http://www.ddotomen.com/2012/01/20/the-internet-wins-sopa-pipa-catches-the-fade/

Not only SOPA is out, PIPA has been taken out of vote in Congress. There's only ACTA left to take care of.

Which is almost global, hopefully the Americans haven't seen too much "THANKS FOR RUINING THE INTERNET AMERICA" comments. Or we're all screwed.

Very nice video on SOPA/PIPA and the future: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9h2dF-IsH0I So stay put! Also, a very good read on SOPA http://www.dailykos.com/story/2012/01/1 ... UPDATED%29

As for Megaupload, I think it was raided since it was planning to launch Megabox - a music store, that offered 90% from sales to the artists, and was supported by major artists http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K9caPFPQUNs The artists aren't happy, Busta Rhymes called their record labels 'criminals' http://www.techdirt.com/articles/201201 ... nals.shtml

This is not going to stop. Any competitive business model, and user generated content is MPAA/RIAA's biggest enemies. Do not let your guard down, and keep following the news.
http://www.techdirt.com
http://www.torrentfreak.com

I'm leaning towards the Anti-SOPA crowd. However, I still don't know enough about it. All my knowledge from the bill comes from Reddit: a very Anti-SOPA crowd. I have not seen one argument that defends the bill--only arguments against it. Maybe because there are no good arguments for it it? Or maybe the majority is just very vocal? I don't know.

But from what I've heard, it's bad. Can the government really force ISPs to filter websites based on a hunch? Are websites really guilty until proven innocent? Is this bill really as subjective and not followable as the antitrust laws? If yes, then down with SOPA!

Am I missing something?

Off-topic: MegaUpload should be shut down during this investigation. I'm sure if they're found not guilty, it will be back up.

I have really read into it, and from what I understand the problem is that the bill is too vague, so it's too easily exploitable.

They are extremely vague. I urge you both to read this link I've provided just above: http://www.dailykos.com/story/2012/01/1 ... UPDATED%29 Or at least watch this video (also provided): http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9h2dF-IsH0I

They both are pretty well prepared, and can introduce anyone, who's not to familiar with technical/moral dealings of these bills, and overall background on this.

As for being exploited... Even today, things are happening, that have no legal ground. Innocent websites, like dajaz1.com are being seized and held for a year without making charges, or disclosing any details about the seizure. Completely legal, non-infringing blog. Or the takedown of Megaupload Song, in order to sabotage it's campaign. So the laws are being pushed and exploited TODAY, what do you think they'll do, if laws as this pass?

These laws are basically written to concentrate huge power in the hands of a small group of people. Basically you have big media companies deciding, what is right, and what is wrong, and dictating content on the net. Now, what do you think will happen to their competition, that threatens to put a dent in their sales?

Wait guys... I pay for the Internet and I suposed to use it without bloody censure, aye?

It's just not right to me... And even if they delete half of the Internet, it wont stop piracy. So what the hell...

A- aggressive
C- cyber
T - totalitarian
A - attack

I did some research: it's as subjective, evil, and totalitarian as any of the antitrust laws. ZEY ARE NAUGHT TO BE TRUSTED, DIMITRI.

Wait a second... SOPA, PIPA, ACTA are *not* anti-trust laws. Quite the opposite - these are laws aimed to support and protect cartels and to legitimise anti-competitive behaviour.

Regards

Anyone else here participating in the black March demonstration against ACTA?

A short video explaining what ACTA is and why we MUST fight it.

I am participating in black 2012.

i hate how this generation thinks they're entitled to free things on the internet. I don't agree with SOPA's internet censorship, but i hate how people feel like they've earned all that pirated stuff. I think they're going after piracy the stupid way.

and i especially hate those 12 year olds posting that gay guy fawkes mask in their profiles and going "ANON IS LEEGUN" like a bunch of fucking idiots. All Anonymous has done is DDoS some government websites, WOOAH!

About 45% of pirates already own the material they pirate. They deserve none of the punishment that's been heaped on them.

Then there are others that would never purchase the product without being able to test it first, like test driving a car, and they pirate only to test it. How is that in any way detrimental to anybody except companies that charge exorbitant amounts for crappy software? *cough*EA*cough*Record Companies*cough*

Only about 2% of the pirating scene is outright illegally pirating things, and they are pretty thoroughly frowned upon by the entire rest of the pirating community.


This I agree with.

I've pirated things (mostly RPG sourcebooks) that simply aren't available any other way. For instance, the old FASA Star Trek game modules went out of print decades ago, and cannot be found in stores for reasonable prices.

Also, remember Spore? Spore had really intrusive DRM anti-piracy software, "intended" to keep the purchaser of the game from re-installing it more than a couple of times (buy a new computer? Have a HD crash? Screw you, the game company said). That would actually DAMAGE your computer if you tried to remove it. (Even if you got rid of the game entirely, it stayed in your registry like a virus)

So many people were so pissed about the DRM that Spore became the most-pirated game in history.

Spore wasn't that great in my opinion, anyway.

It's almost as if these statistics were made up on the spot.

[rant]
I do not belong to "this" generation, really, but I can tell you the following: I've paid many thousands of dollars to the music industry, way more than average, I would think, mostly buying CDs from the moment I could afford to do it. I only did this because of all the music I already knew from swapping tapes with friends at school. Those same very tapes that were supposed to kill the music industry before there was teh internets.

The "piracy" now is partly just that - a method of discovery which is essential for the music industry survival. If you stop that or if you somehow enforce payments for each download it will be like book shops charging customers for browsing the shelves - it will just kill the business.

The other part of the "piracy" is a natural market response for imposition of artificial restrictions on competition, which the music industry so enjoys. Like everywhere, if you repress a market people will create a black market. The only efficient measure against black market is to have a free and fair "white" one but this is exactly what the industry does not want. It has undoubtedly become corrupt.

Creativity, invention, competition is what the likes of RIAA fear and want to suppress - the "piracy" is just a convenient excuse for them to justify demanding ever more outrageous preferential terms from the legislature.

Their business model is not about how they could provide better quality product, more conveniently and at better value to their customers but about how they could force the customers to pay for the same stuff over and over again.

This is not limited to music but extends also to movies and now to games industries. In fact, I could go on about the IP in general and how it is totally unbalancing the economic foundations of the Western world but that will be too much even for a rant...
[/rant]

Regards

I liked the concept, but because of the DRM, and because I am actually generally against pirating things that are available elsewhere, I never bought or pirated the game.

I've heard there's a DRM-Free version on Steam, now, but now I can't be bothered,