US Congress's Internet Censorship Bill

[H-con]

Fansites served with copyright infringement notices - Bulbanews

Has it happened before? Yes. Ask Serebii and WPM. Or all the companies sending C&D orders for fangames, or WMG or ShoPro on YT.

Plenty of companies hate YT, after all, there are plenty of people uploading (insert movie/show) here.

SOPA would make it easier for companies to fuck over fair use.

I'm not saying it won't happen, nor that it never has happened, but what I was saying is that the site isn't going to be taken down because of some stupid avatars. Companies scouring the web for the most minor breach of copyright isn't exactly resources well spent (though checking the major sites is easily enough). I think we need to stop up and think over how much this will affect us. Would really companies shift more resources towards "combating" copyright violations. Remember that they could potentially risk a large portion of their fanbase, and that's something I would assume they take seriously enough.

Now, how many move and record companies act is moronic, but I can't blame them from wanting to stop piracy (whether or not they helped cause it is another debate of course), but considering how at least music is shared through Youtube (at least viewing the top played videos, it's pretty obvious), I don't think the music industry would do much, and they're one of the parts backing this bill, no? As for series and stuff, putting out complete episodes on YT is probably not the best plan ever, though I can't really imagine companies actually targeting small clips. Why should they, doubt watching a good clip from a show or movie would be negative for the series/show.


SOPA isn't a good thing. Not by a long shot, but seriously people need to relax a bit. Saying sites like Youtube and Facebook is getting shut down has very little connection to reality out there (especially Facebook). And again, I'm going to sit back and see people forget about this after a while. It's bound to happen. It's not going to end the internet.

 

[Poke Trainer J]

I got recent word from Anonymous that SOPA passed despite the Official Petition against it that raised 25,000 votes. So yeah, here's the video explaining it:

Anonymous: SOPA passed. We are displeased. - YouTube!

Protect IP is still scheduled for a vote next year on January 1st.

Also Cable News is finally realizing that SOPA and PROTECT IP are bad:

Cable News Finally Realizing That SOPA And PROTECT IP Are Bad News | Techdirt

 

[ルカリオ]

Actually, SOPA hasn't yet passed. It is up for vote tomorrow. And then it has to go to the President to be signed, aka. Royal Assent. Hopefully he will veto it, and not wimp out like he did with NDAA.

 

[John Understands]

Actually, SOPA hasn't yet passed. It is up for vote tomorrow. And then it has to go to the President to be signed, aka. Royal Assent. Hopefully he will veto it, and not wimp out like he did with NDAA.

Hopefully it doesn't pass like NDAA. If it passes, then...... we're possibly screwed.

And this is today, the day when the Congress decides.

 

[ルカリオ]

It's now been postponed until after the Christmas break...
Full Committee Markup of:*H.R. 3261, the “Stop Online Piracy Act”

 

[Poke Trainer J]

If SOPA and Protect IP doesn't get passed through Congress, there's 2 other bills of legislation that the U.S. Government is trying to push on through into law known as the OPEN Act (Online Protection and Enforcement of Digital Trade Act) and Bill S.978 (the Commercial Felony Streaming Act).

Keep your eyes peeled on these to gear up for the 2nd round of petitions unless there's a good reason for either the OPEN Act and Bill S.978 to be passed into law.

 

[Poke Trainer J]

Oh here's an interesting video I found on YouTube regarding SOPA, spread this around!

Be a HERO and Help STOP SOPA Now!! I'll tell you How! This Video that Must Be SHARED! - YouTube

 

[Tophat Dragoneye]

Oh here's an interesting video I found on YouTube regarding SOPA, spread this around!

Be a HERO and Help STOP SOPA Now!! I'll tell you How! This Video that Must Be SHARED! - YouTube

That's quite an interesting video you found and it also explains what SOPA will do when passed, although I admit I didn't knew that USA was willing to drag a 23 year old student to the states simply because he broke a law over there, while it wasn't illegal in UK where he lived. With SOPA... uuhhh, gives me the shivers if it is passed.

EDIT: I've read that even the European Union has made a statement that opposes SOPA, particulary in reference to the ability of the US to seize domain names.

EU opposes US using 'long arm' to seize foreign domain names - NewsEurope Online

This article may be a month old, but better late than never.

 

[The Outrage]

Oh here's an interesting video I found on YouTube regarding SOPA, spread this around!

Be a HERO and Help STOP SOPA Now!! I'll tell you How! This Video that Must Be SHARED! - YouTube

The only thing I find wrong with that, is the way the message is being delivered. Even if he has a valid point, he sounds like a ranting extreme end of the opposing argument, so I'm worried it won't be taken as seriously as it should. Let's not even pretend people aren't affected by the delivery of the argument.

Effective messages usually have their strongest points in the beginning and the end, since that's the sections people have the most retention. Took awhile for him to get to the point unfortunately. Even if you link the video, would the people who need to watch it get through the first three minutes?

 

[Poke Trainer J]

The only thing I find wrong with that, is the way the message is being delivered. Even if he has a valid point, he sounds like a ranting extreme end of the opposing argument, so I'm worried it won't be taken as seriously as it should. Let's not even pretend people aren't affected by the delivery of the argument.

Effective messages usually have their strongest points in the beginning and the end, since that's the sections people have the most retention. Took awhile for him to get to the point unfortunately. Even if you link the video, would the people who need to watch it get through the first three minutes?

CBS, CNET, Viacon are the #1 supporters of SOPA, crazy as it sounds we still need to get this information out to our Government Officials and Congressmen:

VIACON Dirty Secrets

 

[moosie]

I sent an email to the congressman here in Ohio. I really hope this dang bill will not pass. Reasons are basically for what y'all have said.

 

[Eredar Warlock]

Will Google, Amazon, And Facebook Black Out The Net? | Fox News

n the growing battle for the future of the Web, some of the biggest sites online -- Google, Facebook, and other tech stalwarts -- are considering a coordinated blackout of their sites, some of the web’s most popular destinations.

No Google searches. No Facebook updates. No Tweets. No Amazon.com shopping. Nothing.

The action would be a dramatic response to the Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA), a bill backed by the motion picture and recording industries that is intended to eliminate theft online once and for all. HR 3261 would require ISPs to block access to sites that infringe on copyrights -- but how exactly it does that has many up in arms. The creators of some of the web's biggest sites argue it could instead dramatically restrict law-abiding U.S. companies -- and reshape the web as we know it.

A blackout would be drastic. And though the details of exactly how it would work are unclear, it's already under consideration, according to Markham Erickson, the executive director of NetCoalition, a trade association that includes the likes of Google, PayPal, Yahoo, and Twitter.

“Mozilla had a blackout day and Wikipedia has talked about something similar,” Erickson told FoxNews.com, calling this kind of operation unprecedented.

"A number of companies have had discussions about that," he said.

With the Senate debating the SOPA legislation at the end of January, it looks as if the tech industry’s top dogs are finally adding bite to their bark, something CNET called "the nuclear option."

"When the home pages of Google.com, Amazon.com, Facebook.com, and their Internet allies simultaneously turn black with anti-censorship warnings that ask users to contact politicians about a vote in the U.S. Congress the next day on SOPA,” Declan McCullagh wrote, “you’ll know they’re finally serious.”

“This type of thing doesn’t happen because companies typically don’t want to put their users in that position,” Erickson explained. “The difference is that these bills so fundamentally change the way the Internet works. People need to understand the effect this special-interest legislation will have on those who use the Internet.”

The polarizing movement has many critics but also equally strong and diverse support, including most major media companies as well as businesses like 3M, Adidas, Burberry, CVS and more. News Corp., the parent company of FoxNews.com, also supports the law.

"SOPA targets foreign websites that sell counterfeit drugs and stolen copies of Hollywood movies -- not such American Web sites as YouTube or your favorite blog," wrote Richard Bennett, senior research fellow at the Information Technology & Innovation Foundation, in an editorial in the New York Post.

The law is necessary to deal with those sites, he said.

"Internet criminals selling bogus drugs or pirated movies simply set up shop in China or a distant island republic, knowing that they won't be harassed by law enforcement regardless of how many U.S. lives or jobs they endanger."

But opposition to the legislation has grown substantially louder in recent weeks as the vote looms.

On November 15, Google, Facebook, Twitter, Zynga, eBay, Mozilla, Yahoo, AOL, and LinkedIn wrote a letter to Washington warning of SOPA's dangers. "We are concerned that these measures pose a serious risk to our industry's continued track record of innovation and job-creation, as well as to our Nation's cybersecurity," the letter argued

Google co-founder Sergey Brin himself has loudly denounced the bill. “While I support their goal of reducing copyright infringement (which I don't believe these acts would accomplish), I am shocked that our lawmakers would contemplate such measures that would put us on a par with the most oppressive nations in the world,” Brin wrote on Google+ social networking site earlier this month.

Others have taken a more proactive approach, voting with their dollars against those who support the bill. GoDaddy.com, one of the largest domain registrars on the Internet, stands to potentially lose thousands of customers on Thursday, Dec. 29, or “Dump GoDaddy Day,” the culmination of an ongoing boycott of the company.

Microblogging site Tumblr generated 87,834 calls to Congress with its own anti-SOPA campaign -- a total of 1,293 total hours spent talking to representatives.

Hollywood and the recording industry have maintained the bill's necessity in the name of piracy. "Rogue Web sites that steal America's innovative and creative products attract more than 53 billion visits a year and threaten more than 19 million American jobs," the U.S. Chambers of Commerce wrote in a letter to the editor of The New York Times.

But Erickson believes this is “just the tip of the iceberg in terms of response.”

“People take the Internet very personally," Erickson told FoxNews.com. “It’s a very important part of their lives."

 

[Tophat Dragoneye]

Will Google, Amazon, And Facebook Black Out The Net? | Fox News

(Jaw drops down to the ground, creating cracks on it) Wow, that's the Internet's version of a nuke! If it happens, this won't go unnoticed and could create some attention to SOPA and the Protect IP Act and the possible trouble it could make to the Internet.

 

[HeartGold]

I am currently unsure if a link to this website has already been posted, but I found it while searching for information on SOPA.
I just thought it could help people speak out against this bill.

 

[Epsilonexus]

I'm a Briton and am mega-scared. Reasons:
1. UK follows suit (US tends to follow UK and vice versa)
2. Internet crashes, burns and dies in a hole.
3. NOA (Nintendo of America) shuts us down. They've tried but we've shielded ourselves with Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike Act but they get to bump Bulba off. Not good.
Please don't pass this bill. Please don't pass this bill! Please don't pass this bill!!!!

 

[Tophat Dragoneye]

NOA (Nintendo of America) shuts us down. They've tried but we've shielded ourselves with Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike Act but they get to bump Bulba off. Not good.

Wait, Nintendo of America have tried to shut down Bulbagarden at one point?

 

[Epsilonexus]

Well not quite. Other sites have been targeted, though not quite us. Sorry got my facts wrong there.

Fansites served with copyright

infringement notices - Bulbanews is something to look at. Though if this bill is passed Bulba WILL go down for copy right without a doubt.

EDIT: This is a mess. I have just watched a video on YouTube (link at the end) stating how we've been set up by companies who have created piracy websites, let them run, dominate and support them, then rush to lawmakers saying "Look at all this piracy, we've got to stop this" using their own creations as an example but not saying it it theirs and letting them dominate the internet. And they will control it, they can shut down any website which infringes on copyright, even if it is user related. This is extreme, for example, I upload a copyright infringing video to YouTube. Before SOPA, the offended party (the people who legally own the content) complain to YouTube, I get told to remove the video, if I refuse, they can block me, remove the video (YouTube that is) and the offended party have right to sue me. Fine. This system works. With SOPA in play, they shut down all of YouTube instantly even though it is my fault, if they complain they will get something along the lines of "You should have tried harder for the content to not get there in the first place". This isn't plausible, with thousands upon thousands of videos uploaded per day, the only thing which could sift through this is a bot, and currently internet bots aren't intelligent enough to know what is and isn't copyright and do the job well.

Let's take this to a more understandable extreme (and SOPA is extreme). I'm driving along in my car and some lunatic in a BMW drives into me and causes a massive crash. It was his fault and definitely not the car. I can sue him if I want and get compensation. Fine, it was his fault. Under SOPA, it's like then me suing BMW because when of their cars crashed into me even though it wasn't their fault. And getting my compensation from BMW. But it's not suing, it's shutting down.
Another example is, in a bank with vaults which can be hired by the customers, a customer puts an illegal item in his vault (eg a load of drugs) and someone finds out and then all branches of the bank go down without notice, all because of this one druggie. First and for most, it just isn't fair. It's not their fault. That's SOPA for you and I'm not going to rest until they are stopped. NEITHER SHOULD YOU.
(Video mentioned above)

EDIT 2: No one's safe. In the UK, NZ, Brazil? Not safe. the US will legally be able to go into your territory and deal with you even though you are not in the US and your not breaking your countries law. You've not committed an actual crime in the states, it is one thing being dragged back to the US for justice if you for example nicked something in the US of value and worth. Breaking their law but not your own in your own country shouldn't be disciplined. You don't see Muslim states coming to the US to arrest a man from drinking alcohol out of their territory. It's just not right. Who's with me?

 

[Kingmate]

Just a quick question, noone owns the internet, do they?

 

[Bulletproof Scales]

There's a certain hilarity in the average internet users' struggle whenever their comfortably free downloadable media and rights to anonymously write whatever the fuck they like is put up for debate on the big tables.

And to see people throw fits and loit around in local places with home made signs and believe that the greedy corporations that apparently runs your world will do it your way to make you stop embarassing yourself, and that this isn't a grade A first world problem that actually won't make the world go under.

And to think this all could happen in the U.S.

 

[Dr. Mecha]

The only way the congress would listen if we could tell them that SOPA is making the Economy worst than before by limiting website viewing and creation of such websites to those who supports the bill, thus stuns the economic growth of small business who use the internet to make a business and to advertise said business. Economy is one of their biggest concerns, along with homeland security, and international relations.