SOPA

While I would normally get a dose of the DT's if CPF was down for more than 10 minutes, I'd fully support any initiative by CPF to blackout against SOPA

Wikipedia is already down, amongst many other siteshttps://wikimediafoundation.org/wiki/SOPA/Blackoutpage

I'm not in America, and I have no power to do anything against this legislation, but I plead with all of the Americans on this site to make as much noise as possible to see this die.

I'm not aware of the geographical location of the server but many of CPF's users are American. Blacking out the site would still make many of them more aware of SOPA than they already are and may kick them into action. As an international user I would wholeheartedly support a blackout, even though it only inconveniences me, as there is nothing I can do to stop this dreadful legislation.

I totally agree....

edit: see signature for details

This issue has the potential to get very political. Please keep this thread civil so we can discuss a very important issue that could have some serious impact on our little piece of the web here. The way I read it, if this legislation passes, CPF could get shut down by the government on the whim of someone who simply makes an accusation. I could be wrong on how I am interpreting this but I don't think I'm too far off the mark.

Keep this thread civil... So we can keep it open.

Thanks everyone...

Thankyou Greta.

This is not a political discussion. The legislation is in a position to be passed and ruin the internet. This is about all people, regardless of their political persuasion, standing up and shooting this down before it can destroy everything.

If we were to "blackout" we have the flashlights to light it back up :naughty:

Joking aside, I did send a (polite) email to my Representative and Senators to let them know how I feel. Probably won't make a difference but it was only about 5 minutes of my day. Not a big deal.

Hopefully this will get sorted out quickly.

I'm pretty sure that if a list of the worst possible ideas in the history of humanity were ever drafted, letting the guvment get their hands on the keys to the Internet would be really close to the number one position on that list...

Nothing political about it - It's simply economics.

It's currently very expensive and increasingly ineffective for the big commercial entities pushing SOPA to go after the individual violaters, and most of the reason for SOPA is to make it more efficient for them to 'muscle' web-sites and ISPs.

My own opinion is SOPA is for lawyers, by lawyers, and will only be fully materialized by litigation, but that's scary enough for legit Web-Sites and a potential nightmare for ISPs. From a technical perspective I can't see it denting software piracy at all, but simply shifting the costs of policing and litigation.

In any respect, I don't want to ever want to be on a side opposed to entities like Google, or stand next to somebody doing so.

mvyrmnd said:

Thankyou Greta.

This is not a political discussion. The legislation is in a position to be passed and ruin the internet. This is about all people, regardless of their political persuasion, standing up and shooting this down before it can destroy everything.

Click to expand...

Agreed!!
Forward us to the petition page or where ever to alert ppl to this.

Many thanks
X/BillyD..

X_Marine said:

Agreed!!
Forward us to the petition page or where ever to alert ppl to this.

Many thanks
X/BillyD..

Click to expand...

Check out the link in the OP

+

The internet as we know it, will be gone forever if SOPA passes.
....I can't remember the last time I saw something more concerning than this.

There are big, big powers behind this, and big, big money.

Very Concerning!!!

The internet was designed to be hard to control, people need to get out of the 20th century and come to terms with that.

The Internet is very easy to control when corporations are granted the power to seize DNS entries and have your site taken offline in an instant...

It was great to see all the sites that went down, and had links to details and your congressmen & senators. I took a few minutes to email and leave phone messages with all three to ask them not to pass either SOPA/PIPA, or the new "improved" version in the Senate called "OPEN."

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special:CongressLookup?new=yes

http://www.mpaa.org/resources/c4c3712a-7b9f-4be8-bd70-25527d5dfad8.pdf
^ I lol'd. What a joke. Calling people pawns isn't going to gain you their support...

bshanahan14rulz said:

http://www.mpaa.org/resources/c4c3712a-7b9f-4be8-bd70-25527d5dfad8.pdf
^ I lol'd. What a joke. Calling people pawns isn't going to gain you their support...

Click to expand...

The MPAA are likely the most desperate to see SOPA go through. If it were to pass, they'd have YouTube offline in the first 24 hours... The big torrent sites wouldn't be far behind.

mvyrmnd said:

The MPAA are likely the most desperate to see SOPA go through. If it were to pass, they'd have YouTube offline in the first 24 hours... The big torrent sites wouldn't be far behind.

Click to expand...

I was watching a video on Youtube yesterday and I started thinking about the millions and millions of videos on Youtube and how ridiculous and impossible of a task it would be to scour through all the videos to remove copyright offending videos. After all, if the bills were passed, it would fall upon Google to police its own site. This would change a lot of website as we know them now and, I believe, for the worse.

Can someone please tell me how it it legal or constitutional to allow the government to suppress freedom of speech and freedom of the press on a mere anonymous accusation without the right to face your accuser or the right to due process? How can they legally fine or jail people for this without due process? In order for something to be a crime, they usually have to prove two things, that there was a motive to do it, and there was intent (you chose to break the law knowing it was illegal). As I understand, these laws require neither. I'm not trying to get political, and I understand that this is a hot button issue, but the way I see it, if these pass, what rights do we really have left?

More than likely if SOPA/PIPA passes if even a few (and as few as one perhaps?) violations are suspected a website could/would be in deep doo-doo.

Part of the copyright code (US Title 17) allows for "fair use" but guess who'd be deciding about that?

Ah, reminds me of the days of HUAC, FBI files on John Lennon and others, and the rest of things that some politicians and business types still think live under their beds. Things living under the bed were funny in Clavin & Hobbes. With this, not so much.

was so pissed at the pending SOPA legislation ... called every congressman in my home district. let be known loud and clear if they were not against SOPA. I would not forget and vote them out next go.

this is the first time I've ever called any of my representatives. what bothers me the most is the total lack of due process. if this passes, all a content owner has to do ... make an accusation with or without basis. the government would then have the power to shut anyone down.

this puts the burden of proof on the host... not the accuser. who only has to accuse with NO due process. being against these two bills has Nothing to do if one is in favor of piracy or not.

don't let these folks banbozzal you with BS about ... that's not what it's meant to do. a perfect example is the ABUSE of digital millennium act by RIAA. the lawmaker that drafted that one NEVER in their wildest dream could predict RIAA would end up filing 30,000+ lawsuits of which the average settled for $3,000-$5,000.

RIAA was able to pull that off due to the grossly written digital millennium act, which was stretched to inflate damages to several hundred thousand dollars. making the penalty for losing catastrophic. on top of being very expensive to defend. then if you would loose everything if it went badly.

the writing is on the wall... if SOPA and PIPA passes.... how long would it take for the same abuses to take place?