Kawasaki Concours Forum
Mish mash => Open Forum => Topic started by: this is a rv on January 18, 2012, 05:19:56 AM
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Where do we stand?
http://www.advrider.com/ (http://www.advrider.com/)
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If it's copyrighted protected content then it should be protected. I don't download copyrighted material such as movies and music. I get them from legal sources. Can someone explain how this would affect Wikipedia and the information that it provides?
If you are talking about this site, then we don't usually permit hosting or linking things like reproductions of copyrighted materials such as service manuals. What individuals do beyond this site is entirely up to them, however.
What does ADV Rider host? I don't go to that website.
I'm not so sure that this isn't being blown out of proportion. I'm interested in a civil discussion on this, of course, as I may not have all the facts from either side.
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I'm looking to get my self update on this. I did not see any talk about this on ADV, they just took a stand today.
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No shopping for motorcycle today Craigslist is blacked out today
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I went to Craigslist to check some bikes out... And it's all black. :'(
But hey, this is good news! This must mean the government has solved all of our other issues like national debt, homeless people and stopped all crimes! Good job, Amurica!
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Well, it looks like we will be snowed in today, selfishley I'll send a big thanks to Rick for not joining in on these blackouts.
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Unfortunately, due to all these blackouts, I'll be more productive at work.
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You can read about it here. Like most moves by our government, the rule of unintended consequences seems to be in full force with this deal.
https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2012/01/how-pipa-and-sopa-violate-white-house-principles-supporting-free-speech (https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2012/01/how-pipa-and-sopa-violate-white-house-principles-supporting-free-speech)
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... I'll send a big thanks to Rick for not joining in on these blackouts.
I was real close...
You know those "Hitler goes to Bike Week" vids on YewToob? gone.
The most recent "Ramblings of a Retired Mind" thread on the joke board? Who wrote it? The original author can demand it be removed, he/she can go over my head to do so (shut the server down), and he/she really needs no proof they wrote it!
Any arbitrary picture on WIkiPedia? Someone can claim that's a pix of them, their product, they have a right to it... Poof, gone.
If one of us reads/transcribes a single specification from our owners/maintenance manuals to help a buddy out... That's right, poof, gone.
There is no 'real' court, there is no judge, there only needs to be someone with their nose bent out of shape. Trust me, there will be many.
Lame proposal, huge unintended consequences, huge.
Rick
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I know 'poof'. It ain't good. Thanks, Rick. There's a lot more to do this than meets the eye. Glad you didn't shut down for today.
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No shopping for motorcycle today Craigslist is blacked out today
Jack, I've been on the STL CL many times today.
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Craigslist blacked out here in CO Springs
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Like all Gov't regulations-its the ole "camel nose in the tent". The inerweb works great w/out regulation. It will be broad-reaching authority,making things as innocuous as inserting a video clip into a post that came of a newscast from... say FOX subject to ,if interpreted as such, the site being shut down.
I am convinced its a very bad thing -contact your congress-person.
Mike
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Jack, I've been on the STL CL many times today.
I found the key after I posted here:
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I am convinced its a very bad thing -contact your congress-person.
+1.
I emailed my Congress-critter and Senators. If you don't know who yours are, an easy way is to go to Wikipedia and try to find something. They're blacked out, but have a nice interface set up to find your representatives and they give you a link directly to their email webpages.
EDIT: I heard there was a big "Occupy" march today to protest SOAP. ;D
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OOOPS I see this has already been dicussed today folks.... sorry I probably should have came on earlier today to urge you all to contact your State reps and Congressmen in turning down these two bills!
ADVrider, KLRworld, Wikipedia, and thousands of other websites have blacked out today in protest of this infringement on our rights!
I contacted all my Reps and Congressmen today with this paragraph and I hope you will too, as this threatens this forum which we all enjoy.
I am your constituent, and I urge you to oppose the Stop Online Piracy Act and the PROTECT IP Act. These bills will kill jobs and stifle innovation, undermine cyber security, risk censoring the American Internet, and provide cover for totalitarian regimes that want to undermine Internet freedom abroad.
In regards to House Bills SOPA and PIPA I feel ‘The proposals represent a blunt attack on freedom of speech, based upon a deeply flawed understanding of how the internet works.’
I would urge you to see the truth and not take part in passing these Bills.
It's time to quit trying to put bandaids on a disease such as internet piracy.
We can't sign new legislation into law just because lobbyist put millions into the Gov.s pocket.
Looking at our Governments way of doing "Business" from in a third party perspective, makes it quite embarassing for me to be an American.
Thank you,
Jim Wohlford
Here's some info from:
http://americancensorship.org/ (http://americancensorship.org/)
And:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/business/technology/sopa-and-pipa-the-wrong-tools-to-combat-online-piracy/2012/01/18/gIQA1yxR9P_story.html (http://www.washingtonpost.com/business/technology/sopa-and-pipa-the-wrong-tools-to-combat-online-piracy/2012/01/18/gIQA1yxR9P_story.html)
By Joshua Topolsky, Wednesday, January 18, 9:47 PM
My day job is to write about and report on technology. I get paid to create content. Original content. The people I write for make money off the words I commit to paper (or, you know, a Web page). I’m a content creator in the truest sense. That’s how I earn a living.
In another life, in another time, I made a different kind of content. I used to produce music, I was in bands, and I traveled the world disc jockeying. I got paid then to create content, putting out records (real, vinyl records) and helping other bands to make the kind of music they wanted to make.
Joshua Topolsky
An authoritative voice on technology and consumer electronics, Joshua Topolsky is the founding editor-in-chief of The Verge, a technology news and information Web site, and the former editor-in-chief of Engadget. He is the resident tech expert for NBC’s “Late Night With Jimmy Fallon” and has appeared on CNN, Fox News, Bloomberg TV and G4’s “Attack of the Show.” A lifelong gadget enthusiast, Joshua used his first computer at age 6 (a Texas Instruments TI-99/4A), and has been breaking apart and reassembling gadgets since phones had rotary dialers.
Who’s involved and what are the stakes?: A look at the politicians, companies and lobbying groups involved in the dispute over Stop Online Piracy Act.
As a content creator, I fully understand how precious ownership is and how painful theft can be. In fact, a sample of one of my records was used in a snippet of a car commercial in the early 2000s. The song was recorded by a jingle-maker who clearly figured no one would mind that he didn’t produce entirely original content. I was never compensated for what was blatant theft — and you know it’s bad when friends call you up on the phone and tell you they just heard your song on TV.
Yet I oppose the Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA) and the Protect IP Act (PIPA) — two laws that are doing the rounds in Washington — ostensibly meant to protect content creators from theft in the form of piracy.
And you should, too.
If you don’t know what SOPA is, you should probably spend some time on Wikipedia investigating the bill. Of course, Wikipedia shut down its site Wednesday to voice opposition to the laws (Google, Reddit and several other sites also protested similarly), so I guess that wouldn’t have been a good day to get your facts.
If Wikipedia is still unavailable by the time you read this, let me quickly explain the law. (As I said, there are actually two laws making waves, but for the sake of brevity, I’m only going to focus on SOPA.)
The gist of the bill is that it gives content creators the power to force ISPs, search engines or payment services to shut down access to a Web site that the owner believes violated its copyright. On its face, the bill is designed to stop access to foreign Web sites that are profiting off of stolen content. (U.S.-based business can simply be dragged into court.) In reality, it’s much more insidious than that.
Say a French company just started a social networking site in which users can upload videos of themselves singing. Now let’s say some kids upload a video of themselves singing their favorite Britney Spears song, not even playing back the original recording but simply singing along innocently to a song they like.
In the eyes of Spears’s record label or any number of parties associated with her continued cash flow, that might very well look like an instance of piracy — and indeed, major labels have had content pulled off YouTube for similar “violations.” All the label has to do is send a letter to someone such as your ISP and request that the service stop routing traffic to the offending site, and, boom, no more French-sharing site for U.S. Internet users. And what’s really scary is that U.S. Internet service providers have immunity when it comes to what they can pull from their networks, so that French site might not even have a clear path to resolving the issue.
Now take that concept and begin to apply it across all the places you could potentially find “infringing” material. Sites about art, sites about movies, sites that let users generate content of all types — some of that content containing pieces of other work that should be considered fair use by any modern standard. Suddenly, a lot of destinations on the Internet will begin to look like island vacation spots — that is, they’re really hard to get to. And the impact won’t just be cultural or legal; the technical workings of the Internet itself will be dramatically affected.
As my colleague Nilay Patel said when comparing online piracy to DVD piracy in New York City: It’s “the effective equivalent of blowing up every road, bridge and tunnel in New York to keep people from getting to one bootleg [DVD] stand in Union Square — but leaving the stand itself alone.”
Now to my point. The SOPA and PIPA bills are being driven through our government by lobbyists who have been given a mandate to protect private companies and their profits by any means necessary. As a part of a private company that makes its money through content creation and delivery, I understand the sentiment — I just disagree with the solution.
SOPA and PIPA are like taking a sledgehammer to something when you need a scalpel. The laws are too far-reaching and too simplistic to accurately police real piracy online, and they have been created by people who either don’t fully understand the Internet or can’t appreciate its value.
Free speech and common sense demand a better and more thoughtful law. That law has to come from an organic place, built by the people and companies that live and work on the Internet. Google, Facebook and Twitter, it’s time to get your lobbyists on the phone.
Joshua Topolsky is the founding editor in chief of the Verge, a technology news Web site
And:
(NaturalNews) On Wednesday, January 18, 2012, NaturalNews.com went "dark" to protest SOPA, the "Stop Online Piracy Act" that is actually a thinly-veiled government censorship effort. We are also protesting PIPA, the "Protect IP Act," which is similarly destructive in its effects. You may have arrived at this page from our mock "seizure" index page which depicts what might happen if SOPA becomes law.
This is crucial for all NaturalNews readers and fans to understand: If SOPA becomes law, NaturalNews.com will be shut down. In fact, the proposed law contains a specific provision -- section 105 -- which allows the U.S. government to shut down websites it claims "endanger public health."
Given that NaturalNews openly and repeatedly advocates things like natural sunlight and vitamin C -- both of which the government has said are dangerous -- our website could be seized by the government under SOPA. And that doesn't even consider our public stance against routine vaccinations, processed food chemicals and dangerous prescription medications (which the government is always trying to push on the public to kill people before they live long enough to collect social security).
If passed into law, SOPA would shut down NaturalNews, InfoWars, Drudge, Lew Rockwell, Reddit and many other alternative news websites
Make no mistake about the seriousness of this issue: If SOPA (or PIPA) becomes law, it will sooner or later result in the government seizure and shutdown of virtually all alternative news websites -- especially those that disagree with the criminality of the current corrupt political regime in Washington.
Imagine an internet without NaturalNews.com. Imagine the liberty movement without InfoWars.com. Imagine the entire world wide web being "sanitized" by the government to remove any websites that do not agree with the government's official position on finance, the war on drugs, the war on terrorism, pharmaceuticals and vaccines. That's what we're facing if SOPA becomes law: A virtual wipeout of all truth across the internet, leaving only the lies of "official" government information... the Ministry of Truth, in other words.
The Internet is the vehicle for restoring freedom and crushing tyranny
Why is the U.S. government working so feverishly to crush independent, truthful information on the internet? Because the globalist controllers realize that the internet is the last bastion of freedom in a world run by global elite corporatists.
While the global elite own and run the mainstream (corporate whore) media, and they own Congress, and they own all the influential non-profits such as the wholly corrupt American Cancer Society, they do not yet control the internet! This freaks them out, especially when they see so much truth being produced by liberty-loving individuals who are exposing the neocons, the socialists, and the criminal-minded thugs who run Wall Street and the White House.
They are desperate to crush internet freedom and SOPA is the tool they hope to use to accomplish that. This is why your opposition to SOPA is absolutely crucial. It's also why internet giants such as Wikipedia and Reddit have joined in this one-day protest against the tyranny of SOPA and what is fast becoming a government-sponsored "information terrorism" campaign against free speech.
Take action NOW - or you will lose internet free speech forever
This is an absolute must: Take action today to voice your opposition to SOPA. Here's how you can do that:
Click this link to email your Representative:
http://house.gov/htbin/findrep (http://house.gov/htbin/findrep)
(Use the little envelope icon that appears to the right of the picture to send them an email.)
And click here to email your U.S. Senator:
http://www.senate.gov/general/contact_information/senators_cfm.cfm (http://www.senate.gov/general/contact_information/senators_cfm.cfm)
(Use the "web form" link.)
Send your representatives and Senator a short message that covers the following fundamental points:
* You oppose SOPA.
* You will not support or vote for any candidate that supports SOPA.
* Urge them to vote against SOPA.
You can also call the capitol switchboard at: (202) 224-3121 and ask to be connected with your representatives.
Obama may sign SOPA even if he says he opposes it
It is crucial that you take action now, because even though SOPA has been "shelved" and Obama has withdrawn his support for it, remember that Obama also promised he would veto the NDAA, yet he quietly and sneakily signed that on New Year's Eve, stripping Americans of their due process rights (http://www.naturalnews.com/034537_NDAA_Bill_of_Rights_Obama.html (http://www.naturalnews.com/034537_NDAA_Bill_of_Rights_Obama.html)).
Just because Obama says he opposes something doesn't mean he won't sign it! And believe me, the tactics of all these evil minions in Washington is to operate in darkness, meaning they will delay SOPA when people are paying attention but then, a few months later, after public awareness has waned, they will insidiously attach it to some spending bill and quietly make it law. One day you will wake up and all your favorite websites will simply be GONE. Remember, the government has already shut down 84,000 websites with no due process (http://torrentfreak.com/u-s-government-shuts-down-84000-websites-by-mista... (http://torrentfreak.com/u-s-government-shuts-down-84000-websites-by-mista...)).
That's why you need to voice your opposition to SOPA right now and take a stand for internet Free Speech.
If you don't, you may very well wake up one day and find NaturalNews.com shut down, InfoWars.com removed from the 'net, and then your only remaining news options will be CNN, Fox, MSNBC and all the other sources of complete mind-controlled drivel that the corporate "sellout" establishment wants to drill into your head.
Finally, share this article on Facebook, Twitter and other social networks. Spread the word about SOPA. Encourage others to take action. Remember: The internet is the last bastion of freedom in our modern world. If we lose the internet, the corrupt criminals and tyrants who run Wall Street and Washington D.C. will have total, unrelenting control over all information, and your freedom will be suffocated under a police state agenda of total disinformation.
Spread the word. Take action. Protect freedom! Protect the People against government censorship!
Learn more: http://www.naturalnews.com/034682_SOPA_online_piracy_protest.html#ixzz1jsOcLZbr (http://www.naturalnews.com/034682_SOPA_online_piracy_protest.html#ixzz1jsOcLZbr)
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PIPA is friggin hot!!!!!! :hail:
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From some of our sister sites...
The KLRWorld.com Forums are blacked out on January 18th to protest SOPA and PIPA. We join Wikipedia, Nighthawk-Forums.com and thousands of other sites whose existence is threatened. If these bills pass, it could mean the end of KLRWorld.com. Please write your representatives to let them know the forums must go on without restrictions - Hondo
The Forums will be back online Jan 20, 2012.
ADVrider did the same... as of Midnight (7 minutes ago) they just came back online.
And from: http://www.wickedlocal.com/cambridge/news/x255293058/Guest-commentary-Why-we-need-to-stop-SOPA-and-PIPA#axzz1jsQVo7qC (http://www.wickedlocal.com/cambridge/news/x255293058/Guest-commentary-Why-we-need-to-stop-SOPA-and-PIPA#axzz1jsQVo7qC)
Cambridge —
SOPA - the Stop Online Piracy Act - and a sister bill, PIPA - the Protect IP Act - seek to minimise the dissemination of copyrighted material online by targeting sites that promote and enable the sharing of copyright-protected material, like The Pirate Bay. While this goal may be laudable, entrepreneurs, legal scholars and free speech activists are worried about the consequences of these bills for the architecture of the internet. At the MIT Media Lab, we share those concerns, and we oppose SOPA and PIPA as threats to innovation on the internet.
To limit access to rogue sites, SOPA and PIPA would:
US considering law against online piracy
Supersede the "notice and takedown" method of policing for copyrighted material on internet services and require service providers to police content uploaded by users or prevent users from uploading copyrighted content.
Require Internet Service Providers to change their DNS servers and block resolution of the domain names of websites in other countries that host illegal copies of content.
Require search engines to modify their search results to exclude foreign websites that illegally host copyrighted material.
Order payment processors like PayPal and ad services like Google AdSense to cease doing business with foreign websites that illegally host copyrighted content.
Major internet companies, including Google, Facebook, Twitter and others, oppose SOPA and PIPA because it changes the liability rules around copyright infringement. Under the Digital Millenium Copyright Act of 1998, companies are protected from charges of "contributory infringement" on content uploaded by users, so long as the company follows a procedure and remove infringing content when an alert process is followed.
SOPA substantially alters this system, and internet companies worry that without protection from contributory infringement, user-generated content sites like YouTube and Twitter would not have come into existence. The burden of reviewing user-submitted content - every blog post, every video, every image - would be impossible for a company to manage, and companies would have likely stuck with the Web 1.0 model of publishing edited, vetted content instead of moving to a Web 2.0 model where users create the content. Several internet companies took out a full-page ad in the New York Times to express their concerns about SOPA and PIPA.
Free speech advocates, like the Electronic Frontier Foundation, worry that SOPA may provide powerful new tools to silence online speech. Confronted with uncomfortable political speech, repressive governments often seek to silence dissent by reporting content as defamatory, slanderous or copyright infringing, hoping the companies hosting the speech will remove the content.
SOPA accelerates the process of copyright removal, with a mechanism that permits copyright holders to obtain court orders against sites hosting copyrighted materials and have those sites rapidly blocked. Scholars of online censorship, like Rebecca MacKinnon at the New America Foundation, worry that SOPA may be popular with the Chinese government as with the copyright holders who are lobbying for the bill.
US law already permits the seizure of domestic domain names that are used for piracy, and the US seized 150 domains in November. SOPA is an attempt to enforce copyright provisions across international borders by prohibiting American internet users from accessing certain foreign websites, like The Pirate Bay. In effect, it would create a firewall to prevent users from accessing prohibited intellectual property, much as China's "great firewall" limits access to politically sensitive information.
Harvard legal scholar Laurence Tribe believes that SOPA is likely unconstitutional, as it can remove constitutionally protected speech without a hearing, a form of "prior restraint". In a memo sent to members of Congress, he points out that SOPA proposes a system where a single instance of prohibited material could lead to the blocking of thousands of unrelated pieces of content.
Internet experts have observed that, beyond being dangerous to innovation, harmful to speech and potentially unconstitutional, SOPA and PIPA are unlikely to work. Countries that block access to prohibited websites by altering the domain name system - as Vietnam does in blocking access to Facebook - find that millions of users are able to circumvent this form of censorship.
Millions of Vietnamese users have become Facebook users by entering that site's IP address into their browsers, or configuring their computers to use an uncensored DNS server. It's likely that dedicated US users of The Pirate Bay and other sites will do likewise. Effectively blocking access to sites like The Pirate Bay might require US ISPs to install powerful and expensive "deep packet inspection" software, a cost that would inevitably be passed onto their users.
The progress of the bills was slowed in late 2011 by widespread online activism opposing SOPA and PIPA. Hearings are likely to resume early in 2012, and opponents of the bills are facing off against organised lobbying campaigns by the music and film industries who support the legislation.
On November 16, 2011, participatory media company Tumblr took strong online action against SOPA, redirecting requests for content on the site to a page that urged users to call US representatives and oppose the bill - their daylong campaign generated more than 87,000 calls to Congress. Internet community site Reddit plans a site-wide "blackout" on January 18 to inform users of the potential harms of SOPA and PIPA. Wikipedia is considering doing the same.
In the spirit of these protests, the MIT Media Lab has linked this blog post to all our site pages, encouraging anyone interested in the work we do to learn more about SOPA and PIPA. More information and resources follow below. We believe that SOPA and PIPA would make it harder for Media Lab students, researchers and faculty to do what we do best: create innovative technologies that anticipate the future by creating it. We hope you'll join with us in opposing these bills and, if you are a US citizen, in letting your representatives know your concerns about this legislation.
Read more: Guest commentary: Why we need to stop SOPA and PIPA - Cambridge, Massachusetts - Cambridge Chronicle http://www.wickedlocal.com/cambridge/news/x255293058/Guest-commentary-Why-we-need-to-stop-SOPA-and-PIPA#ixzz1jsT81SUr (http://www.wickedlocal.com/cambridge/news/x255293058/Guest-commentary-Why-we-need-to-stop-SOPA-and-PIPA#ixzz1jsT81SUr)
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I would've liked to see Rick shut 'er down just to bring a little more awareness to these Bills and to get EVERYONE here to contact their Reps and Congressmen!
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We've had enough shut downs recently, so my vote is no for that.
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Thanx for combining these threads.... A quote I copy/pasted from a Member of ADV today.
"The reason I heard about it was because of Wikipedia. Their reasoning wasn't really in depth, so I looked a little and americancensorship.org had/have brilliant explanations about how it's going to affect all of us, not just here in the US, but everywhere.
It would be damn hard, if not impossible to run a website like this one, if SOPA passes. I would almost say I wouldn't dare have it, unless it got under the protective umbrella of one of those multis like AOL, CBS, MNBC, Microsoft and filled to the brim with commercials, but all content approved by (I inserted-Rick and Jims) new Masters. And that is exactly their point with this law, control what people see and use and make 'em pay through the nose for it"
If it raised awareness about these bills to the masses, then any small price we would've payed in inconvenience of a site blackout would've been a small one compared to losing these sites ability to function freely.
Not try'n to argue with anyone.... just saying.
Thanx for your time,
Jim
EDIT: to above
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Again....my vote is no.
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Again....my vote is no.
:rotflmao: It was past tense.....
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Again....my vote is no.
Voting again? What are you, a dead Illinois Democrat? ;D
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Vote early, vote often is my motto...
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:rotflmao: It was past tense.....
Again my vote was no... is no..... will be no... Nein, Nein, Nein, Nein, Nein! Non! Nyet! Mhai! Naagga! And etc... ;)
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What, do you expect things to go your way without putting in any work/experiencing any inconvenience Jim?
How about how Google handled it? would you approve of something like that?
Did you write your Rep's to express yourself?
Or are you relying on your Reps to just do what is in your best interests?
FTR anyone who went to WIKI and read their declaration all the way to the end would have discovered that they could access the Wiki site by disabling JAVA script. POOF! Fixed.
Unfortunately many people have opinions that they don't feel the need to check against the available info. So most people never read that far...
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We're all about sound bites and instant gratification. A product of society since the forties.
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What, do you expect things to go your way without putting in any work/experiencing any inconvenience Jim?
Yes
How about how Google handled it? would you approve of something like that?
Have no clue on how Google handled it. Don't care.
Did you write your Rep's to express yourself? No. I just howled at the moon.
Or are you relying on your Reps to just do what is in your best interests? Right, like I trust those people...
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Before this gets into a pissing contest I'd like to post this Video... it's the best information I've seen to totally explain the implications of these bills.
They would impact this sight if passed
It's 11:15 of accurate info not just propaganda.
http://www.khanacademy.org/video/sopa-and-pipa?playlist=American+Civics (http://www.khanacademy.org/video/sopa-and-pipa?playlist=American+Civics)
Thanx Jim
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I don't think it's a 'pi**ng' contest. You have your opinions, others have theirs. Quite frankly, while I enjoy working the 'Net', if it went away, I'd spend more time working, more time with my family, and more time watching TV, and possibly more time riding. I don't use the social networks so if they disappeared it wouldn't affect me at all. I'm one of those people that while I live quite a bit with the 'Net' and it's websites I could survive without it in it's present form, therefore I while I do care somewhat about what's going on, I don't care that much.
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I just heard on the radio the congress stopped action on these two bills. Don't know any details yet.
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I just heard on the radio the congress stopped action on these two bills. Don't know any details yet.
I'm sure all the fervor from the blackouts caused them to do this. But we must be vigilant because it will rear its ugly head again and they will probably try to do it quietly by renaming and attaching to some other more popular bill.
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Watching the news I see old crooked whale excrement Christopher Dodd [ former D-Ct senator] who didn't run for re-election because EVERYONE knew he was a crook, is CEO of the Motion Picture Association of America. :o
Dodd is the bagman for SOPA & PIPA
Your government for sale everyday.
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Makes me wonder (no, not really) why we would need something like SOPA/ PIPA, if existing law, when enforced, seems work just fine.
http://www.pcworld.com/article/248454/megauploads_owner_faces_charges_in_court.html (http://www.pcworld.com/article/248454/megauploads_owner_faces_charges_in_court.html)
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Yea Dodd is the Chairman of the MPAA and he may have learned a new respect for the general populous.
Just recieved this email this afternoon from... info@fightforthefuture.org
Hi everyone!
A big hurrah to you!!!!! We’ve won for now -- SOPA and PIPA were dropped by Congress today -- the votes we’ve been scrambling to mobilize against have been cancelled.
The largest online protest in history has fundamentally changed the game. You were heard.
On January 18th, 13 million of us took the time to tell Congress to protect free speech rights on the internet. Hundreds of millions, maybe a billion, people all around the world saw what we did on Wednesday. See the amazing numbers here and tell everyone what you did.
This was unprecedented. Your activism may have changed the way people fight for the public interest and basic rights forever.
The MPAA (the lobby for big movie studios which created these terrible bills) was shocked and seemingly humbled. “‘This was a whole new different game all of a sudden,’ MPAA Chairman and former Senator Chris Dodd told the New York Times. ‘[PIPA and SOPA were] considered by many to be a slam dunk.’”
“'This is altogether a new effect,' Mr. Dodd said, comparing the online movement to the Arab Spring. He could not remember seeing 'an effort that was moving with this degree of support change this dramatically' in the last four decades, he added."
Tweet with us, shout on the internet with us, let's celebrate: Round of applause to the 13 million people who stood up - #PIPA and #SOPA are tabled 4 now. #13millionapplause
We're indebted to everyone who helped in the beginning of this movement -- you, and all the sites that went out on a limb to protest in November -- Boing Boing and Mozilla Foundation (and thank you Tumblr, 4chan)! And the grassroots groups -- Public Knowledge, Electronic Frontier Foundation, Demand Progress, CDT, and many more.
#SOPA and #PIPA will likely return in some form. But when they do, we'll be ready. Can you make a donation to Fight for the Future, to help us keep this fire going?
We changed the game this fall, and we're not gonna stop. $8, $20, every little bit helps.
13 million strong,
Tiffiniy, Holmes, Joshua, Phil, CJ, Donny, Douglas, Nicholas, Dean, David S. and Moore... Fight for the Future!
P.S. China's internet censorship system reminds us why the fight for democratic principles is so important:
In the New Yorker: "Fittingly, perhaps, the discussion has unfolded on Weibo, the Twitter-like micro-blogging site that has a team of censors on staff to trim posts with sensitive political content. That is the arrangement that opponents of the bill have suggested would be required of American sites if they are compelled to police their users’ content for copyright violations. On Weibo, joking about SOPA’s similarities to Chinese censorship was sensitive enough that some posts on the subject were almost certainly deleted (though it can be hard to know).
...
After Chinese Web users got over the strangeness of hearing Americans debate the merits of screening the Web for objectionable content, they marvelled at the American response. Commentator Liu Qingyan wrote:
‘We should learn something from the way these American Internet companies protested against SOPA and PIPA. A free and democratic society depends on every one of us caring about politics and fighting for our rights. We will not achieve it by avoiding talk about politics.’"
Amen
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Makes me wonder (no, not really) why we would need something like SOPA/ PIPA, if existing law, when enforced, seems work just fine.
http://www.pcworld.com/article/248454/megauploads_owner_faces_charges_in_court.html (http://www.pcworld.com/article/248454/megauploads_owner_faces_charges_in_court.html)
I'd amend that and say 'enforced correctly'. We've had some DMCA takedowns recently that have bypassed due process, causing some embarrassing moments as a result, not to mention causing damage to innocent websites and individuals in the process.
What we need is a more even handed approach where due process is balanced against the rights of copyright owners. SOPA and PIPA really weighted this against individual rights, but I worry that similar (if not the same) legislation will rear it's ugly head soon.
And we need to take the badges out of the hands of the Film and Music industry and put them into the hands of law enforcement agencies that are properly trained to handle this, and that will take the time to look at both sides before issuing a takedown notice.
In other news, as I'm sure you all saw, Megaupload was taken down this week. While there is a lot of copyrighted material that is illegally distributed through their servers, one complaint I heard today was that Megaupload had not been contacted with takedown notices and such before this action. As to how true that is, I have no idea (knowing how fervent Hollywood and the Music Industry are about this, I seriously doubt they weren't contacted before this) but as many legitimate users use Megaupload in a perfectly legal manner, it does make you wonder...
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If a law is bad, replace it with a good one, one that is in line with the COTUSA, and repeal the old broken law. Don't just add a new one.
If it were not for this site being up and running I would not have seen what was going on, so I say thanks again Rick, ya kept an atmosphere conducive to a good confab.
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If a law is bad, replace it with a good one, one that is in line with the COTUSA, and repeal the old broken law. Don't just add a new one.
If it were not for this site being up and running I would not have seen what was going on, so I say thanks again Rick, ya kept an atmosphere conducive to a good confab.
:thumbs: :thumbs: SOP
Anything affillated with the MPAA is now on my do not touch list because of their choice of Dodd.
I sent them a e-mail with my intention of fighting them on anything due to their CEO Dodd.
Boycott MPAA. Steal from them like Dodd stole from us/US.