Stop sopa

[DragonDrago77]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uvXo4...eature=related

These forums could be shut down, for instance. If I post a video of Aerosmith, they could claim copyright infringement and the entire forums could be shut down just because I posted a music video.

[Chauncey1]

I posted a link here yesterday that explains what SOPA/PIPA really is.
And if you aren't angry, you aren't paying attention.

[Chauncey1]

http://forums.ddo.com/showthread.php?t=358555

[Qezuzu]

While this is an important issue that would affect everyone on the Internet, it's not exactly in the right place in General. Off-topic is good.

[DragonDrago77]

I know what SOPA and PIPA are exactly. They're about limiting free speech because of copyright.

If my 13 year old brother posts a video of singing his favorite song, the site that hosts that video(YouTube) could be taken down. Honestly, how did these bills see the light of day? The bills were created to destory piracy. You CANT destroy piracy just as you can't destroy theft, dishonesty, cheating. They are all things everyone wishes were gone, but they CANT JUST BE REMOVED. People are so f'ing stupid, sometimes.

[Chauncey1]

I know what SOPA and PIPA are exactly. They're about limiting free speech because of copyright.

If my 13 year old brother posts a video of singing his favorite song, the site that hosts that video(YouTube) could be taken down. Honestly, how did these bills see the light of day? The bills were created to destory piracy. You CANT destroy piracy just as you can't destroy theft, dishonesty, cheating. They are all things everyone wishes were gone, but they CANT JUST BE REMOVED. People are so f'ing stupid, sometimes.

The fun part about this entire thing?
The author of the SOPA bill, used a copyrighted image without the owners permission on his website.
Ignorance AND hypocrisy.

[Geonis]

I know what SOPA and PIPA are exactly. They're about limiting free speech because of copyright.

If my 13 year old brother posts a video of singing his favorite song, the site that hosts that video(YouTube) could be taken down. Honestly, how did these bills see the light of day? The bills were created to destory piracy. You CANT destroy piracy just as you can't destroy theft, dishonesty, cheating. They are all things everyone wishes were gone, but they CANT JUST BE REMOVED. People are so f'ing stupid, sometimes.

These bills saw the light of day, because you have 60+ year olds in congress, writing them at the behest of 60+ year old studio and record execs. These are essentially our grand parents trying to regulate the internet.

[DragonDrago77]

While this is an important issue that would affect everyone on the Internet, it's not exactly in the right place in General. Off-topic is good.

If I post a music video about DDO, the game could be removed...please explain how something that could potentially destroy a game is not considered general discussion based on a game?? RuneScape has hundreds of music videos where in-game characters do certain actions in accordance with music...it could be removed. Why wouldn't the tool used to create copyright infringement be destroyed too?

[Qezuzu]

I know what SOPA and PIPA are exactly. They're about limiting free speech because of copyright.

If my 13 year old brother posts a video of singing his favorite song, the site that hosts that video(YouTube) could be taken down. Honestly, how did these bills see the light of day? The bills were created to destory piracy. You CANT destroy piracy just as you can't destroy theft, dishonesty, cheating. They are all things everyone wishes were gone, but they CANT JUST BE REMOVED. People are so f'ing stupid, sometimes.

I personally think it's more poorly worded and written by incompetent and unintelligent people than malicious. But it's worth killing.

Again, I would keep it on off topic. It's already all over the Internet, you'd have to live under a rock to not have heard about it.

[Qezuzu]

If I post a music video about DDO, the game could be removed...please explain how something that could potentially destroy a game is not considered general discussion based on a game?? RuneScape has hundreds of music videos where in-game characters do certain actions in accordance with music...it could be removed. Why wouldn't the tool used to create copyright infringement be destroyed too?

Runescape is British, so at worst they would lose their American customers.

But I do not believe that a game would be held responsible for its customers' generated content on sites they don't control. Last I checked, there is no such provision.

In its current form, SOPA will be vetoed by the President, though it's too dangerous to be ignored. I still don't think this is the proper place to put it.

[zwiebelring]

We are the boss. Your individual and biological data will be archived in your personal file. Resistance is futile!

Stop SOPA and start thinking about to what extend the *freedom of speech* is actually existing in your countries. The european sister law ACTA is the same as this one. Stop it!

[LordMond63]

Is no one familiar with the legal concept of "Fair Use"?

http://www.citmedialaw.org/legal-guide/fair-use

Section 107 of the Copyright Act defines fair use as follows:

[T]he fair use of a copyrighted work, including such use by reproduction in copies or phonorecords or by any other means specified by that section, for purposes such as criticism, comment, news reporting, teaching (including multiple copies for classroom use), scholarship, or research, is not an infringement of copyright. In determining whether the use made of a work in any particular case is a fair use the factors to be considered shall include --

1.the purpose and character of the use, including whether such use is of a commercial nature or is for nonprofit educational purposes;

2.the nature of the copyrighted work;

3.the amount and substantiality of the portion used in relation to the copyrighted work as a whole;

4.and the effect of the use upon the potential market for or value of the copyrighted work.

Is there a profit motive behind the use of the Aerosmith song in a You Tube video? Yes? Then there's a problem, as you are using someone else's IP without their permission in order to make money. No? Then there's no problem.

Now if someone can point to a portion of SOPA/PIPA meant to supercede existing Fair Use laws, then I'll agree that we have a serious problem here. Otherwise, this entire argument is beginning more and more to resemble "The sky is falling! The sky is falling!".

I'm willing to be convinced that there really is an issue here- I am inclined to be distru****l of the government motives regardless of who is in charge- but the case isn't being made very well thus far.

[NarakuSama]

Now if someone can point to a portion of SOPA/PIPA meant to supercede existing Fair Use laws, then I'll agree that we have a serious problem here.

if you read these bills more closely you will see that if they *think* a site is breaking copyright they will Shut It The F*** Down without even checking if it does break it or not.
and even if site owner go to court and prove his site didnt break copyright no one will help him to get his site up nor helping him restore is honor and good name.

what if we have some public figure that lets say a politican or a singer who hate certian group of people because of skin color/language or religion.
that person could and most likely will, if these bills pass, shutdown a site belong to people from his hated group just because he dont like them.
all he need to do is to say: "Hey they break my/someone's else copyright, they make money out of this {put here anything you want}"
the site go off without checking it first, without noticing its owners and WITH enough social media to show the owners as monsters.

how long it will take from here to ban a political view? or to prevent someone from showing his/her idea/product or whatever just to steal it and make money from it?

maybe there will be a "fix" to it so if one say he dislike the idea his country gonna go to war with another country then he find himself behinde bars.

look at the near history and you'll see that when certian groups/companies/goverments got too much power they missused it for thier own good.

these bills are not for stopping piracy and even if they were they wont stop it. Period.

[CheeseMilk]

http://money.cnn.com/2012/01/20/tech...IPA_postponed/

Good job, everyone!

[Luis_Velderve]

Reid hinted that PIPA may not be dead yet, saying: "There is no reason that the legitimate issues raised by many about this bill cannot be resolved."

They will be back very soon.....

[Callavan]

Here's something that the doomsayers are either ignoring or not getting: SOPA stops itself. It isn't something they can legally enforce the way those videos claim they're going to enforce it. Learn how the system actually works before you go around shouting that the sky is falling.

I'll say it again: they cannot enforce this thing the way people are claiming they will. They do not have the power to do so; all anyone has to do is challenge it in the courts and it will crumble into dust.

[NarakuSama]

Here's something that the doomsayers are either ignoring or not getting: SOPA stops itself. It isn't something they can legally enforce the way those videos claim they're going to enforce it. Learn how the system actually works before you go around shouting that the sky is falling.

I'll say it again: they cannot enforce this thing the way people are claiming they will. They do not have the power to do so; all anyone has to do is challenge it in the courts and it will crumble into dust.

just go to the near past history... many people said that some people cant do certian things, and they turned out to do exactly what no one belived was in their power.
those who dont aknowlage their history are doomed to repeat it.
will we learn from the past now? on what happened when certian groups and people went over powered and what they did to the weaker people? or will be ignorant and watch from the side how our freedom is taken?

these bills wont fix piracy problems thats impossible because law of nature is that for every good there's evil. balance.
even in shavarath there should be balance in case you had time to play that pack and so in real life too.
giving them the power to shutdown every site they want will pretty soon be used for bad things and if other goverments aroud the world will pass similar bills then democracy will be unbalanced and will die.

if they so want to stop piracy then why not making more stores thats sell video/dvd/cd with logical price so people will prefer to buy it insted of downloading from internet?
and on the same time make sure the content is worth it.
i'm not saying that all singers are like this but i'm sick and tired from some "sexy" singers who strip at shows and is on alchohol/drugs and make lots of childrens and God know what.
where did the good singers go?

[Callavan]

just go to the near past history... many people said that some people cant do certian things, and they turned out to do exactly what no one belived was in their power.
those who dont aknowlage their history are doomed to repeat it.
will we learn from the past now? on what happened when certian groups and people went over powered and what they did to the weaker people? or will be ignorant and watch from the side how our freedom is taken?

There's also been plenty of stuff that's been tried that got shot down by the courts as well. If you're going to preach about acknowledging our history then acknowledge all of it. Or perhaps you don't know as much about history as you think you do? The fact is that a lot of these claims about what any branch of the U.S. Government has the power to do are greatly exaggerated. The people perpetrating these exaggerations are little better than the people perpetrating the so-called power grab.

It makes me wonder if the authors of these claims actually understand American Civics. SOPA and its ilk need to die, yes. But the sky is not falling. Not by a long shot. I personally don't appreciate the overwrought panicmongering.

[Monkeytoe]

This is a link to the Summary and Status page for H.R.3261, A.K.A SOPA, at the Library of Congress web site.

This is a link to the Summary and Status page for S.968, A.K.A PIPA.

The offical record, as presented by the Library of Congress, sugggets that any retreating on the part of SOPA/PIPA supporters has been tactical rather than capitulatory.

Here is a link to some unrelated satire.

[LordMond63]

if you read these bills more closely you will see that if they *think* a site is breaking copyright they will Shut It The F*** Down without even checking if it does break it or not.
and even if site owner go to court and prove his site didnt break copyright no one will help him to get his site up nor helping him restore is honor and good name.

You might have something here.

McCain-Feingold was blatantly unconstitutional, yet then-President Bush (albeit reluctantly) signed it into law and, when challenged in court, our Supreme Court overturned only minor parts of it. One would hope that, if SOPA/PIPA contains the equally blatnatly unconstitutional aspects you mention, it would be overturned in short order. But then again....

what if we have some public figure that lets say a politican or a singer who hate certian group of people because of skin color/language or religion.
that person could and most likely will, if these bills pass, shutdown a site belong to people from his hated group just because he dont like them.
all he need to do is to say: "Hey they break my/someone's else copyright, they make money out of this {put here anything you want}"
the site go off without checking it first, without noticing its owners and WITH enough social media to show the owners as monsters.

Paint me skeptical.

After all, Infowars is still up (for example) and it blames the US government for 9/11. Radical white- and black-supremacist websites still function. We allow Jihadist websites to operate in the US. Seems to me that these would have been shut down some time ago if the government truly had the power to do so. And yet users of these sites are able to post their opinions and express themselves with pretty much total freedom.

how long it will take from here to ban a political view? or to prevent someone from showing his/her idea/product or whatever just to steal it and make money from it? maybe there will be a "fix" to it so if one say he dislike the idea his country gonna go to war with another country then he find himself behinde bars.

IIRC, the same thing was said about the Patriot Act and other post-9/11 laws. Hasn't happened yet because checks and balances work.

look at the near history and you'll see that when certian groups/companies/goverments got too much power they missused it for thier own good.

For every Enron there's an Apple.

And the Robber Barons weren't either.

these bills are not for stopping piracy and even if they were they wont stop it. Period.

For all I know you might be completely right here. As I said, I oppose them not because I find anything insidious within them but because we already have enough laws protecting IP but do not enforce them well enough.

But there is absolutely nothing wrong with the concept of wanting to protect one's IP from theft or misuse and to make whatever profit from it you can within the law. It still seems to me that there are those who oppose these laws not on principal but because of the impact they might have on their ability to use illegal p2p file transfer sites. I'm not pointing my finger at anyone here in particular; merely noting that that angle is present, if not here, then elsewhere.