End Piracy, Not Liberty

*title taken from Google’s post regarding SOPA*

****UPDATE! AS OF JANUARY 20, 2012, SOPA’s mastermind Lamar Smith POSTPONED and will review the bill once again along with the committee and various Internet entities. This is GOOD NEWS but I am sure isn’t the last act of this World War Web

It’s been so long since I made a REAL blog post and not just a filler video to keep my blog running. Priorities priorities I say! I even ran out of pre-made blog posts that I wrote before. This is how delayed I am -_-

Several serious issues have blotted the start of my 2012. In short, my too optimistic self who says that 2012 will be a better year is in for an extremely CHALLENGING YEAR. My successes will be greater but so will my failures. I’m willing to make that hundreds of TRIALS just to get that right formula or fix the light bulb and this, standing up to a great issue is one of the challenges that not only I but THE WHOLE 21ST CENTURY GENERATION will have to face.

Almost everyone on the online world must already know about the business regarding SOPA (Stop Online Piracy Act) and PIPA (Protect IP) as last January 18, 2012, the world wide web witnessed the largest temporary shutdown of thousands of sites in protest to these US Bills that the US government wants to pass. Some known sites such as Wikipedia, Reddit, and even simple blogs like ours joined hand in hand in this silent war against this atrocious bill. By January 19, 2012, US President Obama joined us netizens by going AGAINST SOPA and PIPA.

But what happened to this stand from Obama when just a FEW HOURS LATER, The US government and FBI sued and arrested 4 out of the 7 shareholders including the owner of file sharing sites of Megaupload and Megavideo. They took their domain and this what you see when you visit their page


So basically after the worldwide protest of SOPA, the FBI promptly gave them the middle finger and poked your eyes out and took down this file sharing and video streaming sites WITHOUT THE PASSAGE OF SOPA OR PIPA. I am all for fighting crime and against theft (don’t you just hate it when you find out someone STOLE THE WHOLE CONTENTS OF YOUR SITE) but there’s a reason why piracy is still in effect. This is probably THE ONLY WAY some people can do to get access to the other works of people such as films, books and others. HOW ON EARTH CAN THEY APPRECIATE THEIR ART, THEIR WORK WITHOUT USING THESE MEANS? How can one watch for example, the recently concluded Golden Globe Best Film “The Artist”? without distributing it to other countries? Hulu.com? Sorry but it’s for US residents only. There’s a better way to fighting piracy than ENDING THE FREEDOM OF UPLOADING AND WATCHING ORIGINAL CONTENT. What will happen to the people who genuinely use Megaupload for their original content? Who should they turn to or sue because they have lost almost EVERYTHING?


In retaliation, Anonymous the decentralized hacker group collective that is composed of anonymous users around the globe (you reader could be part of that group and I wouldn’t know! the members don’t know each other and there is no leader or hierarchy at all) was able to bring down the sites of the FBI, Universal Music, the U.S. Department of Justice and the Recording Industry Association of America in UNDER 15 MINUTES after the shutdown of MegaUpload. These guys work fast by using Distributed Denial of Service Attacks (in short overwhelming servers with THOUSANDS/MILLIONS OF PACKETS OF DATA) through 5,000++ computers (I think) and promptly fought fire with fire. This group has done this over so many times such as doing these to the opposition of Wikileaks (a site that exposes classified information such as ehem… some government records…) and I commend their support because I believe that this kind of protest proves to create the BIGGEST IMPACT than any other kind of protest. Do you think that the government will take notice if they just stage a silent protest? HELL NO. And violence out in the streets isn’t such a good thing either so I think that this is the best protest for this kind of situation. The good thing about this group is that they actually fight for human rights (they brought down a Pornography ring I think…) and for the first time, they actually listed some changes for the government. What do you think? Please check their demands here.

I haven’t really explained SOPA or PIPA yet to you guys and maybe you think I’m just riding the bandwagon here because it’s “in” to be against them. NO! I think that everyone should be against this because of the “ripples” it creates for EVERYBODY. Do you realize that when SOPA is passed (or not, wtf did FBI just do? and HOW COME OBAMA DOESN’T KNOW ABOUT THIS yet he claims to protest SOPA), not only is Megavideo and Megaupload targeted, but EVERY IMAGINABLE SITE (which includes ALL FILE SHARING SITES, YOUTUBE, 9GAG, TWITTER, FACEBOOK, TUMBLR, WORDPRESS HECK EVEN MY BLOG, WIKIPEDIA, AND 99% OF ALL SITES) that can host copyright materials is a potential threat and will be shutdown. The Internet as we know it will cease to exist. Think of this analogy, SOPA treats it as a cancer so if they see that for example your hand has a cancer, they not only will chop your hand off, but KILL THE WHOLE SELF AS WELL. So even though Youtube has this agreement or policy that it is not responsible for the ANYTHING that is uploaded in their site, the bill will still target Youtube once a user uploads a whole movie or used a song in his music video. Because I can’t really explain the bill well and only give you scenarios, it’s best for me to leave the explanation to the experts.

Watch UK Law Graduate and Professional Gaming Commentator “Total Biscuit” explain SOPA

For those who prefer American accents, watch David Sohn’s explanation

And of course, the ever reliable Wikipedia (don’t use this as sources in high school or university dear students! but for blogs you can XD

The bill would authorize the U.S. Department of Justice to seek court orders against websites outside U.S. jurisdiction accused of infringing on copyrights, or of enabling or facilitating copyright infringement. After delivering a court order, the U.S. Attorney General could require US-directed Internet service providers, ad networks, and payment processors to suspend conducting business with sites found to infringe on federal criminal intellectual-property laws. The Attorney General could also bar search engines from displaying links to the sites.
The originally proposed bill would allow the U.S. Department of Justice, as well as copyright holders, to seek court orders against websites accused of enabling or facilitating copyright infringement. Depending on who makes the request, the court order could include barring online advertising networks and payment facilitators from conducting business with websites found to infringe on federal criminal intellectual-property laws, barring search engines from linking to such sites, and requiring Internet service providers to block access to such sites.
The bill also establishes a two-step process for intellectual property-rights holders to seek relief if they have been harmed by a site dedicated to infringement. The rights holder must first notify, in writing, related payment facilitators and ad networks of the identity of the website, who, in turn, must then forward that notification and suspend services to that identified website, unless that site provides a counter notification explaining how it is not in violation. The rights holder can then sue for limited injunctive relief against the site operator, if such a counter notification is provided, or if the payment or advertising services fail to suspend service in the absence of a counter notification.
The second section covers penalties for streaming video and for selling counterfeit drugs, military materials or consumer goods. The bill would expand penalties to include unauthorized streaming of copyrighted content and other intellectual property offenses. The bill would criminalize unauthorized streaming of copyrighted content, with a maximum penalty of five years in prison for ten such infringements within six months.
The bill provides immunity from liability to the ad and payment networks that comply with this Act or that take voluntary action to cut ties to such sites. Any copyright holder who knowingly misrepresents that a website is dedicated to infringement would be liable for damages.

And after everything, we can ask, “IS PIRACY THE ONLY THING THEY REALLY CARE HERE?”

NO.

They want MORE PROFIT. MORE BUCKS. MORE DOLLARS. So they eliminate competition from Indie film makers, programmers, artists and writers. They don’t want to share and instead EAT THE WHOLE PIE. So please I hope that you can include a STOP CENSORSHIP ribbon on top of your website to protest against SOPA and PIPA (well the bill has been postponed but doesn’t mean we can’t stop expressing our views and beliefs and be ready for the next battle as the American government doesn’t seem like to be waiting for the bill to pass to take action. Rapidshare could be targeted next).

Everyone must informed about this case. Everyone should be alarmed that this bill AFFECTS EVERYONE.

Questions:
1. Thoughts on this? Agree or Disagree?

9 Comments

  1. You know, I was slightly afraid when I found out about all this SOPA and PIPA stuff going on. I have YouTube videos (just picture slideshows) with songs on there that aren’t mines. I imagined the FBI or police busting in my house and arresting me solely for that. >_< For one of my videos, just because of the song, it could only be viewable in certain countries and blocked from a whole bunch (they gave me a whole list).

    If anything passes, I'm DEFINITELY deleting those videos.

    I remember when Limewire was shut down my the government. It was a sad day. :P I currently use something called MP3 Rocket – is that illegal? It basically displays MP3s of songs posted on YouTube and you can easily download a video on YouTube w/ it – you also have the choice to just download the audio of the video.

    In a nutshell, if SOPA/PIPA passed, I would be scared and pretty pissed, so I guess I can say that I'm against them both.

    Oh, and kudos to Anonymous! I like them more when they do things like that. I am tired of the violent ones that come out to protest, like in San Francisco or something. The peaceful ones are fine, though.

    [Reply my friend]

    jynxypandaNo Gravatar Reply:
    January 21st, 2012 at 12:23 pm

    This is really quite scary especially for me who lives in the Philippines because really… the only way that almost everyone gets their stuff is here through piracy because it isn’t really readily available so I’m certainly going to be sad when I can’t watch my movies anymore or catch the latest songs What good then is the use of technology when the government passes this (which they have not…. hopefully not momentarily…)? Innovation and creativity will also be affected.
    Try using Azureus Vuze, but it would be gone too if that happens… it’s like Bitorrent but it has a more powerful search engine. I think that Mp3 Rocket might be illegal because you are taking it from somebody but it’s just like any torrent site too. But you do this because you want to create something, not because you want to say it’s YOURS. They really have to review and revise the bill soon.
    Thanks dear by the way for always visiting my site!

    [Reply my friend]

  2. Oh dear. I’ve only heard a little about SOPA & PIPA so I can’t really say too much about it. I do know that I don’t want censorship on the WWW, as it’s a free & easy way to express myself.

    My bf just showed me several videos of Anonymous, & he is with them. He is very outspoken & likes to question everything. I think he’s a bit obsessed with conspiracy though. xD He also called me dumb for not agreeing with what he believes, so I got mad at him & haven’t talked to him since he got home from work. (Off topic & rambling :straight:)

    I don’t know if I’d even use the WWW as much if all this censorship is put into play. It’s pretty ridiculous that nobody would be allowed to express themselves freely. I wonder what the music & movie industries think of this? They probably support censorship so they can have more money. These people are millionaires, & they sure as hell don’t help the US & it’s citizens with their debt (if they’re American) with all this money they earn. None of these people need three story houses with 20+ rooms when they’re never actually living there due to traveling. (Rambling again xD)

    [Reply my friend]

    jynxypandaNo Gravatar Reply:
    January 21st, 2012 at 4:02 pm

    Your boyfriend sounds like my brother! He loves conspiracy theories but I don’t know if he’s familiar with Anonymous. My coursemates know because of course, geeks rule 4chan! hhaha! Do watch the youtube videos if you have time because they explain a lot. It’s a good thing that the bill has been shelved for a while. I agree that these corporations are REALLY GREEDY PEOPLE

    [Reply my friend]

  3. I think the film and music industry need to update their business model, they need to move on with the world. The world is all about the internet these days, traditional things like DVDs just don’t cut it anymore.

    I always thought that film industry should carry on putting films on in the cinema and providing DVDs but they should also adapt to the new world. Place their films in the internet (free to watch) but have adverts in between. Maybe set up some sort of premium account that is advert free, off course you can still buy the dvd for an advert free version. I seriously won’t mind watching the film with adverts. They’ll earn so much money from the adverts and premium accounts, farm more than they would from selling dvds or blue-rays.

    [Reply my friend]

  4. Oh wow Tiff, I really liked this post.

    I totally feel how you feel about SOPA especially because it WILL affect each and every one of us. I know the founder of Air Supply and I asked him what he thought about it..

    He said piracy wasn’t good, but it’s important to understand that sometimes people just can’t get access to certain things (like what you said). He also said that he understands why entertainment companies are for SOPA because they feel horrid that their hard effort is being stolen and nothing is being done but he says that in today’s time, music should be free anyway & revenue should be generated via advertising, etc. haha, just wanted to share this cause I felt he made a very good point.

    But back to SOPA, censorship won’t help. IT’S LIKE THE PROHIBITION, MAN! People will find a way.

    [Reply my friend]

  5. This is really unfair. Everything in the internet already have that COPYRIGHT ISSUE. Specially on YouTube, it sucks. Everything is banned, muted, terminated, blocked, disabled. I agree with you there. They don’t only care about piracy, but they also want more profit. UGH.

    [Reply my friend]

  6. I am so anti-SOPA. It really pisses me off. What is the US Congress thinking?!

    I guess it is because the US economy is going down the pit and they are now trying to get money from the Internet. Hah! Their last resort. Pfft.

    PS. Happy Chinese New Year to you~!

    <3 Grysh
    http://gryshco.com

    [Reply my friend]

  7. badtrip ka din pala sa SOPA na yan hahaha! nice!

    [Reply my friend]

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