Internet Censorship in America

[Molly-sama]

That's because it hasn't been passes yet.

PROTECT IP got passed, though a hold was placed on it.

It....it actually passed. WHAT THE FUCKING FUCK.

I'm not surprised, just pissed and disappointed in the world. *sigh*

[robybang]

It passed the Senate Judiciary Committee, not the Senate. AmericanCensorship.org is organizing a massive call-in to the Senate for this Tuesday to convince them to not let this bill pass, so if you want to help, you should do that. And to those who would say "But my senator's an asshole, so it won't do anything," call anyways. After calling my congressman three or four days in a row, I got a response back that he wouldn't vote for SOPA and he didn't think it would pass. And if they say back that they will vote for it and won't be convinced otherwise, call your other senator. Or call someone else's senator. Seriously, it isn't like they'll know.

[Seven Rain]

It passed the Senate Judiciary Committee, not the Senate.

Ah, my mistake.

[RyoSoulreaper]

What are they gonna do? Come shoot me because I used Youtube to listen to a video Game Soundtrack? WELL BRING IT ON MOFO'S!

If anything, It'll lose by a close margin in Senate. I'm being optimistic about it though.

[The_Hankerchief]

It passed the Senate Judiciary Committee, not the Senate.

Ah, my mistake.

According to Wikipedia, Ron Wyden (D-OR) placed a hold on it.

I'd never thought I'd use this phrase, but thank God for my senator! (pumps fist)

[Seven Rain]

What are they gonna do? Come shoot me because I used Youtube to listen to a video Game Soundtrack? WELL BRING IT ON MOFO'S!

If anything, It'll lose by a close margin in Senate. I'm being optimistic about it though.

Well from what I understand the problem is they won't do anything to you or anyone else viewing/hearing these things, they'll get rid of/block the content altogether.

It passed the Senate Judiciary Committee, not the Senate.

Ah, my mistake.

According to Wikipedia, Ron Wyden (D-OR) placed a hold on it.

Yeah, I knew about the hold, I'm just not politically savvy enough to realize the difference between Senate Judiciary Committee and the Senate itself, haha.

[RyoSoulreaper]

What are they gonna do? Come shoot me because I used Youtube to listen to a video Game Soundtrack? WELL BRING IT ON MOFO'S!

If anything, It'll lose by a close margin in Senate. I'm being optimistic about it though.

Well from what I understand the problem is they won't do anything to you or anyone else viewing/hearing these things, they'll get rid of/block the content altogether.

Eh, that's not so.....well it's bad just there will be proxies. If I can get my way into a Korean MMO when you need a Korean IP, I think there will be a way around the blocks. Though they will be annoying to do and it would better if it never happens.

[corruption]

It's funny, because Australia apparently already has internet censorship, but it does FUCKING NOTHING considering I only found out about it via random Wikipedia reading...

Spoiler! :

Wait, we have censorship here? I never noticed any.

About antipiracy laws, here is something you can do: use a browser like Firefox, which is Open Source and free to alter. Since no-one owns it, they can't force Firefox to stop access to sites. Have sites registered on forien servers. There are foriegn based search engines that will be unaffected. Learn about them.

Other things to think about is what about all the fanfic out there?


What I think will happpen if the bill becomes law is that the places will move out of America, if possible. Trying to access the sites to run it will become problamatic, but I think I know a few ways to manage it, mostly using third party sites and anonamizers.

I do not know everything about it, but I just know one thing for certain. Sites that promote interest in a show will not get action taken against it by the show's owner, but one that mocks it will opposed by the show's owners.

[SuperBiasedMan]

^No. It's being done to curb piracy. Since most sites hosting pirated content are out of DMCA jurisdiction, SOPA/PIPA are being justified to combat it. Incidentally, Congress is claiming SOPA/PIPA are "jobs" bills, despite the jobs created by tech startups and social media more than offset any jobs lost by the entertainment industry. Though these bills would make websites responsible for user content, I don't think it would result in less cyberbullying. The site would be busy enough trying to pull down Doctor Who animated .gifs to care about cyberbullying.

Explain exactly how it's a certainty that introducing piracy will cause a loss of jobs in the entertainment industry when piracy directly generates zero money?
I know it technically 'raises awareness', but it's hard to predict how much people will go back to actually purchasing things when the piracy option is gone.
I highly doubt many people would just abstain though, especially when another form of entertainment (the internet) is simultaneously curtailed.

[KirbyHead]

About antipiracy laws, here is something you can do: use a browser like Firefox, which is Open Source and free to alter. Since no-one owns it, they can't force Firefox to stop access to sites. Have sites registered on forien servers. There are foriegn based search engines that will be unaffected. Learn about them.

Your browser has nothing to do with it. It's your internet provider that will block access to the sites. No different open source or foreign browser will circumvent that, unless you're using TOR or something. And I really know next to nothing about TOR, so don't quote me on that.

[Molly-sama]

I know it technically 'raises awareness', but it's hard to predict how much people will go back to actually purchasing things when the piracy option is gone.
I highly doubt many people would just abstain though, especially when another form of entertainment (the internet) is simultaneously curtailed.

And how many people will go back to buying things when they have no money. *points at self* It's amazing how all the other problems are being swept aside so some greedy companies can keep people from watching "pirated" material, looking at fan art, or turning pizza into a goddamn vegetable. *facepalm* I personally don't even pirate things and instead try to buy stuff, but this won't help that at all.

Just a small thing to point out: myself and my friends (before I met them, too) very rarely pay attention to commercials or internet ads. Often enough we silence/skip them and go along our merry way. We only find out about different movies/anime/comics/TV shows/what have you through the internet through interesting/funny fan arts, gifs, etc. Doing this will basically deter a lot of people like myself from finding out about the things they want people to see. As for seeing ads if this is done, well I don't watch much TV anymore, and what's the point of going to all the sites their ads are on if I can't look at the parody of whatever it is or see something really cool posted from it? Fans do at least some of your advertising for you, idiots. I found out about or got interested in Adventure Time, the newest My Little Pony, Ouran High School Host Club, Tangled, Law and Order SVU, House, and Glee all because of fan arts/parodies/random postings of gifs and whatever else, not because of their ads on TV or the internet. Why would I pay attention to anything on TV anymore when most of the things people pay for now suck?
/rant

[SuperBiasedMan]

And how many people will go back to buying things when they have no money. *points at self*

They don't care about you if you don't have money. Which they're entitled to do as a business. They're making a product, they want to charge people for it.
If you decided to sell your comic in printed form, wouldn't you get pissed when someone scans and uploads it instead because they and other people don't have money?
Sure the entertainment companies have a lot of money, but that doesn't invalidate their right to being allowed do what they want with the products they produce.
If it's crap and overpriced? Fine, you wont buy them. You wont miss being able to pirate them either.
For the things you do want to see, I guess you'd have to pay if piracy was eliminated.

For the record, I am against the bill for the fact that it's a form of censorship that could easily be abused with worrying intent.
However, the idea that we're entitled to piracy is nonsense. We're not entitled to other people's work just because we don't want to pay for it.

[Aeris]

Come on guys, we need more people to stand against this.
Tell everybody, every last f*cking person you know, to fight for the internet.

[robybang]

^No. It's being done to curb piracy. Since most sites hosting pirated content are out of DMCA jurisdiction, SOPA/PIPA are being justified to combat it. Incidentally, Congress is claiming SOPA/PIPA are "jobs" bills, despite the jobs created by tech startups and social media more than offset any jobs lost by the entertainment industry. Though these bills would make websites responsible for user content, I don't think it would result in less cyberbullying. The site would be busy enough trying to pull down Doctor Who animated .gifs to care about cyberbullying.

Explain exactly how it's a certainty that introducing piracy will cause a loss of jobs in the entertainment industry when piracy directly generates zero money?
I know it technically 'raises awareness', but it's hard to predict how much people will go back to actually purchasing things when the piracy option is gone.
I highly doubt many people would just abstain though, especially when another form of entertainment (the internet) is simultaneously curtailed.

That's the argument Congress is using, not my own. They argue that piracy costs the entertainment industry $100 billion in losses from people pirating over purchasing, which as you brought up, isn't a certainty that jobs are being lost.

[Molly-sama]

And how many people will go back to buying things when they have no money. *points at self*

They don't care about you if you don't have money. Which they're entitled to do as a business. They're making a product, they want to charge people for it.
If you decided to sell your comic in printed form, wouldn't you get pissed when someone scans and uploads it instead because they and other people don't have money?
Sure the entertainment companies have a lot of money, but that doesn't invalidate their right to being allowed do what they want with the products they produce.
If it's crap and overpriced? Fine, you wont buy them. You wont miss being able to pirate them either.
For the things you do want to see, I guess you'd have to pay if piracy was eliminated.

For the record, I am against the bill for the fact that it's a form of censorship that could easily be abused with worrying intent.
However, the idea that we're entitled to piracy is nonsense. We're not entitled to other people's work just because we don't want to pay for it.

I never meant we're entitled to piracy! lol I was more referring to the worry regarding fan art or parodies being taken to court over this. Like I said in my post, I don't pirate things. XD

I get the whole "businesses have no want to cater to you" thing, buuuuuut if they're worried about making more money....well, everyone is at the moment. And not so they can go see movies or buy video games (well, some people, lol). I'm not really talking about seeing their actual products online for free (though I have bought movies based on having watched them online or on TV the few times I have sat down and watched first - such as FF7ACC, Clerks, and Waiting). But instead I've seen fan projects online that eventually made me want to go find their actual product (yes, the legal way). Like this: I'd only seen one episode of Hellsing Ultimate at a friend's birthday party years ago, and, even though I liked it, I just forgot about it eventually. Then I see "Alucard vs. Edward" pictures and the like, the abridged series for it, and some really kick ass fan arts, and now I would definitely go out and buy it. But what I meant by having no money is that without these things, I wouldn't buy it. Because I most likely wouldn't know enough about it to spend my small amounts of money on something I don't know about and don't like ads.