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American Censorship Day; 16/11/11
Topic Started: Nov 16 2011, 05:14 AM (706 Views)
Psycho Werekitsune
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On 11/16, Congress holds hearings on the first American Internet censorship system.
This bill can pass. If it does the Internet and free speech will never be the same.
Join all of us on the 16th to stop this bill.


Sauce

Someone linked to this on Facebook and I thought it was pertinent. What do you guys think about all this?
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-Eternally Fallen-
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Yeah, this looks like a disaster waiting to happen, if it passes. I know it's wishful thinking, but it would be nice if the people running the country would see how much of a mistake it would be to pass this and shut it down before it has a chance to become law.

To quote this article:

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Imagine a world in which any intellectual property holder can, without ever appearing before a judge or setting foot in a courtroom, shut down any website's online advertising programs and block access to credit card payments. The credit card processors and the advertising networks would be required to take quick action against the named website; only the filing of a “counter notification” by the website could get service restored.

It's the world envisioned by Rep. Lamar Smith (R-TX) in today's introduction of the Stop Online Piracy Act in the US House of Representatives. This isn't some off-the-wall piece of legislation with no chance of passing, either; it's the House equivalent to the Senate's PROTECT IP Act, which would officially bring Internet censorship to the US as a matter of law.

Calling its plan a “market-based system to protect US customers and prevent US funding of sites dedicated to theft of US property,” the new bill gives broad powers to private actors. Any holder of intellectual property rights could simply send a letter to ad network operators like Google and to payment processors like MasterCard, Visa, and PayPal, demanding these companies cut off access to any site the IP holder names as an infringer.

The scheme is much like the Digital Millennium Copyright Act's (DMCA) "takedown notices," in which a copyright holder can demand some piece of content be removed from sites like YouTube with a letter. The content will be removed unless the person who posted the content objects; at that point, the copyright holder can decide if it wants to take the person to court over the issue.

Here, though, the stakes are higher. Rather than requesting the takedown of certain hosted material, intellectual property owners can go directly for the jugular: marketing and revenue for the entire site. So long as the intellectual property holders include some “specific facts” supporting their infringement claim, ad networks and payment processors will have five days to cut off contact with the website in question.

The scheme is largely targeted at foreign websites which do not recognize US law, and which therefore will often refuse to comply with takedown requests. But the potential for abuse—even inadvertent abuse—here is astonishing, given the terrifically outsized stick with which content owners can now beat on suspected infringers.


Another interesting article.

I mean, I can understand why some parties might not want piracy happening, but this is definitely not the best way to do it. In conclusion, I leave you with this:

Quote:
 
Cody says (10:47 PM):
*Guess that means a change of vote next year.
**shrug*
Cody says (10:48 PM):
*All I know is that, to me, things haven't gotten noticably better.
      The PolterGhost     says (10:48 PM):
*Voting for the lesser of two evils is still siding with evil
Cody says (10:49 PM):
*Well, not voting doesn't really fix anything.
*Err, help anything.
      The PolterGhost     says (10:49 PM):
*If you convinced the whole country to not vote, on the other other hand...
Cody says (10:50 PM):
*It would be impossible to convince every single citizen not to vote, IMHO.
Cody says (10:51 PM):
*And then who knows how things would turn out. XD
      The PolterGhost     says (10:51 PM):
*Anarchy in the streets, of course
*Erwait
*the right answer is
Cody says (10:51 PM):
*We need a hero!
*XD
      The PolterGhost     says (10:51 PM):
*THE FIGHT OF PROOOOOTOOOOOO MAAAAAAAAAAAAAN
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Psycho Werekitsune
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I can't understand how the government of a country that supposedly advertises itself off to the world as the capital of "freedom" (which is apparently a ridiculously subjective term) can let something like this pass with, from what everyone is saying, high chances of it happening. The economy is falling appart and collapsing, money is being thrown around over meaningless crap and now they want to censor the internet? This is as bad as videogame developers and publishers fighting piracy with DRM/online passes/DLC/whatever; you're not solving the problem by punishing everyone.

The solution is obviously delegating more capital into a proper organisation to fighting piracy, making it more efficient and specialised. On that note, maybe it's time they rewrote the book on what's defined as piracy and what's public domain. Seriously America, get your shit together, you're looking more and more ridiculous everytime you do something newsworthy.
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-Havoc the Tenrec-
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I don't know why this isn't a bigger story on the internet.
For some reason when I try to read the few articles there are on the internet about this, I keep getting confused by double negatives and political lingo.
Edited by Havoc the Tenrec, Nov 16 2011, 08:07 AM.
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Psycho Werekitsune
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Havoc The Tenrec
Nov 16 2011, 08:07 AM
I don't know why this isn't a bigger story on the internet.
For some reason when I try to read the few articles there are on the internet about this, I keep getting confused by double negatives and political lingo.
This is how I feel about any topic concerning American politics. Like, I still don't even know what the hell Occupy Wall Street is really all about, because half the time it just sounds like people whining about wanting more money for nothing.
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-Havoc the Tenrec-
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Politics in general need to be simplified so the average joe can keep up... imo.
The terminology is just too much to jump into.


I haven't been keeping up with it too much, but this is what I've heard from different sides.

It's all about the 1% (being the "fat cats") who are earning more and more every year, and the working class is getting less and less. A pattern that needs to stop. A chart (at least one I saw somewhere) shows this too. The average person has been earning less and less every year, and it's even harder for people now, because of the job market. But on the other side, people defend the rich business owners because they are the ones who give us jobs, and without all that money they can't create new jobs. So, I'm not sure why they aren't just making more jobs... there's probably more to it, so I don't really voice an opinion because I just don't know much about it. Whenever I ask, they get into all the economic terms that I have no clue about... so I just ignore the whole thing. It doesn't stop me from looking up a few words... but it's too much to keep up with. You really need to know how every aspect of the way things work to have a solid educated opinion.

It makes me feel stupid for not having a side to pick and not knowing more, but at least I'm not pretending to know what's going on like most people at these protests.
And honestly it's hard for me to care too much.

Back on the censorship, this one makes a lot more sense.
http://www.businessweek.com/news/2011-11-15/google-friends-facebook-to-fight-hollywood-backed-piracy-measure.html
So Google and Facebook are against this because it'll hurt their industry, which is probably true. But with all of the movie and software companies out there... I think they have more power on their side.
Edited by Havoc the Tenrec, Nov 16 2011, 11:23 AM.
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-Havoc the Tenrec-
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Petition.
https://wwws.whitehouse.gov/petitions#!/petition/stop-e-parasite-act/SWBYXX55

It already has the required 25,000... and its already gotten to over 30,000. Sign up anyway if you can.
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-The Raging Zephyr-
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Havoc The Tenrec
Nov 16 2011, 11:10 AM
But on the other side, people defend the rich business owners because they are the ones who give us jobs, and without all that money they can't create new jobs. So, I'm not sure why they aren't just making more jobs... there's probably more to it, so I don't really voice an opinion because I just don't know much about it.
It's called outsourcing. The old American business model relied on factories filled with workers who were paid honest salaries. We've shut down most factories and take our shipments from places such as China, where we pay Chinese workers in Chinese factories, pay a tariff and transport fees to ship units of Chinese-made goods over here, and then the American consumers dump their money into Big Business who gets most of the cash for themselves.

In a normal society, economy works sort of like this: A company has money. A company uses their money to make factories, thus being able to hire people. These people they hire get paid money to produce units in the factory. With the money that these people are paid, they spend it on goods, which are taxed. The taxes go to the government bodies, and the money paid are given to businesses that either make or ship the goods, which they can use to pay their workers. This is the essence of "per capita income", where a person is paid money for an incentive to put their money back into the economy, thus creating a stable loop.

Unfortunately, by outsourcing to foreign nations, what we end up doing is paying other countries' workers so that they can put the money they earned back into THEIR OWN COUNTRY, not ours. Thus, we, as a whole, end up losing money, thus placing our country in a national debt. The trick is that this doesn't affect big business in any way negatively in the short term, because they keep making money and paying much less to keep their income flowing.

Remember the stimulus package in 2008? Our government gave $700 billion to banks, with this false hope that the banks would buy mortgages and give out loans to needy people. Instead, the money was used for vacation pay and yachts. The issue is that what our country needs is a long-term goal towards setting the economy back to normal, a goal that may last through two or three presidents in a legacy, and instead all the big-wigs can only worry about money for themselves in the short-term.

Back to banks, we have a central bank called the Federal Reserve. This bank was set up by Woodrow Wilson to act as an outside force to the entire government, an organization designed to help other banks and the government. Unfortunately, he was extremely short-sighted; the Fed is currently the greatest producer of national debt, as it prints money - NOT OUR GOVERNMENT - and then gives out this printed money at interest. That is, the Fed charges our government and banks interest on the paper they hand out. Why do we allow this? Well, the last guy who tried to do something about it was suddenly shot in the face with a sniper rifle. Poor JFK...

Also on the matter of banks and the economy, we currently run on no standard for money, or, more appropriately, we run off of fiat money. This means that all the money that we print is worth no more than what was used to make it. Thus, the more money that enters circulation, the less value it holds due to there just being so much being tossed around. Back in ye olden days, you could trade in bank notes for gold coins, which were real assets with real value that you could bring to pretty much any civilized country to exchange and barter with. Without a standard, all our money means pretty much nothing in the long-term anyways; the Euro is the exact same, and it's killing off the European Union's economies as well.

So anyhow, all that and nobody needed to take an economics class to figure it out. It's not that hard to understand, in theory; the actual reparation of the economy might take a bit of book smarts to help with, but is otherwise also straightforward as far as the measures that need to be immediately taken in order to start making a dent.
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-Havoc the Tenrec-
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So maybe companies just need to stop outsourcing then.
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Psycho Werekitsune
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So we're just pretty much going back to this topic:

http://s14.zetaboards.com/Neo_Babylon/topic/596448/1/

I think part of the issue is that the entire country is dependant on an outdated economy plan and they keep putting the proverbial band-aid on it. I think this video says a lot about the issue:



EDIT: The problem isn't really outsourcing, the problem is that the economy depends too much on an export that doesn't really provide for the country as a whole. They need to shift it to a more productive export that actually works in this day and age.
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-Phantom Hammertoes-
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Havoc The Tenrec
Nov 16 2011, 11:10 AM
Whenever I ask, they get into all the economic terms that I have no clue about...
As if feel stupid. Sure, those are useful terms for the specifically-learned who study and delve into such things but you're not any further behind the people who actually run the world.

If this sereiously passes and there isn't fucking instant mass backlash... Well, I'm not sure how much further my disappointment in humanity can plummet at this point, honestly.
Good Game
 

Hex: Yes, you've read the book, you've seen the film - now avoid the game like the plague lest your memory of Harry Potter's epic conclusion be tainted by what can only be described as a short, half-arsed cover-shooter that's boring beyond belief.

Bajo: ...It's shit.
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-Ekoi-
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Moot posted a huge announcement on every one of 4chan's boards.

I'm pretty sure there's going to be some notable backlash from a very large mass of Anon at very least.
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-Arem-
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What terrifies me the most is how many voices that will cry out against the bill from the public will be ignored deliberately due to the large amount of politicians in the pocket of those media giants pushing for SOPA. Essentially, those media giants are Mob bosses, paying them off.
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Blacklightning
Nov 14 2011, 02:48 AM
I like it when people use the word "gay" in any context other than a homosexual one - it only proves that they have the maturity of a five year old, as if their obsession with shooters didn't already do a good job of pointing that out. It's also pretty amusing that he pointed out Skyrim considering the fact that, y'know, it's set in the bloody medival era and doesn't even have muskets, let alone generic modern firearms.

But just for fun, let's play around with his logic a bit.

game - gun = gay
game + gun = -gay
game + gun + Arem = ???


Founder of #TeamArem
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-Havoc the Tenrec-
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Anon would take care of it
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Psycho Werekitsune
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I still don't get how any sane person would let this fly, money or not. People have to see that, in the long run, this would be bad for a country that is constantly trying to get a leg up on everyone else on the planet. How do you dominate with technology if you don't even have internet, the universal and quintessential way of worldwide communication?

This reminds me a lot of the fall of the Ottoman empire, where basically, the entire Middle East and parts of Asia went from being the most developed part of the world to...well, where it is today.
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