read about the new so called piracy laws SOPA and PIPA that are being pushed current

[Guest 1817ak47]

there are some new so called anyti piracy laws being pushed called SOPA and PIPA. this I am afraid will only lead to internet censorship similar to what exhists in china. I can see it happening if this passes, there is a investigation into government corruption and it gets published online and they will remove it from the internet from under you. IMO this is another way to whittle away our freedoms one small step at a time. I am not sure where to go for he best link or info, so I will let someone else post that

[Guest bkelm18]

Yep. SOPA and PIPA are bad juju. I've already written my congress-critters about it.

[Guest 1817ak47]

I looked but didn't see any other posts on here about it. it's unbelievable the stuff they try to slide thru

[Guest 6.8 AR]

It's just the latest crap from the "net neutrality" crowd. They want control over the internet, too.

This is a wolf in sheep's clothing. I mentioned this stuff was going on a couple years ago. I still

laugh about some of the comments. Glad to see some concern, finally.

Edited January 18, 2012 by 6.8 AR

[Guest Ceolas]

It's a good example of how a large lobby can buy legislation from a technologically challenged Congress...

Oh wait, I think that may be all legislation now.

[Guest 1817ak47]

It's a good example of how a large lobby can buy legislation from a technologically challenged Congress...

so true, or the fact that they can be bribed to pass whatever non sense some rich person is willing to pay them to do

[Caster]

If you let them, they'll have us paying by the minute again....Think 1993 man! Old school AOL. I was on for the first time summer of 1994. Beep, beep, eeeeeeeeeeee rrrrrrrrrrrrrr erereerererererererererererererrrrrrrrrrrrr erre eeeerrr Oh god!

Seriously, they'd luv them some interwebz taxes!

[Murgatroy]

I wrote to my congress critters this morning about it. I do think it is a bit ironic they are after the First Amendment this time instead of the Second.

[Guest 6.8 AR]

They'll go for the first then work on the second later. I'm thinking after the election, depending on the

winner.

The internet is an opportunity, tax wise, and a threat to the government because individuals can connect

to each other. They perceive the connection as a threat to their power over us. Laughable, but I believe

it's true. Anti piracy is but an excuse.

[Guest db99wj]

Isn't this related to what happened on here with some linking to pictures or other sites or something where Dave had to put out the memo on not copying pics and putting them up here, not copy/pasting an article without giving the link and credit, etc??

[mcurrier]

We'll just have to pass it to find out what's in it.

Sarcasm - Off. Scarey - On.

[TMF]

ugghhh, I'm putting my tin foil hat on for this one.... I don't like it.

[Guest FroggyOne2]

Here is your supporters and nay sayers at the present.. our very own Lamar A**hole Corkscrew and Blackspot are supporters.

Who in Congress Supports SOPA and PIPA/PROTECT-IP? | SOPA Opera | ProPublica

[Guest 1817ak47]

is there anywhere that I could look up who teh supporters of this where??

[Steelharp]

Here's the deal. It strikes me as quite ironic that web sites like Wikipedia are doing a "black out" to protest the SOPA bill. A suggestion...why don't all the damn sites that participate in stealing copy written music "black out" for a while and let a few songwriters/musicians/artists cut back on their days spent selling plasma and collecting aluminum cans instead of making music so they can buy their kids a new pair of fu#$%ing shoes? Shed a little different perspective??

"our very own Lamar A**hole Corkscrew and Blackspot are supporters."

GOOD FOR THEM. How much food are YOU responsible for stealing off MY table, Frog?? Do much illegal downloading?

Edited January 19, 2012 by Steelharp

[Guest 6.8 AR]

Don't shoot yourself in the foot. That bill has much more to do with control than

keeping you from eating dog food or whatever, when you're down. I doubt it would

save anyone anything except another way to make criminals out of more than a

downloader.

Emotions and logic don't tend to mix very well.

[Steelharp]

Summary of bill: This bill would establish a system for taking down websites that the Justice Department determines to be dedicated to copyright infringment. The DoJ or the copyright owner would be able to commence a legal action against any site they deem to have "only limited purpose or use other than infringement," and the DoJ would be allowed to demand that search engines, social networking sites and domain name services block access to the targeted site. It would also make unauthorized web streaming of copyrighted content a felony with a possible penalty up to five years in prison.

I don't see foot shooting, OR a reason for the paranoia you express, 6.8.

[Guest NYCrulesU]

- Militarizing police departments

- FEMA detention centers

- DHS/TSA checkpoints

- NDAA 2012

- SOPA & PIPA

Yea, some of us are just "paranoid head cases". Sure.

[kieefer]

SOPA, PIPA protests spur Congress to rethink bills - Political Hotsheet - CBS News

Two U.S. senators rethink their SOPA support - UPI.com

It's on hold for now, call, email and complain to our representatives. This site could have also protested and shut down yesterday like some others that I frequent.

I was disappointed that Marco Rubio at first was supporting this, perhaps there were some good intentions but when the gov. gets involved, someone is going to get screwed and everyone will pay.

Edited January 19, 2012 by kieefer

[Steelharp]

- Militarizing police departments

- FEMA detention centers

- DHS/TSA checkpoints

- NDAA 2012

Yea, some of us are just "paranoid head cases". Sure.

These things are in the bill that the summary above is written for?

[Guest bkelm18]

Summary of bill: This bill would establish a system for taking down websites that the Justice Department determines to be dedicated to copyright infringment. The DoJ or the copyright owner would be able to commence a legal action against any site they deem to have "only limited purpose or use other than infringement," and the DoJ would be allowed to demand that search engines, social networking sites and domain name services block access to the targeted site. It would also make unauthorized web streaming of copyrighted content a felony with a possible penalty up to five years in prison.

I don't see foot shooting, OR a reason for the paranoia you express, 6.8.

You don't burn down the house to deal with the cockroaches. The world depends on the internet for a free flow of information. Some nations that have highly censored internet depend on pirating sources to get info in and out. This is bigger than stealing a little music. It's about protecting a free process of sharing information and knowledge. The US gov't can sit down and rotate on this.

[Garufa]

It really is far, far bigger than music piracy.

While I fully agree in copyright protection and enforcement of existing laws covering such imagine this...the local library being closed by Federal agents because of people Xeroxing (whoops, I just slipped) published material or discovering a work of plagiarism on some shelf in a dark corner, maybe there's a newspaper in there that lifted a story from another newspaper........

[G27]

SOMETHING has to be done about the rampant theft of IP on the internet. People are losing their jobs - entire industries are being undermined to dangerous levels, all because people thinks it's 'ok' to be a low life thief.

And yeah, if you download a song, movie or software you didn't pay for you're no different than any other scumbag thief.

[Guest bkelm18]

SOMETHING has to be done about the rampant theft of IP on the internet. People are losing their jobs - entire industries are being undermined to dangerous levels, all because people thinks it's 'ok' to be a low life thief.

And yeah, if you download a song, movie or software you didn't pay for you're no different than any other scumbag thief.

Don't get me wrong, I don't condone piracy, but turning the internet into a virtual police-state isn't the answer.

[Steelharp]

Ok, deep breath time... everybody... ok, now...

I think I understand some of the concerns here, and I imagine some understand mine. At its' simplest level, info = free, intellectual property = protected and paid.

The concern is that general info will get swept into this, and censored, am I correct? I really don't think there's any danger of a library being closed, etc. Any copyrighted material has always had to be referenced in print when used; if you Xerox something for your personal info, there's no problem. If you use that in a publicly obtainable way, you'd better reference the source. You can cook corn liquor for yourself, but you'd better not try to sell it.

Everyone I know in the music community is in full support of this; we are tired of being ripped off. We are at the point where we will accept ANYthing that'll put a lock on our property. Now, if this does indeed restrict free access of information, then it needs to be rethought and reworded. If it does NOT, however, and we are experiencing a "Chicken Little" effect, then I see no reason to NOT support it.