![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
keiramarcos
Many of you might think that SOPA won’t have any impact on you — you aren’t a software pirate, after all. You don’t download illegal music. You don’t download or sell illegal copies of movies or books. It’s not a problem, right? WRONG. The problem isn’t that SOPA will hamper our “funtimes” on Youtube (well it would) or that it would make legitimate website owners freak out (it so would) it’s that the bill wasn’t written by people who actually understand how the Internet works and more importantly — it wasn’t written by someone who respects the Freedom of Speech.
Intellectual Property Rights are for the INDIVIDUAL — not companies. They were put into law to protect the rights of writers, artists, and musicians and to give them the MONEY they needed to live so that they could create more work. It was never designed to limit or destroy free thinking, innovation, or the creation of transformative works (like fan fiction). I don’t believe corporations should be have this kind of power in our country.
There is a link on my Facebook wall right now that could shut down all of Facebook if this law passed. In fact, there are several since I adore YouTube (which would not survive SOPA). Twitter might last 24 hours before someone posted a link to content they shouldn’t and then bam– they lose their account OR the government comes in and tells Twitter they are toast. OR they could try — because SOPA has no power in other countries and these large companies could easily just take their asses across the ocean (taking jobs with them) and they’d be safe from this ill-conceived law.
I’ll be frank — thinking about this bill and the other one like it — it makes me feel powerless. As a writer it should EMPOWER me. It should make me feel great about my government and their intention to protect my work from evil pirates. Except, it doesn’t. It makes me feel like we’re on the cusp of a police state. It makes me feel like I’m living in fascist country.
What’s next, assholes? Are you going to build a fucking great fire wall?
It pisses me off. It should piss you off, too!
Tell your congressman how you feel about this: http://www.opencongress.org/pipa (be polite)
![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
no subject
Date: 2012-01-18 07:46 pm (UTC)http://mashable.com/2012/01/18/pipa-sopa-abandon-bill/
Be interesting to see the follow-up... ;-)
no subject
Date: 2012-01-18 07:59 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2012-01-18 08:04 pm (UTC)Fitting, yes?
no subject
Date: 2012-01-18 08:39 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2012-01-18 09:53 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2012-01-18 10:09 pm (UTC)I am still completely bewildered as to how SOPA and PIPA have gone as far as they have. If enforced as written, it is basically Restraint of Trade, which anyone who has glanced at your Constitution knows is a serious No-No. No way in hell either bill will stand the legal challenge it'll face the first time they try to take down a heavy hitter. Sadly though, prior to that, they'll take down a lot of "little" players.
sopa
Date: 2012-01-18 10:10 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2012-01-18 10:28 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2012-01-19 12:14 am (UTC)Unfortunately, though, the thing about the prediction about jobs moving to Canada is that our current megalomaniac Prime Minister is too damn likely to jump on board with comparable legislation here as soon as somebody makes a squeak about us risking our 'best friend and trading partner' status but not doing exactly what your current leaders want.
no subject
Date: 2012-01-19 01:42 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2012-01-19 01:47 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2012-01-19 01:57 pm (UTC)On a more topic related side, does somebody know an link for the not-US-petition?
no subject
Date: 2012-01-19 05:21 pm (UTC)I'm thinking the average old fart that is trying to push this because he wants more money doesn't know anything more about his smart phone, computer, GPS, etc. than how to barely operate it.
I want to see these old farts try to enforce this when they need geeks to do the enforcing in the first place.
I doubt they'll be all that happy when their electronics start "malfunctioning." Security systems, cars, PCs, entertainment systems, DVRs. Hell, even their toothbrushes might not work right.
This isn't even an instance where mutually assured destruction would keep peace. They don't have the upper hand! They may think they do, especially since they've got their money and their names/power, but that's still dependent on electronics and security on those electronics, which was written by geeks.
no subject
Date: 2012-01-19 11:56 pm (UTC)This thing has me worked up. I wrote my congressman for the first time ever!
Along with the National Defence Authorization Act this could effectively stop any form of legal protest against the government, by grassroots internet organization. If they can block ip addresses and color the whole thing with the label of 'terrorism' we are looking at a whole new world.
It opens the door and sets a precedent for some scary first amendment violations. It also makes me sound like I'm wearing my tin hat, but this stuff brings out the conspiracy theorist in me! :-\
AND then there is the very real possibility fandom in general, being a derivative work, could become an endangered species...NO I say, you can't take away my free internet fanfic pr0n! Ahhhhhhh!
no subject
Date: 2012-01-20 09:02 am (UTC)Megaupload.com Gets Hit by Mega Piracy Indictment; Hackers Attack Feds, Entertainment Industry
http://abcnews.go.com/Technology/justice-fbi-crack-megauploadcom-hackers-hit-feds-entertainment/story?id=15396526#.TxjuCIFnOSo
no subject
Date: 2012-01-20 05:13 pm (UTC)If it doesn't get the attention it deserves, firmer measures can be taken, but there wasn't actual damage other than to pride and the sense of security of some of those old farts I mentioned above. There are some people whining that SOPA and PIPA are dead and this group jumped the gun, but really SOPA and PIPA aren't dead and this takedown was done without either of those in place yet.
Also, the site(s) the feds went after? It held a fuckload of legal files and content from paying customers (businesses and individuals) who are now locked out.
None of the people arrested or who now have warrants out on them (seven so far) are US citizens and most of the site was hosted off of US soil, but a small part was in the US, so this is what posters on the forums are suggesting was their downfall.
There are plenty of good articles on tech/geek sites that are pointing out the flaws of going after piracy this way, a way that attacks our freedom of speech and a whole hell of a lot of other shit. They are pointing out different way of going about it, but I doubt the old farts want to do it.
Also on the forums I frequent, there are plenty of users who are either in 3rd world countries or in places where content is hard to get even if you're willing to pay for it. One guy said he never would have been exposed to any of the music he listens to if not for the internet, but when bands come to where he is, he and his brother are paying customers.
Personally, I've found UK shows very hard to get, and I'm willing to pay for it! I can't get them in local stores with cash, and I don't use credit cards. Beside that, the waiting time before the shows are released in the US is ridiculous!
no subject
Date: 2012-01-20 10:47 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2012-01-20 10:59 pm (UTC)It's called HADOPI, and for some reason, people were really slow to react when it came up, so the bill passed.
But really, it's more of a running joke than anything. I remember than a couple of months after it had been set up, there was a security leak scandal that came to focus.
Also, they are all too happy to gives statistics about how well HADOPI works, how it has slow down illegal downloading, blah blah blah, but the accuracy of those stats has been challenged right and left, so...
For my part, I don't download, so I don't risk much, but it doesn't seem to have any real impact anyway. Plus the whole thing has been challenged in court already several times, so it kind of makes me laugh quietly ;p
no subject
Date: 2012-01-20 11:03 pm (UTC)http://www.pcworld.com/article/248468/congress_puts_sopa_pipa_on_hold.html
We'll see if it holds...
no subject
Date: 2012-01-20 11:44 pm (UTC)Between finishing up my last contract and spending the last week and a half looking for work, I hadn't actually seen this. Sadly, if I understand the bill correctly, my Reel will get me blacklisted and the site it's on in trouble. *head/desk* What were they thinking????
no subject
Date: 2012-01-21 08:44 am (UTC)Upside...something worked
Date: 2012-01-22 10:08 pm (UTC)How's your calendar looking, O Rabble Rousing Cult Leader?
Re: Upside...something worked
Date: 2012-01-22 11:24 pm (UTC)Re: Upside...something worked
Date: 2012-01-23 05:57 pm (UTC)Idiot governments worldwide
Date: 2012-01-28 09:41 pm (UTC)https://wwws.whitehouse.gov/petitions/!/petition/end-acta-and-protect-our-right-privacy-internet/MwfSVNBK?utm_source=wh.gov&utm_medium=shorturl&utm_campaign=shorturl
You do have to create an account to sign but it is for the necessary cause of stopping the asshats in charge.