I Guess Everyone Knows What SOPA Is Right?

i have looked at this bill loosely. I am a Canadian so it has some effect on my but not much. The real issue is as pointed out it isn't a single post it is everything the whole ISP if one user was to post an avetar they did not own CLEAR copyright to the whole site goes away. Or worse you belong to a site like RFUK the uk reptiles and the US gov can block any person in the US from visiting. Or say web sites hosted in any country that has different copyright laws than the USA does, like say Canada? Asia?, Europe? It has huge implications, how many sites do you visit and like use whatever are not hosted in the USA? 10% 50% ?? The continued access could be in jeopardy.

The beautiful thing of the internet is it is a HUGE soap box for anyone whom has the desire to climb on it. I can voice my opinions to anyone whom wishes to read them. Freedom of speech, and exchange of ideas. Yes there are going to be some whom abuse it as with everything else ever created, that is not a reason to censure free thought.

Didn't Syria do this and strike a special police force to enforce it... Syrian Electronic Army? It feels a little to close for my taste.

Well, it could effect you since facebook, youtube, etc are all hosted in the US.

I am not sure about where they are hosted but I suspect rather than give up millions of dollars they would simply move to somewhere else. I would just not have my american friends :(

It is still unbelievable to me that it has got as far as it has without massive out cry. So far the biggest out cry is from godaddy which only is opposing because so many big clients said they would pull services if they supported it.

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Originally Posted by Raptor

This bill also has the ability to impact colleges. My english instructor scanned part of a book in order for us to analyze the essay. She uploaded the picture to the course website. Under this law, that would have gotten the college website taken down.

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That would depend on whether or not they change the feds' definitions on "fair use."

It is 100% legal for schools to copy & distribute parts of books under fair use [currently]. They do not have to ask the publisher for permission first. This has been true since the 70s. Something to think about the next time your school forces you to buy all these expensive textbooks [why to schools do that? because most of them are in the publishing industry themselves and either have a textbook press facility, or require their teachers to publish periodically in addition to teaching]. It would be easy for a college level course to give you one textbook excerpt as a hand out, then a different one the next week, etc. They just don't like the idea.

Well, they will never stop me. I will always find a way.

This bill will destroy web design, 90% of everything web designers use to build any website has been copyrighted. Even the text that we are typing in. There is only so many designs/ art that one can create before there are multiple sites using the same designs.
This bill takes it way beyond just copyrighted content. It is worded extremely loose to the point they can censor anything they dislike.

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Originally Posted by jdouglas

This bill will destroy web design, 90% of everything web designers use to build any website has been copyrighted. Even the text that we are typing in. There is only so many designs/ art that one can create before there are multiple sites using the same designs.
This bill takes it way beyond just copyrighted content. It is worded extremely loose to the point they can censor anything they dislike.

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And then since the NDAA was signed into law on the 31st, all they have to do is call you a terrorist suspect and they can lock you up forever. No trial, charges, nothing. They just grab you & you disappear.

As Forbes put it:

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“The only provision from which U.S. citizens are exempted here is the“requirement” of military detention,” Greenwald writes. “For foreign nationals accused of being members of Al Qaeda, military detention is mandatory; for U.S. citizens, it is optional. This section does not exempt U.S citizens from the presidential power of military detention: only from the requirement of military detention.”

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Originally Posted by sgath92

Something to think about the next time your school forces you to buy all these expensive textbooks [why to schools do that? because most of them are in the publishing industry themselves and either have a textbook press facility, or require their teachers to publish periodically in addition to teaching]. It would be easy for a college level course to give you one textbook excerpt as a hand out, then a different one the next week, etc. They just don't like the idea.

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Erm. Not sure where you get the idea that the majority of colleges are in the publishing industry. There's only a handful of companies that publish books. The biggest one is Pearson. Additionally, a lot of colleges are nonprofit and so the only way they can make money is via the books.

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Originally Posted by Raptor

Erm. Not sure where you get the idea that the majority of colleges are in the publishing industry. There's only a handful of companies that publish books. The biggest one is Pearson. Additionally, a lot of colleges are nonprofit and so the only way they can make money is via the books.

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That's only part of it. They also want their faculty to publish [often have this in their contracts in fact], and put a lot of emphasis on this part of their resumes. This breeds an environment where letting poor college students save money on textbooks by using more handouts is discouraged.

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Originally Posted by sgath92

That's only part of it. They also want their faculty to publish [often have this in their contracts in fact], and put a lot of emphasis on this part of their resumes. This breeds an environment where letting poor college students save money on textbooks by using more handouts is discouraged.

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In higher level courses, handouts don't really cut it.