Pages: 1 [2] 3 4 ... 6   Go Down
Print
Author Topic: SOPA/PIPA - Internet Blackout  (Read 19133 times)
Gregorus Prime
*
Posts: 2941


Look, he's just this guy, you know?


View Profile
« Reply #15 on: January 20, 2012, 03:44:26 am »

Maddox weighs in, acting like an asshole and making a damn good point:

http://maddox.xmission.com/

Boycotting most of that stuff is kinda easy for me since I never watch ESPN or go to the movies or buy music anyways. But it also means no HBO, which means no Game of Thrones... damn. As for the other parts, I'm not so sure he's right about SOPA or PIPA passing actually getting people to get off their asses and do something. This is America. Sitting on our asses is our national pastime and our right as citizens, much like getting wasted on the cheapest liquor available and blowing things up to celebrate Independence Day/New Year's/Labor Day/Tuesday.
Logged
One Wolf
Archmaster

Posts: 2224


View Profile
« Reply #16 on: January 20, 2012, 06:10:31 am »

Seems Anonymous isn't happy with the whole SOPA/Megaupload thing:

Quote from: Ars Technica
Anonymous has launched a pair of operations in response to the takedown of the Megaupload.com site earlier today by the FBI and other authorities and continued support for the Stop Online Piracy Act by members of Congress.  So far, the sites of the Justice Department, Universal Music Group, and several congressional sites have been affected.



The attacks began as Anonymous' Sabu called for people to boycot paid media in all forms and supporting torrent and file sharing sites. "This new, massive operation, will target on SOPA/PIPA in a way that the government was not expecting," he posted on Twitter. "We are going to starve the beast." In response to the arrest of Megaupload.com's founders, he said, "This is the governments way of saying: 'How nice of you protest SOPA/PIPA. But we still are in control.' Fuck this."



At just before 4PM CT on January 19, both the websites of the Department of Justice and Universal Music were made unavailable by denial of service attacks. Anonymous' Barrett Brown told RT.com that "It was in retaliation for Megaupload, as was the concurrent attack on Justice.org." Both sites are still down, and more attacks are being mounted; Anonymous members have now targeted the sites of the Motion Picture Association of America and the White House, and other government sites.



Additionally, in a wave of attacks labelled "OpDonkeyPunch" by Barrett Brown, the frequent spokesperson for Anonymous, the group is targeting Democrats in Congress who support SOPA, attacking their websites. Brown also published the fax machine phone number for Republican Rep. Lamar Smith, sponsor of SOPA.



In an email to Ars, Brown said that the intent of OpDonkeyPunch "is to show Democrats that they can't just slide through on this and escape notice, that we can do more damage to their fundraising ability than they realize." The efforts will include targeting the Facebook and Twitter accounts of SOPA supporters—not with attacks, but by posting messages to them.

Logged

"He who makes a beast of himself gets rid of the pain of being a man."
Gregorus Prime
*
Posts: 2941


Look, he's just this guy, you know?


View Profile
« Reply #17 on: January 20, 2012, 07:17:42 am »

I really pine for the days when Anonymous meant "those guys on 4chan" instead of some nebulous evil Internet hacker group that co-opted the term after finding /b/ and thinking it was really cool and showing all of their friends.

Logged
One Wolf
Archmaster

Posts: 2224


View Profile
« Reply #18 on: January 20, 2012, 08:52:00 am »

They also pick questionable targets on occasion these days having deviated from their more admirable works.  Like fucking with the Westboro Baptist wackos.
Logged

"He who makes a beast of himself gets rid of the pain of being a man."
Dragatus
*
Posts: 1333



View Profile
« Reply #19 on: January 21, 2012, 05:34:31 am »

Logged

"A little while ago, a good friend's wife asked me what playing Dungeons & Dragons involved. Long story short, it turns out that it's basically improv without an audience or time pressure, and a lot of rules. Every time anyone wants to attempt something, it's basically subject to a referee. Who is incidentally trying to kill you. In a fair and impartial manner." - Priapist

A Basic Guide to Combat in age of Decadence
Gareth
*
Posts: 3299


Indubitably


View Profile WWW
« Reply #20 on: January 21, 2012, 07:03:44 am »

That video is a bit of a misrepresentation.

The megaupload take-down was done via proper due process for a criminal case, as far as I know. The problem with SOPA and PIPA is that copyright holders could essentially get a site blacklisted and taken down without legal process, and without the offending site actually having committed a crime, simply hosting a link to a site that committed a crime.

The story I've heard is that the FBI claims to have proof of megaupload hosting pirated material. Which, legally, means they get taken down.

Don't make a mistake here. The people who led the protest, Reddit and Wikipedia and Google and so on, they were not protesting in any way the government's right to shut down sites hosting infringing material if there is evidence and due process. That's the cry of internet kiddies. Megaupload were caught breaking the law, the government shut down their operation while they process the case. There is nothing wrong with this move, despite what the people who paid for megaupload accounts may think.

The video is wrong, the megaupload isn't the government showing 'well, we can just do it anyway'. It's actually the reverse, it's another blow to the SOPA/PIPA bills, because it shows how existing laws already handle genuine infringement cases without the need for more burdensome laws which put the responsibility for policing on link-heavy sites.
« Last Edit: January 21, 2012, 07:05:41 am by Gareth » Logged

“The power of accurate observation is commonly called cynicism by those who have not got it.” - George Bernard Shaw

My blog
Gregorus Prime
*
Posts: 2941


Look, he's just this guy, you know?


View Profile
« Reply #21 on: January 21, 2012, 07:37:53 am »

I still don't see how the MegaUpload case holds water, personally. They've always deleted copyrighted material when it was reported. Is this trying to set a precedent for more active monitoring of user-submitted content? Because that's one of the things SOPA is trying to establish.

Either way, I personally think arresting the company's graphic designer was a bit excessive.
Logged
One Wolf
Archmaster

Posts: 2224


View Profile
« Reply #22 on: January 21, 2012, 08:00:44 am »

In the case of Megaupload, they were notoriously slow at complying with DMCA take-down requests.  Also, the Megavideo portion of the site contained a (allegedly) majority percentage of pirated material.

There are a number of things fucked up about the case against Megaupload.  One example as mentioned is the arrest of members of the company that simply were not involved with the file-sharing aspect of the site.  Additionally, there's some question about New Zealand police arresting citizens under orders from the US and extraditing them.  Also allegedly, MU is being held responsible for some contents of password-protected archives, which is about as ridiculous as it gets. 

The case as stated holds MU responsible for $500 million in lost sales, which for me is going to be the interesting part of the case.  I really want to see how that number is established, since I've never heard anyone reasonably explain how much money is actually lost due to piracy.  I don't dispute that money is lost, but obviously the "one downloaded copy = one lost sale" is nonsense, as people download things that they would not have purchased in any event.
Logged

"He who makes a beast of himself gets rid of the pain of being a man."
One Wolf
Archmaster

Posts: 2224


View Profile
« Reply #23 on: January 21, 2012, 09:30:58 am »

Logged

"He who makes a beast of himself gets rid of the pain of being a man."
Anonxeuix
*
Posts: 2516


Malteser.


View Profile
« Reply #24 on: January 21, 2012, 09:35:49 am »

Also:

Logged

"I don't take drugs: I am drugs." - Salvador Dali
One Wolf
Archmaster

Posts: 2224


View Profile
« Reply #25 on: January 21, 2012, 11:47:29 am »

Grin

Logged

"He who makes a beast of himself gets rid of the pain of being a man."
One Wolf
Archmaster

Posts: 2224


View Profile
« Reply #26 on: January 21, 2012, 06:19:01 pm »

Chris Dodd, head of the MPAA (architects of SOPA/PIPA), the ex-senator-turned-lobbyist-turned-MPAA addressed congress on Fox News regarding SOPA:

Quote from: Chris Dodd
Those who count on quote 'Hollywood' for support need to understand that this industry is watching very carefully who's going to stand up for them when their job is at stake. Don't ask me to write a check for you when you think your job is at risk and then don't pay any attention to me when my job is at stake.

Sounds like someone's allowance is gonna get docked, yo.

Logged

"He who makes a beast of himself gets rid of the pain of being a man."
Darkthia
*
Posts: 627



View Profile
« Reply #27 on: January 22, 2012, 05:03:17 am »

Chris Dodd, head of the MPAA (architects of SOPA/PIPA), the ex-senator-turned-lobbyist-turned-MPAA addressed congress on Fox News regarding SOPA:

Quote from: Chris Dodd
Those who count on quote 'Hollywood' for support need to understand that this industry is watching very carefully who's going to stand up for them when their job is at stake. Don't ask me to write a check for you when you think your job is at risk and then don't pay any attention to me when my job is at stake.

Sounds like someone's allowance is gonna get docked, yo.



does no one see anything wrong with this? a public admission of corruption(to the corrupted no less) on prime time news, made willingly and without the expectation of consequences.
Logged

"The higher we soar, the smaller we appear to those who cannot fly." - Friedrich Nietzsche
GC13
Craftsman

Posts: 376



View Profile
« Reply #28 on: January 22, 2012, 11:22:17 am »

Wow.  For a former Senator, Dodd seems painfully unaware of how cheesed off people are about lobbyists trying to buy influence.  What's next?  Is he going to threaten to have some of his opponents assassinated?  What a classy guy.
Logged
ktistay
Neophyte

Posts: 19


View Profile
« Reply #29 on: January 22, 2012, 01:15:19 pm »

does no one see anything wrong with this? a public admission of corruption(to the corrupted no less) on prime time news, made willingly and without the expectation of consequences.
Oh, they see.

But I can understand the poor guy. This SOPA/PIPA/ACTA thing isn't new, it took years of preparation to come to this point. It all started a long time ago with "hackers", then it went to child porn and now it was ready to pass and some vandals on the internet decide to make a big deal out of it. <insert 'so close' meme here>. Gotta be damn frustrating, so he lost it. It's their fault though, they got too greedy. It probably would've passed if it weren't so explicitly draconian. It ain't over, anyway.

IMHO, what they are trying to do, and they are probably going to succeed at some point, is put the responsibility of cutting down those sites on companies, as opposed to law enforcement. Business like search engines and ISPs. With law enforcement there's a lengthy process, you have to gather evidence that stands in court, then you have a trial, it all takes time. With a business, a hint of "you're gonna lose a lot of money and maybe even risk charges" is often enough, as they don't wanna take the risk. Patent bullying isn't news anymore, here comes copyright.
Basically they want the trade sector to have it's own police, only less regulated and transparent. That looks to me like the common ground between all those laws, some kind of committee that has the power to shut down websites and make ISPs comply.  ACTA is a very mild version of SOPA/PIPA, but on an international level. I think the problem with ACTA is that it's not explicit enough and even though it's not doing much damage in this form it has a lot of potential for further abuse. It will probably pass, as there's not enough to point fingers at. More (short?) info on what's wrong with it here and here, for who's curious.
Logged
Pages: 1 [2] 3 4 ... 6   Go Up
Print
Jump to: