Wikipedia blackout

Evo

The law is to stop piracy, in other words *theft*, something that we do not condone here, as per our guidelines.

IMP

Just to clarify: This law is to stop copyright infringement, which in NOT theft. For a theft to occur the rightful owner of the item/content/thing must be denied the item/content/thing. If the owner has exactly what they started with, no theft occurred. Making an exact copy of something does not deny the rightful owner the original...

I very much understand the spirit of the use of the word "theft" in this context though.

Ryan_m_b

True but it isn't just a question of theft. If I uploaded a home video of a birthday party that happened to have music in the background (copyrighted) that would be classed as theft under this law leading to the website shut down (even if temporarily) and me (were I a US citizen) potentially facing a prison sentence.

This is on the understanding that I understand the implications of SOPA correctly.

NeoDevin

That may be the original intent, but it's likely to have effects far beyond stopping theft.

It won't actually do much to stop theft though.

ThomasT

If people weren't required to pay such exorbitant prices for movies and music, maybe they'd just buy it. The markup on this stuff is absurd. I'll pay a few dollars for a cd or dvd that cost pennies to produce, but not the $15, $20, $25 and up that they're charging. It's ridiculous. And their profits are ridiculous. So, screw them. Currently, anybody in the world can get any music or movie they want for free. Personally, I would much rather buy a shrikwrapped, professionally produced, cd or dvd for a few dollars, than to take a chance getting computer viruses (or arrested) by downloading the stuff for nothing. But I'm not going to pay what they currently want to charge for the stuff.

If internet piracy is such a problem, then how is it that some films are grossing billions, and musical recording artists and companies are still getting rich from cd sales?

Ryan_m_b

Can we keep the discussion to the implications of SOPA rather than the a general discussion on piracy and copyright? If not the thread will be locked.

Pythagorean

but they are taking a reckless approach to achieving that end. They are being ignorant about the repercussions. It's really up to the software engineers nowadays, and the companies themselves, to design good copyright protection.

Minecraft. A game that everyone I know who pirates has actually bought. And the owner, Notch, is publicaly ok with pirating... probably mostly because he knows how to program (and knows how to socially engineer his product) so it doesn't hurt him. People have to buy his game to really enjoy it. Same with most Xbox LIVE games.

There's plenty of good solutions, blind massive policy change is not one of them. All the money spent lobbying this bill could have been spent on better programmers and socially aware marketers :)

Evo

It's illegal. And piracy is theft. Re-read my post.

Char. Limit

Or rather, perhaps even keeping the discussion on the Wikipedia blackout (which might I add, it's not just wikipedia; a long list of sites are blacking out tomorrow):

http://nlb-creations.com/2012/01/13/...otesting-sopa/

Evo

People apparently do not know what the bill is, SOPA stands for Stop Online Piracy Act.

I refer back to http://www.physicsforums.com/showpos...33&postcount=7

Pythagorean

Don't worry, I'm sure conservapedia will still be up :)

ThomasT

This might be the view of some, but I don't agree with it. The internet, as it exists now, at least in the US afaik, is an essentially unregulated medium of information transmission. I want it to stay that way. With all the so-called 'piracy' of movies and music they still make millions of dollars in profits. I really don't see the problem.

But, imho, the problem of the proposed legislation goes beyond just movies and music, and would affect the free dissemination of political opinion.

This I agree with.

Pythagorean

Irony:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:POINT

Char. Limit

Don't worry, Wiki already has a counter:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:NORULES

ThomasT

I expect it to be locked anyway. If not, then that will be a pleasant surprise.

ThomasT

Pythagorean

Yeah, if you actually read the header in the POINT link, it says: