Stop Online Piracy Act

#1

A lot of you know that I follow intellectual property law very closely, and dump on people who cry “censorship” when they don’t know what they’re talking about.

This is not one of those time. SOPA is an awful bill that basically lets big corporations decide what content lives and what content dies on the internet. It means that copyright infringement is no longer a civil matter that has to proven in court, but something that be slammed against you with no due process. It circumvents net neutrality by allowing ISPs to decide NOT to allow you to access a website if they think it’s infringing.

This affects everything from legitimate piracy hubs like torrents to video game reviews, LPs, and everything in between. And you don’t even get the opportunity to argue fair use until after the fact, at which point it just becomes a game of “who has the better lawyers.” Can’t afford a lawyer? Fuck you then, you have no rights.

https://www.forbes.com/sites/garyshapiro/2011/12/07/save-the-internet-take-action-against-sopa/

#2

Isn’t this just a US thing or are they trying to be the international internet police too now?

Either way it’s a bad law, I’d just like clarification.

#3

Its just a US thing but you must remember that the US can be a trend setter. Also the US is a big portion of internet users and thus it could still kill a lot of sites people not in the US enjoy.

#4

Yeah I understand that, I just wanted to know if I could get arrested for visiting youtube on the wrong day.

EDIT: Wait, youtube is an american site isn’t it?

hmm. the internet is going to be a strange place without youtube.

#5

Yeah, and potentially without Facebook, Twitter, Reddit and the likes.

#6

Burn the house down to catch few fleas.

Some great brains we have working on these bills.

#7

Well actually it’s more like give all the power to the entertainment industry to catch a few pirate sites, but W/E.

#8

And then the flees will get away because you could still connect to sites using their IP address. Pirates will be smart enough to do this, normal internet users not so much.

#9

And then normal users will learn it too, just like they learnt piracy.

#10

Whilst I do believe that piracy should be wiped out from existence, this proposition just won’t tackle the main problem. Like people here have said, proper pirates will still find ways around it, and from then on it’s just a matter of time before the average Joe finds his way back to illegal downloads as well.

The best way to tackle piracy is to offer the product at a fair price. iTunes, Netflix, Spotify, the ever-growing amount of free-to-play games… These are the tools the industry big shots should be looking at to tackle piracy, but actively shutting down the internet will never be the best solution, it only makes the problem bigger.

#11

It only affects user in the U.S., but it allows international sites to be blocked on U.S. soil at a the whim of the MPAA or whoever else files a complaint.

You can’t be arrested for visiting an infringing site (or even running one, as I understand it) but they can block your site or blog from legitimate channels of access. It is literally censorship because its so broad that “infringing” could mean almost anything and affect almost any website. The only people who won’t be affected are pirates, since they’ll just find some new underground way to distribute their data.

#12

The hearing for SOPA is now. watch it live here. (right now there is just a woman reading from the bill really fast)

#13

Mr Conyers is boring.

EDIT: Someone just coughed.

#14

audio problems!

EDIT: ms. Lofgren seems nice.

#15

inb4 it passes

#16

SOPA means soup in spanish so people are voting against soup.

#17

I always knew soup hated my freedom. I just needed proof.

#18

SOPA means garbage in swedish. It also means sweep and broom if used as a verb.

#19

If you pronounce S a bit stronger (as in the word pleasure), you’ll get “ass” in russian.
Pretty much describes the bill in question.

#20




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