Wednesday, January 18th 2012
SOPA/PIPA Internet Protests Go Viral, Hit Home
The protests to the widely condemned SOPA & PIPA "antipiracy" censorship bills have been a resounding success. They have gone viral with many, many websites blacking out and putting up protest pages, with big players taking part such as Wikipedia, Google, EFF, Reddit, Craigslist, Techdirt (greyed out) and many more taking part. Unsurprisingly, the bills' backers have not shown any sign of backing down (yet) but were prompted to make statements "wondering what all the fuss is about" to play down the damage done to their play for power, since they have recently made changes to them, such as removing the DNS blocking provisions - for now. Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) senior vice president of communications Jonathan Lamy called the protests 'stunts': "It's a dangerous and troubling development when the platforms that serve as gateways to information intentionally skew the facts to incite their users and arm them with misinformation. It's time for the stunts to end and those who claim to care about rogue website theft to back up their rhetoric and work with us on meaningful solutions." This is the same RIAA that sued their own customers with extortionate "settlement" letters remember.
The US Chamber of Commerce has also been a vocal supporter of these bills. Their chief counsel on intellectual property, Steve Tapp thought that the shutdown was strange: "The PROTECT IP Act and SOPA have been modified by their sponsors to address concerns by removing entirely the provision that would have required blocking of criminal sites. Strangely, those who demanded that change are now shutting themselves down, although it is not clear why they are still protesting after they got what they wanted."
So, these people and others like them are clueless over what kind of total control this gives corporate copyright holders over the internet and the kind of damage that it will cause? Sure. Not a massive power grab or anything, then.
If these bills are allowed to pass, then sites across the internet universe are all at risk of being summarily shut down without any warning over mere allegations of copyright infringement. For example, a site like TechPowerUp could be shut down in an instant over mere allegations that a forum member had made a copyright violating post. These are the actions of a totalitarian state, not a democracy and must be stopped dead.
The Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) is of course also doing its bit to fight these bills and have posted about it here. Along with information (pdf) about the perils of the bills, they have also linked to a couple of protest sites for people to sign, one run by themselves. For Americans: blacklist.eff.org and one for non-Americans: americancensorship.org/modal/state-dept-petition/index.html
Finally, www.techdirt.com as usual, has extensive coverage of this issue, often from angles one may not have thought of. Well worth bookmarking. PCWorld are also covering this extensively and have an index page of articles here.
Source:
PCWorld
So, these people and others like them are clueless over what kind of total control this gives corporate copyright holders over the internet and the kind of damage that it will cause? Sure. Not a massive power grab or anything, then.
If these bills are allowed to pass, then sites across the internet universe are all at risk of being summarily shut down without any warning over mere allegations of copyright infringement. For example, a site like TechPowerUp could be shut down in an instant over mere allegations that a forum member had made a copyright violating post. These are the actions of a totalitarian state, not a democracy and must be stopped dead.
The Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) is of course also doing its bit to fight these bills and have posted about it here. Along with information (pdf) about the perils of the bills, they have also linked to a couple of protest sites for people to sign, one run by themselves. For Americans: blacklist.eff.org and one for non-Americans: americancensorship.org/modal/state-dept-petition/index.html
Finally, www.techdirt.com as usual, has extensive coverage of this issue, often from angles one may not have thought of. Well worth bookmarking. PCWorld are also covering this extensively and have an index page of articles here.
133 Comments on SOPA/PIPA Internet Protests Go Viral, Hit Home
The people who wrote and support this bill should be sterilized.
Let's remove free information! That way we can all be mindless sheep!
Fucking fascists.
If it passes, HDD's price will have a small increase of 0.02€ per GB up to 1TB and 0.025€ per GB for more the 1TB.
- If a 1TB HDD costs 100€ now, it will cost 120.48€.
- If a 2TB HDD costs 200€ now, it will cost 251.2€.
- If a 3TB HDD costs 300€ now, it will cost 376,8€.
Current HDD prices were made up for this example, ofc.
Dunno specifics on other devices increases.
EDIT
Here's a translated article: translate.google.com/translate?u=http%3A%2F%2Faeiou.exameinformatica.pt%2Ftodos-os-partidos-concordam-com-lei-que-aumenta-precos-da-informatica%3Df1011641%23ixzz1jq1qp46G&sl=pt&tl=en&hl=&ie=UTF-8
I do not support nor oppose this bill, in case you were wondering.
2) This does not invade my privacy no more than what's already going on, so I could care less. Not to mention I don't care about privacy unless it's information released to the public.
There is definitely such thing as neutral. ;)
P.S. I haven't been to a movie in 10 years ! FUCK THEM !
Not to mention Facebook serves as valuable personal information for the government.
Their target is illegal content/torrents, not social networks.
But like I said, it really doesn't matter what my opinion is, because my State Senator opposes it.
See you give an inch they will take it and they will keep taking it ! You just do not get it and that is the sad thing about Americans today ! We have become dependent and complacent on the Government and think every thing they do is just fine ! Good by America we had a nice run .
Just take a look over here if you love America . www.facebook.com/pages/Cause/320318541335547
VCR's almost didn't make it, it was a supreme court ruling that was 1 vote away from having them become illegal until they could prevent home users from recording any media. That would have set technology back 10 years.
MP3 players? Same things.
DVD's? Same things.
Blu-ray, audio streaming, DRM....
I had a video on youtube of my children removed as it was supposedly "in violation" by sharing a song that was under copyright. The copyright holders get to blanket any videos that contain a partial audio track recorded as a unintended background on any video clips as in violation, and thus will be removed, and you have to prove that you were NOT in violation.
That is guilty until proven innocent.
Lets apply the same precedent to anything.
I think you use drugs, and sell them. So we will break down your door in a police raid in full riot gear using tear gas on your family and arrest you, go through your whole house, confiscate your money, accounts, assets. And you have to prove you are innocent.
How does that sound? This is the type of "authority" they have already been given, and they want more freedom to shut you down if you make their nose tickle, ear itch, or otherwise. Is this what you want? They have a track record of making their own laws, and enforcing them the way they see fit in a guilty till proven innocent way.
It took three hours of digging through the rights bills to get my video back going again, and the rules were clear.
1) The music was a unintended background that was played in a public place by a authorized public broadcaster (Joes Crab Shack)
2) The room was larger than 12 X 15 (or some odd shit like that)
3) I never focused the camera on the speakers for the sole purpose of making a illegal recording of the publicly broadcasted content, be it for personal use or public use at any time after.
Basically shit rules made up so they can try and blanket wrap and then rape you.
How about when the government puts a tracking device on your car ? They can NOW DO THIS WITH OUT YOU EVEN KNOWING ABOUT IT !!!!!! They can listen into your PHONE CALLS WITH OUT A COURT ORDER !!!! There are many more things YOU do not have a clue about that the GOVERNMENT Can do ! They are taking rights away from people faster than we the people can keep up . So just what will make you take a stand ? What will it take ? When the government comes into your home and takes your kids ? Well Guess what they can do this too !!! And what is even more frightening is they can do this with out so much as a reason ! YOU FOOLS !!!