He lost me almost right away when he said critics of the bills were exaggerating their effects. He obviously doesn't understand what was in the original version of SOPA. They were truly horrible bills. Tampering with DNS was also not part of the DMCA.

He also seems to confuse opponents of SOPA / PIPA with being pro-piracy. This is not the case, as Jimmy Wales has stated.

I also don't think many people are proposing that we simply do nothing now that SOPA and PIPA seem to be defeated for now.

The problem was that SOPA and PIPA were drafted without input from the tech sector (which was partly the tech sector's fault). This whole thing is a giant wake up call to both sides. I believe that better laws can be written to go after pirates, but you can also do so without tampering with the free flow of information on the internet.

The govt. also busted MegaUpload without needing any new laws.

Site dude - S3 Agent #202
Need help with the site? SG101 FAQ - Send me a private message - Email me

"It starts... when it begins" -- Ralf Kilauea

His recommendation is nothing new, won't work and would cause more harm than good.

First, lobbying and campaign contributions are a form of speech protected by the First Amendment. The chaos and damage caused by McCain/Feingold is still being unravelled.

Second, it is established law going back to well before the founding of America that corporations are groups of people who do not lose their rights or responsibilities just because they form themselves into corporations. Corporations are not an "it," Corporations are a "they." Corporate speech (campaign contributions, lobbying, etc.) is protected the same way as is the Sierra Club's, AARP's or NRA's. In other words, as a group of people with common interest expressing their preferrences regarding laws, regulations and elections. You can do it too. Just did, actually. Congress has no authority to choose which corporations may and may not be politically active, nor may Congress prevent corporations from being politically active.

None of this means Congress won't try to take over campaign financing again. But as has been the result every time, what comes out of Congress is an incumbent protection act. There is little enough turn-over in Congress as it is. Anyone think Congress would pass a bill that opened up elections? If Congress put themselves in charge of financing elections (What is mis-named Public Campaign Financing is really just Congress using tax dollars to re-elect themselves.) there would even less turn-over in Congress than today.

Theft of private property is a moral problem. If everyone thinks stealing is justified, nothing, including a Police State, can prevent theft. The Soviet Union was a Police State. Privacy was unknown and wanting to be alone was considerd suspicious activity (Russian doesn't even have a word that translates as "privacy." The Soviet Union is still called a Kleptocracy, meaning that, from government officials on down, everyone stole and it was an expected and accepted way of life. In Russia today, the police still openly stop traffic to conduct random shakedowns for money. Happened to me, or rather the driver of my car.

No effort to stop online piracy will prevent anyone who wants to steal from stealing. When my dad lived in Italy under Mussolini the police were everywhere all the time. The pick-pockets still operated freely. Pretty soon, every move we make online will be tracked, stored and data-mined by the government for suspicious or illegal activity. But online pirates have already promised they keep stealing. They will.

Whew! Sorry about that.

Brian wrote:

An interesting piece by an internet startup founder. He
brings up the issue of big money in govt. policy
making:

http://www.marco.org/2012/01/20/the-next-sopa

This is Noel. Reverb's at maximum an' I'm givin' 'er all she's got.

Last edited: Jan 26, 2012 08:50:15

Ok, I'm about done here, but I thought I would leave one more:

http://www.appleoutsider.com/2012/01/26/hollywood/

Site dude - S3 Agent #202
Need help with the site? SG101 FAQ - Send me a private message - Email me

"It starts... when it begins" -- Ralf Kilauea

And what is your source on that? And are you talking about movies, music, or games?

Site dude - S3 Agent #202
Need help with the site? SG101 FAQ - Send me a private message - Email me

"It starts... when it begins" -- Ralf Kilauea

Last edited: Jan 26, 2012 15:51:23

The disgusting irony:

And yet, on the MPAA’s official blog two days ago, Dodd, posting as “Senator Chris Dodd,” called the blackout by Wikipedia and Reddit “an irresponsible response and a disservice to people who rely on them for information and use their services. It is also an abuse of power.”

Continue reading here:
[From the very good blog, Partial Objects.]

Noel wrote:

His recommendation is nothing new, won't work and would
cause more harm than good.

First, lobbying and campaign contributions are a form
of speech protected by the First Amendment. The chaos
and damage caused by McCain/Feingold is still being
unravelled.

Second, it is established law going back to well before
the founding of America that corporations are groups of
people who do not lose their rights or responsibilities
just because they form themselves into corporations.
Corporations are not an "it," Corporations are a
"they." Corporate speech (campaign contributions,
lobbying, etc.) is protected the same way as is the
Sierra Club's, AARP's or NRA's. In other words, as a
group of people with common interest expressing their
preferrences regarding laws, regulations and elections.
You can do it too. Just did, actually. Congress has no
authority to choose which corporations may and may not
be politically active, nor may Congress prevent
corporations from being politically active.

None of this means Congress won't try to take over
campaign financing again. But as has been the result
every time, what comes out of Congress is an incumbent
protection act. There is little enough turn-over in
Congress as it is. Anyone think Congress would pass a
bill that opened up elections? If Congress put
themselves in charge of financing elections (What is
mis-named Public Campaign Financing is really just
Congress using tax dollars to re-elect themselves.)
there would even less turn-over in Congress than
today.

Theft of private property is a moral problem. If
everyone thinks stealing is justified, nothing,
including a Police State, can prevent theft. The Soviet
Union was a Police State. Privacy was unknown and
wanting to be alone was considerd suspicious activity
(Russian doesn't even have a word that translates as
"privacy." The Soviet Union is still called a
Kleptocracy, meaning that, from government officials on
down, everyone stole and it was an expected and
accepted way of life. In Russia today, the police still
openly stop traffic to conduct random shakedowns for
money. Happened to me, or rather the driver of my car.

No effort to stop online piracy will prevent anyone who
wants to steal from stealing. When my dad lived in
Italy under Mussolini the police were everywhere all
the time. The pick-pockets still operated freely.
Pretty soon, every move we make online will be tracked,
stored and data-mined by the government for suspicious
or illegal activity. But online pirates have already
promised they keep stealing. They will.

Whew! Sorry about that.

Brian wrote:

An interesting piece by an internet startup founder.
He
brings up the issue of big money in govt. policy
making:

http://www.marco.org/2012/01/20/the-next-sopa

I find it ironic that most people I know that want to de-individualize corporations are also large supporters of labor unions, which essentialy have the same, if not more pull in our government.

THE KBK ... This is the last known signal. We offer Sanctuary.

www.thekbk.com
http://www.deepeddy.net/artists/thekbk/
www.reverbnation.com/thekbk
www.facebook.com/thekbkal

Brian, don't get me wrong. I have huge problems with how much influence big money has in our government. However, I also acknowledge that labor unions are the exact same monster. They throw lots of money around in order to influence government to sway with a populous that is not usually in agreement with the rest of the tax payers.

THE KBK ... This is the last known signal. We offer Sanctuary.

www.thekbk.com
http://www.deepeddy.net/artists/thekbk/
www.reverbnation.com/thekbk
www.facebook.com/thekbkal

Albrecht Dürer, Portrait of the artist as an entrepreneur

A decent article form the Economist re: artist Albrecht Dürer's business model. Surprisingly relevant!

Brian wrote:

And sorry for dragging you non-Americans into this. But
if you'd like to sign a petition to the US State Dept
I'll have a link for that.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-south-yorkshire-16544335

DaveF wrote:

Anybody try this year to upload a video to youtube & have youtube reject it due to copyright infringement ?

I made a 40 second goofy video, not surf related, to show to a few co-workers. For background music, I used part of a song from a cd.
Shortly after it was uploaded, youtube said my vid has copyrighted material from emi. Nobody besides me can view it.

There are lots of videos on youtube with copyrighted music & video.
I guess youtube only checks recent videos, right after they upload.

If you think the background music comes under "fair use" you can challenge youtube about it. I say challenge because they'll hit you with a bunch of worrying legal stuff before letting you click the "fair use" check-box.