The Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA), bye bye internet?

[DazarGaidin]

Looks like mozilla and the big tech companies are against this bill. I'm worried about it too, not just cause i pirate anime but because it could lead to tracking what we do and even censoring what we see or download, like china and other countries. Most notably, the censorship of 'foreign' sites, which could mean a lock down of any site not approved by the gov for whatever reason.




Ive written my representative about a similar thing in the past and they sent me a stock looking letter basically saying they don't condone piracy, as if that is what i asked their opinion on. Thats what bugs me, its gonna be pitched with a 'save the children!' slant, i mean, how can you NOT be against stealing? A vote against this bill, whatever it says, is a vote for theft! kinda thing.

[Holy Knight]

Hmm... Potentially political topic. Keep it clean, yeah?

Anyway, read about this. Don't know how it could pass what with the internet tech muscle being against it, but I could see a revised version getting the green light. They're probably just pushing to see how much they can get away with then work out a compromise.

[Arch-Defender]

Originally Posted by DazarGaidin

'save the children!' slant, i mean, how can you NOT be against stealing? A vote against this bill, whatever it says, is a vote for theft! kinda thing.

If they want it to pass no problem they just have to find some ridiculous way of actually making it about the children in which case its as good as passed because using the children as shields to pass a stupid laws always works.


I still believe it can be fought, putting anime fans asside, lots of people download and stream video online and they're not going to be trilled about this.

My final observation, they'll try with this and like Holy Knight said they'll probably make revised versions until it passes. It doesn't matter what version gets passed, once its approved they'll be able to push further after that because "Why not, its already passed, so what's a few additions?". Hey, its not like its the first time we see stuff like this happen.

They should at least be honest and change the title of the bill from "The Stop Online Piracy Act" to the "Stop Online Act".

[fearthebeard85]

I don't think it will pass, if I remember correctly the tried to push it through before and it got rejected.

[Arnold]

*wonders if AD will change his name back to animefanworried if this passes*

My opinion: While I think it's likely that this will be much ado about nothing, the possibility of this going down a slippery slope still makes me uncomfortable about the bill. I've always been a fan of limited government, and while stopping piracy is not a bad idea, I don't want to think of some companies who I already think take the wrong approach to copyright infringement could do in a worst case scenario that arises from this legislation.

[Arch-Defender]

Originally Posted by Arnold

*wonders if AD will change his name back to animefanworried if this passes*

I was going to say I'd change my name to HappytoliveinCanada but then I remembered how Canada seems to always follow the US soon after.


Let's not forget there's a difference between watching something to avoid paying for it or watching something fansubbed because it never got licensed and you don't like learning Japanese for example. But for the companies and the government there is no difference in this domain, pirated videos must go period.

They are laws in place right now, the last thing we need is for our lives to be progressively more and more regulated and restricted. Such bills have always the same purpose: to see how far they can push and what they can get away with. Much like the California video game law, we must hope this will be rejected.

You can call it what you want, censorship is censorship, no good ever comes of it. Hoppefully this will be rejected because crap like that tells them "Were not protesting, why don't you give me more censorship t'I'll I drop."

But maybe it won't be that bad, maybe will just be like Japan where you land in jail for uploading an anime episode online. Or maybe will have the nice cyberpolice working overtime like China.

[Lacan]

I'm very scared of the censorship it will lead to.

[old hat]

cue hysterics

[DazarGaidin]

Hmm i guess i didnt think of it like a political thing, but i suppose it is given its a bill, tho its more about internet censorship than anything.

Some of the language in there brings up advertising and links, i mean, are non pirated anime sites gonna be killed off just cause they might run an ad that links to some downloads? I'm worried how far they could take this.

Im not sure the jail thing is the aim, i think they are just looking for powers to kill/block off sites they decide are bad.

[ThePhillyFlash]

Admittedly I'm no expert on this matter, but, judging from what I've read about this bill, it's nothing more than Congress throwing Hollywood, butthurt over piracy a bone. I don't think this will pass, why politicians are even wasting time over this when more important matters, like fixing the economy should be top priority.

[l0k1]

Here you go a video to explain the issues.

http://youtu.be/yDX8Lyl16Qs

[goddessofanime]

Do you know how many times people have tried to pass bills like this?

It's just Congress trying to soothe Hollywood's butthurt arses. And there's also Freedom of Speech.

Besides, is there even any illegal torrent sites anymore? I mean most of the sites like Limewire and Napster are gone or turned legit.

[Vaikyuko]

Originally Posted by goddessofanime

Do you know how many times people have tried to pass bills like this?

It's just Congress trying to soothe Hollywood's butthurt arses. And there's also Freedom of Speech.

Besides, is there even any illegal torrent sites anymore? I mean most of the sites like Limewire and Napster are gone or turned legit.

...you're kidding, right?

The P2P sites mostly went down because P2P is a terrible way to transfer stuff. Everything is torrents now, and there's a thriving community of dozens and dozens of big name torrent sites which upload probably petabytes of info (that's 1000 terabytes, for the record).

[Old Ape Face]

Ah, so my avatar is seen as something plagiarized from Pink Floyd according to this act?

Hmmm I don't remember me ever saying that I owned the artwork, the film it was from, or the band itself for that matter.

Then again, politics can rear it's ugly head and claim that I have stolen something.

[Urinal Cake]

I've heard about several such bills in the past, none of them have ever passed, I'm not concerned about this.