Maybe MMORPG.com should jointhe Strike!!

http://sopastrike.com/

Originally posted by veratutazz

Originally posted by GTwander

What's going to happen is that they will use the US as a test ground for this, and then we will be no different than China and many Middle Eastern countries that aren't allowed access outside their network. Yes, it will slip into our own intranet, where viewing outside material is criminalized (regardless of if it's porn or network tv you're watching), and used to keep subversive elements *out*, culturally stunting us. I really do believe this is the beginning steps of a cruel nationilization effort, but with the interests of corporate media in mind.

After all, they can make sure you pay for streaming videos if you simply can't find a proxy in Denmark. Other countries will catch on, and all will be suck.

 

 

 I feel a little sad inside when I read all this text-walling hateraiding on SOPA and PIPA. Look, it is real simple:

 

And, for the record, the "they wouldn't pay for it anyways" argument is a hysterical red herring. I know *WAY* more people that steal/pirate in my professional *AND* private life not because they are criminals, not because they are 'bad people', not because they are 'poor' or "wouldn't buy it anyways" ... They do it because it is fall-down-blind easy to do. There are next to zero deterrents, "everybody does it", "everybody knows how", and it is "no big deal".

 Do you honestly think humans would pay good money for food if it was equally easy to just grab the same food for free all the time and it was only minorly socially unacceptable?????

1. 
   
   
   The people in washington are (mostly) a bunch of old fat white men who barely understand the internet or anything technical. They are nerd-morons.
















2. 
   
   
   We have gone from a world where 'hacking' and 'piracy' is something a rare fringe group of people participate in, to a world where just about every teenager is flagrantly breaking federal laws just because they want free smack & don't want to pay for it.
















3. 
   
   
   Hackers and/or internet "pirates" have gotten wildly more brazen recently. Going so far as to even openly attack corporations & governments. This is not about where you stand on the issue(s) that caused said individuals to act. Merely that they are & affecting millions of people.
















4. 
   
   
   Online associated (or data associated) crimes are fast becoming the #1 and best target for criminals -> organized or otherwise.

And this problem is only getting worse, much, much worse. The younger the age group, the more it is "acceptable".

 I have been an adult in a professional career path for 20 years. Only recently (the last 2-3 years) have I seen young professional adults coming into the industry thinking it is somehow "OK" to be breaking federal laws (pirating) while ON THE JOB.







 One of our most recent professional co-workers actually brought a microsoft key-generator TO WORK!







It is this kind of change in the cultural environment that has older adults backpedaling haistily and considering extreme measures like SOPA or PIPA.

Don't get me wrong.

I, personally, think SOPA and/or PIPA is probably a bad idea.

I think musicians and actors are paid FLAGRANTLY too much for their "art", anyways.

I think movie theaters gouge you like a pig at a carnivore festival

AND



 

I think big corporations are the suck and the federal governament (US) is a laughingstock.

BUT







Please try and see it from the opposite end of the coin.







Try to see this from a non-geek perspective.

Not because the perspective is somehow "correct", but because THEY the OLD people... and all the OLD peeps are in *congress*.

(their POV)

ID theft is the #1 crime

Organized crime is now heavily involved in the internet







Digital piracy is rampant

Wikileaks publishes *classified* information

Anonymous attacks companies, breaks laws flagrantly, and thumbs its nose at the government







LOLsec..... dont get me started. and they couldn't even remove their website

They are being  reactive not proactive.







We want them to sit down, shut up, and go back to fixing (lllllaaaawwwwwlll!) the debt, right?







So lets figure out a way to try and fix the abovementioned problems FOR them.. since we know how to do it better.

Because if you are *not* going to police and punish piracy appropriately, then you might as well make it legal.







And if you think THAT is a good idea. ... .. .. .. ... then ... .... ... wow.

 

 

Very simple....

"No person shall... be deprived of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law."

That's in the very body of the document that our representitives in Congress have sworn thier OATH's  to uphold.

This really isn't a question of Congress being  too "old fashioned" or not being "techies"...this is a question of them not being "OLD FASHIONED ENOUGH."

They are forgeting or choosing to ignore one of the most basic principles they've sworn to uphold and upon which this country was founded.

They are also ignoring the most basic principle upon which Americas Justice system is based upon....presumption of innocence in absence of evidence to the contrary.

You don't discard fundemental principles like that just because they occasionaly prove slightly inconvenience.

There is an absolute and well established solution for this problem ALREADY has been around since long before the internet.

You think someone is engaged in ongoing illegal activity, violating your property rights, and doing serious immediate harm to you.

No problem...goto a Court, present your evidence. If a Judge BELIEVES your complaint is legitimate and based in both fact and law, he'll grant a temporary injunction against the offending party.

That injunction allows for everything that SOPA/PIPA and DMCA does and more.

What it doesn't do is allow for an easly abused end run around the Justice system...

or to deprive people of Liberty, Property or Expression without at least presenting a shred of evidence to an IMPARTIAL party.

or to presume someone is guilty in the absence of evidence to the contrary.

or to avoid any responsibility for being held accountable for making KNOWINGLY FALSE, unfounded, negligent or frivilous claims of wrong-doing that end up depriving someone of thier rights without being held accountable for doing so.

http://sopastrike.com/strike

SOPA should be destroyed, the end. Stopping PIRACY is one thing, but controlling the internet is going too far. JUST SAY NO TO SOPA!!!!!!

Originally posted by Suraknar

Maybe MMORPG.com should jointhe Strike!!

http://sopastrike.com/

 

+10

Take action!

If SOPA isn't stopped then websites like this one would be blocked by content providers. Even a single screenshot violation could cause the blockage of this IP on US soil. That really takes it to a completely different level when thinking about SOPA and PIPA. I personally enjoy this site no matter how many times I get banned for stating obvious things to ignorant people. I still come back to read review and enjoy the services provided. It would truly scare me to see either of these bills go through after the FCC already declared that net neutrality would be upheld.

Originally posted by Loke666

Originally posted by ForumTroll

I'm too lazy to actually read the bill so I will just say this. No matter how many citizens or companies oppose this it is ultimately up to the elected officials. So getting our panties in a bunch over what this bill "could" mean or "does" mean is pretty useless. I know that I will not be letting this effect and part of my life, nor will it keep me up at night worried for my life. If i broke down and thoroughly disected every bill in legislation, it still wouldn't change a damn thing.

The simple fact is Piracy DOES need to be stopped and if it takes one failed bill or some kind of mistake in order to better mend the future of the internet then so be it. You cant make a beef stew without slaughtering a few cows first. Eventually PETA will step in and be like wait wait wait a minute. At least kill them repectfully!

Restricting freedom of speach is never a good idea no matter how good your reasons for it might sound.

I agree that restricting freedom of speech is not a good idea, Although I don't think stopping piracy is restricting freedom of speech. If this bill has other components in it that does restrict freedom of speech then it will be dealt with because it is against the constitution. However, just because we are trying to protect peoples freedom to believe and preach what they want doesnt mean that they can steal something and call it their own. downloading a video game and music that people worked hard to create has nothing to do with freedom of speech.

And just letting whatever happens because regular people can't have a say is a misstake. The elected official gets elected by us and if enough people protest they often do as their voters want because otherwise they wont get re-elected.

When your choice of electing officials is between a bunch of crooked people to begin with then it doesn't matter who you choose in the end the outcome is the same. Government breeds corruption, Power breeds corruption. This is why I don't vote. If my choice is between cutting off my hand and cutting of my foot why would i choose. Regardless of the outcome I don't want to lose any limbs and it has no benefit to me whatsoever.

The internet does not get better because governments censors it, censorship is worse than piracy and can lead to pretty nasty stuff in the long run. If you give a goverment the right to censor the net as it see fitting that will happen sooner or later and once it started you can't stop it.

I agree with this as well but what I am referring to is not censorship, but stopping the use of pirated material. Whatever the Bill is referring to is completely different from my thoughts on the situation.

There are better ways to stop piracy than to censor things. They have tried to close down sites like piratebay a long time and even if they would succeed it still wouldn't stop pirates. Here is Sweden most people don't download music anymore because we got a good legal alternative instead in Spotify. People don't pirate copy MMOs because you pay for server space instead of just the game. Companies needs to think like that instead of just raising their prices and blame piracy.

Again, I am not supporting this Bill, what I am saying is that it is a first step to our country doing something to limit pirating. Whether in the end the government requires that companies take there own precautions, or if they find a solution somewhere within the law doesn't matter to me. There are many steps that bills take before they are even considered, many rewrites take place before bills are passed. I wouldn't be surprised if it takes another 10 years for somthing like this to even meet the requirements to make it through.

Yes, on other hand it would be intresting to see when Americans finaly stopped whining and used those guns...

There is no solution to stop piracy, dark-web is already working, you can't stop piracy unless you control everything or can look after everyone... Only solution is new bussiness models, first step is making buying or lisecing easier than piracy, second which I hope to be seen in future is making people want to pay. Afterall it's natural and good in capitalism for out-dated companies and bussiness models to  die.

SOPA and PIPA is just one more step in control and power to corporations and money. It's natural stop competition reach monopoly and make more money. Or just grab some power and stop opposition...

It realy is amazeing that a law that could inherantly ruin livelyhoods and in all likely hood could sadly lead someone who has effectively lost everything into the ultimate sacrifice, gets passed by idiots who prob can not even send an Email with out the help of a secretary.

Also do they really think that this will stop piracy if so they need their heads looking at,Anonymous are legion simple as that and when they have a cause every hacker in the free world will hit America every site that supports SOPA,we will see the dawn of cyber warfare on a world scale not to mention the weakening of security by bypassing protocols that make the net as secure as possible.

Furthermore if this passes i suggest every American take a copy of the constitution walk in the street and burn it en masse as this may then wake up the masses of sheep who are slowly been lead down the Orwellian path by there elected goverment  servants,because after that bill your freedom will be no more how does Facist states of Amerca sound to all those idiots who only see Stop piracy instaed of curtail freedom of speech (kill Wiki Leaks) as it really infers !!

---

Originally posted by Scalebane
hahaha look at how all the people are acting because wikipedia blacked out...this is comedy gold right here lmao!
https://twitter.com/#!/herpderpedia
 
guy is showing what people are tweeting hahaha

---

People can be so stupid and willfully ignorant.

But this was hilarious.

Originally posted by Leodious

 

---

Originally posted by Scalebane
hahaha look at how all the people are acting because wikipedia blacked out...this is comedy gold right here lmao!
https://twitter.com/#!/herpderpedia
 
guy is showing what people are tweeting hahaha

---

 

People can be so stupid and willfully ignorant.

But this was hilarious.

Does make u think what would happen if Facebook and Twitter and google and every other search engine joined  and  went black for a period of time i think mass panic would bring the planet to a halt.  !! 

Originally posted by Laughing-man

Originally posted by moosecatlol

SOPA was the foot in the door, PIPA is the primary target. Honestly how is this even a topic after I've been banned twice for trying to raise awareness?

What is sad is that half of this community has given money to EA in the past 3 months so that EA can further fund the lobbying these bills.

This, of all the reasons to quit SWTOR this might be the best one.

Kinda regret buying it if its supporting EA, which I know it is...

Man I love Bioware... sadness overwelms me.

 

  Learn some reading comprehension before panicking!

http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20120103/00304017255/no-sony-electronics-nintendo-ea-have-not-publicly-changed-their-position-sopa.shtml 

  Seriously...people will believe absolutely ANYTHING.  SOPA is definately bad, however maligning companies because you 'heard' something is just dumb.

Originally posted by ForumTroll

Originally posted by Loke666

Originally posted by ForumTroll

I'm too lazy to actually read the bill so I will just say this. No matter how many citizens or companies oppose this it is ultimately up to the elected officials. So getting our panties in a bunch over what this bill "could" mean or "does" mean is pretty useless. I know that I will not be letting this effect and part of my life, nor will it keep me up at night worried for my life. If i broke down and thoroughly disected every bill in legislation, it still wouldn't change a damn thing.

The simple fact is Piracy DOES need to be stopped and if it takes one failed bill or some kind of mistake in order to better mend the future of the internet then so be it. You cant make a beef stew without slaughtering a few cows first. Eventually PETA will step in and be like wait wait wait a minute. At least kill them repectfully!

Restricting freedom of speach is never a good idea no matter how good your reasons for it might sound.

I agree that restricting freedom of speech is not a good idea, Although I don't think stopping piracy is restricting freedom of speech. If this bill has other components in it that does restrict freedom of speech then it will be dealt with because it is against the constitution. However, just because we are trying to protect peoples freedom to believe and preach what they want doesnt mean that they can steal something and call it their own. downloading a video game and music that people worked hard to create has nothing to do with freedom of speech.

And just letting whatever happens because regular people can't have a say is a misstake. The elected official gets elected by us and if enough people protest they often do as their voters want because otherwise they wont get re-elected.

When your choice of electing officials is between a bunch of crooked people to begin with then it doesn't matter who you choose in the end the outcome is the same. Government breeds corruption, Power breeds corruption. This is why I don't vote. If my choice is between cutting off my hand and cutting of my foot why would i choose. Regardless of the outcome I don't want to lose any limbs and it has no benefit to me whatsoever.

The internet does not get better because governments censors it, censorship is worse than piracy and can lead to pretty nasty stuff in the long run. If you give a goverment the right to censor the net as it see fitting that will happen sooner or later and once it started you can't stop it.

I agree with this as well but what I am referring to is not censorship, but stopping the use of pirated material. Whatever the Bill is referring to is completely different from my thoughts on the situation.

There are better ways to stop piracy than to censor things. They have tried to close down sites like piratebay a long time and even if they would succeed it still wouldn't stop pirates. Here is Sweden most people don't download music anymore because we got a good legal alternative instead in Spotify. People don't pirate copy MMOs because you pay for server space instead of just the game. Companies needs to think like that instead of just raising their prices and blame piracy.

Again, I am not supporting this Bill, what I am saying is that it is a first step to our country doing something to limit pirating. Whether in the end the government requires that companies take there own precautions, or if they find a solution somewhere within the law doesn't matter to me. There are many steps that bills take before they are even considered, many rewrites take place before bills are passed. I wouldn't be surprised if it takes another 10 years for somthing like this to even meet the requirements to make it through.

First, there is NO practical/technical way to "stop piracy" that doesn't have VERY nasty side effects, and implications FAR beyond its supposed goal.  Look at how the DMCA has been totally abused at this point. The current hysteria from Big Content is more about resisting a change of business model, than a practical approach to reality as it exists. 

They have grown so used to having things their own way (by out right buying various politicians, and thus contributing to the systems corruption) that they have developed a bad case of tunnel vision.  Because of that, they underestimated the power of the opposition to their current push.

They and the politcians they have purchased in the various nation state governments, do NOT care what the consumers/general population thinks about any of this (thats really the least of their concerns). But they didn't take into account that Google, Face Book and many of the others have also made generous "contributions" to many powerful politicians themselves, and those politicians are the ones in the opposition. 

Those who go on (and on...) about "stopping piracy" are either shills for Big Content at some level, are ignorant of the technical realities involved, or have some other agenda in mind (or some combination of the above). 

http://arstechnica.com/gaming/news/2012/01/why-one-game-developer-is-skipping-e3-to-start-an-anti-sopa-crusade.ars?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=rss

"But that's just the tip of the iceberg for PC game developer Red 5 Studios. Not only has the studio blocked access to the beta of free-to-play open-world shooter Firefall for the day, but it also revealed last week that it is pulling out of the annual Electronic Entertainment Expo (E3) showcase, which is run by the SOPA-supporting Entertainment Software Association (ESA)."

What bothers me though lol, if not a single member of the ESA  supports SOPA how can the ESA support SOPA? Who's interests does the ESA server? It certainly isn't gamers, it doesn't seem to be developers, then who?

Originally posted by GrayGhost79

http://arstechnica.com/gaming/news/2012/01/why-one-game-developer-is-skipping-e3-to-start-an-anti-sopa-crusade.ars?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=rss

 

"But that's just the tip of the iceberg for PC game developer Red 5 Studios. Not only has the studio blocked access to the beta of free-to-play open-world shooter Firefall for the day, but it also revealed last week that it is pulling out of the annual Electronic Entertainment Expo (E3) showcase, which is run by the SOPA-supporting Entertainment Software Association (ESA)."

 

What bothers me though lol, if not a single member of the ESA  supports SOPA how can the ESA support SOPA? Who's interests does the ESA server? It certainly isn't gamers, it doesn't seem to be developers, then who?

Pro-tip: Companies will say anything for good PR. Trust me most if not all members of ESA support SOPA. They have to blame something for the lost revenue they are experiencing. Because it couldn't be because of the shitty products they are releasing.

EDIT: This pertains more to the music and movie industry than the gaming one.

Originally posted by GrayGhost79

http://arstechnica.com/gaming/news/2012/01/why-one-game-developer-is-skipping-e3-to-start-an-anti-sopa-crusade.ars?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=rss

 

"But that's just the tip of the iceberg for PC game developer Red 5 Studios. Not only has the studio blocked access to the beta of free-to-play open-world shooter Firefall for the day, but it also revealed last week that it is pulling out of the annual Electronic Entertainment Expo (E3) showcase, which is run by the SOPA-supporting Entertainment Software Association (ESA)."

 

What bothers me though lol, if not a single member of the ESA  supports SOPA how can the ESA support SOPA? Who's interests does the ESA server? It certainly isn't gamers, it doesn't seem to be developers, then who?

Thats a VERY interesting question. I'm betting that its a few VERY powerful members (like EA...) that allow this to continue. 

The BBC thinks PIPA is now struggling as well. Be interesting to see what these bills resurface as in the not too distant future... http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-16623831

Originally posted by bartoni33

Originally posted by GrayGhost79

http://arstechnica.com/gaming/news/2012/01/why-one-game-developer-is-skipping-e3-to-start-an-anti-sopa-crusade.ars?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=rss

 

"But that's just the tip of the iceberg for PC game developer Red 5 Studios. Not only has the studio blocked access to the beta of free-to-play open-world shooter Firefall for the day, but it also revealed last week that it is pulling out of the annual Electronic Entertainment Expo (E3) showcase, which is run by the SOPA-supporting Entertainment Software Association (ESA)."

 

What bothers me though lol, if not a single member of the ESA  supports SOPA how can the ESA support SOPA? Who's interests does the ESA server? It certainly isn't gamers, it doesn't seem to be developers, then who?

Pro-tip: Companies will say anything for good PR. Trust me most if not all members of ESA support SOPA. They have to blame something for the lost revenue they are experiencing. Because it couldn't be because of the shitty products they are releasing.

EDIT: This pertains more to the music and movie industry than the gaming one.

Po-rip: Greed is mainly whats killing profits for the music and Movie industry. Sites like Hulu and Netflix can't stream a lot of content because they refuse to pay the asinine amount some companies are asking. If legit sites could stream music and video like Hulu and Netflix but without all the contractual handcuffing many people would not resort to pirating.

Now that the pro-tips are out of the way, Yes lol, they have been dishing out a lot of shite but there have been a few gems too. What gets me the most is the fact that many of those that are in support of SOPA actually gave us the pirating software and said we could use it to find our favorite movies and music for free, the example they gave me when I downloaded it was that I could download songs from Nirvana.... for free.....

Giving people the software, having a nice little instruction page that comes with it in notepad that explains how to use it and even giving examples of pirating music and movies on the site you downloaded it from kind of leads you to the point we have reached. People sharing what they like with each other.

So the movie and music industry can shout and scream all they want but.... they are the ones that showed us how and told us we could. They did themselves in.

Originally posted by GrayGhost79

Originally posted by bartoni33

Originally posted by GrayGhost79

http://arstechnica.com/gaming/news/2012/01/why-one-game-developer-is-skipping-e3-to-start-an-anti-sopa-crusade.ars?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=rss

 

"But that's just the tip of the iceberg for PC game developer Red 5 Studios. Not only has the studio blocked access to the beta of free-to-play open-world shooter Firefall for the day, but it also revealed last week that it is pulling out of the annual Electronic Entertainment Expo (E3) showcase, which is run by the SOPA-supporting Entertainment Software Association (ESA)."

 

What bothers me though lol, if not a single member of the ESA  supports SOPA how can the ESA support SOPA? Who's interests does the ESA server? It certainly isn't gamers, it doesn't seem to be developers, then who?

Pro-tip: Companies will say anything for good PR. Trust me most if not all members of ESA support SOPA. They have to blame something for the lost revenue they are experiencing. Because it couldn't be because of the shitty products they are releasing.

EDIT: This pertains more to the music and movie industry than the gaming one.

Po-rip: Greed is mainly whats killing profits for the music and Movie industry. Sites like Hulu and Netflix can't stream a lot of content because they refuse to pay the asinine amount some companies are asking. If legit sites could stream music and video like Hulu and Netflix but without all the contractual handcuffing many people would not resort to pirating.

 

Now that the pro-tips are out of the way, Yes lol, they have been dishing out a lot of shite but there have been a few gems too. What gets me the most is the fact that many of those that are in support of SOPA actually gave us the pirating software and said we could use it to find our favorite movies and music for free, the example they gave me when I downloaded it was that I could download songs from Nirvana.... for free.....

Giving people the software, having a nice little instruction page that comes with it in notepad that explains how to use it and even giving examples of pirating music and movies on the site you downloaded it from kind of leads you to the point we have reached. People sharing what they like with each other.

 

So the movie and music industry can shout and scream all they want but.... they are the ones that showed us how and told us we could. They did themselves in.

Very well said, even if you were trying to be a jerk to me!

I agree 100000000% I have HuluPlus mainly to watch old Saturday Night Live's. But if any of the skits have music or certain Ip's (Star Trek in particular) they are cut. What are the two most popular skits on SNL? "Cowbell" and "Star Trek Conference" ones. Both are not available.