Psychout wrote:
SOPA, the bill that could put an end to Seibertron.com
That's just lame! I'm sorry to say this and I don't want to insult people from SOPA en PIPA, but guys.... get real, please!
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 http://www.seibertron.com/ 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?
Seibertron wrote:It looks like Wikipedia will officially join the battle on Wednesday, according to Wikipedia founder Jimmy Wales.
https://twitter.com/#!/jimmy_wales
https://www.facebook.com/jimmywalesfans ... l&filter=2
Psychout wrote:Clarification is still needed but it looks like SOPA has been shelved (not dropped, but still shelved)!
We cannot stop the pressure even if this is true though. The Senate equivalent, PIPA, is still out there and just becuase we have postponed one form of crazy does not mean we should sit back and let another take it's place. We also can be certain that SOPA will be back in one form or another eventually.
Stll work to do.
Noideaforaname wrote:We may have freedom to view what we want, but artists/authors/creators or loved ones thereof have just as much freedom to charge us for viewing.
That's not support of SOPA/PIPA by any means, I just find certain posts here and elsewhere... disagreeable.
Wigglez wrote:Just remember. The sword is an extension of your arm. Use it as if you're going to karate chop someone with your really long sharp ass hand.
Jeep! wrote:Why do I imagine Dead Metal sounding exactly like Arnie?
Intah-wib-buls?
Blurrz wrote:10/10
Leave it to Dead Metal to have the word 'Pronz' in his signature.
Noideaforaname wrote:We may have freedom to view what we want, but artists/authors/creators or loved ones thereof have just as much freedom to charge us for viewing.
That's not support of SOPA/PIPA by any means, I just find certain posts here and elsewhere... disagreeable.
Dead Metal wrote:But I agree, there are a lot who abuse these things.
Wigglez wrote:Just remember. The sword is an extension of your arm. Use it as if you're going to karate chop someone with your really long sharp ass hand.
Shadowman wrote:Dead Metal wrote:But I agree, there are a lot who abuse these things.
And those are the people causing the problems. Not everyone uses it as "try before you buy" (And many people who do use that excuse don't mean it), most people use it to get free things, just not wanting to pay.
Shadowman wrote:Dead Metal wrote:But I agree, there are a lot who abuse these things.
And those are the people causing the problems. Not everyone uses it as "try before you buy" (And many people who do use that excuse don't mean it), most people use it to get free things, just not wanting to pay.
As for Napster, the original idea was to cut out the middleman between artist and audience. And that, as we all know, was twisted into the piracy service it became much more popularly known as.
Wigglez wrote:Just remember. The sword is an extension of your arm. Use it as if you're going to karate chop someone with your really long sharp ass hand.
Why is this our problem?Shadowman wrote:but it's an end coming from people who are at the end of their rope trying to solve this problem.
Reddit Founder Alexis Ohanian on CNBC wrote:Why is it that when Republicans and Democrats need to solve the budget and the deficit, there's deadlock, but when Hollywood lobbyists pay them $94 million dollars to write legislation, people from both sides of the aisle line up to co-sponsor it?
Psychout wrote:Why is this our problem as consumers?Shadowman wrote:but it's an end coming from people who are at the end of their rope trying to solve this problem.
Wigglez wrote:Just remember. The sword is an extension of your arm. Use it as if you're going to karate chop someone with your really long sharp ass hand.
None, and nor do I plan to. I'm not a lawyer, I am a consumer.Shadowman wrote:Psychout wrote:Why is this our problem [as consumers?]Shadowman wrote:but it's an end coming from people who are at the end of their rope trying to solve this problem.
I'm not saying it's a good idea. I am saying that all the ideas they've run through in the past decade not only failed, but was then harshly criticized. And no one is willing to help. Seriously, how many anti-piracy measures have you all suggested? And suggesting "Better encryption" doesn't count. (If it's encrypted, it can be decrypted)
Psychout wrote:None, and nor do I plan to. I'm not a lawyer, I am a consumer.
If their ideas keep getting slated then maybe it's time for them to actually listen to those that know what they are talking about as opposed to those with the $94 million.
Wigglez wrote:Just remember. The sword is an extension of your arm. Use it as if you're going to karate chop someone with your really long sharp ass hand.
Here's another thought, how about you watch the link I dropped with the quote from Alexis Ohanian where he makes a great suggestion citing Netflix as an example?Shadowman wrote:Psychout wrote:None, and nor do I plan to. I'm not a lawyer, I am a consumer.
If their ideas keep getting slated then maybe it's time for them to actually listen to those that know what they are talking about as opposed to those with the $94 million.
See, that's not helping. Telling someone they're doing it wrong only helps if you tell them how to do it right. Otherwise they're going to keep cycling through more and more bad ideas and we're just going to keep suffering. You don't need to be a lawyer to have good ideas and correct other people's mistakes.
So here's a thought: How about instead of just complaining every time a new DRM measure is taken, we think up something better? Otherwise we're not really doing anything at all.
Pontimax 01 wrote:Sort of ironic that when I went to contact my representative the other day he had a very prominent "Follow me on Twitter and Facebook!" logo present. I reminded him that if he would like to continue to have a Facebook to follow him on, that this legislation needs killed or heavily amended.
SirSoundwaveIV wrote:Well, somewhat good news, Fox News just brought up the blackout like a minute or so ago on TV. Looks like this might be getting the public spotlight that we've been wanting (of course they'll probably just trash it as pirates being opposed, but it's certainly a start for national coverage, anyway)
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