SOPA, which side of the line are you on?

[Epona]

Bungie and Mojang have come out in non support of SOPA (links below). Notch is going to take his sites down on Jan 18 (until further notice) in protest of SOPA. The lines are being drawn and I think it's time for everyone to think about picking a side. There have been a few companies that have announced their opposition of SOPA including Facebook and I suspect this is just the beginning.

I know this site has a hatred for pirates (because if you don't you can't say it outloud) but which is worse, pirates or SOPA? What side are you on?


http://www.gameinformer.com/b/news/archive/2012/01/13/bungie-opposes-sopa.aspx

http://www.gameinformer.com/b/news/archive/2012/01/13/minecraft-creator-to-protest-sopa.aspx?PageIndex=2

 

[FalloutJack]

Bungie and Mojang have come out in non support of SOPA (links below). Notch is going to take his sites down on Jan 18 (until further notice) in protest of SOPA. The lines are being drawn and I think it's time for everyone to think about picking a side. There have been a few companies that have announced their opposition of SOPA including Facebook and I suspect this is just the beginning.

I know this site has a hatred for pirates (because if you don't you can't say it outloud) but which is worse, pirates or SOPA? What side are you on?


http://www.gameinformer.com/b/news/archive/2012/01/13/bungie-opposes-sopa.aspx

http://www.gameinformer.com/b/news/archive/2012/01/13/minecraft-creator-to-protest-sopa.aspx?PageIndex=2

Let me make this thread epic by saying this...

If you're on the internet, you hate SOPA. If you want it to run with any sort of freedom or efficiency, you hate SOPA. If you realize that they're incapable of dealing with pirates and hackers anyway, YOU HATE SOPA. And there really shouldn't be any middle ground on this. Find some way other than REALLY BAD IDEAS to handle your problems!

 

[Esotera]

Bungie and Mojang have come out in non support of SOPA (links below). Notch is going to take his sites down on Jan 18 (until further notice) in protest of SOPA. The lines are being drawn and I think it's time for everyone to think about picking a side. There have been a few companies that have announced their opposition of SOPA including Facebook and I suspect this is just the beginning.

I know this site has a hatred for pirates (because if you don't you can't say it outloud) but which is worse, pirates or SOPA? What side are you on?


http://www.gameinformer.com/b/news/archive/2012/01/13/bungie-opposes-sopa.aspx

http://www.gameinformer.com/b/news/archive/2012/01/13/minecraft-creator-to-protest-sopa.aspx?PageIndex=2

This implies that pirates will actually be stopped by SOPA. SOPA just blocks DNS, there are plenty of programs out there that already circumvent this. Hacker-types will just get more and more creative the more governments legislate like this.

 

[Moonlight Butterfly]

I'm against pirating and SOPA. SOPA is pretty much overkill when it comes to the internet. You will be considered a pirate if you post a video of your little girl singing a song on youtube. If you make a fan made made machinima or a lets play or even a review where you just show clips.

If I was really cynical I would say it's an effort by the world wide big media companies to remove competition that doesn't charge £3 for a morning newspaper or shows ridiculously politically skewed news. Or, you know, pays an internet review site to favourably review a bad game.

The politicians don't like having a medium they can't control that lets people communicate all over the world...

I don't think saying think like 'You are a pirate if you support SOPA' is very helpful as most people are against SOPA because it hurts even 'fair use' users.

Most of the vids on this site won't be able to continue as they are without it.

 

[Skoldpadda]

When I have the flu, it's the sneezing and coughing that really sucks.

I look at pirating in the same way, in that it's more of an annoying symptom than an actual problem.

And SOPA tries to cure the flu by cutting off the patients head and shitting down his neck.

 

[teqrevisited]

Against SOPA and against Piracy.

What I can see happening: Because of SOPA more people will use piratical methods to access the media they want, either because they are forced to to continue enjoying the content they watch (Youtube LPs and user-posted reviews of copyrighted material for example) or just because they want to undermine the American government's ham-fisted approach to prevent exactly that.

The more they seek to discourage consumers from pirating content through the use of such extreme methods the more appealing piracy becomes.

 

[Miles000]

This implies that pirates will actually be stopped by SOPA. SOPA just blocks DNS, there are plenty of programs out there that already circumvent this. Hacker-types will just get more and more creative the more governments legislate like this.

Actually. The DNS blocking part of the act has been removed.

Though DNS blocking will be removed, SOPA will still allow officials to "follow the money" and cut off payment options to foreign illegal sites, like credit-card processing or PayPal accounts. Search engines like Google and Bing would also still be required to remove infringing Web sites from their search results. Copyright holders could also still bring claims against foreign Web sites that steal their technology, products, or IP.

http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2398917,00.asp

All it does now is kill the internet!
...
Oh wait...

 

[wooty]

Im on the side in which things dont change, keep the internet as it is.

I am British after all, thats our motto "KEEP THINGS THE SAME, KEEP THINGS THE SAME, KEEP THINGS THE SAME!"

 

[Esotera]

Actually. The DNS blocking part of the act has been removed.

Though DNS blocking will be removed, SOPA will still allow officials to "follow the money" and cut off payment options to foreign illegal sites, like credit-card processing or PayPal accounts. Search engines like Google and Bing would also still be required to remove infringing Web sites from their search results. Copyright holders could also still bring claims against foreign Web sites that steal their technology, products, or IP.

http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2398917,00.asp

All it does now is kill the internet!
...
Oh wait...

Wow, when did that happen? This bill gets more and more useless ^-^ it's absolutely possible to continue to run a website without paypal or credit cards.

 

[cliffski]

Against SOPA and against Piracy.

What I can see happening: Because of SOPA more people will use piratical methods to access the media they want, either because they are forced to to continue enjoying the content they watch (Youtube LPs and user-posted reviews of copyrighted material for example)

Do you have any examples of legal threats being used to take down lets plays?
Just curious if this has EVER happened, as it would make zero sense.

 

[kebab4you]

pirates or SOPA? What side are you on?

Um . . . I'm not on either side.

Let's be clear about this; SOPA will not stop pirates.
Pirates will carry on, business as usual, SOPA or not.

So, I'm against SOPA. Does that make me a pirate?
No.

This. If it does anything it´s making pirating safer, since companies think they nailed certain sites and turn their focus else where yet they continue on.

And yes I'm against SOPA.

Kind of offtopic: Will escapist do anything like this next wednesday also?

 

[Vivi22]

but which is worse, pirates or SOPA? What side are you on?

It's not an either/or question. SOPA will not stop piracy, so being against it is not being for piracy. SOPA will result in the very strong possibility that the internet as it exists now will be a thing of the past, will stifle creativity, and will hurt internet businesses, even if it's only because of the threat of what could happen if you even appear to violate copyrights.

If you've ever so much as enjoyed a video on youtube then you are either against SOPA or a hypocrite.

 

[Da Orky Man]

This is my thoughts on it:

Say the internet is a head. The hair on said head has a number of lice. The lice are pirates. They're annoying, but don't seriously threaten everything. Now, using conventional anti-,ice shampoo is like DRM; it'll do something to the pirates, but it'll infuriate you as well. Now SOPA is like taking a flamethrower to the head.

 

[Glademaster_v1legacy]

I am so far behind the side of the line that is against SOPA I can't even see the opposition. Regardless, of how tame you think SOPA is once it gets tied into American Law worse stuff will come. How the bill was originally written proves that. They were just trying tos ee how much they can get away with and it was just like when the gov said they wanted to raise student contribution to 5k from 2k and decrease the maintenance grant(I forget how much).

 

[Evil Smurf]

against it, It makes me angry

 

[VladG]

SOPA might just marginally inconvenience pirates. Might. The places that host such content are not all based in the US, and the people doing the cracks aren't either. So the best they can do against pirates is reduce download speeds and slightly reduce availability.

On the other hand SOPA will strike a heavy blow to honest sites and people who use the internet in totally legal ways.

So yeah. Against SOPA.

 

[Miles000]

Wow, when did that happen? This bill gets more and more useless ^-^ it's absolutely possible to continue to run a website without paypal or credit cards.

Yesterday I believe.
It's a small step forward, but we are making progress!

The victories don't end there either...

Quite a few of the supporting congressmen are starting to slow their push. Some even asking for the other big problem, PIPA, which is just as bad as SOPA, have it's decision postponed so more time can be spent studying the legislation.
http://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/news/2012/01/under-voter-pressure-members-of-congress-backpedal-on-sopa.ars

And on running a site without PayPal etc.
Aren't their overseas companies, that don't fall under American jurisdiction, able to offer similar services?

Even the search engine blocking is super easy to pass.
I haven't used an engine to find this site.... Well ever.

The only worrying part left, is the freedom big companies have to destroy their opposition.

 

[Joccaren]

Which is worse? SOPA. Who's side am I on? The legal users who oppose SOPA. SOPA is just plain badness, and I think it may end up losing the US Google. They threatened to leave China if they were asked to keep censoring things, I'm not sure how that turned out, but it would be interesting to know. A lot of sites are actually going down on a blackout in protest against SOPA. Even my small Minecraft Community site is doing it. Wikipedia is currently receiving money to do it from people worldwide, simply due to how much it could hurt them as a non profit organisation. If SOPA passes, I think a lot of people are going to be pissed quite quickly. Whether its due to the bill itself or the protests IDC, but there will be quite some reaction methinks. Sadly it probably won't change the minds of the government. I'd back the Escapist blacking out too BTW, if it was interested.

 

[VladG]

This is my thoughts on it:

Say the internet is a head. The hair on said head has a number of lice. The lice are pirates. They're annoying, but don't seriously threaten everything. Now, using conventional anti-,ice shampoo is like DRM; it'll do something to the pirates, but it'll infuriate you as well. Now SOPA is like taking a flamethrower to the head.

And it's used against fire-proof lice. Good analogy though .