SOPA and PIPA: the bills which could end Seibertron.com, your favorite websites, and the Internet!

Friday, January 13th, 2012 6:10PM CST

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SOPA, the bill that could put an end to Seibertron.com

H.R. 3261: Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA)
and
S. 968: PROTECT IP Act (PIPA)

Seibertron.com is first and foremost a Transformers-themed website dedicated to, staffed, and fuelled by fans of the Transformers franchise. Over the past 12 years we have been active, we have tried to avoid politics and too much involvement with the outside world as our interest is in the war on Cybertron and its universe beyond, not in domestic policy and law, so when we do decide to get involved please understand that it's over what we feel is a matter of great importance.

I have not written anything like this before and have borrowed very heavily from Tom's Hardware's post on the subject as it is by far the best bulletin I have seen to date, relating directly to real world examples of posters actions. This article is here to inform you about a couple of scary bills that could end Seibertron.com and the Internet we all know and love. SOPA is a bill in the House (and PIPA is it's Senate equivalent) that threatens to fundamentally change the way the internet works by placing excessive restrictions on user generated content such as forum posts and video and image uploads.

The intention of this topic is to cover 4 points:

To explain and examine the bills
To highlight the extent of the damage they can do to Seibertron.com (as well as the Internet)
What our members can do to help stop this.
To give a sense of urgency to the situation. PIPA is up for review on Jan 24th so we don't have much time.

The basics of the law are:

It would require web services like YouTube, Facebook, and Twitter to monitor and aggressively filter everything all users upload.
It would deny site owners due process of law, by initiating a DNS blacklisting based solely on a good faith assertion by an individual copyright or intellectual property owner.
It would give the U.S. government the power to selectively censor the web using techniques similar to those used in China, Malaysia and Iran. The Great Firewall of China is an example of this type of embedded, infrastructural internet censorship.

Spricket24 from YouTube gives a good summary of the problems we face (6+ min)

And a more detailed view is registered by John "TotalBiscuit" Bain, and is the most watched video on the subject on YouTube (20+ min)

Now lets look at an example that applies directly to us here at Seibertron.com. Imagine one of our fellow Seibertronians posts a video clip here on our message board of a step-by-step review of a brand new figure. Playing in the background behind the voice-over is "The Touch" by Stan Bush. The studio representing Stan Bush could issue a complaint, without being required to notify us or request a take-down. Seibertron.com would be liable and prosecuted solely on a good faith assertion of the copyright owner, without notification, with the site operators subject to possible jail time for not preventing the video from being posted. In short order, the / domain in the United States would no longer resolve to our servers and visitors attempting to come to Seibertron.com would be redirected to a “This site under review for piracy/copyright violations” page. Now apply the same principle to the character designs and their likenesses used in your avatars and sigs, the Heavy Metal War altmodes, TransTopia figure photographs, Mosiac comics and more.

To conform to these new restrictions would mean that Seibertron.com would have to switch to a review/approval process for any and all new posts to our forums and articles. Our community team would have to approve every single news comment, every new thread, and every new response before it went live and filter them for potentially infringing material. Even so, we would still possibly be under threat from violations not caught – a user recolouring an image from a Marvel/DW/IDW comic as an example or a snippet of Transformers news from another website in excess of a certain summary threshold. That’s just here on Seibertron. The effect on sites like YouTube, Google, Facebook, Twitter, Reddit and the rest of the internet would be devastating, and these popular sites would simply disappear.

The intent of the legislation is to stop piracy, which isn’t affected in the least by this approach. Unfortunately the legislation in the House and Senate has a wide margin of bi-partisan support and looks likely to pass after the holidays. Believe it or not, your Congress representatives do count the number of calls and emails they get on a particular issue, and most of the time only the people in their jurisdiction (read- you) can sway their opinion on something – so your action on this is important.

The Center for Democracy and Technology have released this .pdf as a guide to the key points of contention within this bill. We ask that as many of you as possible read this and then contact your representatives and tell them you oppose the PROTECT IP Act in the Senate and the Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA) in the House. This act wont stop itself, the internet needs people to take action if it is to remain the free global resource it is today. If you wish to know more about this issue, it is recommended that you visit the Protect Innovation project where you can go into more depth on the issue and download a 'briefing kit' that contains, in detail, the opposition to this bill. Please also be sure to hit the Share buttons at the top of your page to tell your friends about this on Facebook, Google+ and Twitter... whilst you still can.

Here are some links to websites actively actively engaging poeple to help stop SOPA:

Stop American Censorship - Submit letters to Congress, petition the State Department, etc.
Stop Censorship - Fill out this form to have your name potentially read during a fillibuster.
Save the Internet! - A big ongoing petition.
And here is a link that can give you more information and provide you with contact info for your elected official.

Act now because time is short, PIPA goes before the Senate on Jan 25th.

Sincerely,
The Seibertron.com Staff.

Examples structure taken from Tom's Hardware's excellent news post regarding SOPA.
Other references taken from YouTube (search:SOPA), Reddit.com and Wikipedia.

The problem is, that whilst the most relevant issue to us is discussed, there are many others that probably need to be addressed in the conversation such as this, Newgrounds explaining in more direct language how DCMA Blacklisting will work, sharing the public copy of the letter to the Senate and House from AOL, eBay, Facebook, Google, LinkedIn, Mozilla, Twitter, Yahoo! and Zynga outlining their concerns and opposition to this bill and maybe even 25 things you need to know about SOPA?

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Re: SOPA and PIPA: the bills which could end Seibertron.com, your favorite websites, and the Internet! (1333476)
Posted by Seibertron on January 13th, 2012 @ 6:13pm CST

Thanks for putting this article together, Psychout. I really appreciate it. Hopefully our efforts will help make people aware of these scary bills and that we can do our part to make a difference.

Looking forward to hearing comments and seeing discussions from within our community here on Seibertron.com.

Re: SOPA and PIPA: the bills which could end Seibertron.com, your favorite websites, and the Internet! (1333477)
Posted by dedcat on January 13th, 2012 @ 6:15pm CST

I highly recommend anyone interested in stopping these bills also watches this vid:

Re: SOPA and PIPA: the bills which could end Seibertron.com, your favorite websites, and the Internet! (1333479)
Posted by Seibertron on January 13th, 2012 @ 6:19pm CST

Looks like there's a blackout day on the 18th. http://sopastrike.com/

Seibertron.com will join the blackout in some manner if that happens.

Re: SOPA and PIPA: the bills which could end Seibertron.com, your favorite websites, and the Internet! (1333481)
Posted by BeastProwl on January 13th, 2012 @ 6:20pm CST

But do you really believe that the people will allow this bill to pass? Seems like total Bullcrap to me. And if their asking for a YAY or NAY, what is it that we say? NAY!

Sorry to post Anonymous vid, but they have it right! No one owns the Internet! This is wrong. were do I sign up?

Re: SOPA and PIPA: the bills which could end Seibertron.com, your favorite websites, and the Internet! (1333482)
Posted by TFfan92 on January 13th, 2012 @ 6:21pm CST

I've been aware of this bill for a few months now and it scares me to death. If it passes my respect for the government will hit a all-time low. Which reminds me, I wonder why this issue hasn't been brought up among the Republican presidential candidates. :-?

Re: SOPA and PIPA: the bills which could end Seibertron.com, your favorite websites, and the Internet! (1333483)
Posted by MINDVVIPE on January 13th, 2012 @ 6:25pm CST

pft, thats so stupid. The line can get very grey very quickly, and before you know it people are basically forced to be non creative from fear of appearing to have stolen intellectual property, or just plain scared to even bother posting. Retarded US. Stop SOPA AND PIPA indeed.

Re: SOPA and PIPA: the bills which could end Seibertron.com, your favorite websites, and the Internet! (1333484)
Posted by dedcat on January 13th, 2012 @ 6:26pm CST

Fans of internet sovereignty should also be aware that there is an effort underway to assign US citizens a unique "internet ID" which basically boils down to a very big-brother-esque, state run internet. This would trump the need for SOPA/PIPA entirely and replace it with something far worse.

you can read about it here:
http://tinyurl.com/255trde

Sorry to bring my study hall into recess, but this is pretty important stuff....

Now back to bitching about botcon molds.

Re: SOPA and PIPA: the bills which could end Seibertron.com, your favorite websites, and the Internet! (1333485)
Posted by Va'al on January 13th, 2012 @ 6:29pm CST

Psychout wrote:[...] (and PIPA is its Senate equivalent)

Sorry, that really makes me cringe inside. Fixed.

Nice article though!

I was wondering.. how would this affect resources which are not U.S. based?
Would it mostly lie within the area of copyright depositing, or is it on the actual broadcasting/hosting/whathaveyou side of things?

Re: SOPA and PIPA: the bills which could end Seibertron.com, your favorite websites, and the Internet! (1333486)
Posted by dragons on January 13th, 2012 @ 6:43pm CST

i signed 1 oe 2 others need home adress i wasnt doing that or web site

Re: SOPA and PIPA: the bills which could end Seibertron.com, your favorite websites, and the Internet! (1333487)
Posted by Megatron Wolf on January 13th, 2012 @ 6:46pm CST

Good move posting this and getting it on the front page, every one here needs to know about this cause this will pretty much destroy the internet for us all. I wont go into another long winded rant as to why i think these bills are bullshit but i will say this pretty much goes against the constitution and the rights we're suppose to have as americans. Last time i checked this is the USA the land of the free not Soviet Russia or North Korea. I support seibertron.com and any other website blacking themselves out to protest. I just hope theres enough sites and people protesting to make sure this does not happen.

Re: SOPA and PIPA: the bills which could end Seibertron.com, your favorite websites, and the Internet! (1333489)
Posted by Alex Jones on January 13th, 2012 @ 6:55pm CST

If any members on this board is of voting age, I would highly recommend asking potential politicians about their stance on this bill and register to vote.

Also I would also if you are eligible to vote in any of the Republican primaries in your state, recommend supporting Ron Paul for the Republican nominee since he clearly against the SOPA act and stand by our constitutional right for free speech.

Re: SOPA and PIPA: the bills which could end Seibertron.com, your favorite websites, and the Internet! (1333493)
Posted by Anonymous on January 13th, 2012 @ 7:23pm CST

There's only one thing left to do then...

01001000010000010100001101001011001011100101010001001000010001010010111001010000010011000100000101001110010001010101010000101110

Re: SOPA and PIPA: the bills which could end Seibertron.com, your favorite websites, and the Internet! (1333496)
Posted by Godzillabot Primal on January 13th, 2012 @ 7:39pm CST

*Grinds teeth* they'd better not shut this site down! :evil:

It is the most social activity in my life! :evil:

Re: SOPA and PIPA: the bills which could end Seibertron.com, your favorite websites, and the Internet! (1333497)
Posted by Insidious on January 13th, 2012 @ 7:39pm CST

What a cringe-inducing piece of legislation.

Re: SOPA and PIPA: the bills which could end Seibertron.com, your favorite websites, and the Internet! (1333499)
Posted by Psychout on January 13th, 2012 @ 7:46pm CST

Spread the word on this guys, our Internet is under threat.

There is a speck of good news though, even some of the bills own sponsors are having second thoughts, and will be asking to delay its cloture vote (a vote to skip any extended discussion and rush it through).
The battle is still far from over though, please be sure you do all you can to make your representatives aware of your opposition to this bill.

As far as the blackout on the 18th is concerned, Reddit.com are spearheading the drive and many other websites have already signed up to it in various forms including blacking out their websites completely, altering their layout and taking down their YouTube channels and Facebook pages for the day. Even Wikipedia are hoping to join the blackout as long as the vote for it gets through on the commons (we'll find out Monday or Tuesday)

Va'al wrote:I was wondering.. how would this affect resources which are not U.S. based?
Would it mostly lie within the area of copyright depositing, or is it on the actual broadcasting/hosting/whathaveyou side of things?

Firstly, to clarify, I'm British and live in that most blessed part of England, Manchester. I wrote this article as I don't have a representative to contact so this is me doing my part - if even just a handful if US members contact their politicians and say "what the hell do you think you are doing?!" who wouldn't have done otherwise, then I'll have done my bit.

As I understand it, this Bill effects the UK and Australia and Europe and everywhere else primarily as the Internet is comprised of .com websites, all of which are owned/operated by the US and therefore come under US jurisdiction regardless of the country the servers are based in. If its a .com, .org, .net then its an 'American' site, regardless of who owns it.

Also, think about the knock-on effect: Seibertron.com gets shut-down an d the American posters can no longer access it. Lets just assume the site stays up, it would be like a ghost town here. At a guess I'd say a good 75% of this sites membership is from the US so that leaves the 25% of us non-Americans with a very large but empty site. No traffic, no HMW opponents, no one to talk to.

Now apply that to Facebook. Wikipedia. YouTube. Twitter.
It isn't just America that will suffer from this.

Re: SOPA and PIPA: the bills which could end Seibertron.com, your favorite websites, and the Internet! (1333501)
Posted by Vicalliose on January 13th, 2012 @ 7:52pm CST

Is S.978 still floating around? It's essentially the exact same thing as SOPA. Except I also remember that in S.978 they would tap your lines for viewing the content, then arrest you if they found you guilty of uploading anything or any other crimes.

Va'al wrote:I was wondering.. how would this affect resources which are not U.S. based?
Would it mostly lie within the area of copyright depositing, or is it on the actual broadcasting/hosting/whathaveyou side of things?

Almost seems like it will take a world police stance. Canadians are afraid anyway. :-?

Ron Paul is really the only candidate who cares about civil rights issues like these. To bad he's behind Romney. Paul is the only reason I'm registered as Republican and not still independent. In fact most of the house is comprised of republicans right now. Most of them old and stereotypically ignorant to the effects of the bill. They're only for it because it the Democrats are voting against it.

On a side note this would also apparently shut down ebay and similar resale sites.

Re: SOPA and PIPA: the bills which could end Seibertron.com, your favorite websites, and the Internet! (1333503)
Posted by dinogeist on January 13th, 2012 @ 7:57pm CST

Seibertron wrote:Thanks for putting this article together, Psychout. I really appreciate it. Hopefully our efforts will help make people aware of these scary bills and that we can do our part to make a difference.

Looking forward to hearing comments and seeing discussions from within our community here on Seibertron.com.

Personally from my perspective all these laws & regulations exist to control/degrade the lower & middle class.

WHAT UPSETS ME THE MOST,when these laws & regulations are created. The rich & powerful are exempt from following them.

if your gonna create new laws & new regulations then EVERYONE should follow them not just some.

I think with the downward spiral economy getting worser & worser every year. the big corporations are getting more greedy & trying to steal every penny away from the hard working people they can.

instead of the big corporations trying to help out the working man. their doing the oppossite & making it worse for them during this extremly bad downward spiral economy.

From my persective capitalism is worse than communism.

Re: SOPA and PIPA: the bills which could end Seibertron.com, your favorite websites, and the Internet! (1333506)
Posted by Twitchythe3rd on January 13th, 2012 @ 8:09pm CST

I believe it's already been stalled to the point it isn't going to happen.

Still, better to spread the word amongst the people and let them know the Apocalypse is coming early.

Re: SOPA and PIPA: the bills which could end Seibertron.com, your favorite websites, and the Internet! (1333509)
Posted by Vicalliose on January 13th, 2012 @ 8:18pm CST

Tidalwavex wrote:Personally from my perspective all these laws & regulations exist to control/degrade the lower & middle class.

WHAT UPSETS ME THE MOST,when these laws & regulations are created. The rich & powerful are exempt from following them.

if your gonna create new laws & new regulations then EVERYONE should follow them not just some.

I think with the downward spiral economy getting worser & worser every year. the big corporations are getting more greedy & trying to steal every penny away from the hard working people they can.

instead of the big corporations trying to help out the working man. their doing the oppossite & making it worse for them during this extremly bad downward spiral economy.

From my persective capitalism is worse than communism.

From my perspective, all things can easily be corrupted.

Our government has played a big part in destroying capitalism as well as the young college educated fools who's minds are not set in reality and only know how to make money the wrong way. The biggest problem today? Lawyers. As time goes on they have to come up with new ways to put money in their pockets, as more and more people want to become lawyers every year.

Certain corporations have dropped out of backing this these bills. It's mostly backed by Hollywood as a whole. And in my opinion, I've always considered Hollywood one of the greatest evils on the face of the Earth. It's like they exist purely to generate hate and animosity among everyone.

Re: SOPA and PIPA: the bills which could end Seibertron.com, your favorite websites, and the Internet! (1333516)
Posted by Joetx on January 13th, 2012 @ 8:57pm CST

Vicalliose wrote:From my perspective, all things can easily be corrupted.

Our government has played a big part in destroying capitalism as well as the young college educated fools who's minds are not set in reality and only know how to make money the wrong way. The biggest problem today? Lawyers. As time goes on they have to come up with new ways to put money in their pockets, as more and more people want to become lawyers every year.

Certain corporations have dropped out of backing this these bills. It's mostly backed by Hollywood as a whole. And in my opinion, I've always considered Hollywood one of the greatest evils on the face of the Earth. It's like they exist purely to generate hate and animosity among everyone.

This is easily the most ignorant post I've read on a TFs fan site, placing the blame on the wrong people. Lawyers? Hollywood? What, did you just get out of a tea party meeting?

Basically, our political system is corrupt b/c we've allowed, through our collective ignorance, the wealthy & "people" such as corporations (especially the financial, petroleum, & health care-related industries) to, in effect, bribe the politicians of both parties into drafting & passing laws that benefit the wealthy & corporations, but are a detriment to the vast majority of us.

And Ron Paul would give them even greater freedom to do whatever the hell they wanted.

Re: SOPA and PIPA: the bills which could end Seibertron.com, your favorite websites, and the Internet! (1333519)
Posted by Psychout on January 13th, 2012 @ 9:14pm CST

Discuss your semantics elsewhere.

The reasons behind, and who supports, this bill are completely irellevant unless it's regarding how to stop it, which is far more important.

Re: SOPA and PIPA: the bills which could end Seibertron.com, your favorite websites, and the Internet! (1333522)
Posted by Rated X on January 13th, 2012 @ 9:18pm CST

I think enacting this law could bankrupt the court systems. Everytime some moron tries to press charges for some petty s**t, somebody has to foot the bill to prosecute you and take all the steps to lock you up or fine you. If this law presents such a "grey area" that anyone can be held accountable for almost anything, the waiting list for a case could be years. That is if enough people with no lives come foward to try to "cash in" or "punish" people for using their stuff on the internet. The whole concept only works in theory, not in reality. Like I said before, somebodys gotta foot the bill to enforce all this, or it's just rubbish. Kind of like wasting man-power enforcing jay-walking laws in a city overan with gangs and drug dealers.

Re: SOPA and PIPA: the bills which could end Seibertron.com, your favorite websites, and the Internet! (1333523)
Posted by Shadowman on January 13th, 2012 @ 9:22pm CST

Vicalliose wrote:Our government has played a big part in destroying capitalism

I'm assuming you don't live in America, then? For all this straw-man talk about "corporations" no one has ever once said "corporations" hate people spending money on them. And spending money is the main point of capitalism.

Also this is from a month ago.

Lamar’s amendments also clarify that sites ending in .com, .org, and .net are not covered by the bill. Only foreign sites fall under SOPA’s wrath.

I don't know if the amendment passed or what, but if it did SOPA's threat level dropped like a rock. It still needs to be shot down and shot down hard, though.

Re: SOPA and PIPA: the bills which could end Seibertron.com, your favorite websites, and the Internet! (1333530)
Posted by Stormrider on January 13th, 2012 @ 9:31pm CST

I am griefed by the amount of regulations that this government has strangled upon our country in such a short time, and many of them passed quielty behind closed doors. Thank you for bringing these bills to light. Although I find them nearly impossible for the government to regulate, I think their effect will have a huge impact. We are one step away from being a neutered America.

Re: SOPA and PIPA: the bills which could end Seibertron.com, your favorite websites, and the Internet! (1333534)
Posted by metaphorge on January 13th, 2012 @ 9:38pm CST

Thank you so much for publishing this. I was planning to write in and request that such an article be created for precisely the reasons you cite.

Re: SOPA and PIPA: the bills which could end Seibertron.com, your favorite websites, and the Internet! (1333535)
Posted by bionic_radical on January 13th, 2012 @ 9:39pm CST

I'm with Snake.

Re: SOPA and PIPA: the bills which could end Seibertron.com, your favorite websites, and the Internet! (1333537)
Posted by Shadowman on January 13th, 2012 @ 9:48pm CST

Stormrider wrote:Thank you for bringing these bills to light.

metaphorge wrote:Thank you so much for publishing this. I was planning to write in and request that such an article be created for precisely the reasons you cite.

You guys know this news post is actually two months late to the party, right? We've known about these bills since November.

Re: SOPA and PIPA: the bills which could end Seibertron.com, your favorite websites, and the Internet! (1333538)
Posted by bionic_radical on January 13th, 2012 @ 9:55pm CST

Psychout wrote:Discuss your semantics elsewhere.

The reasons behind, and who supports, this bill are completely irellevant unless it's regarding how to stop it, which is far more important.

And if it's going to be an open forum, let's treat it as such. To censor a post when the topic at hand is essentially, the freedom of exchanging information? One set of standards will do just fine.

Re: SOPA and PIPA: the bills which could end Seibertron.com, your favorite websites, and the Internet! (1333542)
Posted by Mindmaster on January 13th, 2012 @ 10:09pm CST

Alright, who's the idiot that proposed this to Congress? :-x

Lucky me, I'm taking civics and economics.

Personally, I feel like these bills are in violation of the First Amendment. Are there some things on the Internet that may be bad? Sure, but taking the Internet down also eliminates the good things of the Internet too, such as this awesome fan site. :grin:

Re: SOPA and PIPA: the bills which could end Seibertron.com, your favorite websites, and the Internet! (1333545)
Posted by Seibertron on January 13th, 2012 @ 10:24pm CST

Shadowman wrote:
Stormrider wrote:Thank you for bringing these bills to light.

metaphorge wrote:Thank you so much for publishing this. I was planning to write in and request that such an article be created for precisely the reasons you cite.

You guys know this news post is actually two months late to the party, right? We've known about these bills since November.

We've known about them as well. We've been discussing internally how to handle this on the site, most of the debate with how and when to handle it resting on my shoulders. I didn't feel posting this in the news section between Thanksgiving and Christmas was necessary and didn't want it to get lost in the news. It was also not necessary because the vote was pushed back from December to January. Had the vote happened in December, you would've seen me do something with this back then. Dead Metal had something written up way back in the middle of November for this, but I wasn't ready to bring Seibertron.com into this mess yet because I wanted to research it more and read about how the big sites/companies like Facebook, Google, and Wikipedia were going to handle this situation.

With things currently quiet on the Transformers front, now is a perfect time to do this leading up to the most important and influential period of the life of these bills. Now is crunch time -- there's a pending blackout date on the 18th, hearings on the same date in DC, and a vote on the 24th, I decided now was the time to add more fuel to the fire.

The next 7 to 10 days are extremely critical in making sure SOPA and PIPA do not get passed. Please spread the word on Facebook and Twitter and contact your local representatives to let them know how you feel about this.

Re: SOPA and PIPA: the bills which could end Seibertron.com, your favorite websites, and the Internet! (1333548)
Posted by Godzillabot Primal on January 13th, 2012 @ 10:36pm CST

contact your local representatives to let them know how you feel about this.

Not trying to sound dumb, but who qualifies for that?

Re: SOPA and PIPA: the bills which could end Seibertron.com, your favorite websites, and the Internet! (1333550)
Posted by Seibertron on January 13th, 2012 @ 10:39pm CST

godzillabot wrote:
contact your local representatives to let them know how you feel about this.

Not trying to sound dumb, but who qualifies for that?

Any American citizen has the right to contact their local representative(s) to let your voice be heard. There are a variety of ways to contact them via phone or email. The original story provides some of the links that will help empower you to do just that. Please let us know if you need further help. We need every one to step up to the plate on this one. This is serious. This is scary. WE collectively can make a difference.

Re: SOPA and PIPA: the bills which could end Seibertron.com, your favorite websites, and the Internet! (1333553)
Posted by Godzillabot Primal on January 13th, 2012 @ 10:44pm CST

Seibertron wrote:
godzillabot wrote:
contact your local representatives to let them know how you feel about this.

Not trying to sound dumb, but who qualifies for that?

Any American citizen has the right to contact their local representative(s) to let your voice be heard. There are a variety of ways to contact them via phone or email. The original story provides some of the links that will help empower you to do just that. Please let us know if you need further help. We need every one to step up to the plate on this one. This is serious. This is scary. WE collectively can make a difference.

I'll do what I can in my sucluded place

Man, first time I've been considered a member of a team. |:|

Thanks.

Re: SOPA and PIPA: the bills which could end Seibertron.com, your favorite websites, and the Internet! (1333557)
Posted by wilcosu35 on January 13th, 2012 @ 11:03pm CST

since i'm from the netherlands, i'm powerless to do anything about it, but i sincerely hope this crap doesn't get passed.

Re: SOPA and PIPA: the bills which could end Seibertron.com, your favorite websites, and the Internet! (1333561)
Posted by skidflap on January 13th, 2012 @ 11:09pm CST

fruit for thought but... this bill screws over everybody, including the government. what's the point of trying to blacklist websites. many websites rely on advertisement and advertisement requires what? images of the product. if adding an image of a product will get you blacklisted then companies big and small will lose because websites will no longer promote ads. believe me i've seen google, i've see yahoo, facebook, twitter, everything. if blogs and forums and fan websites (such as this) lose the right to freely discuss our favorite hobby then what kind of message is that? not sure this is the direction they want to take it. which is why i have faith that this bill will not pass. no one can be that stupid to support the very thing the US has spoken against in other countries.

...and i step off my box now. ;)^

Re: SOPA and PIPA: the bills which could end Seibertron.com, your favorite websites, and the Internet! (1333568)
Posted by Autobot032 on January 13th, 2012 @ 11:33pm CST

This is frightening. This is the first step towards the death of liberty.

Re: SOPA and PIPA: the bills which could end Seibertron.com, your favorite websites, and the Internet! (1333570)
Posted by DJX Prime on January 13th, 2012 @ 11:45pm CST

wilcosu35 wrote:since i'm from the netherlands, i'm powerless to do anything about it, but i sincerely hope this crap doesn't get passed.

You're not powerless. You can educate people on the issue. Pass the word around, so to speak.

Re: SOPA and PIPA: the bills which could end Seibertron.com, your favorite websites, and the Internet! (1333578)
Posted by reluttr on January 14th, 2012 @ 12:35am CST

I was curious why guys did not post about this sooner. Since if hasbro ever had a hissyfit due to product leaks they could royally destroy the TF community.

Re: SOPA and PIPA: the bills which could end Seibertron.com, your favorite websites, and the Internet! (1333579)
Posted by IAmThePeej on January 14th, 2012 @ 12:45am CST

I really can't add much to what has been posted already other than I've been posting all sorts of petitions from Demand Progress about this bill and its opposition on FaceBook, and will share this as well to inform people more, but the main thing here I find wrong is comparing SOPA and PIPA to China's firewall.
If SOPA passes, these bills will act similar in some form, but, quite unlike China's firewall, this law will not just block the website from US internet users, but COMPLETELY DELETE THE SITE FROM THE INTERNET AS A WHOLE.
I'm not trying to sensationalize anything, this is what will happen. Worst part is there is no trial that will be needed or any form of subpoena to the owner(s) of a website that may come into question, but hold them completely accountable, remove the website fully (yes, that means the non-US based members of this forum will not be able to access said site as well) from the internet, and prosecuting the owner(s) as criminals.
One other thing I should add is certain companies are for SOPA passing, such as Wal-Mart. Any money going towards these companies just gives them more to spend on pushing this bill through. Hollywood, I saw was mentioned earlier as being behind SOPA, but its actually the MPAA/RIAA that are fully behind this bill, going as far as having their employees calling their representatives as citizens not associated with them and saying they are for the bill passing.

Re: SOPA and PIPA: the bills which could end Seibertron.com, your favorite websites, and the Internet! (1333581)
Posted by IAmThePeej on January 14th, 2012 @ 12:48am CST

reluttr wrote:I was curious why guys did not post about this sooner. Since if hasbro ever had a hissyfit due to product leaks they could royally destroy the TF community.

Seibertron already posted why this was only published here now:

Seibertron wrote:We've known about them as well. We've been discussing internally how to handle this on the site, most of the debate with how and when to handle it resting on my shoulders. I didn't feel posting this in the news section between Thanksgiving and Christmas was necessary and didn't want it to get lost in the news. It was also not necessary because the vote was pushed back from December to January. Had the vote happened in December, you would've seen me do something with this back then. Dead Metal had something written up way back in the middle of November for this, but I wasn't ready to bring Seibertron.com into this mess yet because I wanted to research it more and read about how the big sites/companies like Facebook, Google, and Wikipedia were going to handle this situation.

With things currently quiet on the Transformers front, now is a perfect time to do this leading up to the most important and influential period of the life of these bills. Now is crunch time -- there's a pending blackout date on the 18th, hearings on the same date in DC, and a vote on the 24th, I decided now was the time to add more fuel to the fire.

The next 7 to 10 days are extremely critical in making sure SOPA and PIPA do not get passed. Please spread the word on Facebook and Twitter and contact your local representatives to let them know how you feel about this.

Re: SOPA and PIPA: the bills which could end Seibertron.com, your favorite websites, and the Internet! (1333584)
Posted by Shadowman on January 14th, 2012 @ 12:56am CST

skidflap wrote:fruit for thought but... this bill screws over everybody, including the government. what's the point of trying to blacklist websites. many websites rely on advertisement and advertisement requires what? images of the product. if adding an image of a product will get you blacklisted then companies big and small will lose because websites will no longer promote ads. believe me i've seen google, i've see yahoo, facebook, twitter, everything. if blogs and forums and fan websites (such as this) lose the right to freely discuss our favorite hobby then what kind of message is that? not sure this is the direction they want to take it. which is why i have faith that this bill will not pass. no one can be that stupid to support the very thing the US has spoken against in other countries.

...and i step off my box now.

Advertisements are exempt from the rules of the bill.

Re: SOPA and PIPA: the bills which could end Seibertron.com, your favorite websites, and the Internet! (1333589)
Posted by welcometothedarksyde on January 14th, 2012 @ 2:00am CST

(In Optimus Prime voice) We must stop the Decepticon...gress

Re: SOPA and PIPA: the bills which could end Seibertron.com, your favorite websites, and the Internet! (1333590)
Posted by Deathsanras on January 14th, 2012 @ 2:06am CST

May I suggest talking to the site admins for the other Transformers fan sites and proposing a combined effort on this? I fully agree with what you're saying and doing, but it may be more effective if "Stop SOPA/PIPA" was featured on every major Transformers fan site. As it is, it seems like a Seibertron.com agenda. But if you "We Are The World" it, it will sink in as a fan-wide effort.

Re: SOPA and PIPA: the bills which could end Seibertron.com, your favorite websites, and the Internet! (1333591)
Posted by Vicalliose on January 14th, 2012 @ 2:11am CST

Shadowman wrote:
Vicalliose wrote:Our government has played a big part in destroying capitalism

I'm assuming you don't live in America, then? For all this straw-man talk about "corporations" no one has ever once said "corporations" hate people spending money on them. And spending money is the main point of capitalism.

No. I live in America, the heart of America to tell the truth. But that question was just sarcastic anyway.

Hugh. It's hard to talk about this on a board where honestly everyone panders to a large corporation. It's almost like you people worship Hasbro half the time.

Look. Our government has destroyed capitalism. How? They've over-regulated and over taxed business, thus making big businesses the only ones that can survive and thrive. These huge corporations have outsourced all their production to other countries to avoid regulations and because of this America has become a consumer only nation. Our economy simply cannot grow. But big business is happy because there is no competition. They do not care that their system is destined to fail. Every time a new overbearing law is passed, it causes the small man to fall and the big man keeps climbing the ladder.

Joetx wrote:This is easily the most ignorant post I've read on a TFs fan site, placing the blame on the wrong people. Lawyers? Hollywood? What, did you just get out of a tea party meeting?

Basically, our political system is corrupt b/c we've allowed, through our collective ignorance, the wealthy & "people" such as corporations (especially the financial, petroleum, & health care-related industries) to, in effect, bribe the politicians of both parties into drafting & passing laws that benefit the wealthy & corporations, but are a detriment to the vast majority of us.

And Ron Paul would give them even greater freedom to do whatever the hell they wanted.

Essentially, yes you are correct. But that does not dis-include Hollywood or the lawyers who benefit. It's also large in part the fault of the politicians who took said bribes to begin with. Also have you even looked at who supports this bill? And if you think regulatory laws do jack **** to big business then obviously you aren't listening to your own words.

Capitalism is corrupt and broken without competition and the regulations do little more than bring competition down. Though granted, one thing I still think needs to be done is to place a tax hike on all imported goods and I doubt Dr. Paul will do that. But I mostly side with him on civil rights issues, that's more important to me now.

If you want government to stop pandering to big business, if you want them to stop creating laws which take away your freedoms. Then downsize government and let people do what they want! Freedom of choice dammit!

Re: SOPA and PIPA: the bills which could end Seibertron.com, your favorite websites, and the Internet! (1333593)
Posted by MINDVVIPE on January 14th, 2012 @ 2:24am CST

Vicalliose wrote:If you want government to stop pandering to big business, if you want them to stop creating laws which take away your freedoms. Then downsize government and let people do what they want! Freedom of choice dammit!

Good luck with that, bro. As much as I want the same thing, that is so unlikely to happen anytime soon. As long as people are ignorant of the processes involved in the consumer products and everyday privileges we, the west, recieve, they aren't going to make any stand to choose their spending in a way that will affectively shift operations on a governmental/corporate level.

*EDIT: Even knowing the process, they still won't change..... sooooo ya.

Re: SOPA and PIPA: the bills which could end Seibertron.com, your favorite websites, and the Internet! (1333594)
Posted by LiKwid on January 14th, 2012 @ 2:31am CST

Im really at a loss for words here.. I never eally paid any attention to this whole situation because I figured it would get shot down but I admit my stupidity on this..

What is the real gain from this bill passing? I mean, no one wins in this situation.. It almost brings a tear to my eye that people out there would do something like this...

Re: SOPA and PIPA: the bills which could end Seibertron.com, your favorite websites, and the Internet! (1333596)
Posted by Vicalliose on January 14th, 2012 @ 2:48am CST

MINDVVIPE wrote:
Vicalliose wrote:If you want government to stop pandering to big business, if you want them to stop creating laws which take away your freedoms. Then downsize government and let people do what they want! Freedom of choice dammit!

Good luck with that, bro. As much as I want the same thing, that is so unlikely to happen anytime soon. As long as people are ignorant of the processes involved in the consumer products and everyday privileges we, the west, recieve, they aren't going to make any stand to choose their spending in a way that will affectively shift operations on a governmental/corporate level.

*EDIT: Even knowing the process, they still won't change..... sooooo ya.

"People would rather let the ship sink then stop sailing." Or some kind of metaphor like that applies here. Naturally the massive changes that would need to take place to fix what's been done would impede in peoples way of life and the modern day "order of things", so they'd rather just keep sinking rather than take in the reality.

I hate the world... :BANG_HEAD:

Re: SOPA and PIPA: the bills which could end Seibertron.com, your favorite websites, and the Internet! (1333598)
Posted by fenrir72 on January 14th, 2012 @ 2:50am CST

Who are the sponsors of this bill? Democrat or Republican? More or less likely a Democrat! Ronald Reagan's policy allowed our hobby, Transformers collecting possible through his liberalization of stupid government policies that forbade cartoons that "advertised" products(in this case, the old TF show) aimed towards kids.

Now we have this monstrosity? Once the shit hits the fan......! Like Pandora's box, the far reaching implications are to terrible to contemplate!

Btw,if Hollywood is the prime movers behind this? Then......who runs Hollywood btw aside from the corporate/trial lawyer clique( whose primary ethnicity is...........)?

Those types really have their tentacles all over the popular cultures that it makes you wonder why they are so detested world wide!

Re: SOPA and PIPA: the bills which could end Seibertron.com, your favorite websites, and the Internet! (1333599)
Posted by Vicalliose on January 14th, 2012 @ 3:00am CST

fenrir72 wrote:Who are the sponsors of this bill? Democrat or Republican? More or less likely a Democrat! Ronald Reagan's policy allowed our hobby, Transformers collecting possible through his liberalization of stupid government policies that forbade cartoons that "advertised" products(in this case, the old TF show) aimed towards kids.

Now we have this monstrosity? Once the shit hits the fan......! Like Pandora's box, the far reaching implications are to terrible to contemplate!

Btw,if Hollywood is the prime movers behind this? Then......who runs Hollywood btw aside from the corporate/trial lawyer clique( whose primary ethnicity is...........)?

Those types really have their tentacles all over the popular cultures that it makes you wonder why they are so detested world wide!

Well it was started by a democrat. But **** me if I actually could remember the name of who it was. Though it's mostly being backed by republicans in the house and senate, mainly because they have no idea what it is, but what few democrats are in are voting against it so they feel the need to vote for it. It could be puppeteering though, Dems are good at making republicans look stupid... -er.

LiKwid wrote:Im really at a loss for words here.. I never eally paid any attention to this whole situation because I figured it would get shot down but I admit my stupidity on this..

What is the real gain from this bill passing? I mean, no one wins in this situation.. It almost brings a tear to my eye that people out there would do something like this...

Well, big business wins since wealth automatically exempts people from everything. And it sorts out the government's fears of how much power the internet has given people.

Re: SOPA and PIPA: the bills which could end Seibertron.com, your favorite websites, and the Internet! (1333604)
Posted by Shadowman on January 14th, 2012 @ 3:48am CST

Vicalliose wrote:corporations

Stop saying that all the time. People keep blaming corporations for things, it's the most cliched argument you can make. And it's not even true, it's just a big generalization.

Vicalliose wrote:Look. Our government has destroyed capitalism. How? They've over-regulated and over taxed business, thus making big businesses the only ones that can survive and thrive. These huge corporations have outsourced all their production to other countries to avoid regulations and because of this America has become a consumer only nation. Our economy simply cannot grow. But big business is happy because there is no competition. They do not care that their system is destined to fail. Every time a new overbearing law is passed, it causes the small man to fall and the big man keeps climbing the ladder.

Except EVERYONE has a competitor. Do you not watch TV? Do you not see how half of all ads are "Our competitors product sucks but our product rocks"?

Here's an example: You know why people shop at Wal-Mart? Because it has everything. (Though I prefer Meijers, it's about the same, though not as widespread, a lot of people here probably don't know about it) So people go there for all the stuff they want in one place, at cheaper prices, instead of Mom-and-Pop local stores. It's not because Wal-Mart is an evil corporate entity, it's not because the government overtaxed the Mom-and-Pop stores. It's because Wal-Mart just did their job better.

fenrir72 wrote:Who are the sponsors of this bill? Democrat or Republican?

Both. Lamar Smith (R-TX) started SOPA, with co-sponsers Howard Berman (D-CA), Marsha Blackburn (R-TN), Mary Bono Mack (R-CA), Steve Chabot (R-OH), John Conyers (D-MI), Ted Deutch (D-FL), Elton Gallegly (R-CA), Bob Goodlatte (R-VA), Timothy Griffin (R-AR), Dennis A. Ross (R-FL), Adam Schiff (D-CA) and Lee Terry (R-NE).

Vicalliose wrote:Well, big business wins since wealth automatically exempts people from everything.

Except for Kenneth Lay, though he technically got away with it by dying from a heart attack instead of serving the 45 year prison sentence for everything he did with Enron.

EDIT: Also Rod Blagojevich, former Governor of Illinois, convicted of a felony. And former Senator Ted "series of tubes" Stevens, who was at least indicted, though it was voided due to gross prosecutorial misconduct. (He died in a plane crash a year later, though)

Just because rich and powerful people don't always get punished doesn't mean they always get away with it.

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