Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA)

[Centaur]

I decided to post this in off-topic, as it's not directly Guild Wars 2 info:

I'm sure most of you have heard about the ongoing discussions about the US SOPA, and what consequences it would have for freedom on the internet. Many sites (such as wikipedia, facebook, youtube, twitter, myspace) are opposing the act, as it would severly limit both them and their users.

Regina Buenaobra posted ArenaNet's viewpoint on this issue here on facebook:

We should always be looking for means to combat online piracy in ways that uphold the freedom and fun the Internet has to offer. SOPA does not accomplish this goal, and; therefore, NCsoft does not support the bill in its current state. ~RB

imho, that's good to know.

[SeniorFrog]

This thing isn't passing at this point. Thank god for that!

[Myou]

I wouldnt say that yet. Yes the bills lost support, but these are people who love to change words around so that people dont realize they are getting screwed till the KY is applied. So everyone needs to keep an eye out and make their voices heard for any sort of "legal" action that could hamper the internet in the US...cause anything that happens here could happen almost anywhere else...unless you're in China where it is already happening

[ComplexNuber]

Definetly don't take your eyes off SOPA or PIPA yet. Not until they're well in their own graves, and not until there are no lingering politicians with shovels hanging around. In related news Megaupload has just been just down by U.S. Feds. I'm no lawyer, but to my understanding they have no legal right to do this, and I have to wonder just how much of a coincendance it is that this has happened one day after the anti-SOPA/PIPA blackout. Megaupload never supported piracy, and took down content when a DMCA was issued. I believe there is something called the "Safe harbor rule" (or similarly?) that means a site like Megaupload, Youtube, or even guildwars2forum.com, cannot be sued because an unaffiliated user posted copyrighted content on it, all the site is obligated to do is to remove that content when made aware of illegal content.

So my take on this is that it's a giant "f!@# you, we'll do what we want" to the public and it's protests.

[Winterbay]

What I find most amusing about the Megaupload story is the fact that the founder is called "Dotcom". I wonder if that's taken or his actual name...

Also, as has been pointed put elsewhere: If they can do this now (well, I mean they have done it so obviously the can, but the question is how long it'll last) why do they need SOPA and PIPA?
I wish them good luck and hope they go the same way as Piratebay, i.e. stay up just becuase they can.

Edit: Also, if you're not in the US and want to know some reasons for why it's bad even if you're outside of the US, read this:
http://www.aquarionics.com/journal/2...opa-for-brits/

[ComplexNuber]

I wish them good luck and hope they go the same way as Piratebay, i.e. stay up just becuase they can.

Unfortunately Megaupload doesn't have the fortune of living in Sweden, where piracy for non-commercial use is legal.

Reasons to oppose SOPA outside of America should be relatively obvious now, I think. I live in Australia and my access to Megaupload has just been completely severed because of ridiculous political issues in the US. Most of the sites I and others go to are hosted in the US.

[Kenjitamura]

What probably screwed megaupload is some of their servers were being hosted in the U.S. The megaupload executives were arrested in New Zealand and are being extradited. The DMCA should be enough, SOPA and PIPA give way too much unsupervised control to copyright owners. It'll be like giving hollywood the right to completely regulate the U.S. internet.

Edit: There's an update in events http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/46072484#.TxmqTXsfLQJ. Legislators are withdrawing back to the legion of doom to contemplate in secrecy how to avoid exposure next time around.

[Centaur]

Thanks for the link, Kenjitamura... that's an interesting read for those of us not in the US (I assume people in the US already receive regular updates on this matter on their TV news programs)

On a sidenote, I thought this PennyArcade comic was hilarious, and clearly shows the two faces of some gaming companies...

[Winterbay]

Unfortunately Megaupload doesn't have the fortune of living in Sweden, where piracy for non-commercial use is legal.

Reasons to oppose SOPA outside of America should be relatively obvious now, I think. I live in Australia and my access to Megaupload has just been completely severed because of ridiculous political issues in the US. Most of the sites I and others go to are hosted in the US.

I'm sorry to burst that bubble, but it isn't. You are allowed to make a copy for private use, but any other sort of copying apart from that and distributing it is illegal and we have our own share of stupid laws to counter it (such as giving the Swedish equivalency of NSA the right to scan all electronic traffic crossing teh Swedish border, i.e. opening in fact all emails sent from within Sweden to anywhere outside of it...). It doesn't work and the process against the pirate bay is still ongoing. I think the pirate bay servers are somewhere outside of Sweden, but part of the bandwidth is granted by the Swedish Pirate party.

Also, the Megaupload site is working on getting back up again. As of now they only have an IP-adress and a placeholder site, but I can't remember the number atm.

[Centaur]

If megaupload is illegal, then the whole principle of file sharing (in ANY form, even shareware and public domain) is illegal... as all they do is provide a means of file sharing. Sites like megaupload work on a takedown notice basis, meaning they will take down copyrighted materials as soon as someone tells them that someone else uploaded something that is copyrighted. If they shut down megaupload, they may as well shut down youtube right now.