Guest tx2sturgis Posted January 17, 2012 #1 Posted January 17, 2012 Wikipedia among others, is considering a website blackout in protest of SOPA. I am a contributor to Wikipedia, and I think Jimmy Wales is right on. I'm ashamed to admit that one of the prime sponsors of this bad legislation is a Republican from Texas. I guess Lamar Smith has been corrupted by large wealthy Record and Movie industry PAC's. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stop_Online_Piracy_Act That link may be working or not depending on when you try it. Also: http://news.yahoo.com/sopa-congress-accused-internet-censorship-230337904.html http://news.yahoo.com/reddit-admins-announce-january-18-blackout-protest-sopa-062713699.html Here is my recent tweet concerning the matter: http://twitter.com/#!/tx2sturgis/status/159302971887325184
ragtop69gs Posted January 17, 2012 #2 Posted January 17, 2012 I have to agree. When ever politicians try and legislate things they have no understanding of they only create bigger problems. Just look at what they did to the mortgage industry and housing Now they want to tear down the Tech industry! More job loss and dependence on the Govt. dole. Please don't turn this into a politics debate. STOP SOPA & PIPA HR3261 & S968
Sylvester Posted January 17, 2012 #4 Posted January 17, 2012 I don't think this post will last very long. Moderators are lurking.
Black Owl Posted January 17, 2012 #5 Posted January 17, 2012 I don't think this post will last very long. Moderators are lurking. You got that right. But maybe everyone will play nice....... (yah, right)
Guest tx2sturgis Posted January 17, 2012 #6 Posted January 17, 2012 If this thread gets political and/or hateful, and gets pulled, then thats fine. But an owner of a website can allow or not allow anything they want. What I'm concerned about is the government getting on the side of the huge music labels and movie companies and passing laws that circumvent the public's ability to use the internet freely. China censors its internet, and now it looks like the USA might just do the same. I hope the SOPA proposal goes down the tubes. And every private citizen who uses the internet should too. There I said what I wanted, in case this thread gets.....um.....'censored'...
Guest tx2sturgis Posted January 18, 2012 #7 Posted January 18, 2012 More support, AGAINST the proposed government internet control called SOPA (House Bill 3261): http://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/news/2012/01/google-scribd-and-wordpress-to-join-sopa-protest.ars?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=rss And Hollywood movie types are upset that they might not make as many billions and throw as many Americans in jail as they hoped: http://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/news/2012/01/sopa-livesand-mpaa-calls-protests-an-abuse-of-power.ars
dmoff1698 Posted January 18, 2012 #9 Posted January 18, 2012 How is it that if you steal a loaf of bread because you are hungry, you will go to jail? And certain people will line up to put you there. But if you use the internet to steal another's life work, those same people scream freedom of speach issues. Since when did we all get the right to free movies and music without paying royalties to the author/performer? The first admendment does not give you the right to steal!! Sure, as with any law, enforcement must be monitored for abuse. SOPA provides that the site must be notified of a protest by the owner of the content, then the site has a peroid of time to remove the content or rebut the claim and show why it is not in violation. I find it interesting that the major protestors are those companys who depend on other people's work for their content, and don't produce origonal content themselves. All they have to do is buy a couple servers, collect some information (from othere) and now they are gazillionares!!! Could they possibly be trying to protect their cash cow?
Guest tx2sturgis Posted January 18, 2012 #10 Posted January 18, 2012 (edited) Protecting legal ownership of copyrighted material is fine, but the devil is in the details. If SOPA became law as originally proposed, then THIS website could even end up shutdown since there are probably tens of thousands of logos and images on the site and links to other websites that have 'protected' material. As written, the law requires any website be blocked if the copyright 'owners' simply CLAIM infringement. If you believe a government censored internet (our modern day 'press') is the right answer, then you didnt pay attention in school. Edited January 18, 2012 by tx2sturgis
RandyR Posted January 18, 2012 #11 Posted January 18, 2012 If you believe a government censored internet (our modern day 'press') is the right answer, then you didnt pay attention in school was that a government censored school?
Freebird Posted January 18, 2012 #12 Posted January 18, 2012 I am not going to get into the politics of all this. I will say that I agree that SOPA is a very badly written law that can do much harm to the internet as we know it. That being said, it amazes me this morning about all the uproar over WIkipedia being down for 24 hours. All the news channels making a such a big deal out of it and suggesting other sources of information for those that can't get through a day without Wikipedia. Come on folks...what the heck. I use Wikipedia and find it to be a useful source of info even if not always 100% accurate. I can assure you though that it being down for 24 hours or a week or forever is not going to have a severe impact on my life. I understand why they are doing what they are doing and I have no problem with it. I just don't understand why some are acting like it is the end of the world for people who can't access it for a day.
CaptainJoe Posted January 18, 2012 #13 Posted January 18, 2012 (edited) "How is it that if you steal a loaf of bread because you are hungry, you will go to jail? And certain people will line up to put you there. But if you use the internet to steal another's life work, those same people scream freedom of speach issues. " There's a big difference between (digitally copying and stamping a cd with lyrics in a nice case offering it for sale) and (copying the songs from say youtube....to your HD) How many of you oldtimers can truthfully say you haven't recorded songs, off of the radio onto a cassette tape :whistling:so that you had the songs "YOU wanted to hear"? there's absolutely no difference with copying it to your hard drive.... as long as YOU arent personally profiting from it, I don't have a problem with it. Besides, I cant think of any artist that has a CD that I would want to listen to from start to finnish... and , if i can't copy a song off of the internet...I will copy it with my dvd recorder from MTV or VH1. Or buy some cassettes and record the sound from "anysource"... Hey I think I may have just found a use for my cassette player.... Edited January 18, 2012 by CaptainJoe
eagleeye Posted January 18, 2012 #14 Posted January 18, 2012 I did notice that craigslist isn't there today. But a SOPA notice Steve
Guest tx2sturgis Posted January 18, 2012 #15 Posted January 18, 2012 7000 websites are down or have notices. Here's a small gallery of some of them: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-16608314 If Facebook is worried, and fears a closing or infringement of its business model, then think about all the other websites. Including this one.
AKRefugee Posted January 18, 2012 #16 Posted January 18, 2012 While I support the rights of artist and recording companies to protect their assets SOPA, as written, is NOT the way to do it. AS tx2sturgis mentioned it removes due process. Seizure of a website can purely be based on accusations . . . from anyone . . . including our government. It will allow them to immediately confiscate your web domain name and cut your web site off. Lets say I had a blog site about NASCAR and I mentioned Dale Earnhardt in a post. You did not like the post so you informed the government I used a registered trademark (Dale Earnhardt) illegally. Bang that would be all it takes, they could seize my website and shut me out of the web. What if I were to post a negative about a department of the government, say the Veterans Administration. Ops I used the VA name without permission, bye bye website, bye bye ability to communicate my opinions on the web (which is the press today). In other words good bye to my rights of freedom of the press. As for the angst of Wiki etal being off line today, I agree, it is a bit of an over reaction however it also is a very good display of what could happen. The law would not shut down a single page of a web site, it could shut down the whole damn web site. This is not an issue about piracy or artist rights this is an issue about freedom of the press, and YOUR your ability to exercise that right fully.
Guest tx2sturgis Posted January 18, 2012 #17 Posted January 18, 2012 At least they published this. http://ireport.cnn.com/docs/DOC-732719 After you watch the video, scroll down to the comment by Thruthbomb. I posted it here for all to see. Which if SOPA passes, would be illegal for me to do, or Don to allow, and any and all links to this website, including google and bing, could be removed!) Here is an analogy: If there was a crack house in a town, the police would gather information on it, legally obtain a warrant, execute a search, arrest people, then have a fair trial for all parties involved. If they followed the rules of SOPA, this is what would happen: The police would take the town off the map. They would take down all street sign in the area, begin to arrest people who lived in the area, arrest people who pointed in the direction of the crack house, fine the people for more money then their entire family has, put them all in jail for 10 years. Then the police could arrest the owner of the neighborhood where the crack house was located. Thruthbomb
CaptainJoe Posted January 18, 2012 #18 Posted January 18, 2012 "This is not an issue about piracy or artist rights this is an issue about freedom of the press, and YOUR your ability to exercise that right fully." Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA) I'm not disagreeing with what this act will allow the government to do. But do you really think they would get the permission of the people if they didn't float the idea as they did?
Guest tx2sturgis Posted January 18, 2012 #19 Posted January 18, 2012 I rarely agree with Mark Zuckerberg on anything. But this time, he agrees with ME and I find that spooky, but effective. (his audience is a bit bigger than mine) http://www.theatlanticwire.com/technology/2012/01/mark-zuckerberg-breaks-his-silence-anti-piracy-laws/47567/:happy34:
Chinto Posted January 18, 2012 #21 Posted January 18, 2012 I just found this link reporting that SOPA has been shelved prompted by a threat of veto. Check the link for details: http://www.infowars.com/dead-on-arrival-sopa-shelved-indefinitely-obama-succumbs-to-pressure-issues-official-veto-threat/
hig4s Posted January 19, 2012 #22 Posted January 19, 2012 I am not going to get into the politics of all this. I will say that I agree that SOPA is a very badly written law that can do much harm to the internet as we know it. That being said, it amazes me this morning about all the uproar over WIkipedia being down for 24 hours. All the news channels making a such a big deal out of it and suggesting other sources of information for those that can't get through a day without Wikipedia. Come on folks...what the heck. I use Wikipedia and find it to be a useful source of info even if not always 100% accurate. I can assure you though that it being down for 24 hours or a week or forever is not going to have a severe impact on my life. I understand why they are doing what they are doing and I have no problem with it. I just don't understand why some are acting like it is the end of the world for people who can't access it for a day. I am not sure it is a bad law, I have not read it, and have only seen opinions of those that oppose it. But the internet in general is such a complicated entity I am not sure if any law, no matter how well written and intended, would actually work as intended. There may need to be a seperate national internet constitution enacted, one as comprehensive for the virtual world as the US constitution is for the real world for it to actually be useful. As far as Wikipedia being down, it wasn't if you tried to go to it, clicked on the link about SOPA it had a write up on why they thought it was bad, and info on how to bypass that page on still get to anything you wanted on Wikipedia. They weren't stopping people from using Wikipedia, they were just making people read their protest to SOPA first.
Guest tx2sturgis Posted January 29, 2012 #23 Posted January 29, 2012 So Chris Dodd has admitted that the Hollywood mega corporations tried to purchase our congress to make them pass what amounts to anti-free speech legislation. SOPA is bad law. Period. "After SOPA and PIPA were temporarily derailed by Internet companies that went dark, and an increase in public pressure caused members of Congress to reconsider their support for the two MPAA-backed bills, Dodd spoke out via Fox News. Dodd said, “Those who count on . . . Hollywood for support need to understand that this industry is watching very carefully who's going to stand up for them when their job is at stake. Don't ask me to write a check for you when you think your job is at risk and then don't pay any attention to me when my job is at stake.” Dodd is essentially demanding a quid pro quo for Hollywood’s campaign donations." http://www.newsmax.com/Hirsen/Petition-Dodd-Bribery-SOPA/2012/01/23/id/425194 http://idealab.talkingpointsmemo.com/2012/01/mpaa-chief-chris-dodd-on-defense-over-piracy-loss-bribery-accusations.php
Guest tx2sturgis Posted January 29, 2012 #24 Posted January 29, 2012 Since the public and over 100,000 websites managed to push SOPA back into the slimy crack it crawled out of, now the governments of several nations are dragging out the big guns. ACTA. Be afraid. Be very afraid. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anti-Counterfeiting_Trade_Agreement
Guest tx2sturgis Posted January 29, 2012 #25 Posted January 29, 2012 Bump. http://www.forbes.com/sites/erikkain/2012/01/23/if-you-thought-sopa-was-bad-just-wait-until-you-meet-acta/
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