U.S. Internet Censorship bill (SOPA/PIPA)

[Sabindeus]

If you do still need to access Wikipedia today, turns out you can just hit stop as soon as an article loads and avoid the blackout page.

or disable javascript

[Arnock]

A few web comics joined in the protest today.

[Zalaria]

A few web comics joined in the protest today.

Don't forget The Oatmeal

[Teranoid]

I love these sites "taking a stand" by CSS or javascript that can easily be sidestepped instead of shutting down their servers. Way to send a stern message to the government.

[KysenMurrin]

The whole thing is more about drawing attention to the issue than taking websites offline. Just because it can be bypassed doesn't mean it's not working as intended.

[Flex]

I think taking websites offline in protest/education is dumb. Go to wikipedia, have to click the learn more link to go to the big page why they're doing it. After two FAQs about how awesome the internet is at protesting you get to the entry about SOPA and PIPA.

Compare that to arstechnica and how they are doing it.

[Treck]

I love these sites "taking a stand" by CSS or javascript that can easily be sidestepped instead of shutting down their servers. Way to send a stern message to the government.

Like KysenMurrin said, its not to make you unable to use the sites they do it. Its to raise awareness.
Also, by taking them offline, they show how much people actually rely on the internet beeing the way it is, and might make a lot of people appose the acts/bills, as people might not thought it was such a big deal.
SOPA and PIPA are getting lots and lots of support from clueless people who think internet piracy is a bad thing, mainly from the entertainment industry.
They seem to forget a lot that the internet IS in many ways the entertainment industry, or at the very least a huge part of it.
While they are not saying they want to take the internet down completely, by censoring it they are in effect reducing it and honestly just shooting themselves in the foot.

And you prooved a very good point Teranoid.
People who actually do know how to pirate stuff properly, knows how to find the loopholes nomatter what they are going to try to do.
SOPA and PIPA are not going to stop piracy, might lower it by just making it harder to get into, but not impossible. And while just lowering the ammount of piracy might be their goal, they are going to do so many things a lot worse if these gets approved.

[Passionario]

They could have at least put some sort of IP detection in place.

I understand why they would want to raise awareness of those who have the option to write to their congressman, but what is the rest of the world supposed to do? Firebomb the US embassy in protest?

[Skye1013]

They could have at least put some sort of IP detection in place.

I understand why they would want to raise awareness of those who have the option to write to their congressman, but what is the rest of the world supposed to do? Firebomb the US embassy in protest?

While that would make my job more interesting... I prefer dull. So please don't .

And at this point, Congress has to get at least 2/3 vote to push it through (since from what I'm hearing even Obama is against it... so will likely veto it.) If they have any desire to keep their seats in the upcoming elections... I'd hope they're smart enough to vote against it. As philosoraptor mentioned in the Random Picture Post, I'm sure people will start doing things like that to harass congress into repealing it (assuming it passes at all.) If not, then the Supreme Court will be setting a lot of precedents by allowing it on government sites.

[Treck]

I still think its a good idea that the rest of the world becomes aware of it.
What the US does DOES impact the rest of the world by quite a lot (unfortunately)
IF this bill goes through, that means some countries are going to try to do the same themselves.
But if these acts are stomped on before they get any kind of real ground, other countries might see it as futile to even try (even tho few countries could even survive with an internet that excludes lots of out of country websites)
Also, if the EU think its a big deal what US decides to do, they will have to make sure it doesnt fuck up that much.

[degre]

I still think its a good idea that the rest of the world becomes aware of it.
What the US does DOES impact the rest of the world by quite a lot (unfortunately)
IF this bill goes through, that means some countries are going to try to do the same themselves.
But if these acts are stomped on before they get any kind of real ground, other countries might see it as futile to even try (even tho few countries could even survive with an internet that excludes lots of out of country websites)
Also, if the EU think its a big deal what US decides to do, they will have to make sure it doesnt fuck up that much.

It's not just that other countries might try the same, but this bill would affect the rest of the world big times, as it mentions somewhere that they would be able to request a block on payment processor, and doesn't matter if my site is hosted in Sweden, Gibraltar or Curaçao, if my payment processor is blocked, and they can block all my payments being that most means are from the US (Visa, Mastercard, Paypal), they could stop my business even if based abroad.

It would probably force the hand and help some non US based Paypal-ish company get the business, but in the while people could risk seeing their payment stopped for a whim of some Hollywood retard.

[Firas]

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/01/20/techn ... iracy.html

You can look forward to more of this if these laws pass.

[Koatanga]

I still think its a good idea that the rest of the world becomes aware of it.
What the US does DOES impact the rest of the world by quite a lot (unfortunately)
IF this bill goes through, that means some countries are going to try to do the same themselves.
But if these acts are stomped on before they get any kind of real ground, other countries might see it as futile to even try (even tho few countries could even survive with an internet that excludes lots of out of country websites)
Also, if the EU think its a big deal what US decides to do, they will have to make sure it doesnt fuck up that much.

It is futile to try because unless every country in the world passes similar anti-piracy legislation, there will always be a place for pirates to operate.

And the more restrictive the rest of the countries are, the more money the open countries will make on hosting and IT services.



There is no way to stop people from accessing what they want. SOPA is like releasing new raid content for hackers. Within a very short period of time, the workarounds will be in place.

[sfrog]

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/01/20/technology/indictment-charges-megaupload-site-with-piracy.html

You can look forward to more of this if these laws pass.

I would like to direct everyone's attention to This: http://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/news ... upload.ars

It was a two year, joint investigation, that spanned multiple countries - not just our own, and arrested people who profited off of illegal downloading. The people arrested? Owned vehicles like the 2010 Maserati, a classic Lambo. They had 103 inch TVs, artwork, property, things the average Joe Blow can only dream of today. A bit harder to feel sympathetic for them, I think. There is massive evidence that not only did the company know about the abuse, but did nothing to stop it - and in some cases, flat out ignored it. And let's be honest - it wasn't just the recording industry or even the movie industry involved. Software companies were involved in this as well, with copyrighted software being uploaded and shared.

Now I personally think the recording and movie industry is a bunch of money-grabbing, morons, who would love nothing more then to bleed us dry so that they can bath in gold and platinum and scrub their teeth with emeralds. But recently, I was forced to confront myself on this issue. I used to do some work for my father, who discovered his Emergency Management plans that he'd spent months laboring on, as part of a massive proposal for the state, was shared without his consent to a competitor who turned around and used those exact plans to get the contract, bumping him out of the running. Months of work, gone. He'll never see a dime for all the time and effort he put into those plans. As a small time business owner, that loss was felt dearly.

After all that...I honestly can't say that I feel bad for Megaupload, who were warned multiple times about the illegal activity going on. And I have made an effort to avoid downloading content that I know is pirated.

[Passionario]

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/01/20/technology/indictment-charges-megaupload-site-with-piracy.html

You can look forward to more of this if these laws pass.

Ouch. Now I'll have to tell my sister that the present I gave her for her birthday (a lifetime platinum Megaupload account) is now worthless.

[tlitp]

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/01/20/technology/indictment-charges-megaupload-site-with-piracy.html

You can look forward to more of this if these laws pass.

Within hours of that shutdown, Anon went berserk. What goes around, comes around.

[Sabindeus]

I love these sites "taking a stand" by CSS or javascript that can easily be sidestepped instead of shutting down their servers. Way to send a stern message to the government.

What are you talking about, it's a brilliant message. It's just like the DNS takedown clauses in SOPA: easily circumventable.

[Punkss2]

http://gizmodo.com/5877881/house-just-p ... ll-on-hold

Temporary reprieve.

[Brekkie]

The two bills are pretty much Schiavo'd. They might not be officially dead yet, but it's close enough to make no difference, and they aren't coming back to life.







Too soon?

[Fetzie]

The two bills are pretty much Schiavo'd. They might not be officially dead yet, but it's close enough to make no difference, and they aren't coming back to life.







Too soon?

Doesn't mean they won't try again some time after the presidential elections when all the hubbub has died down.

[Fridmarr]

I'm sure they will try again. It's not like attempting to curb stealing is a bad thing, just because it happens online. You just have to have a way to do it without screwing everyone else in the process.

[Arnock]

I think that, rather than spending all of this time and lobbying money trying to censor the internet, film companies at least should fight the pirates at their own game and offer streaming services like hulu, just stream the movies with ads for free, and have 'premium' services that remove adds, offer additional content, or HD streaming.

[Skye1013]

That would make far too much sense...

[Fridmarr]

That works for currently ad supported content, ie. shows that are already available on cable that which most stations already supply for freemium on their site and sites like hulu.

However, that's a much harder model for things like software, movies, DVD (equivalents) etc.

[Brekkie]

I think that, rather than spending all of this time and lobbying money trying to censor the internet, film companies at least should fight the pirates at their own game and offer streaming services like hulu, just stream the movies with ads for free, and have 'premium' services that remove adds, offer additional content, or HD streaming.

Personal anecdote.
When Game of Thrones aired, I was outside the US, and desperate to see the show. I tried everything, and I was willing to pay whatever money they wanted me to pay, be it for a subscription to HBO's online streaming, a fee just to view the episodes, whatever they wanted. I was desperate to give HBO my money.
But they wouldn't let me. There was literally not a single legitimate way they would allow me to give them my money in exchange for their product. I called HBO over the phone, I searched the internet for a solution, no joy.

Only after accepting defeat did I eventually give up and download the series illegally through a torrent. It was the first and only time I have ever illegally downloaded something from the internet.

While yes, pirating is a problem, just as big of a problem is that the Entertainment Industry is refusing to adapt to the way the market has changed in the past 10 years. You want to talk about lost revenue? Let's talk about the millions of people like me who aren't serial torrent-ers who get denied legitimate access to products in the format we want them because of archaic, byzantine business practices and thus get driven to the pirates.