Comments on: SOPA vs. PIPA: Anti-piracy bills, uproar explained

By: jesterking

jesterking — Wed, 18 Jan 2012 20:29:47 +0000

“You don’t burn the hen house down just to get the fox…” I remember hearing that from somewhere…

By: Andrew Couts

Andrew Couts — Wed, 18 Jan 2012 19:38:51 +0000

You're totally right about SOPA markup starting again in Feb. I wrote about it, but forgot to update this piece. I'll do that now...

By: Austin Hoffman

Austin Hoffman — Wed, 18 Jan 2012 19:11:29 +0000

This is just terrible....SOPA is the equivalent of curing a headache with a guillotine. It may stop piracy, but it would shut down our economy and unconstitutionally erode our most basic freedoms in the process.

I just hope that everyone realizes how important this is and does their part to save the internet & our economy! ...here is another good video that explains the consequences of SOPA pretty well:
http://www.peeje.com/peeje-goes-strike-stop-web-censorship-bills-congress-209/

1,000s of more websites have joined the force and went dark today, we need EVERYONES help!!!!

By: jesterking

jesterking — Wed, 18 Jan 2012 18:31:00 +0000

From what I hear, SOPA is now back on the table, scheduled for markup in February. From Reddit (before they went dark) “Lamar Smith announced that markup will resume in February.” Also, it’s my understanding that there is a third bill now being proposed. Not SOPA, not PIPA, but another bill for internet/piracy laws. I forget the name, I’ll see what I can dig up.

By: jesterking

jesterking — Wed, 18 Jan 2012 18:28:43 +0000

That’s cute. Did you create this account just to post in this article?

By: texohiohybrid

texohiohybrid — Wed, 18 Jan 2012 17:34:01 +0000

Unfortunately, like all legislation, it ends up getting changed to service PACs. This is not different. This TX legislator is getting money from somewhere because he didn’t wake up one morning with this idea. If someone is willing to fund this, they see a profit, which means this will cost the public money. We have no more money to give.

By: Richard Shakespeare

Richard Shakespeare — Tue, 17 Jan 2012 16:57:56 +0000

You download some content that is against these laws and you will share a cell with jailed criminals for 5 year now. The jails are going to be full and the US government will have to care and feed for tens of millions. As if the country doesn’t have enough debt and problems already.

By: Ryan Chapman

Ryan Chapman — Tue, 17 Jan 2012 13:32:16 +0000

Digital Trends should blackout

By: ScrewWikipedia

ScrewWikipedia — Tue, 17 Jan 2012 12:37:38 +0000

Wikipedia off-line? Darn the bad luck. Let us know what else you want to protest that will get you to “block” your site.

By: Adonis J. King

Adonis J. King — Tue, 17 Jan 2012 12:30:36 +0000

http://youtu.be/nTbrApU6YMs

By: wbiro

wbiro — Tue, 17 Jan 2012 09:17:04 +0000

Point For:
"Potential for Abuse" is no reason not to do something - otherwise there would be no Welfare, Food Stamps, Social Security, or any other 'positive' government service currently taken advantage of by anyone who will take whatever criminal opportunity they see or discover (and are there far too many such people today? woefully)

Point Against:
Questionable, overlooked, or backlogged infractions means a nightmare of legal battles at the very least, and complete shut-down at the worst, for the backbone sites of today's Internet. What it really means is a guaranteed legal shutdown of all of those sites by one random individual. It will change the landscape of the Internet (for better or worse), and it could kill intellectual vitality (no, it will kill intellectual vitality, just look at China as an example of dead intellectual vitality - a country of mind-controlled zombie slaves, who's backwards, tyrannical controlling government needs to steal human progress from the free world) (my observation)...

So if fear of abuse is the only issue, you can stuff it, but it isn't, collateral damage is.