SOPA (Stop Online Piracy Act)

The Common Room Off-Topic
#21

Yeah, Draik, it’s majorly frustrating that the people voting on this don’t even understand the Internet. Personally, if I were in that position, I’d do my best to understand an unfamiliar subject before voting on it, but hey, this is the government, so why do something that makes sense? But some of it is probably the lobbyist funding, too. There’s a pro-SOPA senator from NJ who received over $50,000 from media interest groups for his last campaign. Not surprised at his position.

I’m so happy Google decided to protest- I mean, even the Internet illiterates use Google. Most of us have already known about this for quite some time, and they’re reaching the people who really need to hear about it.

Also, the Wikipedia blackout + Google protest mean that the media can finally write about this, so even more people hear about it. I’m sure the journalists have been dying to write about SOPA, but they haven’t been allowed until now, because most news organizations are owned by big media companies. Now it’s such a big story that the news sites will seem out of the loop if they DON’T cover it. But even then, I saw a majorly biased non-opinion article on CNN last night about SOPA, and the very last line was “Time Warner, the parent company of CNN, supports SOPA.” I took a newswriting class last semester, and that’s where you’re supposed to put the info that hardly anyone will read 8D obviously done intentionally, the writer knew that very few people will read that far, so readers will think they’re getting straight facts.

#22

Why does it keep getting pushed back?

#23

I heard that one of the supporters (guess it was one of those in favor of the bill during it’s emergence) called Wikipedia’s announcement of a blackout today as a “publicity stunt”.
Seriously. How is shutting something down so it’s not there suppose to get more publicity? If you can’t SEE and interact with, in this case, site’s BENEFITS (i.e. knowledge. Know many people say wiki can be edited, but I still find many parts to be informative), then HOW is it going to be getting more…what? Business? It’s FREE. Knowledge should be FREE. People KNOW Wiki, they don’t NEED publicity.

Figured to start with a supporter’s lack of thought.

I understand piracy. I myself am a writing and dislike the prospect of somebody taking my characters or concepts and twisting them into a negative fashion or something I didn’t want happening. I understand how SOME of these people support the bill. It’s an understandable fear/whatnot that has basis.
But some…heh. They don’t think it out. They just go out using outdated or shock-value examples to rally people by their own fear or resentment, or lack of $1 million they aren’t getting out of $50 mill, to support something that’s not even going to work.

Like it or not, some TRUE piracy doers are smart. They’ll get around these bills, leaving the rest of us to suffer backlash.

And who’s to judge piracy over fan-ship anyway? Our art, our stories, real and emerging talent brought forth because of other works. Heck, I’ve written fanfiction and inspired others to write, to keep ON writing. Interest in other works, and those created by fans, can influence others positively. Maybe a person on this board here becomes a promising animator because of the dedication they had to something HERE.
Sure…some are pure piracy used for personal benefit, others are…less than acceptable twists…
But for the most part, honest good people who form around common interests, connected by the long-distance world wide web…would be more hurt by this than helped.

Sometimes…people just WANT something to hate, want something to get behind. Not necessarily their fault, it’s human nature to cause conflict. This is an instance where something is brought up with regard JUST to the negative, and focusing on JUST the negative, without regard to the positives or the negative effects that THAT SOMETHING would cause.

Going against true piracy? Sure. Going against piracy without regard to anybody else (including some supporters who, in the future, would see their past decision as backlash) or the negative results? Better think again.

There are ways to find a solution. Focusing on just the problem isn’t one of them.

Daily Show Update > Do any of these committee members who support these bills even know enough about the internet to make such a decision? And calling people who use it as “geeks/nerds” instead of experts?

#24

The supporters are getting worried. I read they have even less supporters now.

#25

EXACTLY. All of the fandoms would be hurt, for sure. Tumblr would cease to exist. And I don’t even know what I would do with that- curl up in a corner and sob, probably.

I think that when you put something out in the public sphere, it sort of belongs to the public. Even George Lucas said that “American works of art belong to the American public.” There’s a certain level of reasonableness with which that can be used. For example, if I put a quote from a book, movie, or TV show on Facebook, that’s okay. Or even if it’s Pokemon Month and I use a Pokemon as my profile picture, let’s say. Is it hurting anyone? No. In fact, it’s a free advertisement. Same with fan videos, fan art, fanfiction, gifs, and fansites. Pixar Planet could probably get cited for using copyright images in headers and articles, when, in fact, this isn’t stealing money from Pixar. And, as you say, these sites and activities encourage interests and introduce people to new ideas. By cutting off these resources, you could hurt so many fields.

Real piracy? Yeah, that’s a problem. But the people writing these laws need to distinguish between putting a whole film on YouTube and using a photo of TV characters next to an article about said show. They need to have people who actually understand the Internet write the laws.

Pixarfan, I believe voting was delayed a couple of times and that the bill had to be revised. Which would explain why we’ve been hearing about it since November, but the Senate is only voting next week.

#26

Yes, most fansites and events/organizations (art contest/fanfiction as examples) are places where people (near and far) can come together and form bonds, be it from simple friendships through THAT material, or to deeper connections that come from START of that.
I heard in relation to these bills, at least in terms of music, a person could go to prison for 5 years. Can you believe that? You know, if this thing cites “past” “crimes”, probably everybody on this board would be in prison right now. Heck, 90% of America probably would be in prison.

And yes, good point, free advertisement. THIS is one of the things these neglectful people forget. THIS is a POSITIVE. They focus on the negative.

Yes. I use the term “real piracy” and “piracy” differently.
Take for instance a bootlegger. Before redbox you could go somewhere and get a bootleg video/disc of a film. Now…most of the time the quality of such sucks. Not near enough to how the real release of the film would be. Sure, this person is a pirate…BUT…the BUYER…is most likely going to buy the film in stores anyway when it comes out. Sure, at the start seems bad…but in the end, it rounds out.

Some piracy can actually be useful. I know of a show that was here in America for a limited release on television. Animated show. They showed it on a channel…and released DVDs of the show. Now…the show finished, BUT they did NOT release the other half of the show on DVD, AND it was taken off television AND it’s not being shown anymore.
Would it REALLY be wrong to show people the later half? Episodes that AREN’T on DVD or even on the air anymore? It’d be a service to the fans.

And sometimes I think full vids on Youtube can be useful…I’ll admit that. I mean think about it. You don’t get “extras” on Youtube that a DVD supplies. And some films are very difficult to find or unobtainable. But that’s more of a gray line to me so…

But yes, Most of those people supporting the bill in office don’t seem to know much about the internet. Maybe they’re old fashioned…not always a bad thing…but if your going to pass on a bill (bringing their “old fashioned” way of handling things in “the real world”) on something…better know about it.

Revised? Heh…wonder if they’re going to change it “just enough” to please others on the committee to get ruling majority.

#27

The way I see it, the people who actually want SOPA and PIPA pushed through is the entertainment industry. Lamar Smith and his flock of sheep are getting money practically thrown at them to endorse it, I’m pretty sure they couldn’t give a flying fruitcake whether or not it affects the net as long as they get paid.
On the other side, we have almost every major internet company (minus said entertainment industry) and, according to one petition, over three million regular internet users against the bills. As well as the founders of the internet.

I saw a webcomic that just about sums up SOPA and PIPA nicely, it had two men standing side by side, with the caption for the left man reading “Downloaded and shared hundreds of movies online. Guilty of violating copyright laws.” and the one on the right reading “Uploaded a video of his grandmother’s funeral service to his website, with a copyrighted song playing in the background. Equally as guilty of copyright theft.”

At the moment, PIPA is the one we have to watch out for, it gets voted on next week. SOPA was pushed back to February after the president denounced some of SOPA’s points, so I guess we’ll just have to see what happens there.
Pro-SOPA/PIPA response to yesterday’s blackout was incredibly hypocritical, one critic stating that the Wikipedia blackout was an abuse of power. Coming from someone who wants to hand over the reigns of the internet to Hollywood.

#28

On Deviantart I made a little thing agaist SOPA.

mastermario007.deviantart.com/ar … io007&qo=0

#29

Thankfully, they’ll never be able to pass a law like that. Ex post facto laws are unconstitutional! :smiley:

I saw a quote from someone who’s business was affected by piracy. He said that the key to cutting down on piracy is reaching the audience before the pirates do. He felt that it was the company’s responsibility to provide better service so people don’t need to turn to pirated material. Which sounds like the case for your TV show! If you aren’t going to make something available to your audience, of course people will search for it online. It’s your own fault for not making it accessible.

Oh, I’m not denying that full movies on YouTube aren’t useful :wink: It’s quite convenient, being able to watch part of Toy Story whenever you want. Or being able to watch an episode of a TV show that aired in Britain and hasn’t yet aired in the US. I certainly watch what’s on there. But sadly, it’s kind of a flagrant abuse of copyright and I can totally see why companies would want to take them down.

I agree, the committees will definitely try to sway opponents with minor changes. All we can do is keep trying.

And cute graphic, Pixarfan :slight_smile: Deviantart’s gonna have a lot of problems if SOPA/PIPA pass.

#30

Thanks. A lot of people made anti-SOPA art.

#31

Hey, did you guys hear about Megaupload? It was taken down using existing laws, and apparently it’s been under investigation for 2 years, but the timing is hardly coincidental.

#32

Well freedom of speech is constitutional, but it’s always being attacked.

Well actually it was a friend of mine’s show. I saw the first few episodes and thought it was a little kiddy, until later on in the first half where it got more interesting and leaving me wanting to see the rest. Actually I think they ran out of funding or something…the show was aimed to go on some channel years ago, but that channel caved in.

Ah glad you agree. In terms of Toy Story, I HAVE it on tape. So seeing it on the comp instead of the television shouldn’t really matter.
An INTERESTING thing that I just remembered, though, is how many DVDs these days have DIGITAL COPIES. Which allow you to play the DVD on your comp. So who’s to say you’ve got a DC instead of have downloaded right from the net?
Yes, I understand their point…still though, as we’ve said, there’s no absolute “cure”, there are still useful, and beneficial occurrences.

That’s a governmental trick. Change something enough to please the opposition, then bite down.

#33

What’s Megaupload? Or should I say what was it?

#34

Has anyone else heard of this “Black March” thing?

i.imgur.com/0rvY1.jpg

#35

MegaUpload is (or rather, was) a file hosting website that was rather infamous for hosting pirated content on it. It was closed down a day after the internet blackout (that’s quite a coincidence now, isn’t it?) because the police are under the impression that it’s a front for a multi-million dollar money laundering company. It’s been in the press recently due to Universal Music removing a song that a buch of celebrities sung in defense of the site from YouTube despite having absolutely no right to. It’s a pretty stupid song, but it will get stuck in your head for weeks.
[size=85]M-E-G-A, upload to me today, send me a file, MegaUpload![/size]

Anyway, the FBI, MPAA and a buch of other sites that were involved in the takedown were hacked by the good old internet group Anonymous, who DDoS’d the sites (DDoSing is basically sending the site hundreds of thousands of requests and stuff at the same time so their servers overload and they go offline), leading to the MPAA tweeting this text picture thing:

“Everyone has a right to be heard”. Except, of course, any website that may have copyrighted material on it, because under PIPA and SOPA you’ll be able to shut down the site without any processing or court orders.

The best way to combat piracy is to give the pirates an alternative. Netflix provides extremely cheap movies you can rent online, cutting out the trip to the video store or waiting for your rental to arrive by mail. When it first came out it provided the easiest way of watching movies legally, and a lot of pirates started using it.
There was a game (I can’t remember what it’s called now) that was uploaded online illegally and its developers actually endorsed it, encouraging people to download it, and if they liked it, to buy it legally. There’s a thing called the Humble Indie Bundle, which is a collection of popular games that their developers have teamed together and allowed you to choose how much money you want to pay for the set of games. And a third of the money raised goes to charity.

Censoring the internet won’t stop piracy. They’re always, always one step ahead.

#36

SOPA will not stop any form of piracy whatsoever, so I agree with that for sure. Piracy has always been around, pretty much. It ain’t going anywhere. Plus, if this happens then people are going to be less likely to spend money than they are now because they can’t see if they like anything before they have a chance to purchase it (like on a YouTube video for a game).

There’s basically no point in censoring the internet.

#37

I wouldn’t be surprised if this increses piracy.

#38

The Megaupload thing was a hard blow to me. It hosted a lot of files.

#39

mashable.com/2012/01/20/sopa-is- … ulls-bill/

#40

I am very strongly against both SOPA and PIPA.

That’s good that SOPA is not being put through atleast for the moment.