p99/red99 slated to get shut down when SOPA passes

[Hitchens]

Originally Posted by Humerox [You must be logged in to view images. Log in or Register.]

It wold be the end of the Internet as we know it, and give effective control of the Internet to corporations.

Corporations already have effective control of the Internet by being your service provider, which they can disable at any time for suspected piracy.

I never said I thought the bill was a good idea, I just don't think it will change much. Activists for any cause or issue are notoriously hyperbolic.

[Humerox]

Originally Posted by Hitchens [You must be logged in to view images. Log in or Register.]

Corporations already have effective control of the Internet by being your service provider, which they can disable at any time for suspected piracy.

I never said I thought the bill was a good idea, I just don't think it will change much. Activists for any cause or issue are notoriously hyperbolic.

ISPs would have to be given the power to deep inspect packets compromising privacy. The government would be given broad, vague, and general powers to enforce copyright without court order. The entire DNS backbone of the Internet would have to be changed.

The only ISP's that are disabling are doing so on a voluntary basis, and it's in their interest if they are. (Hello, Comcast). My ISP doesn't block for any reason.

Piracy isn't even the issue anymore. I agree steps and measures need to be taken to protect interests, but they're not going to do it this way.

If you seriously believe SOPA and PIPA wouldn't change much, I daresay you know nothing about what power the bills give the government, and suggest you do a little more investigation.

[Hitchens]

Piracy isn't even the issue anymore. I agree steps and measures need to be taken to protect interests, but they're not going to do it this way.

I agree.

If you seriously believe SOPA and PIPA wouldn't change much, I daresay you know nothing about what power the bills give the government, and suggest you do a little more investigation.

My mistake. I should have said SOPA wouldn't change much for the average end-user.

[Humerox]

Originally Posted by Hitchens [You must be logged in to view images. Log in or Register.]

I should have said SOPA wouldn't change much for the average end-user.

I know what you're saying, but dwell on this for a moment.

DNS redirect would be so easy to get around it isn't funny. Nothing the government can do under SOPA or PIPA can be effective in stopping piracy.

They won't be able to control what the pirates put online, so they will control ordinary users' access to the internet as a substitute.

Failed legislation will bring more restrictive legislation, and the final result will be allowing end users to connect only through approved government portals. That would be the only effective method of controlling piracy.

The sad thing is that the money "lost" to content providers is all hypothetical. They are really doing better right now than other industries economically speaking.

[Orruar]

Until we address the issue where we allow government near unlimited power to regulate any activity it seems fit, we'll have a neverending series of SOPAs affecting every industry. Give the power to 536 people to regulate a multi-trillion dollar economy and those with money will use that concentrated power for their own ends.

[Humerox]

Two of the people responsible for writing these bills (SOPA and PIPA)— the key writer for the House version and the key writer for the Senate version — have just accepted positions for two of the lobbying organizations pushing for the bill.

Allison Halataei, former deputy chief of staff and parliamentarian to House Judiciary Chairman Lamar Smith and Lauren Pastarnack, a Senate Judiciary Committee senior aide, have accepted gigs with two of the lobbying firms that stand to gain the most from the passage of these bills.

Now that she helped write the bill and get it into consideration, Allison Halataei is officially the National Music Publisher’s Association chief liaison to Congress.

In other news:

Chris Dodd served as a U.S. Senator from 1981 through 2011, a total of 30 years. Now, despite claiming repeatedly that he would never accept a lobbying position, the esteemed former Democratic Senator from Connecticut is now the Chairman and CEO of the MPAA.

Gee... help write a bill or two for powerful lobbies then take a high-powered position from them after leaving Congress or the Senate.

Who'da thunk?

[Orruar]

The MPAA and RIAA are simply trying to use government to protect their failed business model. Not much different than the bankers really. Imagine if we had this level of government interference back in the early 20th century. We'd have outlawed the gasoline engine to protect the horse and buggy industry.

Of course, even if this passes, people will still find ways to "pirate" music and movies. Fighting against changing technology will simply impoverish us further.

[Humerox]

Originally Posted by Orruar [You must be logged in to view images. Log in or Register.]

The MPAA and RIAA are simply trying to use government to protect their failed business model. Not much different than the bankers really. Imagine if we had this level of government interference back in the early 20th century. We'd have outlawed the gasoline engine to protect the horse and buggy industry.

Of course, even if this passes, people will still find ways to "pirate" music and movies. Fighting against changing technology will simply impoverish us further.

Amen.

The ways have already been figured out. Desopa is an interesting little Firefox add-on that negates DNS fiddling by the US. Then, as I've mentioned before, if you know the numeric IP to a site you can bypass the DNS redirect all day long.

[Orruar]

Originally Posted by Orruar [You must be logged in to view images. Log in or Register.]

The MPAA and RIAA are simply trying to use government to protect their failed business model. Not much different than the bankers really. Imagine if we had this level of government interference back in the early 20th century. We'd have outlawed the gasoline engine to protect the horse and buggy industry.

Of course, even if this passes, people will still find ways to "pirate" music and movies. Fighting against changing technology will simply impoverish us further.

I take back that first part. Even the bankers were wise enough to quit doing some of the stupid shit they were doing. They just wanted free money for their stupidity. What the RIAA and MPAA are trying to do is even worse when you think about it. I wonder if we'll ever see Occupy Hollywood. Somehow I doubt it.

[Humerox]

Originally Posted by Orruar [You must be logged in to view images. Log in or Register.]

I take back that first part. Even the bankers were wise enough to quit doing some of the stupid shit they were doing. They just wanted free money for their stupidity. What the RIAA and MPAA are trying to do is even worse when you think about it. I wonder if we'll ever see Occupy Hollywood. Somehow I doubt it.

Funny you bring that up!

Occupy Hollywood

Then there's pure out-and-out civil disobediance should SOPA pass (from the Reddit thread):

Another Idea for SOPA, if it manages to pass:

The way the bill is written, anyone can make a copyright claim about any website, and then prior to arbitration, the site is blocked. So claim against WB. And the MPAA. And Whitehouse.gov. And ATT. And Verison. And Comcast. And Fox. Make a claim against every legitimate website you can find. The law would reveal itself to be utterly useless in actually preventing piracy if the office is overloaded with claims against large corporate websites. And while the big corporations rally up their lawyers and wring their hands and pull their hair in frustration, Congress will be forced to either take down the internet entirely (read: call down the wrath of EVERYONE) or change the law in such a way that it actually deals with copyright claims legitimately instead of being an easy tool for censorship.

Though granted, this would require concerted effort. But good civil disobedience generally does.