Friday, December 30th 2011
Congress Debates SOPA, Hypocritically Downloads Illegally Itself
Almost everyone who understands something about technology will have heard of the Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA) (H.R.3261) currently being debated in the U.S. House. This is internet censorship legislation by any other name and anyone that doesn't have a vested interest in it like the big media cartels is against it. This is because it hands almost total control of the internet to powerful (read: money) special interest groups, allowing them to shut down websites at the mere whiff of an accusation of 'piracy', however small and however unfounded. This will easily ruin many legitimate businesses, all on the pretext of 'protecting copyright' from supposed 'financial losses' due to content 'theft'. It also does an awful lot of other things, all of them bad, which are fully detailed in the link above. Now, if anyone thinks that this is far-fetched, just look at how the current 'darling' of the internet, GoDaddy operates: they pulled the DNS records of weebly.com, because of one little complaint against the site and without even contacting the domain owner first to advise of the situation. Disgraceful. Give them SOPA and a webmaster doesn't stand a chance, regardless of their size.
However, in a revelation that will surprise nobody, it turns out that members of Congress have been downloading illegally themselves - shock! A little investigation by the good people at TorrentFreak has demonstrated that these people are complete and total hypocrites. Yes, hypocrites. So, how did they out this revelation? We'll let DailyTech explain the fine details:
Pirate Windows! Throw them in jail!
This is porn, the details of which you don't want to know
Hopefully, there will be enough of an outcry to eventually stop this abomination of a bill from ever becoming law.
There's lots more info on this kind of corruption reported daily, over at techdirt.comPropaganda picture credit: Shepard Fairey
TorrentFreak used Hurricane Electric's handy list of assigned IP blocks (found here) to track down which IP addresses belong to the offices of members of Congress. And lo and behold, when those addresses were compared to results on YouHaveDownloaded, a torrent tracking site, they yielded over 800 hits.Yes, that can only mean one thing: one rule for the rich and corrupt elite and another (much harsher and unreasonable) one for the rest of us. Here's a couple of screenshots of the many incriminating results obtained by TorrentFreak:
Now to put this in context YouHaveDownloaded tracks only a tiny portion of torrent traffic, so it appears that Congress -- even as they look to punish lesser mortals for file sharing -- are themselves gleefully committing a "smash and grab" as Vice President Joe Biden (D) once put it.
Hopefully, there will be enough of an outcry to eventually stop this abomination of a bill from ever becoming law.
There's lots more info on this kind of corruption reported daily, over at techdirt.comPropaganda picture credit: Shepard Fairey
82 Comments on Congress Debates SOPA, Hypocritically Downloads Illegally Itself
There are no need for conspiracy theories, rights are clearly being eroded and a tech site that failed to report on these developments simply wouldn't be doing its job. The problem does not lie with quibit and his journalistic focus, but rather with US politicans who amount to little more than the voice of corporate interest. Quibit did not invent this news, he merely reported it.
Moreover, given that employment figures are on the increase and that both Europe and the US appear intent on placing the burden of the financial crisis on the taxpayer rather than the bank, freedom of speech will inevitably run contrary to government/corporate interests.
Of course, if you wish to believe that such laws are set in motion to thwart the illicit downloading of games, that is your prerogative.
And as far the highlighted bit goes, it's a classic case of shooting the messenger by the corporate apologists on here/people that want to stick their heads in the sand. Heck, I'm used to it by now and totally expect it when reporting on abuses like this. Whatever. I'll continue doing what's best for TPU and people as a whole by getting those stories on here, where everyone (not just TPU members) can see them. Knowledge of these abuses is power. Notice how SOPA doesn't get a mention in mainstream corporate news channels or papers? This is a high magnitude bill, so the fact that it's not being reported on is no accident. The powerful corporate lobbyists that control the media and the government (they are their sock puppets, think substantial campaign and party donations) want to keep everyone in the dark until it's too late. We must prevent this as much as possible. Heck, just now, btarunr has posted a news story about more companies 'withdrawing' support for SOPA. See? This subject is very much within TPU's remit.
Also, everyone should know, I was actually asked to write this article by management, on TPU. So yes, these are new developments that need to be reported on and the kind of stories that are reported on here evolve over time. Think: technology and everything related to it changes at a massive pace, so how ridiculous would it be if TPU stayed the same as several years ago?
As for this being front page news well......I was on these stories well before they were posted here. I didn't report them. Why? Because of this crap. We argue about things well out of our control and it ends up being a debate about things most people don't have a full grasp on. Threads like this create animosity between members and instead of taking about RAM timings and silicon doping we argue things like politics and religion. Things NONE of us can agree on, EVER. This is why I don't report SOPA, piracy or any other political news. This isnt news. Its flame bait the way its reported.
I agree that all governments want this kind of totalitarian control and they are most suredly using 'piracy' as a scapegoat to implement crap like this. :shadedshu
I don't agree with blaming 'pirates' over the actions of big corps and government though.
And as far as reporting it and the heated conversations that occur? Well yes, you're gonna get disagreements and the conversation isn't always pretty, but that's human nature, man. And people do agree, not everyone sure, but there is agreement all right. It's not a reason to run away from it and pretend it doesn't exist, because this sh*t f*cks us all over, whether you're aware of it or not, so better to see it coming. Look, I'm not the only one posting about this, as you can see, so the idea of reporting on this subject is not coming from me, but right from the top. Ultimately, the more that this stuff is discussed over the internet, regardles of its tone, the more that awareness of it will increase in the general population and there will be resistance to it. Look, it's already happening as it is, as you can see.
Personally, I think you should write at least one SOPA article and let us have your viewpoint on the issue within it. It would make for an interesting conversation and I'd be happy to debate it with you. :toast:
pathetic
and btw, all main stream media sucks ass so to try and even bring Fox or into this holds no merit whatsover and for that matter diluting the topic with some hypothetical scenario is a waste of time
As far as putting my view in it, you should realize just how many other websites put their view in it too - just check out the source site, DailyTech, for this story to see what I mean. We'll just have to disagree on reporting styles - and I respect whatever style you choose to use - but I don't see why I shouldn't report abuses for what they are and word it strongly. If one really wants 'neutral'/bland reporting, then that's what the BBC is for.
btw I don't watch Fox news. I take it they load their analysis/commentary/opinions into a lot of their stories? Sounds interesting.
it is also funny to see you initially arguing that there was no conspiracy and it was just about piracy yet now you own up to the fact that it is a political stunt using piracy to further their agenda and go even further to posture yourself as the one to call it out along with Wrigley
whatever dude. whateverthats right qubit. it is what it is
a vast amount of information of what you know and think you understand is a based off of conspiracies or the indirect impact from the existence of conspiracies...
you probably wont ever realize that because you dont want to research it, which is fine because after all... each man to his own right?yep, it is crazy how much power and control we have given them all while trusting them. but they are the ones being controlled to control us. that simple fact is the reason why everything is screwed up right now and many people have WTF bubbles over their head wondering how it got this bad
we werent aware of the 3rd parties...
pay bills
follow conscience
take care of family
do not steal
let loose the dogs of war
well read (awesome)
thinking their is a shadow behind every corner
Disagree:
Nothing new is being done today(I severely disagree)
if you want to better understand war history you should google Hegelian Dialectic and false-flag. this has been used by all of the tyrants that you can think and dates all the way back to Roman times. I can soundly say that the US uses it a lot. a fine example is SOPA and dare I mention towers which introduced the Patriot Act
See its the cycle of man.
1. Man builds a immature society.
2. Man becomes prosperous as society matures.
3. Society matures fully and becomes corrupt.
4. Man tears down society and builds a new one.
See the founders of America knew of step 3. They lived it. This is why they didn't want a centralized power. A super government with super power. They knew absolute power corrupts. But their mistake was they thought they could change mans natural order. That's was like trying to make water not wet.
How many times have we done this? How many more? This story is as old as man himself. There is no conspiracies. Just a bunch of squirrels trying to catch a nut.