Say NO to SOPA & PIPA. Say NO to Censorship!

[Anthor]

Do Something. Sign a Petition. Call your Senators or Representatives. Get the Word Out. Say NO to SOPA & PIPA.

Millions of Americans oppose SOPA and PIPA because these bills would censor the Internet and slow economic growth in the U.S.
Two bills before Congress, known as the Protect IP Act (PIPA) in the Senate and the Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA) in the House, would censor the Web and impose harmful regulations on American business. Millions of Internet users and entrepreneurs already oppose SOPA and PIPA.

The Senate will begin voting on January 24th. Please let them know how you feel. Sign this petition urging Congress to vote NO on PIPA and SOPA before it is too late.

https://www.google.com/landing/takeaction/

For those not in the USA... Don't think that this won't affect you. Just look at how the US is attempting to extradite a British teenager for Criminal Copyright Infringement.

[Zeek]

this video is one of the best i've seen explaining the situation.

fortunately, SOPA has been shelved for the time being, but it PIPA still needs to be stopped. today, a number of major websites have gone on strike and are displaying this instead of their usual content.

please contact your congress person and spread the word to your friends and family. hopefully, we can kill this thing for good.


more links
http://americancensorship.org/infographic.html
https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2011/10/sopa-hollywood-finally-gets-chance-break-internet
http://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/news/2011/10/house-takes-senates-bad-internet-censorship-bill-makes-it-worse.ars
http://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/news/2011/05/sen-ron-wyden-to-place-a-hold-on-the-protect-ip-act.ars
http://www.opencongress.org/bill/112-h3261/show
http://www.opencongress.org/bill/112-s968/show

[Zeek]

consider that because these bills are so vaguely worded, the music thread could potentially be enough for shartak to run afoul of copywrite holders and it's domain name revoked.

[Anthor]

Good Links Zeek. Yes, any of our favorite games, including Shartak could be de-listed from the Domain Name System for one user posting a link to a copyrighted item. They could also cut off funding, via banks or paypal.

Debate on SOPA has only been postponed until February. Both Bills need to be killed in their entirety.

[Cobalt Manticore]

In the Interest of standing up against Online Piracy today... I killed Raffles.

[andrewbuff]

im against all this sopa stuff and all, but damnit theres stuff on wikipedia i wanna look up!

[Dani]

im against all this sopa stuff and all, but damnit theres stuff on wikipedia i wanna look up!

There's a way to get around it. As soon as the page loads the text just hit stop. You have to go through google or a search engine for that to work though, if you try to access another link on the wiki, it'll go black and you won't be able to return to the last page.

Not that I'm advocating doing that. But if you're not American there's not much to be gained out of the protest.

[Iceman]

Not being a misguided Yankee, I've not really looked into the situation. But what I find disgusting is that it's only when money is involved that serious measures are proposed to control online content. Not children being abused, not the propagation of hateful, hate-filled propoganda, not recruitment for terrorist rganisations - but copyright infringement. It's a sad, sad indicator of what really makes the world go round.

That still doesn't make it right to steal digital content though.

[Jalal]

I must be one of the lone voices that agree with this bill

[jaqs]

I must be one of the lone voices that agree with this bill

Probably.
But why do you agree?

[Jalal]

I disagree with the abuse of copyright and whilst I understand the ambiguous nature of the bill I believe that strengthing copyright will generate money for the economy and create jobs. It appears to me the only ones who have issues with this bill are the major internet sites that would need to enforce regulation on themselves well I am sorry but copyright abuse is wrong and illegal and thus I support!

[jaqs]

I disagree with the abuse of copyright and whilst I understand the ambiguous nature of the bill I believe that strengthing copyright will generate money for the economy and create jobs. It appears to me the only ones who have issues with this bill are the major internet sites that would need to enforce regulation on themselves well I am sorry but copyright abuse is wrong and illegal and thus I support!

True... but it needs to be a bit less ambiguous so that the people who generate money for the economy and create jobs using websites aren't put out of business. It would mean that all that internet business leaves the US and goes to other countries who are more lenient.

And really... who HASN'T had their work stolen on the internet copyright or not. It is a different world so shouldn't we just adapt to that?

My personal opinion is that most people are lazy. Give them a choice of going to a freaking lot of trouble to figure out how to pirate movies or music then figure out where to find what they want or just pay someone 99 cents to place it lovingly in their iTunes for them ... I bet most people pay for it. I know I am too lazy.... I have Spotify.

[Anthor]

Most people agree that stealing someone else's work is wrong. The way the Bills are written though, are SO ambiguous that they be easily abused. The Music & Movie Industry are already abusing the DMCA to have content removed that is not even their content. The Feds are abusing current laws to take down servers that have a possible copyright issue with one website, but they remove all of the servers, taking down thousands of legitimate business sites that have nothing to do with the copyright infringer, and destroying peoples livelihood.

These new laws will destroy the Internet as we currently know it, stifling free speech, and crushing legitimate business. Instead of forcing someone to remove a link that a user has posted to their site (unbeknownst to the site owner) the entire site can be blacklisted via the domain name and via all financial institutions.


It's time for people to take a stand. We're already halfway towards a fascist state run by big business, where they have more protections than a person. Where 10% of the population is in jail and it's just a matter of time before the rest of our constitutional rights are gone. They just passed a law that allows for the unlimited detention without trial of US citizens.

What did you do on the day they took away our freedom? It's a constant battle. We must join together, and take a stand. Or one day we'll wake up and be living in internment camps in our own country.

[Iceman]

I still haven't really looked into this. But I don't hold with the internet being a bastion of free speech and freedom of expression. That's just a get-out-of-jail-free card for people who want to be assholes. It wasn't created for that purpose, but merely as a means of sharing data. What the internet is, is an industry/concept/entity that is evolving at such a speed that contemporary morals and recognised social structures simply cannot keep up. Is it any wonder that legislation is hastily put together, and so lacking in many areas?

As I said, I don't know the specifics here. But something does need to be done. The internet can't be allowed to simply free-wheel - too much depends on it already, and that is only going to be more true in the future. It should be regulated, and controlled, and yes, policed. Every other aspect of our lives are - for the sake of the individual and of the society - and the internet is not, despite some fervently-held beliefs, holy.

[Dani]

It's time for people to take a stand. We're already halfway towards a fascist state run by big business, where they have more protections than a person. Where 10% of the population is in jail and it's just a matter of time before the rest of our constitutional rights are gone. They just passed a law that allows for the unlimited detention without trial of US citizens.

They have not. That law specifically forbids application to US citizens. PATRIOT has curtailed your freedoms, not the defense discretionary funding bill.