[Moontanman]

Will or does the SOPA act portend the end of the internet as we know it?

[insane_alien]

The internet is popular in places other than the US (otherwise known as the other 96% of the world).

SOPA only affects the US

[Moontanman]

insane_alien, on 24 December 2011 - 03:49 PM, said:

The internet is popular in places other than the US (otherwise known as the other 96% of the world).

SOPA only affects the US

While you are technically correct IA the US is pushing this hard to other countries and many will cave automatically, others may not, at first anyway, but watch the video and get back to me about such drastic changes in the US not affecting the rest of the world...

[Cap'n Refsmmat]

insane_alien, on 24 December 2011 - 03:49 PM, said:

The internet is popular in places other than the US (otherwise known as the other 96% of the world).

SOPA only affects the US

No, SOPA is specifically targeted at websites hosted overseas. For example, SFN is hosted in the UK. If a US copyright owner gets mad at us, they can't easily get us taken offline via US courts, so SOPA provides them a mechanism to have our advertising revenue cut off by Google by request of a copyright owner in five days, with no court order required.

John and I wrote letters to our congressmen about this, detailing how it can easily affect sites all over the world:

 letter.pdf (140.21K)
Number of downloads: 34

This post has been edited by Cap'n Refsmmat: 29 December 2011 - 04:33 AM
Reason for edit: attach PDF directly to post so it'll stay forever

[HuMoDz]

I've read the original SOPA text, the parts that describes some terms used and foreign infringing websites. As far as i could understand, the attourney would "ask" the website's owner to remove the content, and 5 days later the website would be "boycotted"; paypal, google, content hoster, etc would have to stop serving that site, for instance. Like what happened with wikileaks (paypal, amazon, visa)

I didn't read the section about domestic (US) websites, though. Also, it seems that there under certain conditions a website can be immune to that, but i don't remember them well.

This post has been edited by HuMoDz: 28 December 2011 - 01:27 AM

[imatfaal]

Cap, on 24 December 2011 - 05:09 PM, said:

No, SOPA is specifically targeted at websites hosted overseas. For example, SFN is hosted in the UK. If a US copyright owner gets mad at us, they can't easily get us taken offline via US courts, so SOPA provides them a mechanism to have our advertising revenue cut off by Google by request of a copyright owner in five days, with no court order required.

John and I wrote letters to our congressmen about this, detailing how it can easily affect sites all over the world:

http://www.sciencefo...et/etc/sopa.pdf

Good for you and John - those sorts of letters need to be sent! I am not a US voter so there is not much point in me sending letters to Congressmen, but some of the other SFN users might wish to. Do you know if there is a good blank format for an America Voter and User (as opposed to an administrator) to send to their elected representatives? I have spent many years working with politicians and large mailbags can focus the mind of the elected very well.

[Cap'n Refsmmat]

I'd be happy for people to use a variation of the text I provided. You could talk about Righthaven and copyright abuse rather than your own small website, but many of the points still apply. I don't mind if people use our letter as a basis.

You can also use points from the open letter from Internet engineers:

https://www.eff.org/...t-sopa-and-pipa

The EFF also provides an easy online form, although their provided text isn't very good:

https://wfc2.wiredfo...action_KEY=8173

The EFF's website has plenty of other material on SOPA and PROTECT-IP that you can use as inspiration.

[imatfaal]

Thanks for those links Capt.

I have to read up on SOPA - but from press coverage I believe that it is possible that (for instance) a UK based site, dealing with predominantly UK content, and catering for a UK audience could have all funding which is routed through companies based in USA, or with a US presence (google-ads, paypal etc) being blocked by an ex parte US court order. This affects far more than the USA; it is possible to envisage European sites with minimal piratic content but a fervently anti-US stance being targeted well before more apolitical overt file-sharing sites. I think it would be quite difficult to find a lively site which has the ability to upload and share data files which does not have some form of pirated work (the moderated forums such as SFN are probably a rare exception), and as such will come under the financial clout of the US authorities

[michel123456]

Funny: "sopa" in modern greek (σώπα) means "don't speak", kindly "shut up".

[michel123456]

No Wikipedia in English tomorrow Wednesday.

Quote

Wikipedia plans 24-hour blackout this Wednesday to protest SOPA / PIPA

http://www.theverge....nglish-language

This post has been edited by michel123456: 17 January 2012 - 03:14 PM

[ydoaPs]

michel123456, on 29 December 2011 - 05:16 PM, said:

Funny: "sopa" in modern greek (σώπα) means "don't speak", kindly "shut up".

I thought that was a joke, but Google translate confirmed it.

[michel123456]

ydoaPs, on 17 January 2012 - 03:54 PM, said:

I thought that was a joke, but Google translate confirmed it.

That was not a joke, but that was funny (to me). There must be some greek fellow there behind, I don't believe in coincidence.

[John Cuthber]

For the benefit of those who don't think this matters outside the US you might want to have a look here.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-16546471

[Cap'n Refsmmat]

The folks behind reddit have an excellent description of the provisions of both laws under consideration (SOPA and PROTECT IP) here:

http://blog.reddit.c...f-sopa-and.html

I plan to send along another letter to my senators about PROTECT IP, although that's contingent on my spare time.

[ydoaPs]

obligatory xkcd:

This post has been edited by ydoaPs: 18 January 2012 - 11:11 AM

[Tres Juicy]

michel123456, on 29 December 2011 - 05:16 PM, said:

Funny: "sopa" in modern greek (σώπα) means "don't speak", kindly "shut up".

It's also Spanish for "soup"

[JohnB]

Hmmm. My company website is hosted on US servers.

Under the definitions this means that the web part of my Australian company is domestic US.

Screw that. The American Gov does not get to decide that I'm "domestic" under their pathetic rules.

If your gov passes this garbage then I and probably millions of others will change hosts to other nations, that way we only lose the US customers. The obvious next step after defining foreign website busnesses as domestic would be to tax them as domestic. Bugger that for a joke.

The thing here is lack of due process. I can get payment mechanisms cut off simply by accusation and not proof of misconduct. This is of concern because we are a silver jewellery importing and wholesaling company. Normally such laws would not apply to us because we don't host or link to content. However there are no measures to prevent malicious use of accusation so we can be deprived of monetary providers by false accusation and we have no recourse. This makes America better than China how?

I think that part of the problem is that the Entertainment industry hasn't come to grips with technology. Movies for example are based on the concept of a "captive audience". When you pay to see a movie you are stuck there in a dark room and have to watch any and all cr*p that is thrown at you until the movie starts. Everybody knows that if a movie is supposed to start at 8 PM it doesn't matter if you walk in at 8.20 PM ad the ads will still be going. They follow this practice on home DVDs as well.

Sit down to watch a bought DVD with some warm popcorn and a cold drink. By the time you've seen the FBI warning (why is it even on Aussie copies?), a couple of ads, a nice loud Dolby digital or THX sound ad (we all buy movies because they're recorded in DD sound, don't we?), two more anti-piracy warnings, the disclaimer about the views of people interviewed aren't the views of the company blah, blah, blah and the previews you've drunk half the drink, your popcorn is cold and the damn movie hasn't even started.

And just on ad insanity, there are ads for the Stargate SG-1 Series DVDs on the Stargate SG-1 DVDs. So now I've bought the series I get to see ads telling me to buy the series. The stupid, it burns.

With a pirate, you d/load the file, burn it to disc and watch the movie.

The other part of the problem is that the industry is asking people to pay $30 for something that everybody knows costs less than $1 to manufacture. Movie makers do have to make their money back, it is a business after all. But one has to question the logic in paying someone $50 million to pretend they are some else for 6 months or so. (Not to mention the WB or MGM executive salaries.) I don't know the last time I went to a movie because some particular person was in it. I pick movies by ideas and storyline and so does everyone I know.

[ydoaPs]

JohnB, on 19 January 2012 - 05:03 AM, said:

Hmmm. My company website is hosted on US servers.

Under the definitions this means that the web part of my Australian company is domestic US.

Screw that. The American Gov does not get to decide that I'm "domestic" under their pathetic rules.

If your gov passes this garbage then I and probably millions of others will change hosts to other nations, that way we only lose the US customers. The obvious next step after defining foreign website busnesses as domestic would be to tax them as domestic. Bugger that for a joke.

The thing here is lack of due process. I can get payment mechanisms cut off simply by accusation and not proof of misconduct. This is of concern because we are a silver jewellery importing and wholesaling company. Normally such laws would not apply to us because we don't host or link to content. However there are no measures to prevent malicious use of accusation so we can be deprived of monetary providers by false accusation and we have no recourse. This makes America better than China how?

Don't get your advertising from the USA either.

[JohnB]

We don't. We don't host any advertising at all.

[michel123456]

michel123456, on 29 December 2011 - 05:16 PM, said:

Funny: "sopa" in modern greek (σώπα) means "don't speak", kindly "shut up".

And you don't want to know what PIPA (πίπα) means in modern Greek.

This post has been edited by michel123456: 19 January 2012 - 05:26 PM