Major Web sites 24 hr Black Out in protest of SOPA

I have no opinion about the bills. I understand the urgency of why a law of some sort needs to pass, but I also understand the consequences it brings on us.

Because it's the internet, it's hard to tell what exactly is the best thing to do to satisfy everyone, IMO.

If these acts were to pass, many sites (including this one) would have to shut down or be reset in a very restrictive format, where the government has to approve what images we use and/or what information we send on here.

 

For now:

Obama Says So Long SOPA, Killing Controversial Internet Piracy Legislation





The growing anti-SOPA (Stop Online Piracy Act) support that has swept through the gaming and Internet community found a very big ally today. With websites like Reddit and Wikipedia and gaming organizations like Major League Gaming prepared for a blackout on January 18th – the same day that the House Judiciary Committee hearing on HR 3261was scheduled in Washington, DC – President Barack Obama has stepped in and said he would not support the bill.
SOPA has been delayed, for now. The House has agreed to revisit the issue next month, but they now know the White House will veto any bill that’s not more narrowly focused.

Much to the chagrin of Hollywood, the Entertainment Software Association (which has been a backer of the bill from early on), and Internet domain company GoDaddy.com (which lost many accounts as a result of its support for the bill); SOPA has been shelved. The Motion Picture Association of America, one of the bill’s largest sponsors, is expected to regroup.

California congressman Darrell Issa, who has been opposed to the bill from the beginning, praised the Internet action that has swept like a virus across the Web the past week.

“The voice of the Internet community has been heard,” said Issa. “Much more education for members of Congress about the workings of the Internet is essential if anti-piracy legislation is to be workable and achieve broad appeal.”

But there remains another similar bill, Protect IP (the Enforcing and Protecting American Rights Against Sites Intent on Theft and Exploitation Act), that poses a problem for gamers and Internet users. This legislation is scheduled to go before the Senate on January 24th.

Both SOPA and Protect IP attempt to combat online piracy by preventing American search engines like Google and Yahoo from directing users to sites distributing stolen content. Both bills also would enable people and companies to sue if their copyright was infringed. Obama has come out against both bills, which killed SOPA and puts pressure on senators come January 24th. The full White House response can be read here.

“Any provision covering Internet intermediaries such as online advertising networks, payment processors, or search engines must be transparent and designed to prevent overly broad private rights of action that could encourage unjustified litigation that could discourage startup businesses and innovative firms from growing,” said The White House. “We expect and encourage all private parties, including both content creators and Internet platform providers working together, to adopt voluntary measures and best practices to reduce online piracy.”


Just like piracy itself, this debate isn’t over. Expect more bills to move forward, although the wording in future legislation is expected to be more narrowly focused in an attempt to appease the current administration. But given the current economic climate and the upcoming Presidential election, there could be a different administration entering The White House soon, changing the landscape for these types of bills.

Follow me on Twitter @JohnGaudiosi

 

:smt038

 

Final approval yes, but initially they wanted to dump that cumbersome, time-consuming job in the lap of the Webmaster or Administrators.

Despite the fact that posting a pic or passage here has no piracy impact on the artist's work, international or otherwise. But if Webbie or the Mods don't literally verify all post contents to ensure no copyright infringements, this site gets yanked. And we'd come to log on and get a message "___ cannot find the link, please retry". So to protect himself, Webbie would probably have to shut forums down.

 

Megaupload down for the count if you want to see what people want to do with SOPA. They should be going after the people who upload and not the websites that share.

 

Simple numbers

there are too many uploaders to track with limited resources, so they nail the sites instead. Anti piracy is a business, and like all businesses they're affected by scarcity and have to make the best decisions based on it. If they had unlimted resources, then yeah everyone would have a job getting paid to find pirates, which there are millions of

 

I was wondering why megaupload wouldn't work. Fuck. Wanna download my gangsta rap.

 

Get those torrents.

 

I got all the easy to find music. I use blogspots for my rare finds and megaupload is one of the most used uploading sites.

 

I just read today that Swizz Beats is the CEO of Megaupload. Never knew that.



Megaupload Shut Down by FBI

By Joe CoscarelliToday at 3:22 PM
Both Megaupload and its streaming service, Megavideo, appear to be down now. For artists and art thieves alike, Mediafire it is! Or RapidShare, or Filesonic, or Hulkshare, or Sendspace, and soon.

By Joe Coscarelli




One day after the Internet blacked out in protest of two overreaching anti-piracy bill in Congress, authorities have shuttered Megaupload.com, one of the most popular file-sharing services on the web. The FBI moved against the company today, and made sure to claim that the seven people indicted for online piracy crimes had nothing to do with the furor this week over the Stop Online Piracy Act and its companion bill in the Senate, the Protect IP Act.

The indictment was unsealed in northern Virginia today and four people are already in custody, having been arrested in New Zealand for crimes including conspiracy to commit racketeering and criminal copyright infringement. Bank records and server farms are being searched worldwide. The Justice Department charges Megaupload, which was once the world's 13th largest website, with "generating more than $175 million in criminal proceeds and causing more than half a billion dollars in harm to copyright owners."

Megaupload made news last month for the "Mega Upload Song," which featured everyone from Kanye West to will.i.am, Diddy, Chris Brown, and Kim Kardashian pledging allegiance to the site, which along with pirated movies and albums, trades in legal files — say, when a producer in London wanted to get his work to a rapper in New York City. Yesterday, "Page Six" noted that the star-power in the pro-Megaupload video was likely supplied by the site's unlikely CEO, the producer and teacher Swizz Beatz (husband of Alicia Keys), who previously was not widely known to be involved in the site, even to people who usually keep up with that sort of thing. (Beatz, born Kasseem Dean, is not among those charged.)

http://nymag.com/daily/in...ad-shut-down-by-fbi.html

 

Well god damn. Ain't that some shit.

 

it's getting hot as fuck in here

:smt018

 

http://www.forbes.com/sites/johngau...ng-controversial-internet-piracy-legislation/

We just killed SOPA, I think. WOOT!!!

 

NOpe just got to wait until they try to pass it again! I see you harry reid
This guy with no negro dialect will not forget!

 

Meh, still...we powned their asses FOR NOW. >

 

Truth!

 

Man, I hope not!

 

isn't that the usual SOP

these guys on the internet are pretty savvy tho....i think they'd recognize such a bill and would lambaste that one as well

 

The Feds shut down MegaUpload, so something will happen, apparently.

 

lol