13 replies to this topic

[Apulo]

For those of you that are in the know, Congress will start voting on two bills this week. SOPA (Stop Online Piracy Act) will give corporations the ability to file motions in court to block websites that they feel promote piracy. PIPA (Preventing Real Online Threats to Economic Creativity and Theft of Intellectual Property Act) is very similar in scope.

Stopping piracy may sound like a great idea but these two bills give way too much power to corporations (Most notably the MPAA and RIAA) and could lead to further internet censorship. For instance, if someone on this site mentioned bittorrent or some other nonsense, this site could be shut down globally and permanently.

Many websites are voluntarily blacking themselves out today (Google, Wikipedia) to protest SOPA and PIPA. If you haven't heard about this legislation and wonder why there are black bars all over your favorite sites, this is why.

I urge my fellow US internet users to follow the link below for more information:

https://www.google.c...ing/takeaction/

This ends my one and only political rant

[Zero]

Non-US can also sign a petition to the US State Department. LINK

[J NOSK36]

I suggest that you all post on facebook and twitter where it says to on the google site, this issue cannot be put off or ignored

[Armoured Priest]

I love the country I live in, but when these bills are created, I become even embaressd to call myself an american. Once more goverment is trying to take away rights. The NDAA was passed during the holidays, when no would even pay attention. What is even worse was the fact it was included in a bill that would benefit the troops greatly. The slimy bastards in congress are using the men and women and uniform as a shield for a bill that will be used tyrannicly and shamelessly. Basiclly if the bill was not passed with NDAA in it, the troops would have been denied so many things this year.

End Rant

[CruciasNZ]

Your problem is that it is not your government any more. Every concession made to lobbyists has marched you down the road to having a government of the people and for the companies.

Everytime an honest politician appears the lobbyists bury him/her. It's a sad state of affairs

[Apulo]

Yes. The United States has the best government money can buy.

[Apulo]

For those interested, both PIPA and SOPA have been shelved "indefinitely".

http://www.cbsnews.c...ke-of-protests/

[Armoured Priest]

Really? I am surprised that they buckeled.

[Apulo]

Supposedly all the congressmen supporting the bills were assaulted with emails and phone calls.

[CruciasNZ]

Supposedly all the congressmen supporting the bills were assaulted with emails and phone calls.

it'll come back and sneak through the next major crisis

[Armoured Priest]

Thank you apulo for the post and thread.

[Apulo]

Yeah, congress has a way of tacking these things on to other more important legislation. So months from now they'll get passed as part of some employment or tax bill.

Sneaky bastards.

[CruciasNZ]

Yeah, congress has a way of tacking these things on to other more important legislation. So months from now they'll get passed as part of some employment or tax bill.

Sneaky bastards.

Our government snuck through their version of this bill during a special session called for dealing with the Christchurch Earthquake. They hid an agenda using the deaths of 275 people, they didn't tell any opposition it was coming up (as the session was called for the quake)

[Gerhart]

Gotta love politics huh?..........ugh........