130 replies to this topic

[SGT Unther]

This is for anyone in the USA, please call your congress person to put your voice against the Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA). To put it simply it will turn the internet into an all you can sue buffet as said by one of the articles. I am not from the USA, but I am scared of what kind of president this law can establish. The law itself is so broad that companies like Warner Music Group can sue you and youtube and shutdown the site for that video you posted that has copyrighted music playing quietly in the background.
http://en.wikipedia....line_Piracy_Act
http://www.theglobea...article2285015/
http://www.theglobea...article2284998/
http://www.tomshardw...nate,14393.html

[Seth]

I'm considering moving my two domains from Godaddy.com since they were one of the biggest proponents of this legislation until the internet started transferring domains away from them at breakneck speed. They've backed off of vocally supporting it, but they won't speak out against it either.

[Ghost]

I watched the first committee hearing on the Congress version of the bill. Had a good laugh when Jared Polis turned out to be substituting for someone who couldn't be there -- I voted for him back when I lived in his district. Good performance from that guy.

[Brakkyn]

I'm all for stopping piracy like a bullet to the face. My question is, how can it be considered piracy of no money is exchanged? None spent, none gained.

[pbiggz]

i recall valve CEO Gabe Newell saying a quote something like: "Piracy stems from convenience, not price, if you want to stop piracy, you have to offer the pirates a better service". (i may be paraphrasing). Truer words have never been said.

[Cattra Kell]

The biggest concern over this is not what the act is about, I am sure most if not all of you would not want your work stolen without credit due or monetary gain and thus we can agree that "pirating" is indeed terrible in some cases (privateering is better sounding anyways ).

I think the biggest concern is the result of implementing the hardware and software required to monitor all internet traffic, the forceful compliance that ISP's must give, the ethics behind monitoring everyone (even non USA citizens), the fact that non USA citizens could face extradition to the USA, and the process of which SOPA would act as far as laws and setting new precedents.

I think there are much better alternatives to stopping piracy, but this for sure is not one.

In the end though I would say that you should get informed and form your own opinion on the subject.

[Adridos]

So when I connect to some USA site next day, Americans will monitor my every movement?

[Kaemon]

Adridos, on 29 December 2011 - 12:01 PM, said:

So when I connect to some USA site next day, Americans will monitor my every movement?

What makes you think we're not doing that now?

[Kenyon Burguess]

it has a few good points and bad points and theres alot of discussion going on about it in small forums. what needs to be done is to get it dragged deeper into the national media. call your newsgroups not your congressmen

[Adridos]

Kaemon, on 29 December 2011 - 12:07 PM, said:

What makes you think we're not doing that now?

Piranha Games is a Canadian company, maybe?

[Mason Grimm]

Since I'm busy as heck and don't have a lot of spare time to stroll through all those links give me the Coles (Cliff for you Americans) Notes Version please?

Are you saying that if a website server is physically hosted on U.S soil that it is subject to U.S laws? If that is the case I have 3 website domains that will be transferred to an Asian server by the end of the day.

[ApheX]

This bill needs to be scrapped ASAP! I'm not a US citizen, I come from the UK. Even so, this bill will affect everyone in the world who uses the internet. I do not understand how the US goverment think they have the right to monitor not just US citizens but others outside the good old "land of the free" as well.

The internet is used by everyone and i'm along with ALOT of people over here are concerned and quite honestly shocked about the pure idiocy of the people trying to get it passed. Most of them are in there 50-70's and admitted that they haven't a clue how the internet works or fully understand how to use it either. Utter madness!!!!

This very bill goes against the right to freedom of expression and information, a basic human right.

I just have a bad feeling that if this bill somehow gets passed, then america (or rather there goverment) will become public enemy No1. No one wants that. The US doesn't exactly have a "liked" reputation with other countries at the moment. This will make things worse.

Edited by ApheX, 29 December 2011 - 12:55 PM.

[GrimJim]

Despite being one who works in the entertainment industry, and who would greatly "benefit" from wiping out online piracy, I am 200% for stopping SOPA.

I care about my freedom of speech a helluva lot more than the Chinese pinching my profits.

[Ghost]

Mason Grimm, on 29 December 2011 - 12:46 PM, said:

Since I'm busy as heck and don't have a lot of spare time to stroll through all those links give me the Coles (Cliff for you Americans) Notes Version please?

Are you saying that if a website server is physically hosted on U.S soil that it is subject to U.S laws? If that is the case I have 3 website domains that will be transferred to an Asian server by the end of the day.

Doesn't matter if it's hosted in the US -- if the TLD is run by an American company you're subject to the Department of Justice. At least that was ICE's argument when they went around seizing domains.

[Mason Grimm]

My hosting company is from Bulgaria apparently so looks like the big brother can't watch over my shoulder.

[SGT Unther]

Mason Grimm, on 29 December 2011 - 12:46 PM, said:

Since I'm busy as heck and don't have a lot of spare time to stroll through all those links give me the Coles (Cliff for you Americans) Notes Version please?

Are you saying that if a website server is physically hosted on U.S soil that it is subject to U.S laws? If that is the case I have 3 website domains that will be transferred to an Asian server by the end of the day.

here are the main points taken from the toms hardware article

Quote

• Assign liability to site owners for everything users post, without consideration for whether or not the user posted without permission. Site owners could face jail time or heavy fines, and DNS blacklisting.
  
• It would require web services like YouTube, Facebook, and Twitter to monitor and aggressively filter everything all users upload.
  
• It would deny site owners due process of law, by initiating a DNS blacklisting based solely on a good faith assertion by an individual copyright or intellectual property owner.
  
• It would give the U.S. government the power to selectively censor the web using techniques similar to those used in China, Malaysia and Iran. The Great Firewall of China is an example of this type of embedded, infrastructural internet censorship.

the whole denial of due process really gets me, everyone can thank the lobbyists on capitol hill for this whole mess

Edited by SGT Unther, 29 December 2011 - 03:22 PM.

[Mason Grimm]

SGT Unther, on 29 December 2011 - 03:20 PM, said:

the whole denial of due process really gets me, everyone can thank the lobbyists on capitol hill for this whole mess

While we are toeing a line here (political commentary) nobody has yet disagreed that this is a bad thing and so we can let it go on for a little longer.

Speaking as an individual here, and not a rep for PGI, IGP even CAA (Canadians will get this) I can say that I agree 100%. Allowing a government that much power is the very embodiment of Orwell's 1984. If you haven't read it kiddies go and look it up; Big Brother is watching!

While my websites are physically hosted in Boston the company is out of Bulgaria and so I think I'm beyond this attempt at a severe invasion of my rights; still if I am not then I will simply transfer my websites to the asian servers and remove jobs from North America plain and simple.

Found this on the web for those who want to take an active role in the upcoming cyber war.

Quote

DeSopa v 1.4 (Firefox Addon)

When turned on, DeSopa intercepts URLs, sends the base URL to three offshore DNS services via HTTP, makes a best effort to check that two of them are equivalent, caches the IP for the browser session, redirects to the equivalent URL using the IP, and substitutes out the domain name in the source code with the IP address for future requests. Sweet!

Edited by Mason Grimm, 29 December 2011 - 06:53 PM.

[CaveMan]

We've got the best government money can buy. It's just a shame we aren't the ones that bought it.

Oh, and speaking as a content creator, I'm just fine with piracy as long as no one's making money on it.

[Christos DeSchaine]

Thats my only issue with the law. As far as I'm concerned, it's not piracy unless you do make money on it. If they wrote some little stipulation into the bill about that, then it'd be fine.

As for the denial of due process part... I dont see where that comes in. A blacklisting is not the same thing as being charged, arrested, fined, imprisoned, shutdown, etc. It's like what the BBB does here in the US. They're a watchdog of business practices. And rather ineffectual too. They can say that Company A has a bad rating, treats it's customers like crap, etc... but it doesnt actually stop them from doing business.

[SGT Unther]