Stop SOPA!!!

[NeverMore]

Mission accomplished! SOPA and PIPA are dead. For now...

[Rising Dead Man]

Doesn't stop the RIAA though, I just read about them going after a video on Youtube because someone in the background was whistling a copyrighted song.

I agree that pirating is stealing, but things like THAT being a copyright infringement never made any sense to me.

[NeverMore]

Doesn't stop the RIAA though, I just read about them going after a video on Youtube because someone in the background was whistling a copyrighted song.

I agree that pirating is stealing, but things like THAT being a copyright infringement never made any sense to me.

It's the old slippery slope. First they go after people outright stealing the music, then they go after anyone using it for any purpose. Look how many Youtube videos get taken down or muted for using © music as a soundtrack.

Looks like the xxPAs weren't even needed. After the Megaupload take-down, file-sharing sites are dropping like leaves in autumn. It's going to be a bummer when Dropbox goes away.

[Rising Dead Man]

And if you think SOPA and PIPA were bad ideas, you heard of the NDAA, right?

[Boogeyman]

That is where the government can detain U.S citizens indefinitely, right?

[Spookymufu]

Thank you for taking action!
Hi Scott

Last week you stood with millions of Americans to protect online freedom and innovation. Congress heard you, and delayed consideration of the PIPA and SOPA bills, which -- if enacted -- would censor the Web and impose harmful regulations on American businesses.

We hope that today you will join us in thanking your representatives for protecting the Internet.

And we want to thank you, again, for your actions last week. We are humbled that so many of you rallied around what we believe is the most transformative invention in history.

Until next time,
The Google team

[Pumpkin_Man]

I was afraid to come back here, because my initial remarks were misunderstood, so I would like to say that I agree that SOPA and PIPA were very bad ideas, and I am very glad they got stopped. My point, is that as a media professional, I understand why copyright holders resort to draconian measurs like SOPA. Copyright infringement does not only hurt the "greedy movie and record companies." It hurts everyone who works in the media, except possibley for the highest paid, because when huge companies like MGM lose sales, they usualy lay off the set designers, make up artists, camera operators, photographers, cinematographers, lighting technitions, and all kinds of professionals who earn a regular living. The executives who run those companies, and the big name movie stars who everyone knows about are still wealthy, still get their bonuses and still drive around in big expensive cars and live in Hollywood mansions. It's the WORKING STIFF, guys like me, and the carpenter who builds the sets, and the electrician who wires all the lighting, and the computer graphics person who designs all the special effects who stands to lose out when movies are pirated.

And that's all I was trying to say. Piracy doesn't hurt the highest paid media people. It hurts the working stiff in that industry.

Mike

[Li H'Sen Chang]

Put a song on background of YouTube video does not cause people to lose a job.

[Boogeyman]

Mike,

While piracy of music and movies is wrong, and a part of these bills; it was another type of piracy that is the real concern. It concerns China that steals most of our technology. Billions of dollars lost due to this. Most of the fake watches, clothes and any other fake product comes out of countries like China.

Clearly, all piracy should be stopped, but I don't think there is any way it can be sadly.

http://www.ip-watch.org/2011/05/18/us-i ... nd-action/


P.S. I apologize if i took your initial statements about SOPA and PIPA incorrectly.

[Rising Dead Man]

That is where the government can detain U.S citizens indefinitely, right?

Yeah. Scarier than anything seen at Halloween, huh?

[Boogeyman]

Add to that all the databases we have become a part of, thanks to corporations like Google, and it looks more like 1984 every day.

[NeverMore]

Add to that all the databases we have become a part of, thanks to corporations like Google <---, and it looks more like 1984 every day.

Oh cripe... don't even get me going on that. If you want to be online, figure on giving away your privacy and anonmynity.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-16720406

[Pumpkin_Man]

Boogyman, there will allways be a certain ammount of any type of stealing, and there is such a thing as 'fair use." For instance, I have my "Dark Shadows" video tapes which I copied from the Sci Fi channel broadcasts. I do NOT sell them to others, I do NOT copy them for anyone else, and I do NOT publicaly play them for large groups of people. I simply watch them myself from time to time. IT's the same deal with the movies that I purchase on DVD. Oh, and I am planning on purchasing DVD copies of the oroginal "Dark Shadows" series. It's also okay to make a copy of a CD, so you can keep your original at home, and have one to listen to in your car, and preserve your original. IT only becomes Piracy when you make dozens of copies of a movie or a CD, and then hand them out as gifts, or post them on line so anyone can down load them. That's when you are keeping the artists from being paid for their work.

I think a lot of people have piracy confused with fair use. There is a world of difference.

Mike