English Wikipedia anti-SOPA blackout

[Dch48]

The worst part is that if this goes through and the copyright holders are given the power they want they would be able to shut down any site whether justified (in their eyes) or not. It would also require a lot of monitoring by every ISP and wind up driving the cost of internet access up for everyone. I haven't really looked it up but I would imagine that the ISP companies are not thrilled with the prospects either.

[Gargamel360]

"Simply put, S. 968 and H.R. 3261 would require ISPs to block access to foreign websites that infringe on copyrights. Online piracy from China and elsewhere is a massive problem for the media industry, one that costs as much as $250 billion per year and costs the industry 750,000 jobs, according to a 2008 statement by Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.). But how exactly the bills would counter piracy has many up in arms."

I'm all for fighting the crime of scum-sucking lowlife's making a living off other's work, but how it's done can be concerning.  Time will tell.

The industry loses jobs because of greedy bosses who refuse to take a pay cut.....greedy unions who do the same....Hollywood was for a long time, THE entertainment establishment.  

Then things get globalized a little, and they realize they have more competition now.  They also act like the now-flaky economy has nothing to do with this....fact was, people where buying an overpriced product because there was no alternatives, and they had the spare money.  Now they will try to blame everything on online piracy, which of course plays its part, but is not the magic pill to fix what ails them.  

I bet other industries who have similarly lost capital during our economic downturn wishes they had the luxury of blaming piracy.  

BTW: If this passes....Avast! will have sold at least one of its VPNs

[bob3160]

If this passes, the forum is in danger of being shut down at someones whim.
There are many times that some Spammer posts links to pirated stuff.
Who's to say if the time it takes for someone to remove it is quick enough or,
if this site is in violation. 

[Dch48]

If this passes, the forum is in danger of being shut down at someones whim.
There are many times that some Spammer posts links to pirated stuff.
Who's to say if the time it takes for someone to remove it is quick enough or,
if this site is in violation. 

Yes, the way it's worded a site does not have to be actively hosting pirated material but simply have a link to a site that does. It's very disturbing to say the least.

[Coolmario88]

Its weird without wikipedia I usually go there to find some stuff.. Today i can't since it is blackedout. days like this makes me wish i could read other languages and understand what they say..

[MikeBCda]

It would appear that Wikipedia's action has been joined by others, including some outside the US. According to this morning's Yahoo News, Canada's Tucows is "on strike" and offline for several hours in support of the protest, as are a great many smaller sites.

One of the most interesting supporters of this (the protest, that is, not SOPA) was one who benefits from copyrights, author John Scalzi.  He's shut down his blog for 12 hours today, commenting that while he fully expects to be compensated for his work, SOPA is definitely the wrong way to accomplish that.  As he put it, you don't catch a burglar by carpet-bombing an entire neighborhood.

[Gargamel360]

If this passes, the forum is in danger of being shut down at someones whim.
There are many times that some Spammer posts links to pirated stuff.
Who's to say if the time it takes for someone to remove it is quick enough or,
if this site is in violation. 

Yep, it has the potential to increase costs for anyone involved in online commerce, especially if they want to serve a full global customer base.  Perhaps this is part of the reason for the Avast! Cnet forum, smelling this on the horizon.

[Dch48]

There are many other sites that have shut down today. Tucows is just one of them. Craigslist and even Greenpeace have joined in.

http://www.zdnet.com/photos/black-wednesday-the-day-the-web-went-dark/6339722?tag=nl.e539

[MikeBCda]

I agree with the poster who pointed out that this thread could come dangerously close to turning political.  However ...

Apparently one of the biggest objections to both SOPA and PIPA, other than the principle of censorship, is that it would apparently empower the government to take action based on no more than possibly unfounded complaints, without any provision for a hearing or other due process.  I can't help but wonder what effect it would have on the totally justified public (and in a number of cases, governmental) opposition if the legislation was revised to require all affected parties be permitted to present their cases.

[Coolmario88]

There are many other sites that have shut down today. Tucows is just one of them. Craigslist and even Greenpeace have joined in.

http://www.zdnet.com/photos/black-wednesday-the-day-the-web-went-dark/6339722?tag=nl.e539

The blog i created a while go that i hardly update anymore has joined it! http://geekouttech.wordpress.com/

[Dch48]

There are many other sites that have shut down today. Tucows is just one of them. Craigslist and even Greenpeace have joined in.

http://www.zdnet.com/photos/black-wednesday-the-day-the-web-went-dark/6339722?tag=nl.e539

The blog i created a while go that i hardly update anymore has joined it! http://geekouttech.wordpress.com/

Yep, WordPress is one of the things that are shut down.

[bob3160]

Its weird without wikipedia I usually go there to find some stuff.. Today i can't since it is blackedout. days like this makes me wish i could read other languages and understand what they say..

The following works:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Main_Page?banner=none

Signing the petition is much better. 

[polonus]

Hi bob3160,

Is that what you and Dch48 say true, that spammers could be responsible for complete domains to be taken down if this is going to be the law of the land? What is worse here the cure or the illness? And what is going to be the alternative? A heavy regulated pay per click Internet2 in the not so far away future?

polonus

P.S. All OK sites should go offline if spammers are spotted to come back up later when cleansed.
Anti-spamming and content violation scanning software will be very much in demand.

D

[Dch48]

Hi bob3160,

Is that what you and Dch48 say true, that spammers could be responsible for complete domains to be taken down if this is going to be the law of the land? What is worse here the cure or the illness? And what is going to be the alternative? A heavy regulated pay per click Internet2 in the not so far away future?

polonus

P.S. All OK sites should go offline if spammers are spotted to come back up later when cleansed.
Anti-spamming and content violation scanning software will be very much in demand.

D

It would be possible for that to happen with the way the bill is worded right now. Whether it would actually happen or not I wouldn't care to find out.

[polonus]

Hi Dch48,

Know we are with you here on this side of the Atlantic. Remember how it was with cinema in Europe, they could cash in every couple of days for another European country that brought out the same content. They just had to do the rounds, golden days....

polonus