SOPA and Internet Censorship

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SOPA and Internet Censorship

Postby McDirty » Fri Nov 18, 2011 5:30 pm

To those unfamiliar, two days ago, the US Congress held a hearing concerning a bill called SOPA (Stop Internet Piracy Act). A bill that would give the US government ability to take down websites that the Justice Department determines to be dedicated to copyright infringment. Major supporters of the bill include the U.S. Chamber of Commerce and the Motion Picture Association of America.

Contents of the bill can be read here:
http://www.opencongress.org/bill/112-h3261/show

Already, a lot of organizations have voiced opposition in the bill including Google, Mozilla, Facebook, and Tumblr.

A website opposed to the bill can be found here:
http://americancensorship.org/

Since a-m-v.org is a website dedicated to the creation of fan videos, I thought it would be relevant to mention it here. What are your guy's opinions on the subject matter? Do you like the government controlling content on the internet? Is the US federal government the ones to solve piracy and how should it be done? Should the same internet censorship systems in other countries be adapted by the US?

Personally, I don't think the bill will get far, considering a large number already oppose. But I also don't think this is the last attempt to enforce censorship in the US.
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Re: SOPA and Internet Censorship

Postby Glitzer » Fri Nov 18, 2011 6:08 pm

McDirty wrote:But I also don't think this is the last attempt to enforce censorship in the US.


Nor the first. Same dance, different bill.

They may not get it through this time, or the next, but they eventually will.

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Re: SOPA and Internet Censorship

Postby McDirty » Fri Nov 18, 2011 6:44 pm

Glitzer wrote:"Nothing is so galling to a people, not broken in from the birth, as a paternal or, in other words, a meddling government, a government which tells them what to read and say and eat and drink and wear."
Thomas Babington, Lord Macaulay


Very true. I'll actually save this quote, thanks.
I personally don't think this bill is at all about protecting the media industry, rather it is an excuse to have more power and control.

I failed to mention also, Congress also introduced a bill called Protect IP recently, which in the sense is the same as SOPA and Combating Online Infringement and Counterfeits Act.
Here's a video that I think best explains the contents:
http://vimeo.com/31100268
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Re: SOPA and Internet Censorship

Postby Emong » Fri Nov 18, 2011 6:49 pm

Censoring the Internet is extremely difficult even by legal measures. My guess is these kind of bills practically collapse under their own weight. I don't have a problem with censorship per se, since it's basically what we all impose on ourselves and others to control behaviours, but I do have a problem with censorship in pursuit of corporate interest.

And since we're playing with quotes:

"What is all the struggle for intellectual property if not an attempt to deprive us of the symbolic substance of our lives?"
-Slavoj Zizek
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Re: SOPA and Internet Censorship

Postby Chained(E)Studio » Fri Nov 18, 2011 7:28 pm

McDirty wrote: What are your guy's opinions on the subject matter? Do you like the government controlling content on the internet? Is the US federal government the ones to solve piracy and how should it be done? Should the same internet censorship systems in other countries be adapted by the US?


I don't think the bill will go much further either. However, at the same time in the event say it did go through. I think that it would really be crushing down on your freedom to surf?

I don't really have much of an opinion except that it will ruin those who post youtube videos on youtube. The ones that are trying to get their singing out there. The artist that could never be heard except for youtube. If they do that, it'll crush down on all the covers that those artist try so hard to make different and work hard to get out to their fans. I really enjoy their music WAY more than gong out and buying a CD in a store, and would forever buy their songs on iTunes. But if the U.S. government does that, they'll only be thinking of the big people. And everyone else will just have to suffer like before, before youtube got big. :/

As for the piracy stuff, maybe they should bring down prices and more people would buy hmmm. I remember I used to buy 15 dollars for my first Harry Potter movie. Now its like 27.99, and no its not cause it got bigger. Its cause prices jumped and wallets shrunk. PLUS, what would happen to anime? You'd never get to see much of anything if they do that. Plus, however long it takes to come over seas...

And no, please stay in the U.S. I know I'm living in their neighour. I would hope Canada might try to protect its people more, hopefully. If per say it did go through xD.

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Re: SOPA and Internet Censorship

Postby Qyot27 » Sat Nov 19, 2011 12:59 am

This is being talked about on another forum I browse. One thing that was pointed out there is that the powers this would supposedly give to the government, they already have. At least domestically. These bills would allow them to levy that power against foreign sites by choking them of their funding. It's already possible for domestic sites, and it still relies on whether the state's attorney general feels it worth their while/within their power to pursue these claims. That's how I understood it, anyway. More like a plutocratic version of a Great Firewall of China than an internal crackdown. It'd have much of the same effect, though - all that activity would be driven into deeper network channels that are harder to penetrate.

And it's entirely corporate. There's no conceivable angle I can imagine that this isn't entirely driven by corporate interests.
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Re: SOPA and Internet Censorship

Postby lloyd9988 » Sat Nov 19, 2011 3:20 am

Why is it that these major government (Political) issues always seem to show up exactly when a new election shows up?? >.>

I have my own answer I just want to see if anyone else can answer as well :P
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Re: SOPA and Internet Censorship

Postby BasharOfTheAges » Sat Nov 19, 2011 8:53 am

It can also get rid of those pesky safe harbor provisions big content hates in the DMCA. Take-down requests would take on a whole new meaning, as in taking the website down via DNS blocks and forcing advertisers and payment processors to stop doing business with a site. All without the need for bothersome things like due process.
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Re: SOPA and Internet Censorship

Postby McDirty » Sun Nov 20, 2011 7:11 pm

Qyot27 wrote:This is being talked about on another forum I browse.

I'm interested, which forum is it?
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Re: SOPA and Internet Censorship

Postby Qyot27 » Sun Nov 20, 2011 7:58 pm

McDirty wrote:
Qyot27 wrote:This is being talked about on another forum I browse.

I'm interested, which forum is it?

MotK, whether that's all that surprising or not.
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Re: SOPA and Internet Censorship

Postby MetamorphosisStudios » Wed Nov 30, 2011 1:29 am

the protect ip act passed today :(

[Kariudo: As noted in this other thread, the protect ip act has not yet passed.]
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Re: SOPA and Internet Censorship

Postby kiarrens » Wed Dec 21, 2011 12:06 pm

Let's say, worst case scenario, this goes through.

What would this mean for a-m-v.org? From what I've been reading about this bill, if someone complains about content on a website, the entire website can be shut down with very few questions asked. (Please correct me if I'm wrong.) We all know that we're operating on the borders of legality in this hobby... Is it possible that a-m-v.org could be shut down?
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Re: SOPA and Internet Censorship

Postby Otohiko » Wed Dec 21, 2011 12:07 pm

kiarrens wrote:Is it possible that a-m-v.org could be shut down?


Yes.

I think you can see that right there on paper, given what the bill entails. The .org is even more vulnerable to this bill than a lot of sites because it is still 100% US-based. Even without SOPA of course, there's always been that risk.

I don't think it's going to pass in the current form, it's too irrational even on the surface.

Then again, you guys do have the best government money can buy.
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Re: SOPA and Internet Censorship

Postby McDirty » Wed Dec 21, 2011 4:38 pm

Voting on the bill has been postponed till the beginning of 2012 and the committee was too worried about getting home for the holidays to vote. At least it was delayed, that's for sure. :D

There's way too much opposition coming from many different sources for this thing to pass. But if it were to pass, it just goes to show how much politicians listen to the people.
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Re: SOPA and Internet Censorship

Postby Qyot27 » Wed Dec 21, 2011 9:47 pm

McDirty wrote:Voting on the bill has been postponed till the beginning of 2012 and the committee was too worried about getting home for the holidays to vote. At least it was delayed, that's for sure. :D

There's way too much opposition coming from many different sources for this thing to pass. But if it were to pass, it just goes to show how much politicians listen to the people.

From some of the responses I saw concerning the live feeds, Congress wasn't even listening to people during the hearings. The summary of the hearings was basically, "we don't know what we're talking about so let's call in the nerds and then brush them off because the nerds don't know what they're talking about". And supposedly yes, they were actually using the term 'nerds'.
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