pouët.net

http://americancensorship.org/index.html#infographic

I mean, everything starts with a small step. The "STOPP"-Sign comes into mind when i did read about this. which was a very silly campaign anyways.

I mean, it's about the Internet right? Or not?

I'm sorry if i put US-Politics in here, but most people in the people i talked about this from the U.S. seem to ignore this.

Is this the thing where they cry wolf again? Or is the wolf actually there now?

But yeah, it looks pretty bad.

As far as i read, it's not stopped yet. But i don't know about votes on this or anything else on that political matter. For example, deadlines for the vote, who can appeal on court against it, etc.

This is what I have to say:

mmmm, soba

[img=http://pouet.net/screenshots/1284.gif][/img]

LOL, fail BBQ :P

I remember SOPA at assembly 1995, it was buggy stuff.

Mmm ¡qué sopa tan rica!

The USA are following in the footsteps of Pakistan, but still have a lot to learn concerning censorship and stripping away digital liberties from it's priso,.. erhmz I mean civilians : http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5g76TLMCX6mcczXlKCpN4PsSOMsOw

It's a tough one. Having somebody steal your work and make money from it is totally unacceptable, and I think there is enough of a piracy problem that something should be done to keep it down. And the pirate sites are often set up in 'friendly' countries so it's extremely hard to shut them down. There's not a lot of practical options really.

But then.. censorship? I think this is also unacceptable, probably more unacceptable than the piracy problem. Say you start shutting down pirate sites, starting with the pirate bay. That's a major source of piracy for sure. But it's also used a little for legit stuff, which also gets censored. The pirates don't give up and head for the shops, they just move to a new site, perhaps one that's mostly full of legit stuff now. Do you block that? Where does it end, if I upload some warez to a bunch of google hosted sites should google get blocked? Should sites that promote piracy get blocked. Sites that just discuss it, sites that host cracktros (i.e. here)?

Then what comes next, sites that discuss drugs? Sites that host videos of speeding cars? Political sites? It's not a good way to go.

Personally I think they should drop anything like this fast, and spend the money on some kind of international organisation to go after the people running the sites, because from what I've seen some of them are earning a lot of money from it. Some piracy I can dig (and partake of myself now and then), but not doing it commercially.

I hope the SOAP is of interest to you too...

Hmmm....i see. Most people's reaction to this is like "Censoring the internet? They won't get through this anyways...." and then...

They kind tried it here in Australia. Didn't really get them anywhere tho. Their still trying to push it thru -but I think at the end of the day most Aussies see it as just propaganda. More here & here.
Oh & here is some S.O.A.P. ;)

sadly, i couldnt find concrete info about SOPA on americancensorship.org, just propaganda. they really need to educate, not stir it up.

psonice - surely theft << censorship?

Even if all public piracy sites gets removed, it will just move back onto closed sites, (secure) ftp sites etc.

I'm guessing the current evolution will continue: You're not buying software, you're buying a licence to use a service - which then requires access to a highly secure internet-site.

This of course goes hand in hand with (to me) troubling trends to move control of their data out of the users' hands. I can imagine censorship of sites which allow them to back up their data when companies who hold it to ransom make it difficult.

I do not trust "the cloud" for anything important.

The thing with this kind of problems is that people tend do lean on the quote "information wants to be free" without taking the full contex in account:

But yes, the SOPA would be a minor catastrophy in more than one way.

Hornet: I'd say simply that theft and censorship are both bad, which is worse just depends on the size of the crime.

I guess what's happening in the UK kind of sums up how I feel on this. We had a new law + 'censorship system' some years back to block child porn. Now that I can live with, the goal is good, and it's better to have a little censorship than child porn floating around. It'll just push things underground perhaps, but making it harder to access does reduce the problem at least I reckon.

There was a lot of concern (which I shared) back then that the system could be abused though, if it can block child porn it can block other things too.

Guess what? The same system is now being used to block pirate sites - first newzbin, now pirate bay is targeted. What next, sites that distribute tools that could be used for piracy? Sites that host cracktros that promote pirate groups? What after that?

So basically, I'd be in favour of it as the lesser of two evils... IF it could be guaranteed that it'd be used ONLY for the originally stated purpose. It can't, and we know it does slowly spread, so it should be killed like now :)

If SOPA does not succeed - good. If it succeeds - good, will make the Internet communities find a solution faster.

sopa itself is a minor problem, but that it is even considered, just because of lobbyism is way worse of a situation. it is already bad enough, that it suffices to accuse some site without actuall proof, to get it censored.

psonice, how is limiting access to c/p helping the victims, anyhow? it isn't.

vectory: if it's not easy to access, fewer people will find their way to it and maybe one day get involved in making it. It doesn't remove the problem, but hopefully it ends up with less victims in the future.