SOPA/PIPA/ACTA

[Born2beSlicker]

http://americancensorship.org/

This very controversial bill is apparently going to give the entertainment industry the power to block and shut down websites that could potentially infringe copyright. Even though a lot of tech-industry leaders are against it for different reasons, it seems that both acts could get forced through congress lead by people who don't know how the internet works.

Articles about why these acts are bad ideas:

http://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/news ... -worse.ars
Standford University law professors state why SOPA is unconstitutional
SOPA breaks global DNS
Head of MPAA lies to back up SOPA
Creators of the internet warn against SOPA

I could keep going, but lets look at a real world example that just happened a few days ago.

Universal Music claimed that MegaUpload was a "rogue website" and rife for piracy, forcing the website to be DNS blocked in the US. MegaUpload released a song (in the above link) made by popular artists like P Diddy, Will.I.Am and so on showing their support and raising awareness of the issue. Universal claimed copyright infringement and forced YouTube to shut it down, even though it did not infringe anything. Later they claimed they have an agreement with YouTube to be able to take down any video they think might infringe them, to which YouTube claims is bullshit.

This is before SOPA/PIPA existed. If this was after, Universal could sue or shut down YouTube because a member did something the company didn't like. Imagine somebody hit you with their car and you tried to sue the car manufacture.

Even still, a lot of companies support SOPA/PIPA including the following:

1-800 Contacts, Inc.
1-800-PetMeds
3M
ABRO Industries, Inc.
Acushnet Company
adidas America
Bose Coporation
Burberry
CBS Corporation
Chanel USA
Coach
Columbia Sportswear Company
Dolce & Gabbana USA, Inc.
Electronic Arts, Inc.
Fender Musical Instrument Company
Ford Motor Company
Gibson Guitar Corp
Harley-Davidson Motor Company
Johnson & Johnson
Juicy Couture, Inc
kate spade
Lacoste USA
Leatherman Tool Group, Inc.
Lexmark International, Inc.
Liz Claiborne, Inc
L'Oréal USA
Lucky Brand Jeans
Major League Baseball
Marmot
Monster Cable Products, Inc.
National Basketball Association (NBA)
National Football League (NFL)
NBCUniversal
Nervous Tattoo Inc
New Balance Athletic Shoe, Inc.
New Era Cap Co Inc
NHL Enterprises, L.P.
Nike, Inc.
Nintendo of America Inc.
Oakley, Inc.
Peavey Electronics Corporation
Perry Ellis International
Petzl America
Pfizer Inc.
PGA of America
Philip Morris International
PING
Ralph Lauren Corporation
Red Wing Shoe Company
Reebok International Ltd.
Revlon
Rite Aid
Rolex Watch USA Inc
Rosetta Stone Inc.
Shure Incorporated
Sony Electronics Inc.
Sony Music Entertainment
Sony Pictures Entertainment
Spyder Active Sports, Inc
Taylor Guitars
Taylor Made Golf Company, Inc
The Dow Chemical Company
The Estee Lauder Companies
The Timberland Company
The Walt Disney Company
Tiffany & Co
Time Warner Inc.
Toshiba America Business Solutions, Inc.
Ultimate Fighting Championship
Viacom
Wal-Mart
Warner Music Group
World Wrestling Entertainment, Inc
Xerox Corporation
Zippo Manufacturing Company
Adobe
Apple
Autodesk
AVEVA
AVG
Bentley Systems
CA
Cadence Design Systems
CNC Software – Mastercam
Compuware
Corel
Dassault Systèmes SolidWorks Corporation
Dell
Intel
Intuit
McAfee
Microsoft
Minitab
Progress Software
PTC
Quark
Quest
Siemens PLM Software, Inc.
Sybase
Symantec
TechSmith
The MathWorks

[Phlashman]

The problem is the people in charge of making these laws know nothing about the technology.

All in this is why the UN should be in charge of DNS.

[Phlashman]

Also to expand on things, neither of these things actually stop piracy. They just make it even more inconvenient than it already is, but if people are already going to the trouble of not paying, this won't stop them.

If these companies spent more time working on making something customers want to pay for they might actually make some money?

It's not like the solution is hard to think of.

First they need to make all content available on all platforms in all qualities.

Second they have to make it simple to search, use and discover new content.

And lastly they need a range of pricing options from pay per view, to subscription, to ad supported. I know advertisers would love to provide much better targetted ads and I'd rather have advert breaks about games and tech than "woman products" and beer ads, but it'd also be cool if I could pay a few pence to skip or have less ads.

Go Daddy has withdrawn its support of SOPA: https://www.godaddy.com/newscenter/rele ... sc=smtwsup

Although that's not stopped Wikipedia from sticking its fingers up at Go Daddy because of the earlier support: https://twitter.com/#!/jimmy_wales/stat ... 9642740736

[Born2beSlicker]

Anonymous has declared they will attack the PSN again due to Sony's support of SOPA.

[MoBiUGeArSkIn]

Christ, they need a punch in the face. I don't even use the PSN but all that does is piss off the consumers that do. Why Sony? What about every other massive company in that list?

Not that its worth getting angry about. They'll die before Sony does.

[Phlashman]

Microsoft, EA, Nintendo and Sony have all dropped their support of SOPA.

Companies are starting to realise this thing is a huge PR shitstack.

It's good I removed my credit card details a while back then

Christ, they need a punch in the face. I don't even use the PSN but all that does is piss off the consumers that do. Why Sony? What about every other massive company in that list?

Not that its worth getting angry about. They'll die before Sony does.

Actually, if they take it offline again, I don't think we'll see PSN come back online in Japan or Australia until the next console comes out. Both governments were iffy about letting it come back up again as it was. If it's hacked again, you can be sure it'll be down for good in those two countries, at least.

[MoBiUGeArSkIn]

e-drama

This is why we should go back to living in caves and stuff.

I heard about this for the first time last night on a Podcast. Sounds stupid and like it would kill the Internet.

I think it is only a matter of time before something like this happens cos people don't have a clue, I bet it's all really old people running the show who haven't a clue. They are trying to fight something that will always exist, pointless, like Phlash said ... just another thing where all it does is pee off honest people.

He also thinks, the reason SOPA is so extreme is so that they can get PIPA in via the backdoor, but that PIPA is pretty much just as bad just doesn't look as extreme. He was eve talking about Google and then shutting down their services for a week in protest... just imagine that, if Google went off for a week! Be madness lol

I bet it's all really old people running the show who haven't a clue

Also known as the United States Congress.

Listening to the latest Skeptics Guide to the Universe. You heard of the Hackerspace global grid -     http://www.metro.co.uk/tech/886911-computer-hackers-reveal-plans-to-send-internet-into-space

[Born2beSlicker]

SOPA is dead. PIPA lives on.

[Phlashman]

It's been shelved, so not completely dead.

I tweeted yesterday that the the Tech, Media and Telecoms companies should get together and work something out as no one is winning with the current setup.