SOPA/PIPA

[FrenchEyeGlass 1,173]

Surprised there isn't a thread on this already.

 

SOPA/PIPA are two bills which congress are trying to pass in America. There is widespread opposition of these bills because frankly they're a piece of shit.

 

If these pass it will be horrible news every website you go on today. Yeah, that's Youtube, Rapidshare, Facebook, Wikipedia. Even this site.

 

Recently Megaupload has been taken down in what I would only describe as a fucking joke. It is the general consensus that this is the long arm of American law telling all of those opposing SOPA to suck on their dicks.

 

Watch this video. It's a brief, detailed description of the matter and will give you a better idea than anything I post will.

 

[YOUTUBE]EBy7yooz3MM&list=UUVhuBK45_glp41jk_Xn8J1g&feature=plcp[/YOUTUBE]

[Mendoza 1,590]

BBC News - Hackers retaliate over Megaupload website shutdown

 

BBC News - Sopa and Pipa bills postponed in US Congress

[md1892 110]

http://www.liverpoolway.co.uk/forum/tnf-techy-nerd-forum/105772-megaupload-file-sharing-site-shut-down.html

 

Been mentioned a bit here.

[Section_31 19,865]

I haven't read up much about this yet, but something does need to be done about the widespread file sharing on the net. The amount of people I know now who don't buy anything they watch or listen to make me think it's got to be harming the entertainment industry in the long term, their attitude is that they're somehow entitled to have it for nothing, and that anyone who pays for it is a bit of a dickhead. In fact even books now -with e-books being downloaded by the thousand, must be damaging the publishing industry and affecting the money paid to authors.

[JohnnyH 6,518]

My mates a fairly successful actor and director (he won the palm dor a few years back) and he's campaigning strongly against it. The people it's designed to protect hate it so surely they must look at it again.

[Carradona 549]

My mates a fairly successful actor and director (he won the palm dor a few years back) and he's campaigning strongly against it. The people it's designed to protect hate it so surely they must look at it again.

 

Without actually dropping a name, I'm still going to call you a name-dropping cunt!!

[JohnnyH 6,518]

Without actually dropping a name, I'm still going to call you a name-dropping cunt!!

 

My work here is done!

[md1892 110]

It's more down to the abuse of these laws that will no doubt occur once/if they come into force.

 

Besides the major record labels & film companies have been taking the piss out of people for years. Its not like they are going out of business, they're only making £40bn profit a year as opposed to £60bn.

 

£3 a night for a film from blockbusters when you can buy it for £10 ?

 

Sorry no sympathy I'm afraid.

[VladimirIlyich 7,541]

My mates a fairly successful actor and director (he won the palm dor a few years back) and he's campaigning strongly against it. The people it's designed to protect hate it so surely they must look at it again.

 

I think I know the film that you mean and maybe even the fella you mean.

;)

[JohnnyH 6,518]

I'm a man of the people and friend to the stars!

[VladimirIlyich 7,541]

I'm a man of the people and friend to the stars!

 

I feel honoured to be in your presence but I will never call you sir.

[JohnnyH 6,518]

That's fair enough. Mr Fucking Deadly will do fine.

[FrenchEyeGlass 1,173]

I haven't read up much about this yet, but something does need to be done about the widespread file sharing on the net. The amount of people I know now who don't buy anything they watch or listen to make me think it's got to be harming the entertainment industry in the long term, their attitude is that they're somehow entitled to have it for nothing, and that anyone who pays for it is a bit of a dickhead. In fact even books now -with e-books being downloaded by the thousand, must be damaging the publishing industry and affecting the money paid to authors.

 

Something needs to be done about the large amount of illegal immigrants in the UK too. But you see, SOPA, is the equivalent of shipping out every brown skinned person out no-matter if they've committed a crime.

 

Im strongly against piracy but this is the stupidest way to tackle it. As is the action against MU. It will harm those using the services legally, some of which who have paid large amounts of money to do so. Secondly, it will stifle the tech innovation the worldwide economy has piggy-backed on for the last decade.

 

Piracy is fucked up but lets get down to the real issue. Hello 'Entertainment Industry' - guess fucking what. The world has moved on and your old business models no longer work. Move with the time. Adapt. It is impossible to police the internet. Use the 50BN in profits and reinvest it to protect your property. Don't try use your pals in congress to pass a stupid fucking bill which will ultimately leave you as CEO's of the world wide web.

[dennis tooth 1,240]

Knocks me fucking sick seeing this, why the actual fuck cant people get as upset and democratically active over the nhs?

Much more fucking serious than the right to free copyrite theivery.

Im aware that its different countries. In the face of polite Britain, Im going to have to save a few million peoples lives and shoot Andrew Lansleys head clean off. I mean it.

Come and arrest me rozzers I fucking dare you. Come and save the Nhs private interests from me.

Im not fucking around. Im 7.30 about this, watch. Time to save some babies.

[dennis tooth 1,240]

20 billion out the nhs in 3 years?

Hello?

[Section_31 19,865]

Knocks me fucking sick seeing this, why the actual fuck cant people get as upset and democratically active over the nhs?

Much more fucking serious than the right to free copywrite theivery.Im aware that its different countries. In the face of polite Britain, Im going to have to save a few million peoples lives and shoot Andrew Lansleys head clean off. I mean it.

Come and arrest me rozzers I fucking dare you. Come and save the Nhs private interests from me.

Im not fucking around. Im 7.30 about this, watch. Time to save some babies.

 

Heh, well put!

 

I think it's all well and good people saying the entertainment industry makes 'enough money', but what if one day that's not the case? What if there's simply no point in making a high quality product, so these firms just churn out cheap and nasty shit for YouTube consumption?

 

The idea that 'everything should be free online' is partly what's damaged journalism, and I know there are other reasons, but it's a major factor, so what people will have ten - maybe five years from now - is a few bloggers proffering 'news' and opinion, rather than professional reporters who're well trained and resourced and can write well. Maybe people don't care, but you don't know what you've got until it's gone, and one day we could see the same with TV, film, and music.

 

What about the person who creates it too? If your dream was to be an author, wouldn't part of that dream be thinking that someone had seen value in your work enough to pay for it?

 

When something is free it's instantly devalued IMO by those who are consuming it, it becomes cheap and disposable, and people think they have a 'right' to it - which is something I strongly disagree with. It's someone's imagination, someone's ability to dream - an ability you and me may not have - and so they deserve something in exchange for it, not just payment for payment's sake - but the idea that you respect what they've created enough to be willing to pay for it.

[Pony Princess 303]

With regard to music, I think it is great that average-quality bands can no longer release albums with two good songs and tons of filler shit and expect to make a fortune. Now they have to tour to make money - oh the pain.

[dennis tooth 1,240]

Well, I do support it Sec, just for me it pales into insignificance.

Even with your views this bill doesnt quite address that and is more abt privatising the internet inch by inch as someone said, many in the industry are against it.

Theyve wanted and increasingly have been privatising the internet since it was created with public money then handed over to the public.

I sympathise with your view but look at those media outlets such as the times etc who charge to go on their website, it protects those corporate journos but for the many who wont pay, does it push those people toward the free and underrated alternative media? It could be a blessing is disguise the bill, probably not easy to measure.

I think corporate journos main issue is rather trying to represent corporate interests and sell their overcooked lies to a disillusioned public rather than advertising revenues.

I doubt for example, whether the falls in newspaper sales are offset totally by the internet, I think people are actually increasingly not buying into their bullshit.

There are very few journos worth reading these days and its that simple, the old guard is passing away, our generation are the last to witness the galloways, chomskys, pilgers, fisks in many sections of society, you can see the same from muhhammed ali to fucking roal dah to that steepljack fella whose name escapes me. That Cowells, the patrick Kielties, the Camerons, I could go on but you know the whole class of people Im talking about, figureheads of a rotting society ripe for fresh revolution, real revolution, Im not talking a new game changing iphone here, but not yet ready for, in the meantime, those with a sense of smell will have endure the stench. Journolism wants purging anyway. How to go about it whether fighting or supporting this bill is a matter of blind debate, I dont think either alone can save it.

[piscinin 4]

Something needs to be done about the large amount of illegal immigrants in the UK too. But you see, SOPA, is the equivalent of shipping out every brown skinned person out no-matter if they've committed a crime.

 

That's a crap analogy and very far from the truth. The issue we have is that because the internet is completely distributed there is no one authority that can police it. No one group responsible for ensuring it is not used for illegal activities. The problem is that everyone wants to leverage the internet to make money but no-one is prepared to pay the cost.

 

First the entertainment industry tried to handle this issue by DRM but people worked around that too quickly and they couldn't/wouldn't keep up.

 

Then they tried to foist the issue onto ISPs etc to get them to monitor user traffic for illegal stuff. But they didn't want to pay the cost.

 

So now they are trying to get the likes of google and youtube to participate in checking out if content they themselves host is illegal. I mean after all they are benefiting from people shuffling around illegal content so why shouldn't they share the burden?

 

This whole free speech vs. corporate america is a red herring. This is corporate america losers (hollywood etc) vs. corporate america winners (ISPs, youtube, google etc) and neither side has a business model that includes paying for the benefit they are receiving.

[Anubis 17,432]

Both bills put on hold for now.

 

The irony is, as the video showed on the Youtube thread, many of the companies pushing for the legislation actually promoted and distributed file sharing software on download sites they owned, and are therefore themselves liable to prosecution under the legislation.

[dennis tooth 1,240]

That's a crap analogy and very far from the truth. The issue we have is that because the internet is completely distributed there is no one authority that can police it. No one group responsible for ensuring it is not used for illegal activities. The problem is that everyone wants to leverage the internet to make money but no-one is prepared to pay the cost.

 

First the entertainment industry tried to handle this issue by DRM but people worked around that too quickly and they couldn't/wouldn't keep up.

 

Then they tried to foist the issue onto ISPs etc to get them to monitor user traffic for illegal stuff. But they didn't want to pay the cost.

 

So now they are trying to get the likes of google and youtube to participate in checking out if content they themselves host is illegal. I mean after all they are benefiting from people shuffling around illegal content so why shouldn't they share the burden?

 

This whole free speech vs. corporate america is a red herring. This is corporate america losers (hollywood etc) vs. corporate america winners (ISPs, youtube, google etc) and neither side has a business model that includes paying for the benefit they are receiving.

Yep, tru dat.

Its a backbone of capitalism, internalising revenue, externalising costs. For example, imagine a bank internalising costs. The wheels come off like in Santa Claus the movie. It dont work no more if u run on them banks.

[md1892 110]

Heh, well put!

 

I think it's all well and good people saying the entertainment industry makes 'enough money', but what if one day that's not the case? What if there's simply no point in making a high quality product, so these firms just churn out cheap and nasty shit for YouTube consumption?

 

.

 

Thats the point though, they are no longer making a high quality product which is why people feel even less obliged to pay top dollar to watch for it.

Hollywood has been churning out some right shit for the past ten years, nothing original really at all, apart from the odd exception.

Lets remake an 80's classic and bastardise it or failing that any old shit and '3d' it.

I download a lot of stuff, if i like it i will then go out & buy it, i know a lot of people who think likewise.

The main issue is the stifling of future technology that is likely to occur.

The whole mp3 / digital revolution was started by Napster, a copyright infringement tool, as was divx the high compression video codec which is now used universally. These advances would not have happened with SOPA in place.

[Anubis 17,432]

...or failing that any old shit and '3d' it.

I download a lot of stuff, if i like it i will then go out & buy it, i know a lot of people who think likewise.

 

 

That appears to be the playbook the House Of Mouse is using at the moment. Recently we've had The Lion King re-issued in 3D. I note iTunes trailers is now carrying a trailer for Beauty And The Beast in 3D.

[Section_31 19,865]

Thats the point though, they are no longer making a high quality product which is why people feel even less obliged to pay top dollar to watch for it.

Hollywood has been churning out some right shit for the past ten years, nothing original really at all, apart from the odd exception.

Lets remake an 80's classic and bastardise it or failing that any old shit and '3d' it.

I download a lot of stuff, if i like it i will then go out & buy it, i know a lot of people who think likewise.

The main issue is the stifling of future technology that is likely to occur.

The whole mp3 / digital revolution was started by Napster, a copyright infringement tool, as was divx the high compression video codec which is now used universally. These advances would not have happened with SOPA in place.

 

What about television though? We're in the midst of a golden age of TV, from The Sopranos to Boardwalk Empire, The Shield to The Wire to Sons of Anarchy, it's peerless stuff creatively speaking, and what about music, there must be bands and artists which have come along since the internet that you rate? Or books? Why should a publisher invest tens of thousands possibly more in a new author only to see their debut novel downloaded free on a kindle and passed on and on between people?

[RobbieOR 1,513]

I'm not going to lie here. I download shitloads of music and movies etc. I cant afford to buy them, so what else am I supposed to do if I havent got a job? Much better things to be spending my money on.