if they were eventually found innocent, like:
http://www.wired.com/epicenter/2010/02/veoh-files-for-bankruptcy-after-fending-off-infringement-charges/
All this also raises a rather interesting question about SOPA and PIPA. If copyright holders are able to take such dramatic international action to take down a site and arrest the people running, why do they need even more sweeping powers? Last Edited: Jan 20, 2012, 13:34:47
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Tullsy
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Re: SOPA/PIPA
Posted: Jan 20, 2012, 17:21:37
That last paragraph there (dare I brave the quoting system?), Phil, is what I was getting at with the first paragraph on my last post. They've shown that they CAN, in fact, and have the money, in fact, to approach offenders in a democratic and fair manner, making SOPA/PIPA useless. |
cpnichol
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Re: SOPA/PIPA
Posted: Jan 20, 2012, 17:33:51
Apparently this incident was the result of a new/ongoing treaty called ACTA (Anti Counterfeiting Trade Agreement).
http://www.newscientist.com/blogs/onepercent/2012/01/actas-global-copyright-clampdo.html
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anti-Counterfeiting_Trade_Agreement
That doesn't sound much better than SOPA/PIPA, also the only reason anyone knows what's in it is because of stuff that got posted on Wikileaks. Regular methods for finding out what's in it, like asking or freedom of information requests have been rejected. Not sure if that counts as democratic or fair. |
Tullsy
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Re: SOPA/PIPA
Posted: Jan 21, 2012, 01:16:23
Little bit of an update. Google says that over 7 million people have added their signature to their Take Action petition.
To put it in context, a similar petition on AVAAZ.org took 3 months to reach 1.25 million and another on stopsopa.org (or whatever), only reached 700,000 signatures in the same timeframe. It really goes to show how good Google is at getting the word around. A simple link on their homepage generated a massive influx of people wanting to voice their concerns.
Oh, and for what it's worth, SOPA has been pulled by it sponsor (Llamar Smith of Texas); however, he will be pushing the bill I posted about above through congress in the coming months. It's just another face for the same problem. |
cpnichol
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Re: SOPA/PIPA
Posted: Jan 21, 2012, 10:09:53
A guy from the MPAA publicly states what they expect from politicians they give money to and threaten to stop giving money to those that didn't do what they wanted:
Quote: Those who count on quote 'Hollywood' for support need to understand that this industry is watching very carefully who's going to stand up for them when their job is at stake. Don't ask me to write a check for you when you think your job is at risk and then don't pay any attention to me when my job is at stake,
http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20120120/14472117492/mpaa-directly-publicly-threatens-politicians-who-arent-corrupt-enough-to-stay-bought.shtml
I don't think many will be surprised that this is how it works, but it is surprising to have someone be stupid enough to announce it on a national news station. |
Tullsy
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Posts: 2703
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Re: SOPA/PIPA
Posted: Jan 21, 2012, 14:12:10
I can certainly abstain from going to movies and buying music for a while and a lot of people are feeling the same way.\\
Edit: wow, yes. Last Edited: Jan 21, 2012, 14:15:03
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cpnichol
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Posts: 5684
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Re: SOPA/PIPA
Posted: Jan 22, 2012, 17:56:50
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Tullsy
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Posts: 2703
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Re: SOPA/PIPA
Posted: Jan 22, 2012, 18:42:56
Meanwhile, an international bill, the ACTA, is effectively doing the exact same thing SOPA and PIPA threatened to do, but it's already been passed.
Congresses sure like to slip things past those they're representing.
Also worth nothing, apparently Anon, in response to the media's lack of coverage over the entire spectacle (among other reasons) wiped CBS's database clean after hacking their way into CBS servers. Entertaining to say the least. |
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