EDIT: I had left my computer while typing this, and didn't see Koko's threat to kill anyone who talked about SOPA. Don't kill me.
Yes, this is yet ANOTHER firetrucking post about SOPA. If you don't deem this worthy of being its own post, then feel free to close this thread.
As I'm sure pretty much everyone on this site knows by now, there are these bills going around, called SOPA and PIPA. However, a lot of what I've seen on here about it is about how KH13 ALONE will be affected, or how (*sighs*) Justin Bieber will be affected. So consider this post a guide to newcomers learning about SOPA and PIPA, and what can be done about them.
While SOPA and PIPA are under different names, they pretty much serve the same purpose: to stop online piracy. Now, I'm absolutely against piracy, and I believe it's a problem that needs fixing.
Unfortunately, that's where my agreements with these bills end, and the critisism begins.
These bills are so poorly written, that it will cause much more harm than good. Essentially, this gives copyright holders and the big corporations of America the decision of what they want and don't want on the internet. If a website is discovered to be dealing with copywritten content, and the copyright holder complains to the government, then without the requirement of a formal investigation, the site is seized to block any income, or can simply be taken down, the name of the violator is blacklisted, and you could be sued. Another example: say you post a link to a picture on another website. The copyright holder complains. That website is gone, the website linking to the other site is gone, blacklisting occures, and possible lawsuits follow. So think of it this way...
YouTube: Gone.
Wikipedia: Gone.
Facebook: Gone.
Twitter: Gone.
Reddit: Gone.
KH13: Gone.
Pretty much any site with a dedicated user community / contains user generated content: Gone.
Any site trying to start a business (which all but REQUIRES the use of copywritten material): Gone.
Online innovation: Gone.
Online freedom of speech: Gone.
Now this may not have been what the bills were designed for, but the poor writing in them ensure that they can, and will, be used for these purposes. The rich get richer, and the average person gets kicked into the dirt.
Now this has been an issue for some time now, but the only people that were paying much notice were the avid gamers and internet users. That's why Reddit and Wikipedia spearheaded a campaign to ensure that EVERYONE would pay attention to this threat, by blacking out their sites for 24 hours along with thousands of other sites, to show just what SOPA can do to the internet. This act is presumably why most of the people on here are paying attention to SOPA and PIPA now. More importantly, this is a huge step forward for the people, as for the first time, the average person is standing up and telling congress that we will not accept this, and they're hearing what we have to say.
Now some of you might be thinking, "Well, this is a U.S bill right? Well, I'm not American, so it won't hurt me." In fact, I'm Canadian, so this should mean nothing to me. Absolutely wrong. The bill itself was originally designed to specifically target non-US sites containing pirated material and take them down. The big American companies are trying to control what people WORLDWIDE are and are not allowed to see. This is a situation where 'not living in America' is no excuse.
So now we have people speaking out on the internet's behalf. But remember how I said that gamers are firmly opposed to SOPA and PIPA? Well, congress doesn't know that. There's a company that's widely believed to represent gamers everywhere, and the gaming industry as a whole: the ESA, the guys behind E3. They are one of SOPA's biggest supporters. Upon this news coming out, gaming news site Screwattack began a petition with a bunch of other people, calling it the "League for Gamers". Here's them talking about it:
So basically the plan is to send a message to the ESA saying that if they won't support us, we won't support them. E3 is their main source of income, and if anything happened to reduce its popularity, they would take a major hit. So various gaming news sites are refusing to cover or attend E3 2012 to send a message, and are trying to get game developers that don't support SOPA and PIPA (like Epic Games), to not attend as well, until they renounce their support of SOPA, and its threat to the independent gaming industry and the gaming news industry. I'd love for KH13 to be part of this (since DC mentioned we're popular enough to warrant sending someone on their behalf to report on E3), but I'm by no means saying this is something he has to do. I think 'Stuttering Craig', founder of Screwattack, said it best in their most recent podcast: "E3... is generally your biggest week of the year from the traffic, but what's more important: a week of good traffic, or the website in general, and the gaming industry as a whole?"
The people hate SOPA and the people hate PIPA. But for once, people are putting their words into action, and letting the people in 'control' know that we won't stand by and let them stomp all over our basic rights. We won't let them take away from us one of the VERY few places where we can truly express ourselves. It's not enough to just say "I don't like SOPA." Now that you're all informed that there's a problem, do something to make sure that your voice is heard.
EDIT: I had left my computer while typing this, and didn't see Koko's threat to kill anyone who talked about SOPA. Don't kill me.
Yes, this is yet ANOTHER firetrucking post about SOPA. If you don't deem this worthy of being its own post, then feel free to close this thread.
As I'm sure pretty much everyone on this site knows by now, there are these bills going around, called SOPA and PIPA. However, a lot of what I've seen on here about it is about how KH13 ALONE will be affected, or how (*sighs*) Justin Bieber will be affected. So consider this post a guide to newcomers learning about SOPA and PIPA, and what can be done about them.
While SOPA and PIPA are under different names, they pretty much serve the same purpose: to stop online piracy. Now, I'm absolutely against piracy, and I believe it's a problem that needs fixing.
Unfortunately, that's where my agreements with these bills end, and the critisism begins.
These bills are so poorly written, that it will cause much more harm than good. Essentially, this gives copyright holders and the big corporations of America the decision of what they want and don't want on the internet. If a website is discovered to be dealing with copywritten content, and the copyright holder complains to the government, then without the requirement of a formal investigation, the site is seized to block any income, or can simply be taken down, the name of the violator is blacklisted, and you could be sued. Another example: say you post a link to a picture on another website. The copyright holder complains. That website is gone, the website linking to the other site is gone, blacklisting occures, and possible lawsuits follow. So think of it this way...
YouTube: Gone.
Wikipedia: Gone.
Facebook: Gone.
Twitter: Gone.
Reddit: Gone.
KH13: Gone.
Pretty much any site with a dedicated user community / contains user generated content: Gone.
Any site trying to start a business (which all but REQUIRES the use of copywritten material): Gone.
Online innovation: Gone.
Online freedom of speech: Gone.
Now this may not have been what the bills were designed for, but the poor writing in them ensure that they can, and will, be used for these purposes. The rich get richer, and the average person gets kicked into the dirt.
Now this has been an issue for some time now, but the only people that were paying much notice were the avid gamers and internet users. That's why Reddit and Wikipedia spearheaded a campaign to ensure that EVERYONE would pay attention to this threat, by blacking out their sites for 24 hours along with thousands of other sites, to show just what SOPA can do to the internet. This act is presumably why most of the people on here are paying attention to SOPA and PIPA now. More importantly, this is a huge step forward for the people, as for the first time, the average person is standing up and telling congress that we will not accept this, and they're hearing what we have to say.
Now some of you might be thinking, "Well, this is a U.S bill right? Well, I'm not American, so it won't hurt me." In fact, I'm Canadian, so this should mean nothing to me. Absolutely wrong. The bill itself was originally designed to specifically target non-US sites containing pirated material and take them down. The big American companies are trying to control what people WORLDWIDE are and are not allowed to see. This is a situation where 'not living in America' is no excuse.
So now we have people speaking out on the internet's behalf. But remember how I said that gamers are firmly opposed to SOPA and PIPA? Well, congress doesn't know that. There's a company that's widely believed to represent gamers everywhere, and the gaming industry as a whole: the ESA, the guys behind E3. They are one of SOPA's biggest supporters. Upon this news coming out, gaming news site Screwattack began a petition with a bunch of other people, calling it the "League for Gamers". Here's them talking about it:
http-~~-//www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bp8S8eJkMW8
So basically the plan is to send a message to the ESA saying that if they won't support us, we won't support them. E3 is their main source of income, and if anything happened to reduce its popularity, they would take a major hit. So various gaming news sites are refusing to cover or attend E3 2012 to send a message, and are trying to get game developers that don't support SOPA and PIPA (like Epic Games), to not attend as well, until they renounce their support of SOPA, and its threat to the independent gaming industry and the gaming news industry. I'd love for KH13 to be part of this (since DC mentioned we're popular enough to warrant sending someone on their behalf to report on E3), but I'm by no means saying this is something he has to do. I think 'Stuttering Craig', founder of Screwattack, said it best in their most recent podcast: "E3... is generally your biggest week of the year from the traffic, but what's more important: a week of good traffic, or the website in general, and the gaming industry as a whole?"
http://www.change.or...-and-boycott-e3
The people hate SOPA and the people hate PIPA. But for once, people are putting their words into action, and letting the people in 'control' know that we won't stand by and let them stomp all over our basic rights. We won't let them take away from us one of the VERY few places where we can truly express ourselves. It's not enough to just say "I don't like SOPA." Now that you're all informed that there's a problem, do something to make sure that your voice is heard.
baylaust out.
Edited by baylaust