The government wants to censor the Internet

[Hyram the Hedgehog]

A no-censor ally can be Apple computer, almost all it's user base got just Ipod, Ipad, Iphones, contraptions whose main use is play and store MP3's, just calculate how much costs fill to the brim a 120GB Ipod of legally purchased music, so, nobody does that, so, Apple is interested on people downloading MP3's for free, so they'd be against this act.

[Elisto Dragonwings]

My default position would be to question the motives of those who are looking to implement new laws.

I find it interesting that you take this position because I take an opposite one to start. I'm willing to just take at face value what the different sides say is their motivation and work from there until I have reason to think there's something else. Those for the law say they want to limit piracy, those against it say they're concerned about the legislation going too far and interfering with privacy, due process, internet security, innovation, and free expression, and I personally have no reason to question that. Sure, money is an issue behind a lot of this, and I'm sure there are many other motivational factors influencing how people see these issues, but those are separate issues from whether SOPA and PROTECT IP actually do what they are supposed to do without interfering with the good things about the internet.

I'm also less willing to try to define this as "good guys" and "bad guys" and in general prefer to give people the benefit of the doubt since I can't know what they're thinking and I don't think any given group as a whole is going to be made up of primarily people with "good" or "bad" motivation. Piracy is a real issue, protecting all the things people opposed to SOPA care about is a real issue, and if I have to think something about those I disagree with, I'd rather think ignorance than malicious intent. Especially since some of the people in Congress supporting SOPA have publicly admitted they don't understand the technical side of things, just that they're opposed to piracy. Or all the claims that SOPA is government censorship when I see it more as government getting out of the way and giving some corporations more power.

My concern for a long time has been that this trying to figure out some ulterior motive or secret motivation, this constant suspicion of what "the other side" "really" wants, makes it impossible to compromise or have reasonable discussion about important topics because in order to take that view, you have to be thinking negatively of them, assuming that there is a lack of honesty and sincerity, and that those you disagree with aren't presenting legitimate issues or concern to discuss. I don't mean you specifically, PM, I mean, I see this with people in Congress, dismissing the concerns raised by opponents of SOPA by saying they're only in it for the money they make through piracy. That's clearly not true (I seriously doubt most major internet companies would suffer if movie and music piracy were controlled more), but even if somehow it were true, that wouldn't change the arguments that opponents are making about the potential for harm in other areas like due process and privacy.

[Rozax]

I think Jennifer Kessler gives a balanced argument in the face of SOPA.
Stop SOPA: Hollywood’s attempt to kidnap what Google has rightfully stolen

I'll cite my biggest concern with SOPA, which she brought up in this article:

The problem is not in what will happen right now, but in what the bill allows for the future. What happens with this bill 5 years from now? 20 years from now? Even if Hollywood had the best of intentions not to abuse this law (LOL), what happens 25 years from now when a new generation is in charge – a generation that never knew a time before SOPA? They chip away just a little more of somebody’s rights to make a profit that Hollywood wishes they’d thought to make.

Or some politician with a racist agenda uses SOPA to control the media and consolidate power. We saw that happen a few times in the past century. And yeah, I carefully considered the comparison: I really do think SOPA could be abused this way.

[Rozax]

People, don't let this fall on the back-burner! I know we have plenty of ThatGuyWithTheGlasses.com fans around here, so check out this video on their efforts in Washington, if you have not done so, already.

[Elisto Dragonwings]

I've written to my Senators! (one a cosponsor of PIPA, the other with an unknown position)

Looks like Jan 24 will be when PIPA comes to the senate floor for a vote, so there's still 10 more days to speak up! Here's a website that can tell you your representative's stance and is sortable by a number of criteria: http://projects.propublica.org/sopa/
From there, you can just Google your representatives' names and get their contact info. Of course, it's going to be a staffer that reads any mail/emails/answers phones, so I worry the message doesn't really get to the representative, but that's our system and it's better than doing nothing.

[Neon Black]

An interesting and positive development:

http://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/news ... n-sopa.ars

[Elisto Dragonwings]

That's somewhat more positive. Although I've learned that my representatives still refuse to meet with anyone who wants to talk about this issue. At least they can't stop me from sending them a letter.

On a more fitting topic for this forum, here's what Sega has to say....sort of :

http://www.destructoid.com/sega-sopa-is ... 9572.phtml

And their response:
http://www.digitaltrends.com/gaming/seg ... s-apology/

[Neon Black]

Oh Sega, you tickle me.* Glad they're willing to have a laugh at themselves every now and again.

*But if you support SOPA, I'll firebomb your offices

[Elisto Dragonwings]

Well, looks like SOPA's supposedly been shelved (for now), which just leaves PIPA...

[Rozax]

Be sure to check out Craigslist and Google's search page, today!

[Neon Black]

Well, looks like SOPA's supposedly been shelved (for now), which just leaves PIPA...

Not quite. :/

http://torrentfreak.com/sopa-is-baaack- ... um=twitter

[Rozax]

Well, looks like SOPA's supposedly been shelved (for now), which just leaves PIPA...

Not quite. :/

http://torrentfreak.com/sopa-is-baaack- ... um=twitter

Yeah, I saw that here: http://www.geekosystem.com/sopa-is-back/ :/

[Elisto Dragonwings]

You know, when they announced it would be shelved so close to the blackout, I kind of was suspicious that it was an attempt to make all the participating websites reconsider the blackout since it looked like what they were protesting wasn't going to exist anyway. Can't say I'm surprised it's back so soon.

[Norman the Opossum]

I just got the word. The SOPA and PIPA bills have officially been dropped by Congress earlier today! Looks like we're all perfectly safe for now.

[Paycheck]

Except now there's the Protecting Children from Internet Pornographers Act of '11 back up, and probably a bunch of others too. I'm honestly getting tired of this.

Boycott.