SOPA and Internet Censorship

[McDirty]

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.

[Glitzer]

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.

"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

[McDirty]

"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

[Emong]

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

[Chained(E)Studio]

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.

Zeigeist Movement People!!!!!! ='DDDDD

[Qyot27]

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.

[lloyd9988]

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

[BasharOfTheAges]

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.

[McDirty]

This is being talked about on another forum I browse.

I'm interested, which forum is it?

[Qyot27]

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.