SOPA & ACTA

The Void · Jan 17, 2012

SOPA Motto said:
"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. Basically here's what it does:

Wikipedia said:
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 when I saw that 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... feel free to openly discuss about your opinions about the bill and express your thoughts and feelings about it here. Also, so you can be up-to-date with the current discussions about the bill, current news and updates concerning the bill shall be placed below.

[S-HIGHLIGHT]Current Events and Updates Regarding S.O.P.A. (edited and updated regularly):[/S-HIGHLIGHT]

Spoiler:

Extra Stuff:

Spoiler:

LOLCats Anti-SOPA Video:

Spoiler:

A list of companies in favor of SOPA:

Spoiler:

Captain Fabio · Jan 17, 2012

The English language Wikipedia is going on a 24 hour blackout tomorrow and if they keep pushing for this bill, bigger sites like Google are going to follow.

It will kill so many sites and will have a negative.

In the end, I don't think it will fully get into effect.

Mr. X · Jan 17, 2012

Everyone is going on and on about how this bill is going to kill everything.

In wording it will, but in implementation? It's going to be focused on warez, torrentz, usenetz, and maglinkz. Basically, illegal downloads in general. And sites selling fakes of items... which would most likely hit the Chinese economy hard.

If it passes, the people will ensure that they only go as far as they said the law was going to allow them to, no matter how poorly worded the law is. If they do beyond that, although the law would allow it, you'll without a doubt be seeing massive riots from the people and a mass amount of websites doing temp shutdowns in response.

Do I support this law? No.
Do I support the ideals behind this law? Yes.
Can I see how bad this law could screw things up? Yes.
Do I see that the people will enforce limits on the law, despite its wording? Yes, and this question is one that most are ignoring.

donavannj · Jan 17, 2012

Mr. X said:
Do I see that the people will enforce limits on the law, despite its wording? Yes, and this question is one that most are ignoring.

You and I must not have the same trust in authority, then. I can see bureaucrats and politicians being manipulated by those with money and influence to allow shutdowns that go beyond the supposed limits you see people enforcing simply because the letter of the law lets them get away with it.

All this considering that, at the beginning of the current millennium, these corporations, whether it was willingly or inadvertently, showed people how to pirate their stuff and even aided them in doing so through their various websites (though I'm sure many of these companies didn't exactly have as strict of control of these websites as they do now). What I see by these corporations wanting this to be passed is an unwillingness to adapt to their self-inflicted wounds and trying to force the enforcement of their copyright onto corporations who have their own copyrights and intellectual properties to worry about, and onto file-hosting companies who already do considerable work keeping their sites clean of such materials and will remove the IP of a company at its request. The current model allows those who see piracy as a viral marketing tool to spread word about their product, while allowing those who don't want piracy of their products to use legal processes for its removal.

However, SOPA has stalled for the short term. Chances are it will reemerge later on after the uproar over it has died down considerably.

Speedster · Jan 17, 2012

I am greatly against SOPA in all ways. It would take away the freedom of many to just generally have fun. We are not committing any actions on this website or many others in which we are being unfair to companies such as Nintendo and Game Freak. If anything we are promoting there business farther.

And yes I have to agree with Team Fail. If this Act was in place the PokeCommunity would lose many of its sections and would most likely lose many, many followers.

Mr. X · Jan 17, 2012

donavannj said:
You and I must not have the same trust in authority, then. I can see bureaucrats and politicians being manipulated by those with money and influence to allow shutdowns that go beyond the supposed limits you see people enforcing simply because the letter of the law lets them get away with it.

My opinion has nothing to do with those in power. It depends on the average person, not a person who is paid 6 figures just to wear a suit and sit at a desk all day.

Also, they only have the money (Which gives them power and influence.) because the people give it to them. To break their power, everyone would have to abstain from products that give them that power. And guess what? No. One. Wants. Is the bill a power-grab? Yes. Are the people *****ing complaining about it the ones that are helping to funding it? Yes.

Throughout the past 20 years, everytime a law/ruling comes down against piracy you'll immediately have large groups of people start clamoring that 'Dis iz gonna killz teh int3rn3tz!'

Some (older) reading material from a couple months ago.

https://blog.mpaa.org/BlogOS/post/2...’s-Demise-Have-Been-Greatly-Exaggerated-.aspx

https://www.copyhype.com/2011/11/dispatches-from-the-sopacolypse/

I have another story that I want to post that takes the other side but I can't remember the name. It was a list of all the actions and copyright laws that the corporations pushed through and its tone was pretty much that they are going to keep pushing tougher and tougher laws through even though they are not needed. (But, as current laws have failed, newer and stronger laws ARE needed.)

I'm just going to say again that I'm against SOPA.

Guest123_x1 · Jan 17, 2012

As much as supporters are clamoring about how this proposal will be "necessary" to combat "rampant" online piracy, let's be clear about one thing-it won't do a single thing to stop piracy (much like how the egregiously misnamed "Border Security and Immigration Improvement Act" does not do anything to secure our borders from illegal immigrants or terrorists.) Instead, as many are saying, it will do everything to censor the Internet and shut down many legitimate sites.
Bottom line: this must be stopped at all costs (although it is likely to be rammed through by our rubber-stamping Congress).

Greiger · Jan 17, 2012

For those of you who do think that SOPA will not be abused, let me share a story. Last year near November I believe the popular site Megaupload was taken down for a day. For those who don't know Megaupload is a site where users can upload any kind of document, video, and whatever else you want to share with the world. When it was taken down singers such as P. Diddy, Kanye West, and Chris Brown branded together and created a song called the Mega Song and can be viewed here, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o0Wvn-9BXVc.

Universal Music Group pulled the video claiming that the singers were violating their copyright contracts. They didn't. YouTube later reposted the video and UMG said that they could take down videos from YouTube because of some agreements they had made a few years together.

With even stricter laws on internet censorships what could other corporations do? What could movie and music corporations do if you upload something that they disagree with? You can find a link on the youtube page for more on the story.

Mercurybro · Jan 17, 2012

Personally I don't see reason to worry. There are too many big players on both sides for there to be any horrible impact on the users.

And if there is a horrible impact, there is always a way around it. The "problem" this act is trying to fix can always be made more complicated, which can either cause copyright holders to forget about enforcing the law or cause groups of cyber police to form.

Either way, looks like fun. :)

Bela · Jan 17, 2012

https://thehill.com/blogs/hillicon-valley/technology/204167-sopa-shelved-until-consensus-is-found

So now we're just waiting to see what happens with PIPA. It seems Reid is determined to push for a vote on this bill.

jpp8 · Jan 17, 2012

Team Fail said:
Well, from what I have now heard, even if Congress passes the bill, Obama won't sign it as he too is against it, but I have read that the bill was shelved (I'm waiting on complete confirmation on both). So it seems that SOPA could now be the least of our worries, now we have to turn to PIPA.

Obama not signing anything would be meaningless if a bill receives so much support from both parties. Remember, the checks and balances system in this country works in a way so that a 2/3rds support in Congress can overturn a presidential veto.

Instead of crying because they're losing profit to the internet, why not find a new way to profit off this information super highway (like DLC and HD movie rentals)? Oh wait...

Mr. X · Jan 18, 2012

https://thehill.com/blogs/hillicon-...y-protests-smith-to-move-ahead-on-piracy-bill

Newer story.

"It is our hope that the White House and the Congress will call on those who intend to stage this 'blackout' to stop the hyperbole and PR stunts and engage in meaningful efforts to combat piracy."

Truth. Instead of blacking out service in protest, they should be actively combating online piracy. If they did that, this bill would have never been made, and if it was never made then they wouldn't have had anything to protest about.

Is the government's solution to piracy a good one? No.
Have these protesting websites come up with better plans? Doubt it.

But still, Wikipedia has just lost my support. They say they want to remain unbiased. This stunt is so blatantly biased that you can't see anything but the bias.

The Void · Jan 18, 2012

So I see there are a few people here supporting the SOPA Bill. Please, before anyone else starts supporting it as well, please know what it will do to the internet world. It will no longer be a place of fun. It will no longer be the place as we know it. If this bill gets passed, a lot of sites, even Google itself will be greatly destroyed and will lose its profits, and then many other sites will follow. Help us protect the internet world. Or else it will be a disaster.

Mr. X · Jan 18, 2012

(Don't support it)

In the same sence, before you start believing in all the 'internet gonna die when this passes' talk, remember. The same words have been said pretty much every time when a new copyright law is being voted on.

Same words. said many times before. And guess what? Wrong every time.

Netto Azure · Jan 18, 2012

To me SOPA is just creating the same powers and tactics over the Internet that oppressive regimes use.

Except they're being handed over to the Entertainment Industry. >_>

Also I am surprised that I went from Rep. Janice Hahn's (CA-36) District to Rep. Henry Waxman's (CA-30) District and that his position on SOPA/PIPA is unknown considering he represents West Hollywood, Malibu and where some of the Entertainment industries people live.

The Void · Jan 18, 2012

Mr. X said:
(Don't support it)

In the same sence, before you start believing in all the 'internet gonna die when this passes' talk, remember. The same words have been said pretty much every time when a new copyright law is being voted on.

Same words. said many times before. And guess what? Wrong every time.

The Internet won't die. It will just change dramatically. People will stop doing all these illegal things just because they have no choice. So if you're not against SOPA because the internet will somehow be destroyed, why exactly are you against it?

CapricornPsyche · Jan 18, 2012

I am severely against this bill... It's the same kind of system they use in NORTH KOREA... What's to say if PIPA passes it will be any different... The only way to even remotely combat piracy is to encourage people to buy all the products that suffer under piracy theft. and even then it's not going to stop it all together...

Platinum Lucario · Jan 18, 2012

Those bills... oh my goodness. They are just absolutely terrible! What can I say about it? Oh plenty of things. Those bills will threaten many web-based companies, which does indeed mean the social networking websites, and they won't end up surviving if those bills became law. So many new websites would be crippled from it, so many websites dedicated to copyright infringement would end up getting shut down without even allowing the website owner to defend themselves in court.

The world wide web is free and open to everyone, anyone can express themselves and share content in so many ways. We all want the world wide web to stay open and free to everyone. We don't want the world wide web under government control, but if these bills pass... many other countries would end up following suit, even here in my country of Australia would. And just the description of it is devastating.

I have been against those bills right from when I heard about those bills way back in November 2011 on the American Censorship Day. The bills are supported by nearly every single Hollywood entertainment company, because they desperately want to stop online piracy, but... to be perfectly honest, I support piracy because I'm a ROM Hacker who actually downloads ROMs and ISOs from websites to create my ROM Hack or even play the games on my Emulator. I don't support what the companies do to try and stop piracy. There is a difference between counterfeiting and piracy, piracy is when you share the digital content and give it other people (such as sharing ROMs, ISOs and ROM hacks), and counterfeiting is when someone makes a copy of something and sells it to a second-hand place to make money out of it. And of course... I am against counterfeiting, and I really believe that companies really shouldn't be trying to stop their content from being distributed, 'cause everyone has the right to share content to other people, once it's on the world wide web... it's available to everyone and everyone can enjoy the content for free, and what better way it should be with allowing digital content to be free? The only things that should only be payed for... is the structures (such as optical disks, cards ect).

What better way to settle it... is by having the digital content free and only to pay for the structures made? I would like to see a future of such things, and everyone able to distribute ROMs, ISOs and software. Because all the digital would become available for people to research and find out about the ancient software and stuff. If we still continued to stop piracy and become stricter about it for the next 100 years, then we won't be able to find out about the old software that used to exist today. The very old WildTangent games that I have on my old computer will become heritage games, and many of those games have been lost, because that company removes the old games that used to exist because of the new hardware for the computers come in. So just imagine if companies continued to hinder people from distributing content and remove every single access to being able to upload, extract from the optical disk and stuff... by lobbying the government to bring in those stricter laws? Then those games and such would become lost, gone... and won't be able to find out what those games are about... just like an animal becoming extinct.

If those bills ended up passing, then the whole of the US won't be able to have free speech, and on top of that... using the same method as what China uses, and the US would become just as bad as those countries in regards to how there's no freedom, and just imagine how bad that would be if it spreads worldwide? Websites would be all dedicated to the entertainment industry, and YouTube would become a place where no one would be able to create an account, and become a place where there are only trailers of movies, games and such of what companies submit to YouTube. The world wide web would become a place only for movie or gaming websites.

So which path should we take? A path that leads to stopping piracy which would threaten free speech? Or a path that supports piracy and sharing content to everyone and having free speech? We can't have it both ways (eg. free speech and stopping piracy), 'cause it's all going to come down to either one of them. The path I chose was the path that supports piracy and sharing content to everyone and having free speech.

EDIT: And just to also add that most of the entertainment industry wastes alot of their money on lobbying the government to bring in stricter laws, and not to also mention holidays as well as the most expensive things. Most of their shareholders are spent on lobbying the government, which they shouldn't be doing, instead they should just use it on buying the material used for making the structures (eg. optical disks).

Jayster23 · Jan 18, 2012

All i can say on this matter is "If it ain't broke, don't fix it"
People are happy with way things are. You have over 5 billion people's word over about 40-50 people who just wear a suit all day and yell at each other.
Leave it how it is so nobody goes all pissy on the matter.

Greiger · Jan 18, 2012

The bad thing is that Lamar Smith still thinks that the opposition is in the minority. Really? Does he really think that Wikipedia was made by only a few hundred people? Did he forget about Vint Cerf, THE FATHER OF THE INTERNET, coming together with 82 other inventors coming together to send a open letter to Congress pretty much saying this legislation is a bad idea https://technolog.msnbc.msn.com/_ne...cerf-other-internet-gurus-protest-piracy-bill? How about companies like Facebook and Google that are huge and millions of people use each day, are those just the minority? The guy seriously needs to get the wax out of those ears and listen!

SOPA & ACTA

Should the SOPA Bill be passed?

Yes, certainly!

No way, it's a bad idea.

hiiiii

It's... kinda effective?

The Unknown

It's... kinda effective?

Guest123_x1

Guest

A mad mind... hehe

Banned

Producer

It's... kinda effective?

hiiiii

It's... kinda effective?

Kiel

hiiiii

Psychic Trainer of Capricorn

The Legendary Master of [color=#D8D48C]Light[/colo

A mad mind... hehe