To answer the article's question... YES! For God's sake, YES! Stop SOPA! It's an enormous wad of death for freedom of expression over the internet. It must be stopped if America has any hope for keeping its freedoms for much longer in the future.
DOWN WITH SOPA!
Now, the article itself is well written and approaches the issue objectively. I enjoyed reading it. Unfortunately, I don't like expressing myself objectively for something I feel is so important to my way of life. It just feels so cold... >_>
First off, it is easy to get around DNS blocking, so it only effects the uninformed.
At least understand what is in the bill before you go off the deep end and try to support it. The bill eliminates due process, With the current laws several sites have already been taken down without any method of appeal beyond filing suit against the government. The judges allowing this won't accept appeals. This just shouts the media companies being lazy and just want the government to do their dirty work. Besides everyone knows how government agencies work, they act before they have any facts to support them. Those sites taken down are mostly back up, but it took them almost a year to get them back up. This bill will make that almost impossible.
Secondly, the bills puts the responsibility on monitoring on the website. Please explain how something like facebook, U-Tube, etc can even begin to monitor the millions of posts made every day. Right, they can't. That provision alone destroys the internet as we know it.
Piracy is a bad thing and I am all for something that controls it. Neither of these two bills will do that. When a bill is sponsored by the media companies you can bet it is bad for everyone else. Their agenda is "we don't need to change" and "the world is out to get us".
If you are for these bills then you completely do not understand what is in them. You might want to take some time and read up on them. There is a ton of information out there.
I'd be pretty suspect of this the main elements of the bill will shut down the funding for these malignant elements. I'm mean sure these people will still be able to download pirated stuff... but the people who do it won't get paid for it. DNS blocking won't stop the powerful computer users who can get around it. Nor will a lock on your car stop a criminal. But it will stop all of the 'innocent' people from committing crimes of opportunity.
Honestly you will rather have the government deal with this than some vigilante movie studio. If the Warner Brothers went running around with a baseball bat getting their money back you would be horrified and you'd be crying for your government to deal with it. The political arena is the exact lawful avenue for this debate. If you feel that corporations should become vigilantes and leave it to be acceptable you will find a dangerous world. (Columbia Pictures hiring a private army to invade small countries?)
Restricting freedom of speach is never a good idea no matter how good your reasons for it might sound.
And just letting whatever happens because regular people can't have a say is a misstake. The elected official gets elected by us and if enough people protest they often do as their voters want because otherwise they wont get re-elected.
The internet does not get better because governments censors it, censorship is worse than piracy and can lead to pretty nasty stuff in the long run. If you give a goverment the right to censor the net as it see fitting that will happen sooner or later and once it started you can't stop it.
Let's get this argument out of the way right away. All freedoms are restricted al lthe time. There is no such thing as an unrestricted freedom or rights. Many Americans think they have it, but they do not.
Take for example this classic case. It is the middle of the night and I'm in a Jewish neighborhood. As an expression of my freedom of speech I yell at the top of my lunges "THE HOLOCAUST IS A LIE BUT IT SHOULD HAVE HAPPENED YOU KILLED JESUS!" Now I keep repeating this obscenity over and over and over and over. I do it from 12AM to 8AM. At this point I decide to go home and sleep.
Am I really so free to do this? Would you as a citizen of the United States really ALLOW me to violate someone like this to protect MY freedom?
Of course not.
Any time a freedom or a right violates a citizen's freedoms or rights you are responsible to bring it into question and write laws to protect one from the other.
Let's give another example to round out this "I should be free to say what I want" type of argument. Let's as a child are responsible for bringing an item to school for a presentation, kind of like how kids bring frogs and toys to show everyone. But this one kid brings his favorite thing, a German sex tape to the class. Now if he is free to express himself he should be able to run this tape as loud as he wants. No one has to watch it, but he should be able to run it.
Should we let this happen?
Of course not you monster.
So no, saying something is against freedom of speech is not an acceptable argument. The issue is not freedom of speech it is the freedom to elicitely do illegal things with no punishment all because you are protected by International esteem.
you sir, have a good grasp on this topic, I was going to write something similar but realised that I'm too lazy so I figured the next best thing would be to repost yours . As far as corporations that send out goons to collect for them, we aleady have an example of that. Just Google Monsanto and "The Seed Police" its a scary thing.
SOPA and PIPA: Two bills with an ideal purpose. Piracy is one of the worst diseases of the internet. Unfortunately for some it is the only viable means available to them.
The fact of the matter is this: From the entertainment side this is nothing more than an attempt by the Aging movie and TV industries to stop sites like netflix and hulu and Itunes. Netflix last year was nearly destroyed because of the MPAA and movie publishers (along with major television companies) forcing netflix to pay far higher fees and in turn passing those fees onto its consumers. As a former Netlfix customer it hurt me to leave the service but it no longer provided value for the money i was paying. I knew the reasons behind it but i can not throw money at that problem. Itunes Hulu and Netflix should serve as a model for the TV and Movie industries and show the way to end 'movie theaters' all together. Defeating of these bills in a sound matter will hopefully serve as the much needed wakeup call these idiots require. Forcing them to actually innovate rather than legistlate.
PEOPLE WILL PAY FOR PRODUCTS AT A FAIR PRICE. A proven fact. Right now the prices for such things are nowhere near fair in these economic times. 20 bucks for a brand new DVD? Just one? Come on man. Look at how Itunes is doing and tell me that isnt profit.
From a game perspective: Too few companies are willing to provide honest hard demo's in advance of their games. Triple A titles rate a 60 dollar launch price and if you're going collectors its higher. A survey of online pirates conducted in 2010 (i have not been able to dig the relevent article up if someone can find it PLEASE do so i believe it involved one of the battlefield games) Suggested that they would not pirate leaked copies if proper demo's were released giving the player the chance to evaluate the game. Demo's used to be something offered to everyone. I remember picking up PS1 discs from an EB that had 10-15 demos on them. Happend all the time for PC's they were incredible ways to evaluate the games upcoming and determine if they were worth your money.
Companies expect too much from the American Consumer: And there are pirated copies of far more expensive software as well. AutoDesk (AutoCad) The top of the market online drafitng program. Adobe Creative Suite. One of the premier if not THE premier ways of preparing media content in a number of forms. Offering them online offers no real value over a boxed copy. It shows. Compare prices. You think someone in a small business can readily afford to spend 1500 bucks? Or 2000 for a PROGRAM
The companies supporting it have lost me as a movie customer. And that hurts especially with Avengers coming out this year. I was gearing up to see that until their parent company that company voiced support for these bills. The gaming industry is adapting far faster however than TV and Movies. And have a more stable platform on which piracy needs to be combated. But they arent doing everything they can themselves to prevent it.
Draconian security measures like securRom and others (you know what i'm talking about) Are among the leading culprits. Limits on installations and a number of things lead to people looking for copies of the game without restrictions. They are not solving the problem. THEY ARE CREATING THE PROBLEM. Any one up on their computers could reinstall games several times in a year. Uninstall if they need space install again etc. Or they need to reinstall windows because of a major error/virus.
Proper Demo's. For MMO's the Beta's are good demos they have the advantage of a lack of piracy but RMT plagues them. Thats a battle for another day. For an FPS or RTS there hasnt been a real honest to god demo of a game in a while has there? And if there has been why havent people been blogging/raving about it?
Fair pricing: Stop putting 60 dollar tags on things that arent worth it. Many FPS's MMO's at Launch and supposed AAA titles dont deserve that opening price. Several recent ones do for the quallity and the content but not nearly as many as poeple think.
Three things the gaming industry as a whole can do that they are NOT DOING to curb piracy. SOPA and PIPA have the right idea. But are far too heavy handed and in the hands of people that can NOT be trusted. Congress has i believe around a 20% approval/trust rating. There is a reason for this.
That's my 2 C-bills/Isk/Credits. Defeat this bill and force the industry to innovate and adapt or live in a world where net neutrality is gone forever.
SOPA and PIPA: Two bills with an ideal purpose. Piracy is one of the worst diseases of the internet. Unfortunately for some it is the only viable means available to them.
The fact of the matter is this: From the entertainment side this is nothing more than an attempt by the Aging movie and TV industries to stop sites like netflix and hulu and Itunes. Netflix last year was nearly destroyed because of the MPAA and movie publishers (along with major television companies) forcing netflix to pay far higher fees and in turn passing those fees onto its consumers. As a former Netlfix customer it hurt me to leave the service but it no longer provided value for the money i was paying. I knew the reasons behind it but i can not throw money at that problem. Itunes Hulu and Netflix should serve as a model for the TV and Movie industries and show the way to end 'movie theaters' all together. Defeating of these bills in a sound matter will hopefully serve as the much needed wakeup call these idiots require. Forcing them to actually innovate rather than legistlate.
PEOPLE WILL PAY FOR PRODUCTS AT A FAIR PRICE. A proven fact. Right now the prices for such things are nowhere near fair in these economic times. 20 bucks for a brand new DVD? Just one? Come on man. Look at how Itunes is doing and tell me that isnt profit.
From a game perspective: Too few companies are willing to provide honest hard demo's in advance of their games. Triple A titles rate a 60 dollar launch price and if you're going collectors its higher. A survey of online pirates conducted in 2010 (i have not been able to dig the relevent article up if someone can find it PLEASE do so i believe it involved one of the battlefield games) Suggested that they would not pirate leaked copies if proper demo's were released giving the player the chance to evaluate the game. Demo's used to be something offered to everyone. I remember picking up PS1 discs from an EB that had 10-15 demos on them. Happend all the time for PC's they were incredible ways to evaluate the games upcoming and determine if they were worth your money.
Companies expect too much from the American Consumer: And there are pirated copies of far more expensive software as well. AutoDesk (AutoCad) The top of the market online drafitng program. Adobe Creative Suite. One of the premier if not THE premier ways of preparing media content in a number of forms. Offering them online offers no real value over a boxed copy. It shows. Compare prices. You think someone in a small business can readily afford to spend 1500 bucks? Or 2000 for a PROGRAM
The companies supporting it have lost me as a movie customer. And that hurts especially with Avengers coming out this year. I was gearing up to see that until their parent company that company voiced support for these bills. The gaming industry is adapting far faster however than TV and Movies. And have a more stable platform on which piracy needs to be combated. But they arent doing everything they can themselves to prevent it.
Draconian security measures like securRom and others (you know what i'm talking about) Are among the leading culprits. Limits on installations and a number of things lead to people looking for copies of the game without restrictions. They are not solving the problem. THEY ARE CREATING THE PROBLEM. Any one up on their computers could reinstall games several times in a year. Uninstall if they need space install again etc. Or they need to reinstall windows because of a major error/virus.
Proper Demo's. For MMO's the Beta's are good demos they have the advantage of a lack of piracy but RMT plagues them. Thats a battle for another day. For an FPS or RTS there hasnt been a real honest to god demo of a game in a while has there? And if there has been why havent people been blogging/raving about it?
Fair pricing: Stop putting 60 dollar tags on things that arent worth it. Many FPS's MMO's at Launch and supposed AAA titles dont deserve that opening price. Several recent ones do for the quallity and the content but not nearly as many as poeple think.
Three things the gaming industry as a whole can do that they are NOT DOING to curb piracy. SOPA and PIPA have the right idea. But are far too heavy handed and in the hands of people that can NOT be trusted. Congress has i believe around a 20% approval/trust rating. There is a reason for this.
That's my 2 C-bills/Isk/Credits. Defeat this bill and force the industry to innovate and adapt or live in a world where net neutrality is gone forever.
Basically this is the problem, and how I've felt about it as well.
These days most IP related products are simply too overpriced, poor quality, the same old that we've had for years. Rather than try to lower prices to a more reasonable level, put more effort into quality, or innovating, the IP industries are instead putting in enormous amounts of effort to try to change the rules on consumers.
Yes piracy is one alternative, but there are countless legal ones as well. Like you mentioned, Hulu and Netflix for example. Hell Youtube and the Internet in general has countless hours worth of free and legal entertainment. Pay $15 to go to the movies or $20 to buy a DvD that lasts a couple hours... or pay $15 for a month for gameplay time in an MMO.
Basically these industries know they're in trouble. But rather than adapt to the times, they want to try to destroy the new to keep everyone stuck in their stone age system where they can make consumers pay out the nose for sub-par products, that they make ridiculous returns in profit on.
Continue to let your congressmen know that SOPA is not okay!
Companies have become so aggressive (youtube is a great example) to the point that their hassling the average-joe for karoke with a friend or two.
If SOPA pass there is going to be a lot of fan-created works that will suffer as well as other trail-blaze websites that rely on users to generate content!
I just wanna add that nobody seems to remember the criminalization of VHS recording a football game, nor the single mother that was fined hundreds of thousands of dollars to make a statement about 'stealing' music with kazaa. They are going to make information trafficking have the same penalties as those dealing in drugs ffs.
Writer / Musician / Game Designer
Now Playing: Skyrim, Wurm Online, Tropico 4 Waiting On: GW2, TSW, Archeage, The Rapture
Well be rdy for tommarow cause your going to get a taste of what it would be like if it gets passed alot of websites will be down on the 18th of january aspart of the raising awareness of how bad this bill will be if past. NOt sure if mmorpg is participating but they should.
I just went to craigslist and they have a big post about SOPA and PIPA. Monster Cables wants the site blacklisted and shut down because their products are "Not for Resale", and so are many others. I can only imagine the multitude of similar reprecussions passing this bill would have. An internet and community with no Craigslist? So companies can continue to use up finite resources in the name of profit. That is obsurd. We would be forced back to garage sales and word of mouth. Just another reason to dislike the whole of these bills.
Let's get this argument out of the way right away. All freedoms are restricted al lthe time. There is no such thing as an unrestricted freedom or rights. Many Americans think they have it, but they do not.
Take for example this classic case. It is the middle of the night and I'm in a Jewish neighborhood. As an expression of my freedom of speech I yell at the top of my lunges "THE HOLOCAUST IS A LIE BUT IT SHOULD HAVE HAPPENED YOU KILLED JESUS!" Now I keep repeating this obscenity over and over and over and over. I do it from 12AM to 8AM. At this point I decide to go home and sleep.
Am I really so free to do this? Would you as a citizen of the United States really ALLOW me to violate someone like this to protect MY freedom?
Of course not.
Any time a freedom or a right violates a citizen's freedoms or rights you are responsible to bring it into question and write laws to protect one from the other.
Let's give another example to round out this "I should be free to say what I want" type of argument. Let's as a child are responsible for bringing an item to school for a presentation, kind of like how kids bring frogs and toys to show everyone. But this one kid brings his favorite thing, a German sex tape to the class. Now if he is free to express himself he should be able to run this tape as loud as he wants. No one has to watch it, but he should be able to run it.
Should we let this happen?
Of course not you monster.
So no, saying something is against freedom of speech is not an acceptable argument. The issue is not freedom of speech it is the freedom to elicitely do illegal things with no punishment all because you are protected by International esteem.
This is where you (and many others) confuse what Freedom of Speech means and stands for. Freedom of Speech is the Right to seek, receive and impart information and ideas without being censored or controlled. Freedom of Speech does NOT give you the right to harrass, incite and/or participate in things that are deemed obscene (which are all part of the examples you listed above).
Having said that, SOPA and PIPA go much deeper than Piracy. That is just the preface. Believe me, Americans do not want these bills to pass. Do your own research. Find out what's happening. Don't listen to the media. And for god's sake...start standing up. Hate to say it, but the majority of America is asleep.
DMCA exists. Why do they need SOPA? Why get rid of the due process? No process where a word can take down a site at will because its competition? Are people that agree retarded or insane? Do you want me to take down your job, life, gf/bf with ONE word, and you can't do anything about it? Wnat me to take your car, house, money, family, friends and stick you in jail with ONE word? That is SOPA. Any site that EA finds as competition and doesn't see fit, can take it down without any legal action other than their word against yours.
Read the fine print, SOPA gives people the power to take down anything at will on the internet based on their word. Only that now big named publishers can have this power, and anyone else, including us small developers and the game users themselves have NO SAY what so ever.
I struggle not with life, money, emotions, and world, but against old mindsets and selves to be proven obsolete in a age and time of rapid changes. Go create fun, so you can have fun.
Right this moment, some guy is shooting heroin, or smuggling a couple thousand kilos of illegal narcotics and the gov decides to worry about a kid singing a justin beiber cover on youtube?
Give me a break, of course SOPA and PIPA should be shot down.
Piracy needs to be stopped....however, this is like bringing a nuke to a spear fishing competition.
It WILL get interesting if it passes though - to watch the US enabling controls similar to China does now. How effective will it be though when other countries will simply ignore their orders?
the reason companies like AE are members and companies like Blizzard are not is simple.
AE and it's affiliates have alot to gain from cencored advertisement such as youtube etc.
For example publishers like Aeria(affiliate of AE) get often very bad publicity on sites where there games can be reviewed freely and these videos often exploit glitches and shady marketing tactics that harm the companys.
AE is of course known for it's bugs and glitches. Aswell as being the poster boy for shady tactics- SOPA would banish the leaks of harmfull information about thier games.
where as Blizzard sees right throu the disguise-with nothing to hide they have no reason to support these efforts to mask shady companie's buisness models. in short- it's just anouther way to do some crowd controll. piracy will never be cilenced-but if this bill passes..WE can be silenced.
Well be rdy for tommarow cause your going to get a taste of what it would be like if it gets passed alot of websites will be down on the 18th of january aspart of the raising awareness of how bad this bill will be if past. NOt sure if mmorpg is participating but they should.
Agreed. And indeed.
Wikipedia is already down and being "censored". Will be interesting to see what other sights follow suit to raise public awareness. Google and Yahoo really need to take a stand on this as well. Those are two big ones. And their support or lack there of will really show who's side they are on. This is not about Piracy - that's just the tip of the iceburg. Its about censorship and the control of the flow of information to the general public.
This is the begining. I am an American, I was born and raised here and even served my county. I have had a chance to read over poth the proposed bills and found a few things in it just down right wrong. First yes I use file sharing, and not all of it would be considered legal, however Many of the items I have used I have later bought from a retailer. I know a great many of those in the community do the same as we know that taking with out paying will lead to less content for us to enjoy. However what this bill is trying to do is to introduce a mechanism that will in fact be used to expand the scope of what it can do.
In history we have learned in order to control the masses Governements have used ignorance and a deniel of information to control. How long do you think it will be before the scope of sopa spans to anti American or anti corperation websites. Or even non mainstream news. Dont get me wrong im not a conspiracy theorist, but Im a student of history and Im seeing all the precursors to some great travesties coming and this bill falls in line with that. The pattern is there all you have to do is look....
On a side note, the Us. Gov has shut down many sites over the years because of copyrights. Now they want to expand this so that they now hold isp accountable and make them do all the work so that they dont have to do the work....Thats like telling a soccor mom she has to arrest the crack dealer down the road.
Piracy needs to be stopped....however, this is like bringing a nuke to a spear fishing competition.
It WILL get interesting if it passes though - to watch the US enabling controls similar to China does now. How effective will it be though when other countries will simply ignore their orders?
We've already seen what happens, when countries ignore the Empires orders... How many examples does it take?
I am older than most of you. I have watched our freedom disappear at an alarming pace these in the last few years. Soon it will be too late. Contact your Senator and Rep. and let them know how you feel. The constitution is bleeding out....we have lost so much already.
Hasn't Obama cancelled the whole thing yesterday already ? That was posted on engaget ?? Everybody stood against SOPA so he pulled it back ? Oo
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You not only survived the zombie apocalypse, but did it with style! Your mastery of zombie knowledge, survival tactics, and weaponry is nearly unmatched. Congratulations, for you are hardcore!
Every free thinking person and any sane person should oppose this SOPA. If it goes through it will give film, music and games corperation the tools to basically shut down any web site they deem to be in breach of copyright.
Youtube will either have to block 90% of its user base or shut down. Sites like this can be shut down if they give a review of a game without permision from the game developer or publisher. Same with web review sites like the Escapist.
Microsoft and Appel have signed up in support of this act as well.
I think something needs to be done to stop online piracy but this SOPA is an extreme measure, but in the USA goverment it seems if you have the money you can get any law passed by buying off the senators within said goverment.
Every free thinking person and any sane person should oppose this SOPA. If it goes through it will give film, music and games corperation the tools to basically shut down any web site they deem to be in breach of copyright.
Youtube will either have to block 90% of its user base or shut down. Sites like this can be shut down if they give a review of a game without permision from the game developer or publisher. Same with web review sites like the Escapist.
Microsoft and Appel have signed up in support of this act as well.
I think something needs to be done to stop online piracy but this SOPA is an extreme measure, but in the USA goverment it seems if you have the money you can get any law passed by buying off the senators within said goverment.
It's worse than that lol, if the USERS post anything like a fan vid, pictures or w/e MMORPG.com could be shutdown and or blocked. That user could recieve up to 5 years in prison for that fan made vid.
It's just asinine and it won't pass, if it does it's likely to cause massive amounts of riots lol.
Comments
To answer the article's question... YES! For God's sake, YES! Stop SOPA! It's an enormous wad of death for freedom of expression over the internet. It must be stopped if America has any hope for keeping its freedoms for much longer in the future.
DOWN WITH SOPA!
Now, the article itself is well written and approaches the issue objectively. I enjoyed reading it. Unfortunately, I don't like expressing myself objectively for something I feel is so important to my way of life. It just feels so cold... >_>
Well written and brilliant. My thoughts exactly.
you sir, have a good grasp on this topic, I was going to write something similar but realised that I'm too lazy so I figured the next best thing would be to repost yours
SOPA and PIPA: Two bills with an ideal purpose. Piracy is one of the worst diseases of the internet. Unfortunately for some it is the only viable means available to them.
The fact of the matter is this: From the entertainment side this is nothing more than an attempt by the Aging movie and TV industries to stop sites like netflix and hulu and Itunes. Netflix last year was nearly destroyed because of the MPAA and movie publishers (along with major television companies) forcing netflix to pay far higher fees and in turn passing those fees onto its consumers. As a former Netlfix customer it hurt me to leave the service but it no longer provided value for the money i was paying. I knew the reasons behind it but i can not throw money at that problem. Itunes Hulu and Netflix should serve as a model for the TV and Movie industries and show the way to end 'movie theaters' all together. Defeating of these bills in a sound matter will hopefully serve as the much needed wakeup call these idiots require. Forcing them to actually innovate rather than legistlate.
PEOPLE WILL PAY FOR PRODUCTS AT A FAIR PRICE. A proven fact. Right now the prices for such things are nowhere near fair in these economic times. 20 bucks for a brand new DVD? Just one? Come on man. Look at how Itunes is doing and tell me that isnt profit.
From a game perspective: Too few companies are willing to provide honest hard demo's in advance of their games. Triple A titles rate a 60 dollar launch price and if you're going collectors its higher. A survey of online pirates conducted in 2010 (i have not been able to dig the relevent article up if someone can find it PLEASE do so i believe it involved one of the battlefield games) Suggested that they would not pirate leaked copies if proper demo's were released giving the player the chance to evaluate the game. Demo's used to be something offered to everyone. I remember picking up PS1 discs from an EB that had 10-15 demos on them. Happend all the time for PC's they were incredible ways to evaluate the games upcoming and determine if they were worth your money.
Companies expect too much from the American Consumer: And there are pirated copies of far more expensive software as well. AutoDesk (AutoCad) The top of the market online drafitng program. Adobe Creative Suite. One of the premier if not THE premier ways of preparing media content in a number of forms. Offering them online offers no real value over a boxed copy. It shows. Compare prices. You think someone in a small business can readily afford to spend 1500 bucks? Or 2000 for a PROGRAM
The companies supporting it have lost me as a movie customer. And that hurts especially with Avengers coming out this year. I was gearing up to see that until their parent company that company voiced support for these bills. The gaming industry is adapting far faster however than TV and Movies. And have a more stable platform on which piracy needs to be combated. But they arent doing everything they can themselves to prevent it.
Draconian security measures like securRom and others (you know what i'm talking about) Are among the leading culprits. Limits on installations and a number of things lead to people looking for copies of the game without restrictions. They are not solving the problem. THEY ARE CREATING THE PROBLEM. Any one up on their computers could reinstall games several times in a year. Uninstall if they need space install again etc. Or they need to reinstall windows because of a major error/virus.
Proper Demo's. For MMO's the Beta's are good demos they have the advantage of a lack of piracy but RMT plagues them. Thats a battle for another day. For an FPS or RTS there hasnt been a real honest to god demo of a game in a while has there? And if there has been why havent people been blogging/raving about it?
Fair pricing: Stop putting 60 dollar tags on things that arent worth it. Many FPS's MMO's at Launch and supposed AAA titles dont deserve that opening price. Several recent ones do for the quallity and the content but not nearly as many as poeple think.
Three things the gaming industry as a whole can do that they are NOT DOING to curb piracy. SOPA and PIPA have the right idea. But are far too heavy handed and in the hands of people that can NOT be trusted. Congress has i believe around a 20% approval/trust rating. There is a reason for this.
That's my 2 C-bills/Isk/Credits. Defeat this bill and force the industry to innovate and adapt or live in a world where net neutrality is gone forever.
Basically this is the problem, and how I've felt about it as well.
These days most IP related products are simply too overpriced, poor quality, the same old that we've had for years. Rather than try to lower prices to a more reasonable level, put more effort into quality, or innovating, the IP industries are instead putting in enormous amounts of effort to try to change the rules on consumers.
Yes piracy is one alternative, but there are countless legal ones as well. Like you mentioned, Hulu and Netflix for example. Hell Youtube and the Internet in general has countless hours worth of free and legal entertainment. Pay $15 to go to the movies or $20 to buy a DvD that lasts a couple hours... or pay $15 for a month for gameplay time in an MMO.
Basically these industries know they're in trouble. But rather than adapt to the times, they want to try to destroy the new to keep everyone stuck in their stone age system where they can make consumers pay out the nose for sub-par products, that they make ridiculous returns in profit on.
Continue to let your congressmen know that SOPA is not okay!
Companies have become so aggressive (youtube is a great example) to the point that their hassling the average-joe for karoke with a friend or two.
If SOPA pass there is going to be a lot of fan-created works that will suffer as well as other trail-blaze websites that rely on users to generate content!
I just wanna add that nobody seems to remember the criminalization of VHS recording a football game, nor the single mother that was fined hundreds of thousands of dollars to make a statement about 'stealing' music with kazaa. They are going to make information trafficking have the same penalties as those dealing in drugs ffs.
Writer / Musician / Game Designer
Now Playing: Skyrim, Wurm Online, Tropico 4
Waiting On: GW2, TSW, Archeage, The Rapture
Well be rdy for tommarow cause your going to get a taste of what it would be like if it gets passed alot of websites will be down on the 18th of january aspart of the raising awareness of how bad this bill will be if past. NOt sure if mmorpg is participating but they should.
I just went to craigslist and they have a big post about SOPA and PIPA. Monster Cables wants the site blacklisted and shut down because their products are "Not for Resale", and so are many others. I can only imagine the multitude of similar reprecussions passing this bill would have. An internet and community with no Craigslist? So companies can continue to use up finite resources in the name of profit. That is obsurd. We would be forced back to garage sales and word of mouth. Just another reason to dislike the whole of these bills.
This is where you (and many others) confuse what Freedom of Speech means and stands for. Freedom of Speech is the Right to seek, receive and impart information and ideas without being censored or controlled. Freedom of Speech does NOT give you the right to harrass, incite and/or participate in things that are deemed obscene (which are all part of the examples you listed above).
Having said that, SOPA and PIPA go much deeper than Piracy. That is just the preface. Believe me, Americans do not want these bills to pass. Do your own research. Find out what's happening. Don't listen to the media. And for god's sake...start standing up. Hate to say it, but the majority of America is asleep.
Similiar things are happening here in Canada, it's all about control.
TBJ
DMCA exists. Why do they need SOPA? Why get rid of the due process? No process where a word can take down a site at will because its competition? Are people that agree retarded or insane? Do you want me to take down your job, life, gf/bf with ONE word, and you can't do anything about it? Wnat me to take your car, house, money, family, friends and stick you in jail with ONE word? That is SOPA. Any site that EA finds as competition and doesn't see fit, can take it down without any legal action other than their word against yours.
Read the fine print, SOPA gives people the power to take down anything at will on the internet based on their word. Only that now big named publishers can have this power, and anyone else, including us small developers and the game users themselves have NO SAY what so ever.
I struggle not with life, money, emotions, and world, but against old mindsets and selves to be proven obsolete in a age and time of rapid changes. Go create fun, so you can have fun.
Right this moment, some guy is shooting heroin, or smuggling a couple thousand kilos of illegal narcotics and the gov decides to worry about a kid singing a justin beiber cover on youtube?
Give me a break, of course SOPA and PIPA should be shot down.
Piracy needs to be stopped....however, this is like bringing a nuke to a spear fishing competition.
It WILL get interesting if it passes though - to watch the US enabling controls similar to China does now. How effective will it be though when other countries will simply ignore their orders?
natzees GTFO with your censorship
die SOPA, DIE
the reason companies like AE are members and companies like Blizzard are not is simple.
AE and it's affiliates have alot to gain from cencored advertisement such as youtube etc.
For example publishers like Aeria(affiliate of AE) get often very bad publicity on sites where there games can be reviewed freely and these videos often exploit glitches and shady marketing tactics that harm the companys.
AE is of course known for it's bugs and glitches. Aswell as being the poster boy for shady tactics- SOPA would banish the leaks of harmfull information about thier games.
where as Blizzard sees right throu the disguise-with nothing to hide they have no reason to support these efforts to mask shady companie's buisness models. in short- it's just anouther way to do some crowd controll. piracy will never be cilenced-but if this bill passes..WE can be silenced.
Agreed. And indeed.
Wikipedia is already down and being "censored". Will be interesting to see what other sights follow suit to raise public awareness. Google and Yahoo really need to take a stand on this as well. Those are two big ones. And their support or lack there of will really show who's side they are on. This is not about Piracy - that's just the tip of the iceburg. Its about censorship and the control of the flow of information to the general public.
Very serious stuff.
This is the begining. I am an American, I was born and raised here and even served my county. I have had a chance to read over poth the proposed bills and found a few things in it just down right wrong. First yes I use file sharing, and not all of it would be considered legal, however Many of the items I have used I have later bought from a retailer. I know a great many of those in the community do the same as we know that taking with out paying will lead to less content for us to enjoy. However what this bill is trying to do is to introduce a mechanism that will in fact be used to expand the scope of what it can do.
In history we have learned in order to control the masses Governements have used ignorance and a deniel of information to control. How long do you think it will be before the scope of sopa spans to anti American or anti corperation websites. Or even non mainstream news. Dont get me wrong im not a conspiracy theorist, but Im a student of history and Im seeing all the precursors to some great travesties coming and this bill falls in line with that. The pattern is there all you have to do is look....
On a side note, the Us. Gov has shut down many sites over the years because of copyrights. Now they want to expand this so that they now hold isp accountable and make them do all the work so that they dont have to do the work....Thats like telling a soccor mom she has to arrest the crack dealer down the road.
We've already seen what happens, when countries ignore the Empires orders... How many examples does it take?
I am older than most of you. I have watched our freedom disappear at an alarming pace these in the last few years. Soon it will be too late. Contact your Senator and Rep. and let them know how you feel. The constitution is bleeding out....we have lost so much already.
Hasn't Obama cancelled the whole thing yesterday already ? That was posted on engaget ?? Everybody stood against SOPA so he pulled it back ? Oo
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Every free thinking person and any sane person should oppose this SOPA. If it goes through it will give film, music and games corperation the tools to basically shut down any web site they deem to be in breach of copyright.
Youtube will either have to block 90% of its user base or shut down. Sites like this can be shut down if they give a review of a game without permision from the game developer or publisher. Same with web review sites like the Escapist.
Microsoft and Appel have signed up in support of this act as well.
I think something needs to be done to stop online piracy but this SOPA is an extreme measure, but in the USA goverment it seems if you have the money you can get any law passed by buying off the senators within said goverment.
It's worse than that lol, if the USERS post anything like a fan vid, pictures or w/e MMORPG.com could be shutdown and or blocked. That user could recieve up to 5 years in prison for that fan made vid.
It's just asinine and it won't pass, if it does it's likely to cause massive amounts of riots lol.
SOPA is DOWN. I repeat, Sopa is DOWN.
http://www.forbes.com/sites/johngaudiosi/2012/01/16/obama-says-so-long-sopa-killing-controversial-internet-piracy-legislation/
Now it's Protect IP's turn.
BOYCOTT PROTECT IP!