Stop Online Piracy Act & Protect IP Act

[Gatestormer]

Am I the only one not freaking out about this? Maybe it's just me but I swear this shit happens all the time 'NEW LAW IS GONNA RUIN THE INTERNET!' everyone claims it's the end of everything as we know it and then it doesn't pass and life goes on as normal until next time. Didn't this happen a couple or so years back?

[Sami]

Am I the only one not freaking out about this? Maybe it's just me but I swear this shit happens all the time 'NEW LAW IS GONNA RUIN THE INTERNET!' everyone claims it's the end of everything as we know it and then it doesn't pass and life goes on as normal until next time. Didn't this happen a couple or so years back?

Edited December 20, 2011 by Dissident

[Death the Kid]

My friends, I bring good news. the battle has been won, though the war is not over. Rally up more troops while we have time!

http://www.washingto...s7a7O_blog.html

I kid you not. the damnable bill has been officially postponed to 2012 as of today.

further confirmation comes from this copy/paste straight from the HOR webpage.

"Full Committee Markup of: H.R. 3261, the “Stop Online Piracy Act”

Thursday, December 15, 2011 10:00 a.m. 2141 Rayburn House Office Building

Friday, December 16, 2011 10:00 a.m. 2141 Rayburn House Office Building

Wednesday, December 21, 2011 9:00 a.m. 2141 Rayburn House Office Building

Markup postponed due to House schedule"

Edited December 20, 2011 by Shinigami

[Scar]

A ray of hope it would seem.

This thing needs to be stomped straight into the dirt. No mercy.

[Jeffhog]

This thing needs to be stomped straight into the dirt. No mercy.

Scar, you're being too merciful.

[Mega]

Avaaz campaigner Maria Paz Cambronero delivers our petition to top White House officials

In days, over 1 million of us worldwide signed a petition opposing a scandalous bill that would give the US government the right to shut down any website -- targeting sites like WikiLeaks, YouTube, even Avaaz!

President Obama’s team responded, and Avaaz organized a 1 hour meeting with top White House officials to deliver the petition.

We’ve now been told privately that Obama is likely to oppose the bill as it stands. When we started, insiders all told us the bill could not be stopped, now they’re all telling us the bill may soon be dead in its current form -- that’s people power!

http://riffsandripplesfromzenrivergardens.blogspot.com/2011/12/recent-avaaz-petition-successes.html

Wouldn't get too excited, but.

[Scar]

http://riffsandrippl...-successes.html

Wouldn't get too excited, but.

It needs to be taken with a brick of salt.

It hints at some kind of progress, but we can't be sure and we can't let up.

[VO.SUPER]

As it is now, this bill is too flawed. However, if it was amended to something that only targets foreign pirate websites or specifies properly what it aims for, then I won't mind. The current DMCA we have now is the cause of this uproar.

[SuperStingray]

DRM has already been proven unsuccessful and even counterintuitive when so easily countered by cracks and keygens, so why how could a bill that attempts to simulate that on a legal level be any better? Nothing has been more effective at circumventing the system than the internet. On top of that, the internet has the capacity to change the face of capitalism forever and for the better and SOPA can only take away that opportunity. What supporters of this bill don't take into account is that there are more ethical and economically feasible ways to downsize piracy- namely, giving people a better alternative. As Gabe Newell said, "If a pirate offers a product anywhere in the world, 24 x 7, purchasable from the convenience of your personal computer, and the legal provider says the product is region-locked, will come to your country 3 months after the US release, and can only be purchased at a brick and mortar store, then the pirate's service is more valuable." Even beyond Steam, look at Netflix. Hulu. F2P games. Gamefly. While none of them have completely met the pirate's ideal of having complete access to anything in the world for free without a catch, they've made powerful strides towards such a model, including easy-to-access and risk free content, low-to-no subscription fees, unobtrusive advertising, etc. And for people like me, that's already more than enough to not bother checking pirate bay and, failing that, Google pages of sketchy sites for a possibly dangerous zip file. And I think given the breathing room SOPA takes away, the exploring these new kinds of services can completely overcharge the entertainment industry- hell, potentially almost any industry.

[Jetronic]

Did anyone get a load of this yet?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WJIuYgIvKsc&feature=mfu_in_order&list=UL

Viacom and Disney promotes piracy! And then sue people for piracy.......

Edited December 22, 2011 by Jetronic

[DJ FLiGHTS]

Did anyone get a load of this yet?

Viacom and Disney promotes piracy! And then sue people for piracy.......

Edited December 22, 2011 by CHRiSTMAS FLiGHTS

[Blacklightning]

Woah woah woah! Back the fuck up a minute!

Did I just hear that right? They set this entire shitstorm up from the get go? I need to hear that in the Layman again one more time, just to be sure my ears aren't decieving me.

[HunterTSF]

MY MIND. MY MIND! I need a mental icepack. So, if I'm hearing this correctly, the entertainment industry was the one behind the massive abundance of piracy all along, profiting from both the exclusive downloads of the torrent clients and the people they sued for downloading said illegal content that was accessible by them? Plot twist!

Edited December 23, 2011 by Hunter the Christmas Fan

[Milo]

.....I have absolutely no words to describe what I just watched in that video. I mean...what.

[Noir]

That's actually really fucking brilliant if it's true. Going around the back to sell pirating software, setting up pirating sites for ad revenue, then turning around and suing the pants off of every sucker you've already made a quick buck off of? It's genius. And just evil mastermind-y enough for an entertainment giant for it to be plausible.

[null]

Hot damn. Throw in an obligatory murder that's somehow involved with all of this and it would be the final case in an Ace Attorney game. I want to see the SOPA-supporters lay a massive egg if this is brought up in a future session.

[Chaos Warp]

MY MIND. MY MIND! I need a mental icepack. So, if I'm hearing this correctly, the entertainment industry was the one behind the massive abundance of piracy all along, profiting from both the exclusive downloads of the torrent clients and the people they sued for downloading said illegal content that was accessible by them? Plot twist!

Anyway, yeah, this is getting better every day! It it a genius (and evil) plan on their part. Too bad it`s gonna backfire on them now.

[Your Vest Friend]

I like Mike Mozart, he's such a man-child of the most basic definition, yet he's able to back up his enthusiasm with research and several years of experience. The SOPA video just shows that second point off perfectly, without the usual toy backdrop.

[Voyant]

Hahah wow...that video is awesome. I really think people in the entertainment industry really underestimated the power of the internet and PEOPLE in general.

Edited December 23, 2011 by V0YANT

[CrownSlayers Shadow]

Whoa...that video is one major mindscrew. That's actually a genius move for them to sucker millions of users out of their money, and they paraded it around like it was nothing before this bill was introduced. Talk about a major scam.

Now that this video makes light of it, we'll have to see what happens next.

[Emmett L. Brown]

Ow, ow, ow, my brain. The video was mind-blowing enough, but I have to learn never to read YouTube comments. I think the most painful one was the one that simply said "source please", considering the video displays its sources prominently onscreen every ten seconds with links in the description.

[Cobalt_Bolt]

My brain just fried courtesy of that video. Looks like I need to step up my part in trying to stop SOPA.

[Patticus]

As damning as that video is, I can completely believe that Disney et al had virtually no idea what their shiny new internet businesses were distributing*, in the same way I can believe that Google is not directly responsible for what its YouTube users upload.

It's Catch 22 for them either way. Obviously they can't admit entrapment, but, under SOPA, ignorance would be little defence either. It looks to me like they'd be liable for any piracy from any software downloaded from them... So anyone sued under SOPA should have a very good case to sue right back.

*You're gonna need irrefutable proof which shows that the people higher up inside Disney itself, and the other companies involved, did know.

[Ming Ming Hatsune]

Okay guys. Let me bring you up to speed and if SOPA goes through I'm going to HATE Sega, Nintendo and probably going to hate Sony as well (and I already have a dislike for MS).

Here are the current list of supporters of SOPA:

http://judiciary.house.gov/issues/Rogue%20Websites/List%20of%20SOPA%20Supporters.pdf

Okay had a look? Sega's not there so why am I raging about hating Sega? Look closely. One of the listed supporters are:

Entertainment Software Association (ESA)

Yep, and who ARE the members of ESA? Find out here.

All of the listed members in ESA support SOPA by default. In that list, you can find Sega of America, Inc as well as Microsoft, Sony and Nintendo.

Nintendo and Sony said they have pulled out of SOPA, but it's really hard to believe when they are members of the ESA and ESA are giving their FULL support towards this bill.

I thought Sega was staying out of this because I have not heard a single word out of them, but why do they have to?

[Carbo]

Okay guys. Let me bring you up to speed and if SOPA goes through I'm going to HATE Sega, Nintendo and probably going to hate Sony as well (and I already have a dislike for MS).

Here are the current list of supporters of SOPA:

http://judiciary.hou...0Supporters.pdf

Okay had a look? Sega's not there so why am I raging about hating Sega? Look closely. One of the listed supporters are:

Yep, and who ARE the members of ESA? Find out here.

All of the listed members in ESA support SOPA by default. In that list, you can find Sega of America, Inc as well as Microsoft, Sony and Nintendo.

Nintendo and Sony said they have pulled out of SOPA, but it's really hard to believe when they are members of the ESA and ESA are giving their FULL support towards this bill.

I thought Sega was staying out of this because I have not heard a single word out of them, but why do they have to?

Top Story Headline News at 6: Jim Sterling is an idiot.

Being part of a group that endorses something is not at all the same thing as actively endorsing something by yourself; particularly not when you have been a part of that group literally since its inception nearly 20 years ago and did not join it because of its position on this issue. That's like saying America is in support of U.N. opinions regarding Isreal just because the United States has always been in the U.N.