Stop the Destruction of the Internet

KermMartian · Last edited by KermMartian on 18 Jan 2012 01:22:13 am; edited 1 time in total

It's a bit of a hyperbolic title, but not by much. With a pair of bills called SOPA and PIPA that are getting fast-tracked through the US congress, sites could be sued, shut down, and have ISPs forced to block them or face retribution by big corporations and by the government, even if one user posts infringing content. It's of course a short hop, skip, and jump to shut down a site that posts any sort of opinions that disagree with a particular idea, or that perhaps promote a product that threatens to steal market share from a large corporation. This is an absolute travesty to free speech, a free internet, and the global structure of the internet:

http://fightforthefuture.org/pipa/
https://blacklist.eff.org/
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JustCause · Newbie Joined: 17 Mar 2011 Posts: 11

I encourage everyone to visit the above link and mail Congress. Additionally, there are two petitions I highly suggest everyone sign:

https://wwws.whitehouse.gov/petitions/petition/stop-e-parasite-act/SWBYXX55
http://www.change.org/petitions/stop-the-internet-control-bill-now

It'll only take a minute or two. Help us fight. ^^

Tari · Posted: 16 Nov 2011 04:53:52 pm Post subject:

It's American Censorship Day!

Boing Boing have been following SOPA pretty closely.
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qazz42 · Vampire Killer Joined: 07 Apr 2010 Posts: 4177

heh, is that even serious? I don't think they can really get away with that at all... I mean, look what happened when they tried to stop pirating (and still are).

if they can't stop pirating then no way will this work. plus, even if it does get passed, then I would love to see what Anon has to say about it Wink

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souvik1997 · Guru-in-Training Joined: 19 Apr 2010 Posts: 2870

I wonder if this is related to the Protect IP act. I've sent a couple of emails to my congressmen; I hope they've made some kind of effect.
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tifreak8x · Guru Joined: 16 Mar 2005 Posts: 9059 Location: Sol System

_player1537 · Guru-in-Training Joined: 25 Nov 2009 Posts: 2957

First of all, I don't see how this is constitutional at all. It clearly violates our first right amendment of freedom of speech by telling us what we can and cannot say, or even suggest, on the Internet. And, worse yet, we only get _one_ chance. If you slip up once, you're gone. And, from what I've read, the way that they chose to censor only blocks domain names. So, if they blocked facebook.com, you could still reach it from their IP. I also find it very odd, if not frustrating, that the House won't even listen to the opposition at the hearing today. So, not only are they deciding for the some 300,000,000 people of the US, they're not even listening to the ones who oppose it. If this passes and the US decides _not_ to be evil and take down every single website, who's to say that other countries won't adopt this method of censorship and take it to the next level? This would set a precedent, and an extremely terrible one at that.

I'm probably going to write to my senators later tonight and will urge as many people as I can to do the same. I was talking about this story today, and everyone I talked to agreed that it was an absolutely terrible idea.
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seana11 · Posted: 16 Nov 2011 10:38:10 pm Post subject:

The PROTECT IP Act is total BS. If you want to read the full text of it, it's a good read. It's very infuriating on what you're required to do as both a site owner, and a search engine. Even posting pictures of a copyrighted work (i.e. screenies) can get the site you posted them on in the doghouse. I can't believe the nerve of Leahy.
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KermMartian · Posted: 16 Nov 2011 10:52:51 pm Post subject:

Seana, then please turn your anger and frustration into contacting as many elected officials as possible to let them know how unacceptable this is! Catherine: I'm happy to hear that you are doing the same, and that's a miscarriage of justice that opposition was not being allowed to speak. Do you have a news source about that? Souvik, I'm very happy to hear that you too are taking the initiative in expressing your outrage. Qazz: the government's influence combined with the money of big corporations? They absolutely can get away with it in the interest of stopping piracy, and it's downhill from there.
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_player1537 · Guru-in-Training Joined: 25 Nov 2009 Posts: 2957

Kerm, http://boingboing.net/2011/11/15/congressional-sopa-hearings-n.html I have to leave for school or I'd say more Smile

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qazz42 · Vampire Killer Joined: 07 Apr 2010 Posts: 4177

JosJuice · Power User Joined: 17 Oct 2010 Posts: 306 Location: Sweden

SOPA is incredibly horrible, and it doesn't seem like I'm able to do anything about it since I don't live in the USA... But the negative effects are going to affect me anyway.

qazz42 · Vampire Killer Joined: 07 Apr 2010 Posts: 4177

DShiznit · Posted: 17 Nov 2011 06:30:20 pm Post subject:

And here all this time I was told that corporations are people, and we need to give them all our money and rights because then they can give us jobs...

EDIT- http://interruptions.tumblr.com/post/12915609878/sopa-bill-rejected-52-46

Can anyone confirm this, preferably with a list of who voted each way?

_player1537 · Guru-in-Training Joined: 25 Nov 2009 Posts: 2957

http://caseylalonde.tumblr.com/post/12916110209/not-sopa-bill-rejected-52-46
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qazz42 · Vampire Killer Joined: 07 Apr 2010 Posts: 4177

hmm, doesn't seem too legit, I didn't find anything. There is still the protect IP act, methinks
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allynfolksjr · Minor Calculator Deity Joined: 20 Apr 2005 Posts: 1273

BAWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWW
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qazz42 · Vampire Killer Joined: 07 Apr 2010 Posts: 4177

KermMartian · Posted: 18 Nov 2011 12:49:21 pm Post subject:

Rascherite · Posted: 18 Nov 2011 11:20:14 pm Post subject: