Stop Online Piracy Act

A friend showed me this today.

Well... here is a new bill with a lot of bipartisan support... that could very well pass (has a decent chance).

Better hope it doesn't though... or this site could be in trouble. This is what I call "over-policy".



Thoughts?

Does this remind anyone else of the Salem witch trials?

This bill is ingeniously designed. On the surface, it protects industries (STEALING IS BAD THIS BILL STOPS STEALING) but in reality it allows the government a sickening control of the internet.

Thank god I'm in Canada.

everyone sign the petition. This bill is crap

Correct me if I'm wrong, but does this technically mean if a user posted a link on a site to another site with pirated material, that site that was posted or commented on would be shut down?

MHUHAHAHAHA!

But seriously this is terrible.

Great. Now not only is every single inch of the Earth owned by a government, the non-existent area of the internet will be as well.

This bill is the biggest line of bull those legal assholes have tried to pass. I understand that there are copyright issues on the internet, but shutting down a post just becuase there's a link connected to a site with copyrighted material somewhere posted on it? Downright bullshit. What are they going to do next? Ban newspapers because they don't have rights to whatever the article is about? Forbid the broadcasting of the news because the street they didn't have rights to the private property the street was connected to? I could go on for hours about this, we all could but it's not going to accomplish anything, they're going to pass it just because they want to control our "freedom". It's ironic that they're trying to pass bills to defend our rights when really they're just taking them away, there's a "change" for ya. Obama is killing this country.

That was the most balogna shit I've ever heard. Greedy fuckers should get hung upside down and whipped.

Yes, I'm mad.

Yeah i agree that piracy is bad. I just wish they would tell us how much content actually gets stolen though. Like how much money do these companies lose because of piracy? This whole situation is stupid

A law like this makes it extremely easy to destroy illegal material. Torrent sites would be child's play to destroy with this, but like Super said, this allows the government to have a disgusting amount of control over the internet.

I'm probably jumping to conclusions, but I feel acts like these are a slippery slope to a dark future. A lot of pivotal moments in history are happening right now, and we're at the frontlines for it all. Wars with no battles, no monuments, only casualties.

Just save us the time and make a totalitarian world government. The revolution will go quicker.

If this passes I'll have to use torr to get everything.

I don't want to use torr. My download speed will die.

if this passes, i will consider stopping using the internet. There's just no point if I can't go to Youtube to watch game walkthroughs or listen to music/watch music videos. It's complete bullshit how the government tries to control every inch of our what they call freedom. They're doing a bad enough job at fixing the economy and handling affairs over in the Middle East. This is the last fucking thing they should be worrying about.

Bumping this on the account that SOPA is expected to pass the House soon... unless, there is a sudden uprise of opposition.

Saw the Ad on the front page but just closed it?

Re-visit the site here. - http://americancensorship.org/

What's wrong with SOPA?

This could explain it-




Remember to read the articles below the video, they go a little more in detail.

Remember, if this law passes, a site like UX could very easily be taken down by the Government!

Signed. Guess I can't be lazy forever.

I signed as well.

I saw this about a month ago, btw there are a couple bills like this trying to be passed right now in the US Government. Surprised it took so long to be brought up on this site.


I signed, (again).

Dexta117 wrote:Surprised it took so long to be brought up on this site.

This topic was posted the 1st of December, over 2 weeks ago, Dexta.

eaustinn36 wrote:

Dexta117 wrote:Surprised it took so long to be brought up on this site.

This topic was posted the 1st of December, over 2 weeks ago, Dexta.

And as I said, I had heard about this thing like a month ago. Thought someone would have mentioned it straight away.

I think Colbert provides a different perspective on the law, and show its meaning:

http://boingboing.net/2011/12/02/stephen-colbert-explains-sopa.html

eaustinn36 wrote:Better hope it doesn't though... or this site could be in trouble. This is what I call "over-policy".

Holy shit... did eaustinn just say he dosent agree with something because theres to much control?!

what has the world come to...........

also being in the uk i yhave no idea who the conservitives or liberals are and what a bill is but from what i gathered this "bill" is going to ruin the internet

I heard Obama is going to veto this, or is it another bill like this one?

CLOAKEY100 wrote:

eaustinn36 wrote:Better hope it doesn't though... or this site could be in trouble. This is what I call "over-policy".

Holy shit... did eaustinn just say he dosent agree with something because theres to much control?!

what has the world come to...........

also being in the uk i yhave no idea who the conservitives or liberals are and what a bill is but from what i gathered this "bill" is going to ruin the internet

I believe Eaustinn isn't the kind of person who likes communist states. Now I may be mistaken, but he seems to be more of a believer in Marxism(which communism is based off of), a government that would be perfect in theory, but will never be possible in a human culture, because we are greedy individual by nature.

Anyway, SOPA and the Detainment bill are definitely un-American, and I will have no problem rioting if either of these are passed. To think that they are trying to pass a bill that basically gets rid of the Bill of Rights is insane, and I believe that even Eric "The Law Abiding" Austinn can find that this is just insane and way beyond the boundaries of what our government should be allowed to do.

@Manguy - Well, as much as I wish it was a perfect world (only in my dreams), it isn't, so we're just going to have to deal with that. In the real world, communism will never work, but same with pure capitalism. Mixed economies are best; the trick is just finding that balance (and that very "mixture" of capitalism-socialism is the thing everyone disagrees on). Examples of capitalism include the free market, while socialism is Medicare, Food Stamps, etc... It is no secret I lean toward one side more than another, but still mixed nevertheless.

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Anyways, in all honesty, here is my position on SOPA:

- I like the ideas of the law, but do NOT support the law in its current form. Piracy is bad, and definitely needed to be cracked down on with a megafist like the one proposed in SOPA; HOWEVER, that being said, handing over "complete control of the internet" to Hollywood or any "business" whatsoever is completely absurd. Businesses are greedy in nature, and given this form of power, it will most definitely be abused to their advantage. If anyone should take reigns to this, it should not be a business out there to make money.

Furthermore, the provision that "any site with links to other site with copyright material will be shut down" is completely ridiculus. If you want to stop piracy, then kill it at the source. Since nearly every site at least somewhat breaks the above provision, then businesses can essentially shut down any site they don't like, and "spare" the ones they like; this isn't anti-piracy, this is pro-censorship. If the law was actually about Piracy, it would be good, but it sadly is not not, and Congress doesn't see that. As for killing Piracy at the source, moving further, I have no problem shutting down or at least blocking sites dedicated to pirated material directly as a purpose; free movie streaming sites included, unless the original people who made the movie get their rightful money from it. However, shutting down all of youtube or facebook because of it, is just dumb. The current method that is used is fine (although youtube could enforce it a little better, and more accurately), for individual videos being taken down for copyright infringement one by one.

Anyways, IMO, in summary:

Pros:
- Cracks down on Piracy hard, potentially eliminating it all together
- Imposes stiff penalties, such as jail time, for intentional violators of copyright
- Shuts down certain Piracy sites dedicated to illegal activities once and for all, rather than trying to fight the site in a legal battle for years, while damage is being done

Cons:
- Gives control of the internet (essentially) to businesses out for profit
- Law not about Piracy, but more so censorship
- Provides a "china-level" control on the internet
- Law is too vague in many areas, and could be open to loose interpretation at many points (this is VERY dangerous)
- Certain sections of the law go to far, as to cover "sites with links to pirated material", rather then just focusing on the source (so than all the material on other sites just "wouldn't work" anymore

Overall, again, like the core ideas of the bill, but not the method or way of going about it; so therefore, just kill this bill already Congress...