SOPA and PIPA What's all the fuss?

[Kym]

You may have heard that Wikipedia has gone dark for 24 hours and other websites are doing similar things.

What does it mean and why do we care?

These two proposed US anti-piracy acts could in the worst case see the demise of AP if someone disputed any content we were hosting.
While I'm pro-copyright (used correctly) I'm very anti these two very heavy handed bills.

See: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:SOPA_initiative/Learn_more and http://sopastrike.com/

These two bills (either) would severely impacts free communication on the 'net.
They are a very heavy handed approach to a problem that should be handled better.

Further, Australians have already been extradited to the US for (c) infringement, the US should NOT have any control of this nations citizens.

The real problem with the acts is the abuse that can happen.

Discuss.

[Kym]

Also https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2012/01/how-pipa-and-sopa-violate-white-house-principles-supporting-free-speech

[rellik666]

Agree with you wholeheartly there Kym! It is like shooting all the horses that bolted instead of trying to round them up.

Like everything in life it is not an easy fix and these bills are trying to put everyone and everything into a pigeon hole.

[reaction]

in the end I feel we're powerless.
the DMCA was pushed thru way back when despite a similar level of opposition.
in the US productive ppl are too busy to go vote. special interests and $$ rules all.
here every PM has always been keen to be US's lapdog.

[arthurking83]

Typically idiotic reactions and measures from people that can only be described as idiots!

Their solution to stop online IP and (C) infringements is to shut everything down!

A better solution is to simply dismantle the entire internet completely and go back to pre internet life. :rolleyes:
It saves a lot of money and resources targeting specific sites and pages and servers and what not, which obviously need to be policed to make this legislation work.

[Kym]

http://wikimediafoundation.org/wiki/SOPA/Blackoutpage


The Wikipedia blackout is over — and you have spoken.

More than 162 million people saw our message asking if you could imagine a world without free knowledge. You said no. You shut down Congress’s switchboards. You melted their servers. Your voice was loud and strong. Millions of people have spoken in defense of a free and open Internet.

For us, this is not about money. It’s about knowledge. As a community of authors, editors, photographers, and programmers, we invite everyone to share and build upon our work.

Our mission is to empower and engage people to document the sum of all human knowledge, and to make it available to all humanity, in perpetuity. We care passionately about the rights of authors, because we are authors.

SOPA and PIPA are not dead: they are waiting in the shadows. What’s happened in the last 24 hours, though, is extraordinary. The internet has enabled creativity, knowledge, and innovation to shine, and as Wikipedia went dark, you've directed your energy to protecting it.

We’re turning the lights back on. Help us keep them shining brightly.

[sunny6teen]

on the plus side...there'd be fewer lolcats

[Erin]

But... but... I LIKE LOLcats.

This worries me. I watch a LOT of stuff on YouTube that this could directly affect. Some of my favourite channels would be shut down because of these proposed acts.

All it is is a huge money-grab by the corporations made legal. They want us to sit on our couches and be spoonfed shitful content rather than letting the little folks do their thing and make content that people want to see.

[Kym]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=JhwuXNv8fJM

[ricktas]

From an AP point of view if this becomes Law:

At present, if someone finds something on AP that should not be, say photos of an AFL Grand Final. Slattery media have the rights to public publication of all photos taken at AFL matches, under contract to the AFL. Entry T&C state that photos are for private, personal use only, which means they should not be put on AP. Slattery media would email me asking me to remove the offending photo/thread, and additionally may demand that I supply them with the members details.

I remove the photo and reply, apologising for not picking it up and removing it sooner, and stating that I will only supply the members details under court order. That usually ends the conversation, as they got what they wanted, a photo removed cause it breached the entry T&C of going to an AFL Grand Final. Generally these are 'standard' emails, with just the specifics added. Note that I only use Slattery Media, here as an example. I am not implying they have ever sent me a take down notice, or how it was worded, it is purely used to show the methodology used at present.

Under SOPA and PIPA, Ausphotography (the entire site) would be taken down...and then I would be contacted about the offending photo. Meanwhile AP would be 'off the air' from the first moment, until an outcome was reached over the 'offending photo'.

Sounds like "Guilty until proven innocent'.

I fully understand the need to reduce the volume of copyright infringement occurring, but to do so with these Laws is abhorrent. The US lawmakers need to scrap this, and start again.