EDIT: The SOPA topic: the end of the Internet as we know it?

[Sora]

All I can say is, people in 2008 wanted change, and now they have it.

Still, I think if an influential man who knew how to really run a government got into office, things may still turn around.  Worst case scenario as I see it is another Great Depression, but hopefully things will turn around before it comes to that.  Also why are you people worrying about this when Obamacare has already been passed >_>

[CarThief]

Huh, so far for any positive change... Australia seems to have similar issues with their government trying to push in and maintain censorship, except SOPA covers almost worldwide, huge violation of everyone's rights, generally.

So... Anyone going to pick up on any of those SOPA-bypassing tools? I dont think a bunch of senile old fools who couldnt run anything more advanced then their E-mail programs will understand the value of the Internet, let alone other people's rights, as have been proven by NDAA and the (most likely) soon to be implemented SOPA.

[Jman]

All I can say is, people in 2008 wanted change, and now they have it.

Still, I think if an influential man who knew how to really run a government got into office, things may still turn around.  Worst case scenario as I see it is another Great Depression, but hopefully things will turn around before it comes to that.  Also why are you people worrying about this when Obamacare has already been passed >_>

How dare you insult my president
It's supported by both parties... not just the democrats or republicans.
All I know is... this bill needs to stop.

[FCx]

Yesterday in a website I found a post that has this image.

(click to show/hide)

Translation from the english version
"In response to a complaint we received under the US Digital Millennium Copyright Act, we have removed x result(s) from this page. If you wish, you may read the DMCA complaint that caused the removal(s) at *****"

Is that the beginning of SOPA?

[CarThief]

Hm, could be but seems unlikely, i've seen that before, before all that SOPA stuff, they do that occasionally.

SOPA will probaly be more destructive though, in its current form, A WHOLE WEBSITE can be pulled down for one small page where users might merely post links. Its essentially the internet version of throwing a Nuke at an small problem that could be dealt with otherwise, way too much collateral damage, imagine; Youtube being down for days, if not forever! (Considering all the varied, not-always-so-legal stuff people upload there, i presume.)

I'd be insanely bored if good stuff like Youtube suddenly went down. Not to mention the potential abuse if coporations see minor copyright infractions, that have otherwise good intentions and purposes, but they dont like that website/company, so they're gonna kill it with SOPA.

Hm, they do seem to be pulling out a new bill that people say, so far is like SOPA but without any of the exessive power or collateral damage, 'OPEN Act' or something? Seems based off of, or atleast compared to Protect IP(its like SOPA) and SOPA, but better...? Eh, we dont need any changes if you ask me, the Internet is fine as is.

[Dr. Freeman]

So from what I heard, SOPA is dead now.
So (unless I misheard) the internet won.

[Red]

So from what I heard, SOPA is dead now.
So (unless I misheard) the internet won.

if the internet loses We head for the undernet!

[-FiniteZero-]

We head for the undernet!

Yes. Just, yes.

[Tesseractal]

All I can say is, people in 2008 wanted change, and now they have it.

Still, I think if an influential man who knew how to really run a government got into office, things may still turn around.

I'm your man. Roc for President, 2028.  

But you're right, though. Obamacare is something that impacts people (in a negative way) MUCH more immediately than SOPA will. (Dealing with insurance companies has been bad enough already. Way to blow it, Obama.) As for SOPA itself, while it IS a terrible law, I think the fear of it is blown WAY out of a proportion. A nuke on the internet? Hardly. If you want a more drastic version of this law - look at USA Patriot Act. That law has been passed since 2001, and has given the government control not unlike what you see in SOPA.

Have any of you even heard of the Patriot Act before now? Some of you might have, but it's probably had relatively little impact on your life so far. The people passing SOPA are about as internet-savvy as a bunch of old white dudes can get. The sites that get shutdown will most likely be the obvious copyright infringers, mainly torrents and file sharing webpages. Seriously - have any of you been arrested for downloading music? Or a torrent? I doubt it, and I doubt SOPA would really have any impact on your regular life.

[Solar Equinox]

It could be worse, you could still have Bush.

[FCx]

Time to answer the thread topic:

the end of the Internet as we know it?

No It isn't....... for now

[Mr. X]

My guess is even if it were going to go into effect, it wouldn't be as big of a deal as people make it out to be.

With that being said, considering the general public, many technology companies, and the President have all come out against the thing, I doubt it'll get passed.  Even if it does, it could get vetoed.  Even if it isn't vetoed, the executive branch could technically just say "Yeah, it's on the books but we're not enforcing it" like they're doing with that one controversial bill that passed not too long ago.

[Mendez]

DNS blocking has now been removed from the bill, GG internet. Of course, that could be because of a Comcast infastructure update that disabled the ability for DNS blocking. I'll get the link when I'm not busy typing from a cell phone. In any case, I feel that online piracy has had a severe impact on the entertainment industry, as well as the video game industry. It cannot be denied that billions of dollars in potential revenue have been lost over the year. However, this bill is a piss-poor attempt at trying to kill off online piracy.
See, I've heard stories where online pirates are caught by their ISPs in the act. They get a letter in the mail that says "We know that you pirated this, please stop or we'll kill your service". However, the piracy continues. Why is that? This is because of the fact that while the entertainment industry loses money, the internet providers wouldn't want to lose money too. They know people pirate and that killing off their service would mean $40 lost in profit each month FOR A SINGLE CUSTOMER. That amounts to about $480 in potential revenue a year, lost from a single customer because the entertainment industry turned into a whiny bitch and asked the pirates to stop.
So obviously, ISPs aren't as willing to help. So what can the entertainment industry do to prevent their work from losing money? They decide to cut the middle man and take care of the piracy themselves. How is that? By launching this bill that allows them to practically kill off almost whatever site they please. No longer will the tedious task of filing DMCA claims suffice for the entertainment industry. Noooooo, now they just want to wipe the content off immediately and permanently, websites be damned. Kickasstorrents? GONE. The Pirate Bay? DEAD. Mediafire, even? ADIOS. If it's got their stuff on it, it's screwed.
Killing off piracy is a good thing. The way that's it being done, however, is a complete mockery of the internet's freedom of expression. With DNS blocking removed, maybe we can come one step closer to making sure that the internet isn't screwed over by a bunch of corporate assholes. The issue of online piracy, however, remains. Is piracy as bad as the entertainment industry makes it out to be? Are we causing these bills to pop up by not reporting obviously infringing material? Is this bill really going to affect the way we surf the internet as much as we make it out to be? Personally, my answers to all these questions would be yes. However, it's up to the old guys at Washington to decide the internet's fate.This has been Eliza Cassan, reporting to you from Picus God damnit, I love Human Revolution too much.

[Mr. Sean Nelson]

Is piracy as bad as the entertainment industry makes it out to be?
Personally, my answers to all these questions would be yes.

South Park said it best.
The issue of online piracy is so ridiculous that it's a miracle anyone gives a crap.

Start at 00:40 for olo's.

http://www.southparkstudios.com/clips/1 ... a-big-deal

[Mendez]

While that is a nice video that provides humorous social commentary on the whole situation (Look ma', I can use big words too!), I think we need to be really serious for a second and look at the stats and arguments.
This is a list of countries, assorted by software piracy rate.
This is a "credible" study by the Institute for Policy Innovation, regarding online piracy, sponsered by the RIAA
This is a great article which includes solid arguments on why piracy is occurring. Amazingly, the companies themselves are to blame.
There's also a very nice image that puts online piracy in an easy-to-read info-graph. Spoilered for space.

(click to show/hide)

The main argument here is that piracy is caused when content isn't available to others. If people can't find a way to buy/find their favorite content online, they'll resort to pirating it. This can be a great explanation for why Armenia and China have such high piracy rates. Of course, there will always be thieves/poorfags who will steal content to save a few bucks. However, that's not always the case. The entertainment industry, however, thinks otherwise.