Every free thinking person and any sane person should oppose this SOPA. If it goes through it will give film, music and games corperation the tools to basically shut down any web site they deem to be in breach of copyright.
Youtube will either have to block 90% of its user base or shut down. Sites like this can be shut down if they give a review of a game without permision from the game developer or publisher. Same with web review sites like the Escapist.
Microsoft and Appel have signed up in support of this act as well.
I think something needs to be done to stop online piracy but this SOPA is an extreme measure, but in the USA goverment it seems if you have the money you can get any law passed by buying off the senators within said goverment.
It's worse than that lol, if the USERS post anything like a fan vid, pictures or w/e MMORPG.com could be shutdown and or blocked. That user could recieve up to 5 years in prison for that fan made vid.
It's just asinine and it won't pass, if it does it's likely to cause massive amounts of riots lol.
You can't believe the amount of crap companies pull on youtube because of fan-made vids! The constant blocks and take-downs are what WOULD have happened if Sopa passed. Plus 5+ more years in the slammer.
Our internet is turning into nothing more than a paradise for companies to do-in the average joe. First it started with youtube and the dmca frenzies. Then the mass twitter/facebook requirement logins for websites. Then SOPA. Now it's Protect IP!
Every free thinking person and any sane person should oppose this SOPA. If it goes through it will give film, music and games corperation the tools to basically shut down any web site they deem to be in breach of copyright.
Youtube will either have to block 90% of its user base or shut down. Sites like this can be shut down if they give a review of a game without permision from the game developer or publisher. Same with web review sites like the Escapist.
Microsoft and Appel have signed up in support of this act as well.
I think something needs to be done to stop online piracy but this SOPA is an extreme measure, but in the USA goverment it seems if you have the money you can get any law passed by buying off the senators within said goverment.
It's worse than that lol, if the USERS post anything like a fan vid, pictures or w/e MMORPG.com could be shutdown and or blocked. That user could recieve up to 5 years in prison for that fan made vid.
It's just asinine and it won't pass, if it does it's likely to cause massive amounts of riots lol.
You can't believe the amount of crap companies pull on youtube because of fan-made vids! The constant blocks and take-downs are what WOULD have happened if Sopa passed. Plus 5+ more years in the slammer.
Our internet is turning into nothing more than a paradise for companies to do-in the average joe. First it started with youtube and the dmca frenzies. Then the mass twitter/facebook requirement logins for websites. Then SOPA. Now it's Protect IP!
Hopefully the reaction this has spurned will slap some sense into people and everyone can start to recognize that these copyright laws need to be revised, simplified and limited a great deal. Look at what COULD happen if they remain as stringent as they are now. we could end up with a bill passed that could put your 10 year old in jail for singing "Super Bass" and posting it on youtube...........
Im definately against it. It is way too vague for me to trust. I really dont like it when this kind of power is put in the hands of commercial companies. Im against piracy too, but this act goes beyond that and at the same time cant prevent piracy. There are no safeguards to prevent from blocking content that doesnt violate any copyright laws.
I find it again incredibly mindboggling that large multinationals can make this happen. (My English is lacking in this topic, so I cant write in more detail)
I agree with the sentiments of most of the posters here on the issue so i dont have much else to add on that front. However others have brought up something about how large industries have been showing how much they feel entitled to your money and i just wanted to bring up something i remembered from when i was much younger and have learned a bit about since.
When i was growing up cassette tapes were the medium used by everyone for the buying and selling of music (vhs tapes vs. dvd's as well, and cartridges vs disk for games). When the music industry first started trying to promote the use of cd's over cassette's, they went on record on a number of publication's (pre-internet so i apologize for no link) trying to justify to people why they should switch to this new medium which cost on average $8 more for the same new album (new cassette's were usually about $12, while cd's were around $20).
They promoted them based on there convenience and promised the public that when cd's became the new mainstream medium, they would actually drop the prices to less then what they were currently charging for cassette tapes. They said they would be able to do this because cd's were less expensive to manufacture than cassette's (which is actually true and i suspect is also the case with dvd's and game disks vs vhs and cartridge).
Of course by the time the cd's did become the mainstream standard the music industry pretended to completly forget ever having made such claims or promises of making music more affordable. They simply continued to pocket the savings as profit from the lowering of there manufacturing overhead.
As for the artists that create the music in the first place, depending on the contract they are lucky if they get $1.50-$2 for every $17 cd sold. The store you buy the cd from, might get $5. Guess who gets the rest? The same people who have been whining about internet pirating and lobbying for bills like this.
I strongly suspect the same is the case with movie dvd sales is also true, since they also chose to use cheaper to manufacture media while not lowering there prices to reflect this, instead choosing to pocket the profit while at the same time complaining how they arent getting enough.
Games have also moved to the disk format, but at least with games they actually have become much more sophisticated and expensive to make, where as movies on the other hand are actually getting worse each year. With that being the case i can understand why so many game companies are not as afraid of piracy since they understand that people will pay for there product even if a few pirates dont. Same cannot be said for most movies.
Contact you congressman and senator and tell them to vote against these bills.The power it gives companys to shut down any site is almost limitless. ANY SITE....gaming...music....political.....news. You name it.
It does seem strange that any thread on this topic was closed down and now here is is as an article.
I and others on here have put forward the idea of a League of Gamers, a gamers union if you will. Ironicaly it may take the backing of a gaming company to get it of the drawing board.
The internet was never going to be a free domain forever, anyone who thinks that is naive and needs to apply the lessons of history more. This act is going too far, but even if stopped you wont be able to stop it forever.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WJIuYgIvKsc <<< Um why should SOPA not be stopped I did check into this myself who distributed the file sharing software? I dont remember exactly the dates, but over 5 years ago this software was avalable on Cnet, and download.com such as Bit Torrent, it was deven advertised on my ISP site I do remember that much.
Cant Stop Freedom OF Information, and Free Speech.
Even when you get banned from a forum or blog its easy to get around because its the internets.
Also another key fact here about SOPA, We are the ones who pay for your software, games, music, etc. We don't have to waste a single cent buying your software, or games if you are trying to pass SOPA, so while we as a whole have control over your company and your income then why would we support SOPA when we are legally buying for games, and music.
I say if I buy the music, I should have Fair use of that content to post a video of my own on YouTube with that song for example, just as if I were playing it from my Radio In real Life really loud, what stops someone else from recording it illegally from there huh, does everyone else listening who doesn't owna license to listen to that music get into trouble?
And hey if you don't want your work stolen or fair use of your content, then don't be part of the Entertainment Industry, and no I am serious about that otherwise expect free speech, free flow of information, and fair use of it.
Oh thats right congress, go ahead and pass SOPA, if you will, but be prepared for what will come after that, not only are they trying to stop internet piracy, but they are trying to restrict being anonymous on the internet, here is a copy of an email I got.
Dear Censored,
On Tuesday, January 24th, congress is likely to pass a new bill called 'SOPA' (the Stop Online Piracy Act) that will allow the US government to block Americans from visiting certain websites. Similar to 'The Great Firewall of China' and countries such as Iran and Syria, SOPA will allow the government the ability to control and censor the internet by forcing internet service providers to firewall websites and IP addresses.
Unfortunately SOPA states that websites and services that enable people to bypass censorship will themselves be censored. Therefore if SOPA passes, online anonymity services such as HMA! will be at high risk of being banned in the US altogether.
Although the likes of Google, Facebook, Twitter, Yahoo, Mozilla, Wikipedia, and other influential companies are strongly opposing the bill, SOPA still has a lot of support and financial backing. Please take a moment out of your day to learn more about SOPA and help protect the future of your internet; here are some links and videos to get you started:
This isn't about stopping piracy, this is ultimately about control and stripping even more freedom and rights away from you, just like the U.S sitting their ass in the Middle East is for the sake of "national security" or claim that guns are too dangerous and thus, nobody should have the right to own one. *rolls eyes*
the fact is there is numerous technology already out there to prevent probably about 80-90% of these things such as credit card theft in the military they have a card that has a small sim card like chip that is removeable within them to prevent exactly things like that the technology is there and could be intregated but the corparation's are unwilling to put out the money to protect themselve's their customers or their product's.
They should stop countries like china reverse engineering and stealing technology from american based manufacturer's and protect those types of pirating before they even begin to venture onto the internet why do you think the new iphone you just got 2 months ago is half the price now than it was upon release cause the original one was built with better quality than the new over sea's manufactured ones at retailers that was produced in some other country for one eighth of the cost.
It goes much deeper than that even many american based companie's and manufacturer's are being put out of buisness cause countrie's like china do not have the same intelectual copy right law as we do here. A large solar panel company went out of buisness in northern california last year do to a company in china that could produce the same size panel with same solar electrical storage power as the ones being built in northern california but the over sea built panel's don't carry even 1/3 of the american manufactured panels.
This is about censorship and a whole lot more than that I understand that pirating over the internet is an issue BUT if these manufacturer's offerd at least a decent guarentee of a product the markets wouldn't be so scared as consumer's would be willing to take some risk.
Try this go buy a stereo from Wal-Mart and decide you don't like it and would like to take it back and get a product at another store. Guess what you can't Wal-Mart a company that got government grants back when it was first started claiming on the fact that it was going to only carry american manufactured product's back in the 50 and 60s or whenver it first got started will not give you your money back they will only nearly 99% of the time give you store credit equal to the amount of your purchase preventing them from losing whatever money it was they had from your initial purchase.
It's shady buisness tactics like this that are keeping american's from putting out the risk of investing into the market and no im not talking about people that are already millionare's and can take the risk of losing a couple hundred thousand dollar's im talking about the little guy that has ten grand max to invest what should he do with it. These large corparations are bleeding this country dry without any reguards as to what the long term damage is.
I'll tell you right now my dream for the longest time was just to be able to get a decent enough paying job to be able to have a family and have a few kid's maybe if im lucky buy a house within my lifetime but with the way it is now there would be nothing for that child when he grow's up to have a chance at working towards. This goes way way deeper than just pirating a few video games knock off peices of software and watching a pirated movie or two this is corprate greed at its finest these politician's that are backing it check in on who their money is invested in who their campaign contribution's come from and you'll understand why they backed it just like the texas senator that backed this bill and pushed for it one of his largest campaign donor's is within the movie association's guild.
There's too many career politician's now aday's and they could give a rats ass about the little guy trying to scratch a living outta the rocks as long as they're investment's are guarenteed and they're taken care of who cares about me or him. The sad fact of our government is that its far more corrupt than we could ever actuall imagine and its a sad truth hopefully americans open they're eye's before this country is lost in its entirety and turns into one giant corparation itself.
I can still hear Bill HIcks shouting 'Wake up America!', glad to see some of you are getting with the program.
Hope the paper these bills are written on ends up as recycled toilet paper. Failing that, I'll see you all on the Free Internet when the hackers get their satellite network up and running.
I am older than most of you. I have watched our freedom disappear at an alarming pace these in the last few years. Soon it will be too late. Contact your Senator and Rep. and let them know how you feel. The constitution is bleeding out....we have lost so much already.
Yes this thing is just wrong, and reaks of capitalism all over
Capitalism is when the big corperations run your county (U.S.A), {Greece)
FYI your country has never been for the people for the last 30 years. And no matter who you vote in (Obama, or Ron paul) your always going to have the same problems, because the leaders are just puppets. They have no power too do anything. Thats why Obama has done nothing, because he is unable too.
The corperations are the ones that own you, and your country. They can make or break your laws in whatever way they see fit. Thank god I don't live in a capitalist country.
I’ll state clearly right up front that I believe curbing online piracy is a worthy aim. That said, the more I learn about this act and its sister in the Senate, the Protect IP Act, the more uneasy I feel about the proposed mechanism. For me, it brings up the classic quandary of whether the ends justify the means and how much collateral damage is acceptable. What’s more, it’s not a simple black and white situation since there’s no way of knowing if the implementation will be precise and surgical, heavy-handed in the extreme or somewhere in between.
Richard, Richard, Richard.. The wording of SOPA actually does make it a black and white issue.
It allows corporations to bypass the court system all together and get a website blocked or shutdown. That is the MAIN problem with SOPA.
When a law makes select people above the law, like in this case and in the case of the NDAA section 1021, we SHOULD oppose it.
To stop it we would have to stike back. Boycott products, movies, games, etc of every SOPA and PIP supporter. Hurt their wallets bad enough and they wouldn't dare trying something this asinine again.
Sadly people in general don't have that kind of commitment in protecting their rights.
If only content providers would spend the money they are burning at (ineffectively) fighting against piracy, to develop new methods of distributing and offering competitively priced content to the consumers.
Better to build more sandcastles to stem the flood, right?
2 friends who didn't knew anything about SOPA are now tweeting agains't it.
Youtube and facebook should do the same, close for one day with a link of what SOPA can do.
BAM, suddenly, they lose.
Just like that
BAM
"Esport with tournaments is for hardcore pvp'rs that want to be competitive. Openworld PVP with ganking and griefing is for casuals that just wants their pvp mixed with pve from time to time." otacu
If only content providers would spend the money they are burning at (ineffectively) fighting against piracy, to develop new methods of distributing and offering competitively priced content to the consumers.
Better to build more sandcastles to stem the flood, right?
They won't pass the savings on to the consumer though and thats the problem. They have no issue cutting cost to increase profits, but never will they cut costs to offer competitively priced content for the consumer.
Look at SWTOR.............
Digital Copy = $59.99
Physical Copy = $59.99
Standard price of a physical copy of a new game = $59.99
They used a cheap means of distribution.......... but they did not pass the savings on to the consumer.
Whats more likely to happen is they will come up with a cheaper form of distribution and find a way to charge consumers more for it lol. Has happened to many times to count now.
Youtube and facebook should do the same, close for one day with a link of what SOPA can do.
And Google, because they claim to be supporting Stop SOPA too.
Yeah a bit dissapointed in Google for backing out of a full blackout and instead using some black box over the logo. Google blacking out with wikipedia would have been a huge and meaningful blow.
If only content providers would spend the money they are burning at (ineffectively) fighting against piracy, to develop new methods of distributing and offering competitively priced content to the consumers.
Better to build more sandcastles to stem the flood, right?
They won't pass the savings on to the consumer though and thats the problem. They have no issue cutting cost to increase profits, but never will they cut costs to offer competitively priced content for the consumer.
Look at SWTOR.............
Digital Copy = $59.99
Physical Copy = $59.99
Standard price of a physical copy of a new game = $59.99
They used a cheap means of distribution.......... but they did not pass the savings on to the consumer.
Whats more likely to happen is they will come up with a cheaper form of distribution and find a way to charge consumers more for it lol. Has happened to many times to count now.
You're absolutely right. And that's why they are in trouble. People are willing to pay for content, but they are not ready to be blatantly ripped off. Call of Duty - same game every year with different skin and 60 bucks/euros plus 15 euros for each 2-3 map packs.
People are already voting with their wallets. There is no more money for them to be had even if all the piracy would stop tomorrow. They are not losing money to piracy because that money does not exist.
Guess I can't blame them though. They earn much more money by selling a million copies at 60 bucks each than 2 million copies at 30 bucks.
In any case, my statement stands. They should spend the money they are spending fighting piracy elsewhere and it would benefit them more.
I still think the end piracy as a whole is dumb. Big corporations like Adobe and Autodesk think they will make a lot more money with piracy gone, but in a way piracy promotes products far more than harms it. Programs that cost 3-4 thousand dollars STILL will not be bought because people can't afford them. Things like movies, anime, games are often pirated to be played first, then if people like it, they buy it to get continued updates, new content, etc. Be aware i'm only commenting on personal use /non-profit pirating. I do NOT support or respect those who pirate for profit.
It will be interesting if ending pirating actually hurts companies more than it solves.
IMO Businesses need to accept a new business model. Give the core program free, charge for add-ons.
Anime needs to get off it's high horse and stop charging people for day1 releases. It's being released for free in japan the same day people are downloading it around the world. Simply provide it free the first day and charge after day1. Downloading anime is no different then borrowing a recorded VHS/DVD from a friend that taped it. Or are all Home recordings banned now too?
Movies - they already make 10x over the budget spent to make it. People who support their actors still buy it.
Games - If game companies actually put effort into making a good game, people will buy it. RAGE for instance was a $60 pile of **** game. How many times have we bought a game for it to turn out crappy? Demos you say? They only show the good parts of a game to get you hooked.
So if companies want to complain about piraters, they need to give people a reason to buy it.
I'll say this again. I believe 100% pirating promotes products more than it hurts them. Once they find a way to stop people, we're going to see a major decline in those products. Less games being risked to buy, no more fan content when kids can't afford adobe programs, no more new anime being known to people.
Comments
You can't believe the amount of crap companies pull on youtube because of fan-made vids! The constant blocks and take-downs are what WOULD have happened if Sopa passed. Plus 5+ more years in the slammer.
Our internet is turning into nothing more than a paradise for companies to do-in the average joe. First it started with youtube and the dmca frenzies. Then the mass twitter/facebook requirement logins for websites. Then SOPA. Now it's Protect IP!
Hopefully the reaction this has spurned will slap some sense into people and everyone can start to recognize that these copyright laws need to be revised, simplified and limited a great deal. Look at what COULD happen if they remain as stringent as they are now. we could end up with a bill passed that could put your 10 year old in jail for singing "Super Bass" and posting it on youtube...........
Hows that for a reality check :P
Im definately against it. It is way too vague for me to trust. I really dont like it when this kind of power is put in the hands of commercial companies. Im against piracy too, but this act goes beyond that and at the same time cant prevent piracy. There are no safeguards to prevent from blocking content that doesnt violate any copyright laws.
I find it again incredibly mindboggling that large multinationals can make this happen. (My English is lacking in this topic, so I cant write in more detail)
I agree with the sentiments of most of the posters here on the issue so i dont have much else to add on that front. However others have brought up something about how large industries have been showing how much they feel entitled to your money and i just wanted to bring up something i remembered from when i was much younger and have learned a bit about since.
When i was growing up cassette tapes were the medium used by everyone for the buying and selling of music (vhs tapes vs. dvd's as well, and cartridges vs disk for games). When the music industry first started trying to promote the use of cd's over cassette's, they went on record on a number of publication's (pre-internet so i apologize for no link) trying to justify to people why they should switch to this new medium which cost on average $8 more for the same new album (new cassette's were usually about $12, while cd's were around $20).
They promoted them based on there convenience and promised the public that when cd's became the new mainstream medium, they would actually drop the prices to less then what they were currently charging for cassette tapes. They said they would be able to do this because cd's were less expensive to manufacture than cassette's (which is actually true and i suspect is also the case with dvd's and game disks vs vhs and cartridge).
Of course by the time the cd's did become the mainstream standard the music industry pretended to completly forget ever having made such claims or promises of making music more affordable. They simply continued to pocket the savings as profit from the lowering of there manufacturing overhead.
As for the artists that create the music in the first place, depending on the contract they are lucky if they get $1.50-$2 for every $17 cd sold. The store you buy the cd from, might get $5. Guess who gets the rest? The same people who have been whining about internet pirating and lobbying for bills like this.
I strongly suspect the same is the case with movie dvd sales is also true, since they also chose to use cheaper to manufacture media while not lowering there prices to reflect this, instead choosing to pocket the profit while at the same time complaining how they arent getting enough.
Games have also moved to the disk format, but at least with games they actually have become much more sophisticated and expensive to make, where as movies on the other hand are actually getting worse each year. With that being the case i can understand why so many game companies are not as afraid of piracy since they understand that people will pay for there product even if a few pirates dont. Same cannot be said for most movies.
Free internet is very important, but as long as we find it normal to steal stuff there will always be SOPA's.
Contact you congressman and senator and tell them to vote against these bills.The power it gives companys to shut down any site is almost limitless. ANY SITE....gaming...music....political.....news. You name it.
asdas
It does seem strange that any thread on this topic was closed down and now here is is as an article.
I and others on here have put forward the idea of a League of Gamers, a gamers union if you will. Ironicaly it may take the backing of a gaming company to get it of the drawing board.
The internet was never going to be a free domain forever, anyone who thinks that is naive and needs to apply the lessons of history more. This act is going too far, but even if stopped you wont be able to stop it forever.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WJIuYgIvKsc <<< Um why should SOPA not be stopped I did check into this myself who distributed the file sharing software? I dont remember exactly the dates, but over 5 years ago this software was avalable on Cnet, and download.com such as Bit Torrent, it was deven advertised on my ISP site I do remember that much.
Cant Stop Freedom OF Information, and Free Speech.
Even when you get banned from a forum or blog its easy to get around because its the internets.
Also another key fact here about SOPA, We are the ones who pay for your software, games, music, etc. We don't have to waste a single cent buying your software, or games if you are trying to pass SOPA, so while we as a whole have control over your company and your income then why would we support SOPA when we are legally buying for games, and music.
I say if I buy the music, I should have Fair use of that content to post a video of my own on YouTube with that song for example, just as if I were playing it from my Radio In real Life really loud, what stops someone else from recording it illegally from there huh, does everyone else listening who doesn't owna license to listen to that music get into trouble?
And hey if you don't want your work stolen or fair use of your content, then don't be part of the Entertainment Industry, and no I am serious about that otherwise expect free speech, free flow of information, and fair use of it.
Oh thats right congress, go ahead and pass SOPA, if you will, but be prepared for what will come after that, not only are they trying to stop internet piracy, but they are trying to restrict being anonymous on the internet, here is a copy of an email I got.
Dear Censored,
On Tuesday, January 24th, congress is likely to pass a new bill called 'SOPA' (the Stop Online Piracy Act) that will allow the US government to block Americans from visiting certain websites. Similar to 'The Great Firewall of China' and countries such as Iran and Syria, SOPA will allow the government the ability to control and censor the internet by forcing internet service providers to firewall websites and IP addresses.
Unfortunately SOPA states that websites and services that enable people to bypass censorship will themselves be censored. Therefore if SOPA passes, online anonymity services such as HMA! will be at high risk of being banned in the US altogether.
Although the likes of Google, Facebook, Twitter, Yahoo, Mozilla, Wikipedia, and other influential companies are strongly opposing the bill, SOPA still has a lot of support and financial backing. Please take a moment out of your day to learn more about SOPA and help protect the future of your internet; here are some links and videos to get you started:
How to take action / http://americancensorship.org/
Excellent Ars Technica article / http://arst.ch/rdk
7 things you need to know / http://goo.gl/S3eu7
VPN and anonymity providers are at risk / http://goo.gl/oMwRT
'WTF is SOPA?' Youtube video / http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JhwuXNv8fJM
Kind regards,
HMA! Team
P.S. if this bill does come into place, don't worry HMA! VPN will still work as normal.
This isn't about stopping piracy, this is ultimately about control and stripping even more freedom and rights away from you, just like the U.S sitting their ass in the Middle East is for the sake of "national security" or claim that guns are too dangerous and thus, nobody should have the right to own one. *rolls eyes*
You really believe that? That isn't how it works.
the fact is there is numerous technology already out there to prevent probably about 80-90% of these things such as credit card theft in the military they have a card that has a small sim card like chip that is removeable within them to prevent exactly things like that the technology is there and could be intregated but the corparation's are unwilling to put out the money to protect themselve's their customers or their product's.
They should stop countries like china reverse engineering and stealing technology from american based manufacturer's and protect those types of pirating before they even begin to venture onto the internet why do you think the new iphone you just got 2 months ago is half the price now than it was upon release cause the original one was built with better quality than the new over sea's manufactured ones at retailers that was produced in some other country for one eighth of the cost.
It goes much deeper than that even many american based companie's and manufacturer's are being put out of buisness cause countrie's like china do not have the same intelectual copy right law as we do here. A large solar panel company went out of buisness in northern california last year do to a company in china that could produce the same size panel with same solar electrical storage power as the ones being built in northern california but the over sea built panel's don't carry even 1/3 of the american manufactured panels.
This is about censorship and a whole lot more than that I understand that pirating over the internet is an issue BUT if these manufacturer's offerd at least a decent guarentee of a product the markets wouldn't be so scared as consumer's would be willing to take some risk.
Try this go buy a stereo from Wal-Mart and decide you don't like it and would like to take it back and get a product at another store. Guess what you can't Wal-Mart a company that got government grants back when it was first started claiming on the fact that it was going to only carry american manufactured product's back in the 50 and 60s or whenver it first got started will not give you your money back they will only nearly 99% of the time give you store credit equal to the amount of your purchase preventing them from losing whatever money it was they had from your initial purchase.
It's shady buisness tactics like this that are keeping american's from putting out the risk of investing into the market and no im not talking about people that are already millionare's and can take the risk of losing a couple hundred thousand dollar's im talking about the little guy that has ten grand max to invest what should he do with it. These large corparations are bleeding this country dry without any reguards as to what the long term damage is.
I'll tell you right now my dream for the longest time was just to be able to get a decent enough paying job to be able to have a family and have a few kid's maybe if im lucky buy a house within my lifetime but with the way it is now there would be nothing for that child when he grow's up to have a chance at working towards. This goes way way deeper than just pirating a few video games knock off peices of software and watching a pirated movie or two this is corprate greed at its finest these politician's that are backing it check in on who their money is invested in who their campaign contribution's come from and you'll understand why they backed it just like the texas senator that backed this bill and pushed for it one of his largest campaign donor's is within the movie association's guild.
There's too many career politician's now aday's and they could give a rats ass about the little guy trying to scratch a living outta the rocks as long as they're investment's are guarenteed and they're taken care of who cares about me or him. The sad fact of our government is that its far more corrupt than we could ever actuall imagine and its a sad truth hopefully americans open they're eye's before this country is lost in its entirety and turns into one giant corparation itself.
I can still hear Bill HIcks shouting 'Wake up America!', glad to see some of you are getting with the program.
Hope the paper these bills are written on ends up as recycled toilet paper. Failing that, I'll see you all on the Free Internet when the hackers get their satellite network up and running.
Yes this thing is just wrong, and reaks of capitalism all over
Capitalism is when the big corperations run your county (U.S.A), {Greece)
FYI your country has never been for the people for the last 30 years. And no matter who you vote in (Obama, or Ron paul) your always going to have the same problems, because the leaders are just puppets. They have no power too do anything. Thats why Obama has done nothing, because he is unable too.
The corperations are the ones that own you, and your country. They can make or break your laws in whatever way they see fit. Thank god I don't live in a capitalist country.
Richard, Richard, Richard.. The wording of SOPA actually does make it a black and white issue.
It allows corporations to bypass the court system all together and get a website blocked or shutdown. That is the MAIN problem with SOPA.
When a law makes select people above the law, like in this case and in the case of the NDAA section 1021, we SHOULD oppose it.
To stop it we would have to stike back. Boycott products, movies, games, etc of every SOPA and PIP supporter. Hurt their wallets bad enough and they wouldn't dare trying something this asinine again.
Sadly people in general don't have that kind of commitment in protecting their rights.
If only content providers would spend the money they are burning at (ineffectively) fighting against piracy, to develop new methods of distributing and offering competitively priced content to the consumers.
Better to build more sandcastles to stem the flood, right?
Corporations are people in the USA so be nice to them :P
What wikipedia did is huge...
2 friends who didn't knew anything about SOPA are now tweeting agains't it.
Youtube and facebook should do the same, close for one day with a link of what SOPA can do.
BAM, suddenly, they lose.
Just like that
BAM
"Esport with tournaments is for hardcore pvp'rs that want to be competitive. Openworld PVP with ganking and griefing is for casuals that just wants their pvp mixed with pve from time to time."
otacu
They won't pass the savings on to the consumer though and thats the problem. They have no issue cutting cost to increase profits, but never will they cut costs to offer competitively priced content for the consumer.
Look at SWTOR.............
Digital Copy = $59.99
Physical Copy = $59.99
Standard price of a physical copy of a new game = $59.99
They used a cheap means of distribution.......... but they did not pass the savings on to the consumer.
Whats more likely to happen is they will come up with a cheaper form of distribution and find a way to charge consumers more for it lol. Has happened to many times to count now.
And Google, because they claim to be supporting Stop SOPA too.
Yeah a bit dissapointed in Google for backing out of a full blackout and instead using some black box over the logo. Google blacking out with wikipedia would have been a huge and meaningful blow.
You're absolutely right. And that's why they are in trouble. People are willing to pay for content, but they are not ready to be blatantly ripped off. Call of Duty - same game every year with different skin and 60 bucks/euros plus 15 euros for each 2-3 map packs.
People are already voting with their wallets. There is no more money for them to be had even if all the piracy would stop tomorrow. They are not losing money to piracy because that money does not exist.
Guess I can't blame them though. They earn much more money by selling a million copies at 60 bucks each than 2 million copies at 30 bucks.
In any case, my statement stands. They should spend the money they are spending fighting piracy elsewhere and it would benefit them more.
I still think the end piracy as a whole is dumb. Big corporations like Adobe and Autodesk think they will make a lot more money with piracy gone, but in a way piracy promotes products far more than harms it. Programs that cost 3-4 thousand dollars STILL will not be bought because people can't afford them. Things like movies, anime, games are often pirated to be played first, then if people like it, they buy it to get continued updates, new content, etc. Be aware i'm only commenting on personal use /non-profit pirating. I do NOT support or respect those who pirate for profit.
It will be interesting if ending pirating actually hurts companies more than it solves.
IMO Businesses need to accept a new business model. Give the core program free, charge for add-ons.
Anime needs to get off it's high horse and stop charging people for day1 releases. It's being released for free in japan the same day people are downloading it around the world. Simply provide it free the first day and charge after day1. Downloading anime is no different then borrowing a recorded VHS/DVD from a friend that taped it. Or are all Home recordings banned now too?
Movies - they already make 10x over the budget spent to make it. People who support their actors still buy it.
Games - If game companies actually put effort into making a good game, people will buy it. RAGE for instance was a $60 pile of **** game. How many times have we bought a game for it to turn out crappy? Demos you say? They only show the good parts of a game to get you hooked.
So if companies want to complain about piraters, they need to give people a reason to buy it.
I'll say this again. I believe 100% pirating promotes products more than it hurts them. Once they find a way to stop people, we're going to see a major decline in those products. Less games being risked to buy, no more fan content when kids can't afford adobe programs, no more new anime being known to people.
come on sopa, get outta here.... been trying to use wikipedia for hours.....
-.-