Stop SOPA

**Phantom Badger** · 12-18-2011, 02:28 PM

In 3 days, the debate for SOPA will start again, If you dont know what SOPA (Stop Online Piracy Act) is, then watch this video:

WTF is SOPA ? aka The American Government trying...

And then the least you can do is sign the petition.
http://americancensorship.org/

**Yosei** · 12-18-2011, 09:00 PM

I love TB.

**Hraesvelg** · 12-19-2011, 06:13 PM

I've been trying. My letters, unfortunately, don't have six-figure checks attached, so they mean fuck and all in the long run.

**Yosei** · 12-19-2011, 08:57 PM

If only individuals like this could have their voices heard... he does a good job at explaining how it'd effect the gaming industry. And there are many other industries that'll suffer.

My friend is being rather melodramatic and thinks it'll lead to wars because American will become a "cyber threat". But my main concern are the economic effects and the inevitable possibility of our government trying to censor the internet.

**MikeyG** · 12-19-2011, 09:47 PM

America. LOL.

I swear for the presidential candidates, they just put up
even bigger idiots than the one they want to win. They all say and want the exact same thing and just word it differently, and it's actually retarded .. yeah I'm gunna use retarded, all these stupid bills/laws being passed or put up, and the campaigns in general, with Herman cane and ick Perry ruling the roost of idiocracy ( yeah I think I made that word up but .. it seems fitting )

**Hessah** · 12-19-2011, 10:08 PM

I can't watch the video at work.. what are they censoring?

**Yosei** · 12-19-2011, 10:29 PM

SOPA is a bill called Stop Online Pirating Act. It basically gives the government rights to shut down any sites that are guilty of copyright infringement which is pretty much... 99% of the internet. This includes the major websites such as Google, Facebook, and Youtube. It also has a "mini" bill paired with it that essentially gives the government the right to censor and block the internet if they see fit for "security" purposes.

Our government is essentially ran by a bunch of middle aged men who chicken peck when they type. Not comforting to know that the fate of our browsing is in those hands. They don't realize the economy repercussions. Totalbiscuit (the guy who made that video) is a videogame guru of sorts. He commentates on esports and he exposes and makes videos of games he is trying out. He really helps out the indie-gaming industry. I've discovered a lot of games through him, such as Dungeon Defenders, Terraria, Rock of Ages, etc. And he's saying that if the bill passes, it means he won't be able to make the videos he makes because they contain copyrighted content which means less exposure and advertising for gaming companies, which means less consumers, etc etc. This will happen to many industries if this happens.

There's other stuff of course... like I already mentioned, many sites are open to being shut down, and it violates our rights.

**Hessah** · 12-19-2011, 10:40 PM

That's worse than the child porn censorship that our govt tried to put in place...

**MikeyG** · 12-20-2011, 08:11 AM

http://rt.com/usa/news/us-court-sopa-morris-203/

**Yosei** · 12-20-2011, 09:15 AM

There were recently a few incidents like that. Like after the Video Game Awards... there was a video that was a "world premiere" trailer of a game, and it was uploaded to Youtube after the show by the makers of the game and they were forced to take it down because the awards show or the company sponsoring it claimed copyright to it. I forget all the details.

But Activision, a well known game company, is getting in on this. They have been trying to take down video content of MW3 on youtube so that you have to pay a premium to get videos of game content. They've even offers to pay MW3 game gurus to stop uploading to youtube and provide content to their premium site. The flaws with this is that is lessens exposure to the game to draw in customers. Players who are having a hard time moving forward in the game and improving won't be able to and may lose interest in the game. Are they going to be able to do this for written guides?

And then Universal Music had Youtube take down a video of artists speaking up against SOPA because it had artists who were under the UMG label in it. They also claimed that they had a deal with Youtube that they could have any video removed. They did not own copyright but they had it removed like nothing (though its been placed back on the site since). This was a clear attempt to prevent SOPA awareness from spreading.

It's crap like this that make people turn against and lose faith in their government (not like we had much left). It may be coincidence but it sure does look like these corporations and our government are getting comfy and are pretty sure this bill is going to pass. Conspiracy and corruption maybe?