What to do if SOPA hits.

[Westaway]

SOPA... I hope I don't have to tell my children stories of how awesome in internet was, and how it slain. But it won't pass. Facebook, Twitter, Youtube, 4chan, Reddit, Various other Large Websites will all be destroyed, and that'll be bad for Merica.

 

[ResonanceSD]

We start the...erm...Sopacloaks, and rebel against the evil empire. True, thousands of angered nerds wearing blue curtains, weilding foam swords, and screaming "fu ro dah" at a load of bewildered rubber bullet happy police officers may not be that effective, but it might send a message, or at the very least, be a very interesting afternoon.

I'd gladly sign up to be an evil empire person. Always happy to rubber bullet CoD people and get shouted at for quickscoping.

 

[Wintermoot]

revolt it would make it clear the government doesn't care about it,s citizens nor the first amendment (freedom of speech since this can also allow the government or companies take down criticizing sites).
PS
if you wonder why I,m against this even though I live in Europe it,s because allot of sites I visit are hosted in the US and I don't want them getting taken down.

 

[Jodah]

Laugh at the fools...SOPA isn't even going to slow down anyone who knows anything about the "intertube". It is just going to make it so politician XYZ's grandmother can't get on Youtube anymore to watch silly cats which, if we are lucky, will lead to said politician being replaced. One can dream...

One of the most important rules of the internet. With enough time ANYTHING can be cracked. There is always a way...always!

That's also not to say I support it or that I'm neutral. I despise SOPA. I hope anyone who supports SOPA has a rabid badger attack their scrotum. I'm just not convinced it will be the end of the world. It will suck to be sure but it may be the wake up call our society needs to realize we have idiots running the place.

 

[silversnake4133]

I love how people from other countries constantly say that this whole SOPA thing is OUR (the citizens') fault because of the poor decisions that the idiots in Congress make. You know guys, just because they oversee our country doesn't mean that they necessarily do things in our favor. Heck, we've lost countless jobs, funding, support, and benefits for education and health while being bled dry from taxes all thanks to the stupid spending decisions of our greedy and corrupt government.

So don't you even start placing this stupid Protect IP and SOPA bullshit on us, because WE, the citizens of the United States, are at just as much of a risk as you foreigners are. Also OP it seems that your proposition would be just as detrimental as the SOPA bill itself. "Cut off connections with Country A just to hopefully retain popular websites for Countries B, C and D? I hate to tell you this, but this bill will affect ALL websites with copyrighted material on them, not just US sites. Also if this bill gets passed what's stopping the people who rule over your country from considering similar legislation and making it law in your country?

How about instead of working against us just to try and save your ass, why don't you instead join in our fight and together we can destroy this bill. After all "United we Stand, Divided we Fall."

 

[Ectoplasmicz]

Hopefully continue the internet as per usual, seeing as im in Aus.

 

[Bobbity]

If SOPA hits, I'm going to go on the websites of Sony and UMG, and spam links to pirate websites everywhere I can, then email copyright holders, and try and get them to take action against the site.

 

[Da Orky Man]

If it goes ahead, Canada and Europe will be getting a lot more business.

 

[Ruwrak]

I doubt it's gonna hit at all.
Seeing at how close it is to blocking the fundamental right 'freedom of speech' (something the USA is always so proud of) it would be downright hypocritical really..

 

[DRes82]

I would laugh at you americans a bit more... Then I would get on with my life.

Why would you laugh? Why do foreigners think that they would be immune to this bullshit?

Look, if the big brother eyeball that decides what to blacklist turns its gaze on you, you're going to be fucked...regardless of what country you're in. Americans provide a huge amount of traffic and revenue to the internet.

Also, if some US based site that you like...for example Durham, North Carolina based Themis Group draws the ire of the government, then no more Escapist for ANYone. Its not just DNS blocking. It provides grounds for lawsuits and jail time.

Thirdly, this would set a precedent for other governments. If this passed, who knows what your leaders would do. If past events are any indication, I'd say the UK, Canada, and Australia would probably follow suit.

Seriously, children. Use your brains.

 

[CrazyGirl17]

If it passes, I'd leave the country with my brother... but I don't have the money for that. I think I'd like to join the so-called SOPA-Cloaks though.

 

[Zeckt]

Thanks America for ruining the economy here in Canada and now for ruining the internet too. At least we recovered better. Hey, if you think I'm mad at the states just think about all those third world countries that are charged 25-40% of their wages by corporate America just for fresh water think of you.

Ironic there's a thread about a civil war in America. You guys should go through with it, not against the government though but against the corporations that have you dancing on strings and have 99% of your money.

 

[Jinx_Dragon]

SOPA tax? Please tell me how charging the victims money makes the situation any better.

It is not, that is the whole point in it.

We have no ability or right to force another government to throw out laws they do not agree with but the people being affected by their own government can. So, on this grounds, it is alright for us to use what little power we do have to show our distaste at these people losing control of their own government. The only thing we can do is make a fee, as the owners of the site we do have the right to charge for our services.

The victims your talking about are the ones who can bring about change, so are they really powerless as you believe?

Honestly, I don't think SOPA has a chance in hell of passing now. Should it manage to do so it will be the apathy in the masses that allowed it to succeed in taking away even more of their rights. The only way to fight this apathy is to force them to care about something, and the only thing they always care about is their own value. Force them to realize it was cheaper, and not just easier, pre-SOPA and they will rise up like the angry beast that masses always are.

 

[Jinx_Dragon]

Thanks America for ruining the economy here in Canada and now for ruining the internet too. At least we recovered better. Hey, if you think I'm mad at the states just think about all those third world countries that are charged 25-40% of their wages by corporate America just for fresh water think of you.

Ironic there's a thread about a civil war in America. You guys should go through with it, not against the government though but against the corporations that have you dancing on strings and have 99% of your money.

Think of it this way, if SOPA passes then a lot of websites would flee to another part of the North American Backbone and that will be Canada. We might have only half as much infrastructure but it will be cheaper and a lot less restrictive. The sudden move would also boost interest in the electronic community and kick start economical growth in Canada.

 

[Double A]

SOPA tax? Please tell me how charging the victims money makes the situation any better.

It is not, that is the whole point in it.

We have no ability or right to force another government to throw out laws they do not agree with but the people being affected by their own government can. So, on this grounds, it is alright for us to use what little power we do have to show our distaste at these people losing control of their own government. The only thing we can do is make a fee, as the owners of the site we do have the right to charge for our services.

The victims your talking about are the ones who can bring about change, so are they really powerless as you believe?

Honestly, I don't think SOPA has a chance in hell of passing now. Should it manage to do so it will be the apathy in the masses that allowed it to succeed in taking away even more of their rights. The only way to fight this apathy is to force them to care about something, and the only thing they always care about is their own value. Force them to realize it was cheaper, and not just easier, pre-SOPA and they will rise up like the angry beast that masses always are.

So now I'm liable for all the apathetic fuckwads in this country, considering I have to pay the Lazy Tax too? I thought blanket proposals that don't get rid of the problem were the enemy here. Hell, I can't even vote till I turn 18 (which is the 26th of this month, but still, not my fault the old people in office are there).

The bad thing about this kind of thing is that the plebs won't care care until it's too late. If we the People smack it down before it passes, most won't care. And if it does pass, I can only hope for 6 months of continued activism at the most.

 

[thahat]

A situation like that? Only one thing TO do- give up. "It's just the Internet", they'll say. "Stop being such a nerd and get a life", they'll say. "Maybe you'll finally get some time outside", and so on. It's pretty damn hard to seem respectable and sincere when you're bitching about how you can't watch/download what you want on the Internet.

Isn't that kind of one of the main points of the Internet, you can watch or download whatever you want, and reasonably fast to boot?

But that' the thing, it's just the Internet. The stuff that's "still important" (read: able to be used by companies and business, such as email, file servers, etc) will still be intact. But all that nerdy geeky shit that doesn't matter such as games and videos and whatever will be the only things affected, and lawmakers just really don't seem to care about that.

you missed a bit there saysing $$$revenue. all that 'geeky shit' is what in effect pays for the internet. or large parts of it, by being popular, and thus getting commercials, commercial people pay the geeky shit hosters, who pay server parks, who thus have more busyness, who can now have economies of scale, which lowers the prices, which makes mailservers offer better quality for the same amount of spam/advertisement. and this is only the first few effects i can think of XD

 

[TheRundownRabbit]

Hey, I'm American and I hate this just as much as anyone, and also, lets know the difference between the US and the US government. Im part of the USA, I don't want to mess with your websites nor act police over the world...its my shit-for-brains government that wants to do that, remember that just because I live here, doesn't mean I support everything my government does. But I'm going to be leaving this country anyway, economy is in shambles and we've had complete dumbasses in the Whitehouse for 2 decades...and now this SOPA act, this blatant violation of what my country actually stands for.

And yeah, it would suck that a lot of websites I use pretty much every day will be blocked in the US, killing their revenue streams, but as soon as it affects the SOPA-supporting companies or even the government...all the companies and politicians will look up and shout, "Save us!" and we'll look down and whisper, "No."

(I wonder how many more things can be misquoted to apply to the situation?)

HAH! Nice. Its true, I bet many people and companies supporting SOPA will not see how bad it is for them until its actually active, and maybe thats the big one, many have their heads so far up their asses that they can't notice how this might hurt them. nice avatar btw

 

[Pandaman1911]

A situation like that? Only one thing TO do- give up. "It's just the Internet", they'll say. "Stop being such a nerd and get a life", they'll say. "Maybe you'll finally get some time outside", and so on. It's pretty damn hard to seem respectable and sincere when you're bitching about how you can't watch/download what you want on the Internet.

Isn't that kind of one of the main points of the Internet, you can watch or download whatever you want, and reasonably fast to boot?

But that' the thing, it's just the Internet. The stuff that's "still important" (read: able to be used by companies and business, such as email, file servers, etc) will still be intact. But all that nerdy geeky shit that doesn't matter such as games and videos and whatever will be the only things affected, and lawmakers just really don't seem to care about that.

you missed a bit there saysing $$$revenue. all that 'geeky shit' is what in effect pays for the internet. or large parts of it, by being popular, and thus getting commercials, commercial people pay the geeky shit hosters, who pay server parks, who thus have more busyness, who can now have economies of scale, which lowers the prices, which makes mailservers offer better quality for the same amount of spam/advertisement. and this is only the first few effects i can think of XD

And do you HONESTLY think that anyone in any of the branches of government has put even a single scrap of thought into this bill? They're just showing where their true allegiances lie and are bending over to the corporations. Which was bound to happen at some point, I suppose. I just wish that it wasn't now.

 

[JoesshittyOs]

And this is what tor [https://www.torproject.org/] is for.

This sounds almost a little too appealing. Any risks from downloading this?

 

[TheEvilCheese]

I can honestly see people going on the forums of SOPA supporters and posting huge amounts of copyrighted material and then contacting the copyright holders. If it works, the point is made. If it doesn't the enforcers are called out on their hypocrisy and there is more ammo to use against them. In fact, I'd be willing to bet that happened.

Oh, to all you people saying you use a public DNS? Doesn't matter. Google DNS =/= Verisign. Do some research.

As for me? Well I will live as close to my current life as possible, as the internet has proven time and time again; there is always a way.