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[Cat--Smasher]

Web protests against UFC supported SOPA

Both sides of the SOPA debate can be seen in various articles across the Internet. According to Politico, two of the major issues in the legislation is one that would allow the movie and television industry to sue companies when its web sites support pirated material and another which would allow the government to block certain web searches.

In addition, there is concern that SOPA will suprress online journalism. The American Society of News Editors (ASNE) provides a compelling argument against the passage of SOPA:

…our members use the Internet in ways that could be construed to violate SOPA,
and that’s not acceptable. Whether utilizing content contributed by third parties, stepping outside the direct reporter-source interaction to acquire and use information from websites around the world, or augmenting our stories through the use of multimedia previously unavailable to print-only publications, ASNE members continue to change the way news is presented. We fear that SOPA will restrict our ability to engage in these activities and stifle our capacity to innovate when we most sorely need the freedom to do so.

This past November, Zuffa head Lorenzo Fertitta sent a letter to House Judiciary Committee Chairman Lamar Smith in support of SOPA. Smith introduced the bill in the House of Representatives. Fertitta’s main concern in the letter was the illegal streaming of its PPVs. “This is the issue that keeps us up at night and, we are very concerned about the continued theft of our shows,” wrote Fertitta.

Payout Perspective:

There are interesting arguments on both sides of the SOPA debate. The blackout by the collective of online sites is a definite attention getter for this piece of legislation. The UFC has always been proactive in protecting its intellectual property rights and the piracy of its PPVs. For it to support this legislation makes sense. But, it seems that the primary debate lies outside of the PPV piracy issue.

What could SOPA mean for online journalism…and places like this where third party sources and information from other web sites are used.

We will see how the vote plays out next week.

Read entire article...

UFC heavyweight Shane Carwin came out against the legislation.

From: Shane Carwin
Member Since: 10/11/06
Posts: 1410

While it is true that without the current UFC owners the sport would not have grown to it's current level. Without the internet and peer to peer sharing of content and information there would be no sport to save.

We the people came together and found a way to share our love for a sport that was trying to be squashed out by the Government. Now the money made from that survival effort is going into bills that are designed to make sure that doesn't happen again. If the Government wants it gone or a big company wants the site gone it is gone. We need to protect our freedoms in the real and virtual world and I do not support SOPA.

Web protests against UFC supported SOPA - MMA News

[0mega1]

im not sure how I feel about this really... I dont believe in censhorship but at the same time i dont think copyright infringement is cool. What do yall think?

[JPeezy]

Originally Posted by 0mega1

im not sure how I feel about this really... I dont believe in censhorship but at the same time i dont think copyright infringement is cool. What do yall think?

Anything that gives the government more control of our lives and lawyers more access to get lawsuit happy is a bad thing. They should focus on going after those committing piracy, not the average Joes trying to use the internet or everyday websites like this one. If SOPA passes many of our favorite websites would disappear due to potential lawsuits. You couldn't even post an article on a message board without it becoming a potential legal issue.

[the_dark_angel_4ever]

The problem with SOPA is it just gives way too much control to governing bodies and ISP's.

If you post a link on Facebook that is deemed "piracy" (by mentioning Pirate Bay, or similar site) then Facebook must remove that post within 5 days or risk being shut down.

It gives ISP the ability to block certain websites that they deem inappropriate for whatever reason. Imagine if Comcast (owns NBC) is given the power to block websites of competitors because they suddenly deem it inappropriate.

Then there's the whole cloud computing issue. Imagine if you have your digital life (files, music, movies, pictures) uploaded to one of the many website offering cloud storage/computing and then one of your files is deemed "copyright infringment". Poof, everything is gone, you no longer have access to pictures of your friends and family because you may have downloaded a song illegally and now the place where you stored everything is now blocked.

I don't have an issue with the idea in principle, but in it's current form it's way to vague and gives way to much power to those who will clearly have hidden agendas and there will be no provisions to prevent any abuse of the power.

[mma #1 fan]

something may need to be done. However our government has a ton or two of shit that needs fixing first. Fuck fix homeless family's first shit fix hunger in Africa before trying to fix something that's all but unfix able
our government don't even know if a person should be allowed to go in to the armed services if they like to have sex with a the same sex partner. What about the war on drugs. how about getting some oil drilled in Alaska. Lets try and get some cash back in to
America hands before we blow a shit ton of cash letting trying to stop a ten yr old from trying to look a pussy

[initial_zen]

Originally Posted by 0mega1

im not sure how I feel about this really... I dont believe in censhorship but at the same time i dont think copyright infringement is cool. What do yall think?

I can understand and am in favor of protecting copy righted property, but this is not the way to do it. It gives company's way to much power and good sites can be shut down for pretty much nothing.

[Esox Express]

Here's a press release from The Pirate Bay on SOPA. It's an interesting perspective.

INTERNETS, 18th of January 2012.
PRESS RELEASE, FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE.

Over a century ago Thomas Edison got the patent for a device which would “do for the eye what the phonograph does for the ear”. He called it the Kinetoscope. He was not only amongst the first to record video, he was also the first person to own the copyright to a motion picture.

Because of Edisons patents for the motion pictures it was close to financially impossible to create motion pictures in the North american east coast. The movie studios therefor relocated to California, and founded what we today call Hollywood. The reason was mostly because there was no patent. There was also no copyright to speak of, so the studios could copy old stories and make movies out of them – like Fantasia, one of Disneys biggest hits ever.

So, the whole basis of this industry, that today is screaming about losing control over immaterial rights, is that they circumvented immaterial rights. They copied (or put in their terminology: “stole”) other peoples creative works, without paying for it. They did it in order to make a huge profit. Today, they’re all successful and most of the studios are on the Fortune 500 list of the richest companies in the world. Congratulations – it’s all based on being able to re-use other peoples creative works. And today they hold the rights to what other people create. If you want to get something released, you have to abide to their rules. The ones they created after circumventing other peoples rules.

The reason they are always complainting about “pirates” today is simple. We’ve done what they did. We circumvented the rules they created and created our own. We crushed their monopoly by giving people something more efficient. We allow people to have direct communication between eachother, circumventing the profitable middle man, that in some cases take over 107% of the profits (yes, you pay to work for them). It’s all based on the fact that we’re competition. We’ve proven that their existance in their current form is no longer needed. We’re just better than they are.

And the funny part is that our rules are very similar to the founding ideas of the USA. We fight for freedom of speech. We see all people as equal. We believe that the public, not the elite, should rule the nation. We believe that laws should be created to serve the public, not the rich corporations.

The Pirate Bay is truly an international community. The team is spread all over the globe – but we’ve stayed out of the USA. We have Swedish roots and a swedish friend said this: The word SOPA means “trash” in Swedish. The word PIPA means “a pipe” in Swedish. This is of course not a coincidence. They want to make the internet inte a one way pipe, with them at the top, shoving trash through the pipe down to the rest of us obedient consumers. The public opinion on this matter is clear. Ask anyone on the street and you’ll learn that noone wants to be fed with trash. Why the US government want the american people to be fed with trash is beyond our imagination but we hope that you will stop them, before we all drown.

SOPA can’t do anything to stop TPB. Worst case we’ll change top level domain from our current .org to one of the hundreds of other names that we already also use. In countries where TPB is blocked, China and Saudi Arabia springs to mind, they block hundreds of our domain names. And did it work? Not really. To fix the “problem of piracy” one should go to the source of the problem. The entertainment industry say they’re creating “culture” but what they really do is stuff like selling overpriced plushy dolls and making 11 year old girls become anorexic. Either from working in the factories that creates the dolls for basically no salary or by watching movies and tv shows that make them think that they’re fat.

In the great Sid Meiers computer game Civilization you can build Wonders of the world. One of the most powerful ones is Hollywood. With that you control all culture and media in the world. Rupert Murdoch was happy with MySpace and had no problems with their own piracy until it failed. Now he’s complainting that Google is the biggest source of piracy in the world – because he’s jealous. He wants to retain his mind control over people and clearly you’d get a more honest view of things on Wikipedia and Google than on Fox News.

Some facts (years, dates) are probably wrong in this press release. The reason is that we can’t access this information when Wikipedia is blacked out. Because of pressure from our failing competitors. We’re sorry for that.

http://c4sif.org/2012/01/the-pirate-...lease-on-sopa/

[Uvall]

Yeah I agree with most of you. Thing is piracy happens all over not just here in the US. People here in my country may download a lot of it but even if our gov. Was able to shut it down here it would still be running rampant everywhere else. So why should we give our government, who have shown to be so ignorant, so much control over us, a Free People? We shouldn't. Hell things like this just remind me of that copyrighted movie called Minority Report. If shit like this gets passed it'll open doors for all kinds of rights being ripped away from us. Then just like in the movie I mentioned, we'll be getting arrested for things we haven't done or even thought about, just because they 'think' we may be commiting a crime in the future. I'm ranting now, so I'll cut it short with that. I'm just glad I live in Texas, have lots of guns, and land I can actually live off of if need be.

[Cat--Smasher]

The Daily Line: How To Protest SOPA/PIPA - FightLine.com

To promote prosperity, creativity, entrepreneurship, and innovation by combating the theft of U.S. property, and for other purposes.

—H.R. 3261, Stop Online Piracy Act

You probably noticed while consulting Wikipedia today for that late report, or trying to pick up used skis on Craigslist, that those sites, in addition to several others, have blacked out today in protest of SOPA, or the Stop Online Piracy Act.

Above is the tagline for the bill, with "for other purposes" providing a convenient gray area for a bill which essentially proposes for the government-sponsored censorship of the internet to work within. Acting in the interest of a few powerful entities, the SOPA bill could allow for the blocking of potential revenue from any sites - even those not in direct support of online piracy - in addition to the complete shut down of said sites, or their forced involvement in expensive litigation.

To protest the SOPA bill, contact your representatives and make your voice heard. There are several simple avenues through which to contact your reps, with all of today's blacked out sites offering some.

You can also contact your state senator through the state senate website here.

Your house representatives through this search engine.

The American Censorship organization has provided a pre-written message for you to co-sign here and you can sign this petition to the president.

There are plenty of ways to protest SOPA and become more informed, so be sure to do find a way to do your part in preventing internet censorship today.

Get on this people.... Think about it ... forget downloading shit, no longer able to watch online fights / re-watch fights, no longer able to post copyrighted pictures/gifs/sigs, no more online porn !

[Trodden]

Originally Posted by mma #1 fan

something may need to be done. However our government has a ton or two of shit that needs fixing first. Fuck fix homeless family's first shit fix hunger in Africa before trying to fix something that's all but unfix able
our government don't even know if a person should be allowed to go in to the armed services if they like to have sex with a the same sex partner. What about the war on drugs. how about getting some oil drilled in Alaska. Lets try and get some cash back in to
America hands before we blow a shit ton of cash letting trying to stop a ten yr old from trying to look a pussy

and this is the absolute wrong way