Sopa / pipa

[traq]

Hey guys, drop by one of these sites TODAY, January 18, 2012.
Take a few moments to oppose censorship on the internet.

google
wikipedia
php.net

there's many others. feel free to list them here.

[Snookerman]

http://www.reddit.com/
http://wordpress.org/
http://destructoid.com/
http://www.minecraft.net/
http://fsf.org/
http://www.mozilla.org/
http://icanhascheezburger.com/
http://bibliotik.org/ (awesome design)

[traq]

http://bibliotik.org/ (awesome design)

indeed!

thanks for the extras!

[[Nicolas]]

Now on my site, link to Google's Petition:
http://daba.medianewsonline.com/index.html

[Snookerman]

Here is a lot more info about the participation http://sopastrike.com/

[traq]

xkcd

[Snookerman]

IMAGE:
http://fdcdn.s3.amazonaws.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/01/SOPA.jpg

Source: http://frugaldad.com/hosting/

[MODERATOR'S NOTE: That image was too long to let the discussion flow well, so I made it into a link instead.]

[djr33]

Wow, that's a lot to read. But interesting.
I'm just waiting to see what's going to happen next. With the Megaupload arrests/indictment/etc., and Anonymous's protests/attacks following that, it's clear this isn't really over-- the vote may be postponed, but something's going to happen next, and it's unclear how that will work.

In my opinion, the world has moved beyond traditional media-- TV on a schedule, movies in theaters, etc. This has been by force (albeit illegally), but I don't see why it would stop now. Maybe something like SOPA will kill piracy (highly unlikely), but even so I really doubt that the media industries will ever be the same-- those people downloading music/TV shows/programs/movies aren't going to turn around and magically start paying for things. In fact, I've seen many arguments that suggest that free (pirated) content actually supports sales-- missing an episode of a TV show encourages catching up and then watching the next week, or listening to music for free increases sales of the same song. While that may or may not be true, I think the ban of such activity might seriously negatively impact the industry.

The real question at this point is how these industries should be adapting. Pandora, Netflix, Hulu and other companies (all of which are legal, not to mention the illegal ones) are on the right path (and perhaps shaping that path) to keep up with the 21st century. The problem is that without the outdated sources of income, the industries won't be able to support themselves. So, the question is, again, how can these industries adapt? Or can they adapt at all? Maybe this will be the end of media as we know it and instead the industry will turn into lots of independent productions of various things-- open source software, indie music, independent films and webseries instead of TV.

On a more legal note, it's very interesting to think about all of this. How can bits be copyrighted? Of course copyright should exist to "protect intellectual property", but there's also a sense in which such things really can't be protected. What exactly is the "thing" that is being projected? It isn't a specific set of binary data-- various formats and codecs change that. Just making a WAV file into an MP3 doesn't make it copyright-free. Similarly, now that information can be shared so easily, there really is nothing being "taken" (eg, stolen), just lots of things being copied (also "stolen").
A really interesting situation is something like a torrent, where only part of the file is being copied at any one time. And those parts don't, in themselves, necessarily add up to usable content. So when is the actual "crime" taking place?

From everything I have seen, a lot of those very technical questions haven't been answered because the laws still refer to older technology. I'm not sure what "should" happen, or what will, but I'm sure something will, and it's interesting to watch.

[traq]

I'm just waiting to see what's going to happen next.
...

enter HR 1981 : )

[djr33]

That's only the next proposed legislation. There's also the response from the public. Perhaps the most interesting will be the response once anything along these lines is actually enacted, if (when?) that occurs.