Indictment Charges Megaupload Site With Piracy

[Chokopop]

Life goes on.
I've never read a blog, I don't use twitter, F/B is a rare distraction, I don't use Reddit?, read comics nor do I share files with people on the internet.
I think you are buying into too much hype and if you honestly believe that this little altercation spells the end of the likes of Youtube etc??? Then you really need to get off the internet for a week or two and relax with a game of golf or something

Anyway... That's all I need to add to the subject. I hope it all works out for you.

P.S. The Matrix has you

Right because we're all rich bastards. And who the **** is playing golf in the winter anyway?

The point is; SOPA is going to destroy the internet as we know it.

 

[ajt09]

On a sidenote-golf can be more stressful than relaxing at times.

 

[Athe~]

What's hypocritical about the law? Elaborate for us.

I would normally answer this myself but GC made a deeper and presumably better analysis than I could've done myself so I'll use my time to reply to another of your posts.

Life goes on.
I've never read a blog, I don't use twitter, F/B is a rare distraction, I don't use Reddit?, read comics nor do I share files with people on the internet.
I think you are buying into too much hype and if you honestly believe that this little altercation spells the end of the likes of Youtube etc??? Then you really need to get off the internet for a week or two and relax with a game of golf or something

Anyway... That's all I need to add to the subject. I hope it all works out for you.

P.S. The Matrix has you

You don't read blogs, use twitter nor facebook, do not read comics nor share files. It's all very interesting stuff (?) except nobody gives a rats **** about what you do. Just because you don't use twitter (which I don't do either) doesn't mean it's okay to shut it down. This has to be the most moronic post I've read in a while and I've read a few. This is not about you. It's about everyone, and what they will be able to do or not when/if this bill passes.

 

[GodCubed]

Life goes on.
I've never read a blog, I don't use twitter, F/B is a rare distraction, I don't use Reddit?, read comics nor do I share files with people on the internet.

Regardless. You should educate yourself on what this means for people who do.

I think you are buying into too much hype and if you honestly believe that this little altercation spells the end of the likes of Youtube etc??? Then you really need to get off the internet for a week or two and relax with a game of golf or something

Anyway... That's all I need to add to the subject. I hope it all works out for you.

P.S. The Matrix has you

No, I think you don't understand anything about this. You've shown a critical lack of knowledge regarding all key features of SOPA and PIPA. I doubt you understand its power. You think the powers that be would just leave a place alone because it makes some people happy? Bullshit. If they can find a way to close the likes of Youtube (which is incidentally one of the ones most at risk, since many of its videos are technically creative works by other people) then they will without hesitation.

This is no 'little altercation'. If you want proof, just read this. When the reclusive (inventor of the internet for all you who don't know) Tim Berners-Lee denounces something to do with the internet, then you KNOW it is big.

To reiterate, this gives an industry body the power to just turn off a website. Done. No trial. One day we could wake up and Wikipedia and Youtube, powerhouses of the internet that they are, would just be gone. If that isn't big, what in the name of all that is good and holy in this world IS?

 

[Anthony]

Speaking as a mod now, various opinions are welcome. Patroninsing peoople and dismissing them isnt.

That's true and I apologise.
It's all blown out of proportion though, and that raises my hackles a bit.

 

[ajt09]

Well, I have to say after educating myself on this via the links provided, I'm staggered by the impact this is going to have on pretty much everyone. Let me get this straight (and it may sound like a noob question but i'm not legally clued up tbh), this is going to affect pretty much every site going worldwide?

 

[GodCubed]

Well, I have to say after educating myself on this via the links provided, I'm staggered by the impact this is going to have on pretty much everyone. Let me get this straight (and it may sound like a noob question but i'm not legally clued up tbh), this is going to affect pretty much every site going worldwide?

To put it in simple terms, this will affect every site in the US (i.e. the majority of the ones on the web) and could potentially start a domino effect in that it will be replicated by Governments across the world. So yes, it definitely could.

 

[ajt09]

Wow. Another version of 1984 if you will.

 

[IanC]

Life goes on.
I've never read a blog, I don't use twitter, F/B is a rare distraction, I don't use Reddit?, read comics nor do I share files with people on the internet.
I think you are buying into too much hype and if you honestly believe that this little altercation spells the end of the likes of Youtube etc??? Then you really need to get off the internet for a week or two and relax with a game of golf or something

Anyway... That's all I need to add to the subject. I hope it all works out for you.

P.S. The Matrix has you

No you might not use those sites but there are other sites you probably do use and they will also come under SOPA legislation. So in the end you might need to research something on the web but guess what? You wont be allowed to because of SOPA.

 

[rephlex]

I just don't understand the lack of argument presented. It essentially comes down to "SOPA is horrible" with the retort being "No it isn't".

From what I understand the problem isn't piracy prevention or reduction, that is globally accepted as a challenge and as something which shouldn't be accepted. It is instead that the current legislation isn't fit for purpose, something highlighted by the likes of Twitter, Google, Wikipedia, Verizon, Yahoo, eBay, Mozilla, Facebook; chairman of the house Pelosi reiterated SOPA was not the solution to this problem, AT&T are sceptical, the US departments of Energy and Homeland Security both state the bill is not fit for purpose and perhaps most importantly this only applies to the domain names, not removing the sites themselves.

Let me say that again, you could still visit the site exactly as normal if you knew the IP. Whilst I don't believe in this "internet killing" nonsense, I was on the other end of a lawsuit caused by "unintended consequences" of laws brought in to help solidify intellectual property protection on the internet from the simple fact that the internet package we took as a student house was held in my name.

There is still a very long way to go before proper piracy prevention techniques are workable without putting the onus entirely on ISPs to remove large parts of the web vis-a-vis China. The main suggestion of Zuckerberg was to remove their revenue streams, but also the entertainment industry undoubtedly needs to modernise its distribution, understand that people experience media in expanding ways, and not fight alternatives. Indeed only recently WebTV (proper internet television on demand) was found to be too expensive by Microsoft because the rights holders wanted too much money. A great deal comes down to the concept that "1 copy pirates is 1 copy of lost sales" - I'm sorry but this is just incorrect, but the industry seems to have the ear of lawmakers at the moment so these sort of half-baked policies seem to be pushed to the fore.

The Megaupload incident is certainly regrettable, though I am not up to speed with the case so will refrain from comment, beyond to say if the company did not have sufficient policies to remove copyright infringing content from their servers and a former criminal as their chairman, it seems to be only a matter of time before there was a high profile incident such as this.

 

[IanC]

That is insane. The fact that America can prosecute somebody who hasn't even broke a law in the UK makes them massive hypocrites. Although £147k in advertising, fair play to that kid.

Yep they can punish a kid who has broken no laws in the UK..but then the worlds biggest search engine which is American has links for illegal sites that are selling olympic tickets and dont get touched. Smells like **** hypocrosy all round.

 

[Anthony]

Whilst I don't believe in this "internet killing" nonsense

That is was annoys me the most and makes me point and laugh at certain types.

 

[Lee]

Life goes on.
I've never read a blog, I don't use twitter, F/B is a rare distraction, I don't use Reddit?, read comics nor do I share files with people on the internet.
I think you are buying into too much hype and if you honestly believe that this little altercation spells the end of the likes of Youtube etc??? Then you really need to get off the internet for a week or two and relax with a game of golf or something

Anyway... That's all I need to add to the subject. I hope it all works out for you.

P.S. The Matrix has you

Do you visit FMBase? We could quite easily be shut down because of SOPA.

 

[rephlex]

Yep they can punish a kid who has broken no laws in the UK..but then the worlds biggest search engine which is American has links for illegal sites that are selling olympic tickets and dont get touched. Smells like **** hypocrosy all round.

Well, isn't that part of their anti terrorism bill which allows them to pursue criminals wherever it may take them? Considering there is an extradition treaty in place this isn't entirely suprising. Regarding Google and advertising, they will remove them once brought to their attention, but it seems they use some form of advertising aggregation service which allows them to keep "hands off" whilst still pocketing the money from the illegal companies who paid for them in the first place. You're mixing business and state a little mind you, though I understand that might seem ironic given some of the lobbying going on right now.

 

[Jamie.]

Has anyone else seen the congressional debate that was held on this?

They manage to find bipartisan support on this bill, no doubt down to millions of pounds of lobbying, and half of them have no clue on the implications. This is basically the war of the lobbyists between 'hollywood' production and media companies against silicone valley and the 'nerds'.

If you missed the debate they basically all said 'I'm no nerd' and approved the bill without having a clue of it's implications.

You had representatives stand up and say 'I don't understand this' yet voted for it, the senior member of the congressional intellectual property committee (A democrat) stood up and talked some nonsense about his life and how he's 'old school' in his technology - which basically was 'I don't understand this' - half of the Republicans who proposed and backed this bill take the notion that the internet is 'just a bunch of tubes'.

Piracy is a huge problem and it robs developers/production companies of billions but this bill doesn't attack those who upload the material it attacks those who come across it or unintentionally promote an affiliated website.

The only major bills that have had bipartisan support in America in the past 6 months have been this bill and the defence bill which allowed the detention without trial of American citizens taking away due process.

Nice to know vested interests haven't taken over principles and sanity in Washington...

The US Supreme Court has actually ruled that money=speech so what the technology companies are trying to do is say that freedom of censorship on the internet is the definition of free speech.

The only meaningful things that the American legislators have passed in the past year is money=speech, a detention bill, a 'pizza is a vegetable' bill and the lower house will pass this.

Back on sane ground it looks like the support against the bill is building in the Senate and the number opposed has risen from 7 senators to 35, all that's needed is 7 more to vote against and it wont be passed.

It's shocking to me that we have had so much naivety and incompetence when it comes to what this bill actually means by elected officials. How there isn't a bigger outrage over politicians basically saying 'I don't understand this but I'm voting for it' is amazing.

You'll never stop online piracy just like you'll never stop knock off football shirts being sold at Chinese markets, you don't arrest the guy who buys the counterfeit football shirt or the Chinese sports shop owner that unwittingly sold them as genuine; you arrest the people who made the counterfeit shirt.

I don't think this bill will get passed but I don't think this will go away, I can see it being 'tweaked' and I think it will come up again next year.

 

[Jake]

There may not be much substance behind the arguments for/against SOPA and PIPA. But the arguments for 'piracy' are much stronger than the ones against it.

The music industry moan about losing millions of dollars and these losses affecting the quality of future artists/songs etc. Get your heads out of the 90's! The days of super rich rockstars earning an absolute packet from some half arsed albums are gone. If you want real money then you need a fanbase and you need to tour, HARD. To get a fanbase you need to accept that certainly to begin with, people will be downloading your stuff for free. Some of them may then buy your future work and/or go to see your gigs.

The film industry put it even more blunty. They moan about downloads costing them millions of dollars in lost cinema/dvd sales, and say its having an effect due to vast CGI costs. Film fans/downloaders would argue that you don't need masses of expensive CGI to make a great film, the original star wars films **** on the new ones because the story lines and characters are better. And if free films are no longer an option, giving the option of expensive cinema ticket/dvd or no film, most people would opt for no film unless it's something they are dying to see. Not every download is a lost sale film industry, get your heads out your arses and start producing some better quality stuff. No-one in their right mind would pay for some filth like Norbit, would they download it for free? Probably.

I know there are the absolute hoarders who download everything under the sun and have never paid for a song/film ever. But most 'pirates' would argue that they would never have discovered a certain band/artist were it not for the ability to download their songs for free, before then committing to perhaps going to a concert, or buying some merchandise or even a future album. Same goes with films, sure i download plenty of films, but i also go to the cinema/buy dvds and bluray too. I would probably pass on quite a few of these films if i didnt have some knowledge about the actor/directors previous work from downloading it for free. If i could no longer download films then if anything, my spend on cinema tickets/dvds would probably go DOWN.

My spending habits are the same for my music activity. I would say it's 70/30 in favour of piracy at the minute. I support the artists i like by buying their music and going to see their gigs, and the ones i have no knowledge of or i am considering as an artist to add to my 'favourites' i download. If i couldn't get the debut album from 'kris jackson and the bald headed crew' for free i'm sure as **** not spending a tenner on something that may turn out to be *****.

The argument aimed at all these measures, SOPA, PIPA and all the ones before and after is that they either give too many powers to governments or other authorities to restrict the freedoms of the internet, or are too narrow to have any real effect, ie newzbin being blocked by 1 ISP.

Piracy will never be eradicated unless the world tuerns into some centrally controlled, one government dictatorship where you can't even fart without 'them' knowing about it.

 

[rephlex]

Yes most likely one of those things which they use a distraction in an election year.

Good post, though that's precisely the point, they can't go and arrest the Chinese sports shop owner because he's just taking advantage of his reduced product cost and the exchange rate. The problem becomes worse when you include child labour and very poor working conditions, but what is intrinsically wrong with fans buying cheap shirts in the far east if they would otherwise not be able to afford a "legitimate" and arguably overpriced one? I don't for a moment think my new Henry shirt should have cost me 50 quid, but I paid it because I support the club and want a "limited edition". If the choice is between a sub standard version and nothing, how is that costing the "legitimate producer" a sale? That is the exact argument which the RIAA has made with online piracy.

 

[Lee]

If you missed the debate they basically all said 'I'm no nerd' and approved the bill without having a clue of it's implications.

You had representatives stand up and say 'I don't understand this' yet voted for it, the senior member of the congressional intellectual property committee (A democrat) stood up and talked some nonsense about his life and how he's 'old school' in his technology - which basically was 'I don't understand this' - half of the Republicans who proposed and backed this bill take the notion that the internet is 'just a bunch of tubes'.

Sounds very similar to how the Digital Economy Acts went down over here a few years ago. I remember just watching ignorant person after ignorant person stand up and support the bill while the handful of informed MPs were the ones against it.

 

[Joel`]

Life goes on.
I've never read a blog, I don't use twitter, F/B is a rare distraction, I don't use Reddit?, read comics nor do I share files with people on the internet.
I think you are buying into too much hype and if you honestly believe that this little altercation spells the end of the likes of Youtube etc??? Then you really need to get off the internet for a week or two and relax with a game of golf or something

Anyway... That's all I need to add to the subject. I hope it all works out for you.

P.S. The Matrix has you

Yet millions of people do use those sites ritually. I don't play golf, but I'd sure as **** be against any legislation that infracted your rights to play the sport. Your ignorance is shocking, the government has no right to be controlling and censoring the internet according to their vested interests. Every site around could take a hit because somewhere, they will have some sort of copyrighted material, often beyond the site owner's knowing. But obviously, it's all just a 'community of pirates'. Get real. If you support this bill, why don't you just go live in N.Korea? I hear they have lovely golf courses.

 

[Joel`]

In other news, the SOPA bill has officially been pulled.