SOPA Storms Back
- Thread starter Andy Chalk
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you are such a bigger threat than some bootleggers in china. Stupid, corrupt politicians. They think we dont' see through their games?
Well seeing as most of the money is lost in foreign markets (that foreign people buy from), then the only obvious legal recourse is to keep americans from reaching all those chinese/taiwanese/canadian/british/antarctic sites that we can't usually read the language of anyway (rememeber these are americans we're talking about.)RedEyesBlackGamer said:
I think it's funny that once it's out into the world, there's nothing anyone can do to stop it. I think this war on piracy is going to be the "war on drugs" of the new decade..
or the new "war on terrorism"
or on gays
or the poor
or the rich
or communism
Take your pick really. Apparently America has to fight something, or we don't feel important.
Well, now I don't feel so bad working the long shift tomorrow. I won't be missing anything. Hopefully at least Facebook and Youtube make sure people who see the blackout page know to whom to direct their fury. It is entirely possible, if Lamar's seat is up for grabs in November, that he just signed his resignation with this.
Ah. I've never really got the humour of RvB. Some of my friends love it, but I've never been a fan. Just not my kind of humour I guess. Well, time for some of my humour to a) balance this thread out and b) shoehorn in a British classic! (yes, shameless 80's plug):AstylahAthrys said:
How wonderfully appropriate...
a Month is not enough time to rewrite the entire system known as American Copyright Law. This guy is a blind moron who doesnt understand that the world runs on porn and illicitly gained entertainments, both of which easily fall withing the realm of digital copyright infringement.RedEyesBlackGamer said:
i didnt expect this idiot to try to resurrect it so quickly, the bill being opposed by the people who most would benefit from it and the people who it would grind into the dust
Well I checked on anonops IRC and aparently there is anotherround of #OP payback so perhaps that is something.IamLEAM1983 said:
Yet other then that all there really is to do is to tell EVERYONE about the threat of these bills and get them to write to the United States government. (and then While they're at it get them to install TOR and run as a node)
Now that we know that SOPA is going to try once again to cause folly amongst the internet world, like a bad Sunday morning cartoon villian, does that mean that Wikipedia will still black out tomorrow? http://www.csmonitor.com/Innovation/Latest-News-Wires/2012/0117/Wikipedia-blackout-Site-to-protest-SOPA
About Tor... I'm aware that it's pretty much the most privacy-friendly browser out there at the moment, but is there a way to use it without sacrificing YouTube or Channel Awesome? It seems to be a pretty bare-bones set of tools *precisely* because that simplicity enforces security, but I'd like to know I've still got a smidge more flexibility.ivansnick said:
Avast ye American dogs!Soviet Heavy said:
Best part of SOPA: how American legislation effects me as a Canadian. Its like pissing in the wind at the beach and I'm trying to have a nap.
Don't make my government send our pirate ships to burn your white house down again!
. . . . . .and it still has zero, zilch, nil, fuck all, chance of being passed into law.
Although it's good to see the internet can get back together huddling like a pack of sheep scared that the sky is falling. You people really need to collectively learn to relax. This bill has a shit ton of hoops to jump through yet before it makes it out of the House never mind being elected into law.
Although it's good to see the internet can get back together huddling like a pack of sheep scared that the sky is falling. You people really need to collectively learn to relax. This bill has a shit ton of hoops to jump through yet before it makes it out of the House never mind being elected into law.
damn, and for a moment i thought its over and these guys will have a come back in a few months or so. i guess these politicians have to push harder to stop SOPA.
i hope wikipedia will not stay too long black. i sure need it a lot. have to tell my parents too, since they use wiki as well.
damn you SOPA...
i hope wikipedia will not stay too long black. i sure need it a lot. have to tell my parents too, since they use wiki as well.
damn you SOPA...
Sadly, I figured they would do something like this. Politicians won't realize that it's not a good idea until they see that common people are willing to cooperate to not just oppose but crush support for the bill and its kin. As with GoDaddy, successful repulsion of this bill requires that its supporters be forced to visibly suffer economically.
Hehehe, I'm glad there are no annoying members talking about the awesomeness and/or lameness of SOPA. *Sigh of relief*
Well, at least now tomorrow's blackouts will have a meaning. I was wondering yesterday if they would still carry through even after SOPA was apparently done for. Oh, well. I suppose I could join them and not use the internet for a day or something.
Eh, well. I'm afraid of SOPA because it's so crazy, it might actually become a law. But...the small amount of fate I have on the human race tells me to hope for the best, which is for SOPA to rot and die soon.
Fun fact: SOPA means soup in Spanish.
Well, at least now tomorrow's blackouts will have a meaning. I was wondering yesterday if they would still carry through even after SOPA was apparently done for. Oh, well. I suppose I could join them and not use the internet for a day or something.
Eh, well. I'm afraid of SOPA because it's so crazy, it might actually become a law. But...the small amount of fate I have on the human race tells me to hope for the best, which is for SOPA to rot and die soon.
Fun fact: SOPA means soup in Spanish.
Dear American government. Do take off and stop meddling in the affairs of the Inter-tube citizens and custodians. We like the way things are being done now. It's in good balance.
Signed,
The Internet.
Signed,
The Internet.
Well, the Foreign Theives bit does make sense given that it's a big issue today with nations like China and even Brazil (which The Escapist did an article on called "Nation Of Pirates" at one point if I remember). The thing is that when it comes to patents, copyrights, and IPs and the big business of knockoffs and outright theft... well video games are small potatoes compared to the actual physical theft for profit business where you have sweatshops knocking off things like designer jeans and passing them off as the real thing, not to mention the whole issue with drugs and medicine. Viagra being one paticularly noteworthy example largely because it's a product used by almost every sexually active man on the planet at one time or another, by the old to regain performance, and by the young (and porn industry) to enhance performance and "hold the wood" so to speak. Despite being manufactured in the western world very little of the profit from that drug has gone into western coffers, largely because the eastern world spearheaded by China (which is hardly alone) have knocked it off and distributed it causing the loss of trillions upon trillions of dollars in tax revenues. The countries with the biggest stake being France and the US as those are the big nations Pfizers (Multinational French company) has it's primary contracts with. While it was doubtlessly exagerrating there was an article I read once talking about how Viagra alone would have solved the US's deficit and probably rendered it and France the two wealthiest nations on Earth had they reaped the benefits through Pfizers. This is based on the idea of a stranglehold of a product with a high demand which hey would have charged the intended
price for, coming down to something like a quarter per pill in the hands of the US. The thing is that the countries knocking it off lowered the prices substantially to undercut the creators given no costs to recoup. One has to take it with a grain of salt but the basic arguement being that it's the drug that build a lot of the major asian powers through knockoffs and created the springboard for a lot of their recent success. The compelling arguements being made about how it's almost a household product globally nowadays, bought by almost every guy covertly through the internet or whatever at one time or another. Some might have heard jokes about a "Boner Tax" that kind of originated with this article because of the points made about the goverment's cut on drugs especially those that don't have a valid usage for treating a serious illnes.
To get back on the subject, the point of that entire rant is that a lot of money is involved here through issues that have nothing to do with video games or purely intellecual properties but involve the same areas of law. Something like SOPA is meaningless internationally because the narions that are problems refuse to follow US laws... and with the money being made, why should they? Bills like SOPA amount to saying "stop, or we'll write another piece of paper and ask you to stop again". As much as people, especially on the leftward side of the political spectrum, hate it, the only way to stop someone from something that is in their own best interests, in pursuit of your own, is to force them. In the final equasion most wars come down to trade and economics, and honestly I think we're heading towards a very big one... with all the reasons why people say we can't fight ("owning" money to China, trade, etc...) being exactly the reasons why the war is going to happen and be so nasty.
To use China as an example even though it's not the only offender, understand that it's what some call a "neo barbarian" nation. That is to say that while it has SOME advanced technology and huge, modern cities, rivaling anything elsewhere in the world, not to mention an increasingly advanced military and space program, it's also a nation where people LITERALLY live like they are in the dark ages in staggering numbers, diseases like SARS got started from people living with their own livestock. China innovates very little on it's own, as a culture it kind of intentionally stifles creativity (very little does not mean nothing however), Chinese trade is based almost entirely on taking the ideas from other cultures, exploiting it's wretched underclass, and producing knockoffs which it sells back to those cultures. If China was to stop doing this it would literally have nothing to trade, it's robber economy would collapse and the entire nation would pretty much collapse to absolute squalor. The situation is nasty because there is really very little of a middle ground, China can't help but prop up this system which is what has allowed them to build and maintain their military and those previously mentioned modern cities.
All of this stuff about protecting American ideas pretty much amounts to nothing since even if you make things less conveinent for the users, the problem is still going to persist. I mean all you need is one guy with legal access to something that can be duplicated who sends it back to China or another similar nation (using the postal service if nothing else) and it will be knocked off if there is money to be made. The kind of issues SOPA largely addresses really aren't the kinds that come with the threat of foreign trade.
In the end SOPA is a piece of garbage, and the scare tactics used to sell it are ridiculous. Some problems can't be resolved without a major war. No piece of paper is going to get a bunch of people to consign themselves universally to abject poverty for the benefit of someone else.
That's my thoughts on the matter. Honestly, I'm surprised they resurrected SOPA so quickly under any pretense.
One problem with US law is that there is nothing that prevents a law or set of ideas from being brought up again and again until it finally succeeds. Meaning that with things like this even if SOPA is defeated it just means the same thing will come along carried by another piece of paper. I think the US needs a mechanism to rule permanantly on certain things to prevent lawmakers and lobbyists from keeping them alive until they get through due to persistance if nothing else. Today it's SOBA tomorrow it's SOPA replacing Piracy with Buccneneers in the name to claim it's a differant bill. That's sort of like trying a guy multiple times for the same crime until he's found guilty which is forbidden.
price for, coming down to something like a quarter per pill in the hands of the US. The thing is that the countries knocking it off lowered the prices substantially to undercut the creators given no costs to recoup. One has to take it with a grain of salt but the basic arguement being that it's the drug that build a lot of the major asian powers through knockoffs and created the springboard for a lot of their recent success. The compelling arguements being made about how it's almost a household product globally nowadays, bought by almost every guy covertly through the internet or whatever at one time or another. Some might have heard jokes about a "Boner Tax" that kind of originated with this article because of the points made about the goverment's cut on drugs especially those that don't have a valid usage for treating a serious illnes.
To get back on the subject, the point of that entire rant is that a lot of money is involved here through issues that have nothing to do with video games or purely intellecual properties but involve the same areas of law. Something like SOPA is meaningless internationally because the narions that are problems refuse to follow US laws... and with the money being made, why should they? Bills like SOPA amount to saying "stop, or we'll write another piece of paper and ask you to stop again". As much as people, especially on the leftward side of the political spectrum, hate it, the only way to stop someone from something that is in their own best interests, in pursuit of your own, is to force them. In the final equasion most wars come down to trade and economics, and honestly I think we're heading towards a very big one... with all the reasons why people say we can't fight ("owning" money to China, trade, etc...) being exactly the reasons why the war is going to happen and be so nasty.
To use China as an example even though it's not the only offender, understand that it's what some call a "neo barbarian" nation. That is to say that while it has SOME advanced technology and huge, modern cities, rivaling anything elsewhere in the world, not to mention an increasingly advanced military and space program, it's also a nation where people LITERALLY live like they are in the dark ages in staggering numbers, diseases like SARS got started from people living with their own livestock. China innovates very little on it's own, as a culture it kind of intentionally stifles creativity (very little does not mean nothing however), Chinese trade is based almost entirely on taking the ideas from other cultures, exploiting it's wretched underclass, and producing knockoffs which it sells back to those cultures. If China was to stop doing this it would literally have nothing to trade, it's robber economy would collapse and the entire nation would pretty much collapse to absolute squalor. The situation is nasty because there is really very little of a middle ground, China can't help but prop up this system which is what has allowed them to build and maintain their military and those previously mentioned modern cities.
All of this stuff about protecting American ideas pretty much amounts to nothing since even if you make things less conveinent for the users, the problem is still going to persist. I mean all you need is one guy with legal access to something that can be duplicated who sends it back to China or another similar nation (using the postal service if nothing else) and it will be knocked off if there is money to be made. The kind of issues SOPA largely addresses really aren't the kinds that come with the threat of foreign trade.
In the end SOPA is a piece of garbage, and the scare tactics used to sell it are ridiculous. Some problems can't be resolved without a major war. No piece of paper is going to get a bunch of people to consign themselves universally to abject poverty for the benefit of someone else.
That's my thoughts on the matter. Honestly, I'm surprised they resurrected SOPA so quickly under any pretense.
One problem with US law is that there is nothing that prevents a law or set of ideas from being brought up again and again until it finally succeeds. Meaning that with things like this even if SOPA is defeated it just means the same thing will come along carried by another piece of paper. I think the US needs a mechanism to rule permanantly on certain things to prevent lawmakers and lobbyists from keeping them alive until they get through due to persistance if nothing else. Today it's SOBA tomorrow it's SOPA replacing Piracy with Buccneneers in the name to claim it's a differant bill. That's sort of like trying a guy multiple times for the same crime until he's found guilty which is forbidden.
Quick question: anyone else in the past few years, at some point or another for some reason or another, wanted to laugh maniacally while watching the Capital Building burn? What with the economy and such, one would sincerely think that American politicians have much more important things to fix than policing the fucking internet.