SOPA & PIPA: quick update

[ibclare]

I (as an organization member, not personally ) received this note re: the SOPA & PIPA internet regulatory legislation from David Segal with Demand Progress:

From the Associated Press:
Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., said he was postponing a test vote set forTuesday "in light of recent events."
So, in other words, because of all of us. Absolutely amazing.


Well, no matter which side of this you come down on, here's your update. And if you want more info, www.demandprogress.org

 

[Hoogle]

It is never going to happen I saw an advert for it today they are now playing the fighting the war on terrorism card and a long speach about how piracy funds terrorism and I do not want to get political but the American Government have played that card 1 to many times it will not work in this case.

And lets face it if this bill came out the American economy would go down in certain areas.

Youtube is owned by Google Google is 1 of the richest companies in America Youtube goes offline Google goes offline for linking to pirate material there goes a major company.

Aol\yahoo same story the irony is aol\yahoo s parent company is time warner and what is time warners stance on sopa well they are fronting it.

not to mention they have a decade history of linking people to free music downloads and gave instructions on how to do it from there c\net company. If you look at every major company fronting the sopa bill you will see that 90% of them have had some form of input into pirating films and music at some point. Just google who owned Kazaa 1 of the largest forms of downloading pirating software.

Then look at the biggest company fronting the sopa bill

and you tell me it is not hypocritical.

 

[ibclare]

Thanks for the input Hoog. I suppose I should get a summary of the legislation for those who aren't familiar with it.

and . . . I won't tell you it is not hypocritical.

 

[Hoogle]

The sad thing is I think there are 2 objectives behind this

entertainment company were loosing money due to piracy and couldnt get control back so they joined in and provided software etc to do peer2peer file sharing of pirated films musoc and pretty much anything else. This software might have been free to use but generated billions of dollars in Add Revenue, However many people use add blockers and the internet got flooded by torrenting sites cutting out the major comapnies (which you really have to dig into to see which parent companies actually own them.) so over the last 5 years they have withdrawn from the piracy scene and sold there software or worse still closed it down and pushed it under the carpet.

They then go onto several years of court cases to fight the independant people that set up things like limewire the Kazaa equivalent and then went onto big sites like the pirate bay, and had the trials on American soil even though the pirate bay is in sweeden I think and not against the sweedish law. So they fight these people and can not win all though all these people are doing is exactly the same as the major companies that are trying to sue them now use to do.


These major companies have discovered the more they fight the more resources become available for people to download such pirated content so they can never gain control again, They start loosing money so put the prices up to buy movies and music etc, but cannot compete with services like napster, itunes etc who pay a contribution to the major comapanies but sells there product at a reduced price to what the original companies sell it for. So hence more pirating because people will not pay high prices for dvds anymore.

They have tried to make a comeback and offer subscription services ie netflix, Napster and now Kazaa has been relaunched as a legal subscription based service but they have lost so much control over the pirating scene which they helped to build so teamed up with the Us Government to introduce censorship and give all the companies a free ticket to practically sue anyone they like,

What do the senates get out of it well a large pay off the power to censor practically anything from the internet and snooping software that will report your online activity back to them (already happening) they will use this info against you some how and it will probably expand to phones etc.

Ok censorship is already on the internet with blocked sites ie known domains of child pornography, terrorist sites sites that show torture and death. This is ok and they have been doing this for years. But makes you wonder what else have they been censoring maybe they are so for this bill to cover up something else. But I am not into conspiracy theories. but wiki leaks type sites will probably also get censored.

 

[ibclare]

Thank you very much Hoog. Looks like you're doing all my work for me today :redface:

 

[Hoogle]

I dont know why but this flaged alarm bells with me months ago when it was only talk and will cost me 1 of my youtube channels that is a partnership and I generate income from it so I studied up on it and first thoughts were it was never going to happen and as it has progressed they are expanding the criteria of what will be breaking the law.

All though it is not really clear on what the actual bill will be and has probably been blown out of perspective, However This is bound to happen If they are not being so forward with the information needed to set us at ease,

I do think though they will launch it on the grounds of stopping pirating music, films and software I totally agree that something has to be done However there should be breathing room and sites like this should never be put at risk and parents going to jail because they filmed there baby dancing to music then posting it on youtube.

Another example I amallowed to listen to local american radio normally anyone outside the USA is not allowed to do it but after 3 months of making an application that included proof that I was a floridian resident (not recognised as an American Citizen) a copy of my english passport with my resident visa in a copy of my American driving License proof of any property owned in USA I was finally given an authorisation code to listen to local floridian radio (I think it can be any american station) But with the new sopa law I have to be a resident in USA for 5 months of the year to qualify for that privalage now, So If I fail to do that does that make it fair for me to be sued for potentially thousands of dollars and risk a prison sentence.

it will not effect american millitary abroad I think they can still enter there codes as they are Americans but if they are away for over 10 months fighting for USA does that mean they could come home and risk being sued for listening to there radio stations abroad.

 

[Fiza_fairy]

Nice opinion both of you