I'm surprised no one else has made on thread on this tbh. For those who don't know SOPA stands for Stop Online Piracy Act, and it's an extremely controversial piece of legislation being considered by U.S congress. Essentially if a site posts anything that can be deemed as copyright infringement, major corporations like warner bros will have the right to shut down said sites, have them taken off google, and prevent other sites from linking to them, affecting not just the U.S.A but the entire world. Major sites like google, facebook and youtube would all be crippled by the legislation. What are your thoughts (and please keep things civil.).
It's like removing freedom of speech, except its in the media. This legislation from what I heard is flawed, because if they did do this, then people would bypass it, or worse protest and not in a peaceful way. I may be wrong though.
Well, clearly it's completely wrong, and unnecessary. The internet is about sharing information, if this legislation had been in place from the beginning, a lot of the great things made possible by the internet would have been impossible. What are the chances of this legislation making it through? I'm from the UK so not totally familiar with the way these things work in the US. On a similar note, anyone have any thoughts on the British Student who looks set to be extradited by the US because he set up a website that pointed users to copyright material? This is illegal in the US, but not the UK where the student was based (and never left). Seems pretty unfair that he faces ten years in an American prison for a crime he didn't commit in that country.
Well I think it's only Americans that will be facing prison sentences (at the moment.). But their site would be taken down.
If the law in a country says it is not illegal here but the same point is illegal elsewhere then the person may not be punished in a country where it is punishable. Punishing someone for something that was done in another country where it is not illegal is simply very idiotic. US law is not international law. SOPA is bad for everyone, piracy, in fact, promotes gaming industry. There are so many crappy games out there and more are coming each year, no wonder there is so high piracy, those games are not worth the money. Instead of pooping out a piece of shit game each year why not spend five or more years on it and instead poop out a game that actually is worth the money. If a company has a history of good and quality games then people will know the game is worth the money and won't go for piracy just to try it out first. If they want to reduce (reduce is all they could do, removing is impossible) piracy then they should make it illegal to poop out crap.
Yeah, because the US government would never demand extradition/abduct a foreign national to stand trial (or not) in the states?
How realistic is it that this bill will pass? Considering how obsessed Americans are with free speech and the amount of protests, I feel like it would be odd if they allowed this to happen.
Personally I reckon it will eventually be rejected but I think it'll be closer than some people expect. It's got the backing of several major corporations such as warner bros. but at the same time most of the internet has risen up against it. Google, wikipedia, facebook, youtube, twitter, reddit, 4chan: All of them and more oppose it and while they might not have any official jurisdiction they're bound to cause trouble.
Americans aren't voting on it though, the House of Representatives is, and as has been well documented, it's very easy for lobbyists to buy their way into favour and get ridiculous laws passed. The good news is that the SOPA blackout seems to have had some effect and three co-sponsors of the bill have pulled out since yesterday's blackout, so hopefully that trend will continue as more industry figures get involved.
On the one hand, the MPAA, RIAA, and others are pushing for it hard. On the other hand, tech companies like Google are opposing it and Obama claims he will not support it in its current form (which remains to be seen of course) and it's being met with a pretty significant backlash from the public. I'd say it's not too likely in its current form- either SOPA or PIPA (the Senate version of SOPA)- but it'll be back before long under some other, innocuous name. That said, if you value an open internet and are in the US, it's worth it to contact your representatives and express your distaste for these bills.
Obama has said he will not support the bill which means it was probably an election ploy all the while.
No, there is currently a British citizen being extradited to the United States for having compiled a list of sites where people can torrent stuff. Not a crime in the UK; the US has no jurisdiction (the server is Australian); etc. Yet the British government turned its back on its own citizen for the most ridiculous reason.
worth noting, this is the third version of similar bills. they have never passed on the basis of how unconstitutional they were. i recently read a comment that said "i dont care who you are, just shoot this bill down and ill vote for you" the very next post said something along the lines of "great going sheep, just follow the flock into the slaughter house, im sure you will be safe there." i dont know, made me think. ive also heard SOPA is extreme just so PIPA could slip thru as its "not as bad". i hate politics. -_-
Oh I like that. If Obama does something you don't like, he's an evil communist bastard. If he does something you do like, he's an evil communist bastard making an election ploy. Poor guy can't win
Obama is not a socialsit and the insistence on calling him a socialist is an Orwellian abuse of language.
