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Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA)

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They claim it's unrelated but

 

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-16642369

Megaupload, one of the internet's largest file-sharing sites, has been shut down by officials in the US.

 

The site's founder and others have been charged with violating piracy laws.

 

Federal prosecutors have accused it of costing copyright holders more than $500m (£320m) in lost revenue. The firm says it was diligent in responding to complaints about pirated material.

 

Investigators denied a link to recent protests against proposed piracy laws, according to the Wall Street Journal.

 

On Wednesday, thousands of websites took part in a "blackout" to protest against the Stop Online Piracy Act (Sopa) and the Protect Intellectual Property Act (Pipa).

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I was surprised that there wasn't already a thread on it. I'm sure most people on here (at least those that have posted) have been aware of it for a while. Glad to see it's losing support

 

Actually, I recall there being a thread about this, months ago...maybe during the summer? Sites/people are only getting aggressive about it now, when realisation of the bill might actually happen.

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(is it just me, or does the Republican Party represent a lot of the things that are wrong with the world? Can't we just drown them and have done with it?).

 

Nope, this is definitely not just you.

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Apparently Anonymous have attacked/taken down the US Justice Department site because they're mad about Megaupload. I love hearing about them doing vigilante-type things. Yeah, yeah, it's inconvenient and affects a lot of people's jobs, etc., but it doesn't affect me + I'm annoyed/disappointed about Megaupload too, soooo... :p (partly jk, I'm not that ignorant)

Edited by EddieColeslaw

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But seriously:

 

tumblr_ly26lyBUqR1qzs5cqo1_500.png

 

Both sides are in on this.

 

Also I think... I may be wrong... but I'm pretty sure a Democratic President just recently signed off on what is maybe the biggest roll-back of civil liberties in the US.

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they've got rid of MegaUpload? god damn

 

the thing is i don't see how they have the power to shut down a site that is based in Hong Kong and have owners native to New Zealand arrested, it just boggles the mind

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they've got rid of MegaUpload? god damn

 

the thing is i don't see how they have the power to shut down a site that is based in Hong Kong and have owners native to New Zealand arrested, it just boggles the mind

 

Yeah, people I'm chatting to are like "so...why do we need SOPA again?".

 

Maybe the Patriot Act was involved? The one that lets officials override all sorts of laws (privacy, etc.) when there's a danger of terrorism? Need more research.

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In an apparent reference to the latter location, a source has just informed TorrentFreak that the FBI are currently detaining everyone at the ISP Cogent Communications’ headquarters in Washington DC, in connection with a Mega-related search warrant.

 

A friend just informed me of this. If true, surely that's illegal

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It really wouldn't surprise me if Megaupload simply don't remove illegal content when they've been asked (which is how they have their reputation for being a good host of illegal files). If so, then this is the right way to go about things (despite all the complaints) - ask them to remove copyrighted stuff and if they refuse then you can take legal action to take them down.

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I'm afraid this might just aggravate the SOPA supporters though

 

Agreed.

 

There's a massive difference between "this is how the new laws could affect loads of legitimate websites" and "we're bringing down your sites because you took down a company making millions from piracy, who had been warned many times. Now shut up and let us pirate everything".

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But seriously:

 

Both sides are in on this.

 

Also I think... I may be wrong... but I'm pretty sure a Democratic President just recently signed off on what is maybe the biggest roll-back of civil liberties in the US.

 

Oh, definitely, you're right, most American politicians are scumbags. The Republicans are just usually much worse.[/not at all a generalisation born of intense dislike of American politics, no siree]

 

Agreed.

 

There's a massive difference between "this is how the new laws could affect loads of legitimate websites" and "we're bringing down your sites because you took down a company making millions from piracy, who had been warned many times. Now shut up and let us pirate everything".

 

Yeah, despite Anonymous sometimes fighting for a worthy cause, most of the time they just come off as selfish anarchists to me.

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Oh, definitely, you're right, most American politicians are scumbags. The Republicans are just usually much worse.[/not at all a generalisation born of intense dislike of American politics, no siree]

 

I rest my case. Seriously, I get almost depressed reading about American politics.

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they've got rid of MegaUpload? god damn

 

the thing is i don't see how they have the power to shut down a site that is based in Hong Kong and have owners native to New Zealand arrested, it just boggles the mind

 

It's called international police cooperation. Sovereignty of state doesn't really come in to it when the laws are similar transnationally. .

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It's called international police cooperation. Sovereignty of state doesn't really come in to it when the laws are similar transnationally. .

 

But if the law only applies in the US, why should a site based in Hong Kong be forced to comply to it? It's a case where the law wouldn't be similar.

 

I rest my case. Seriously, I get almost depressed reading about American politics.

 

FOX news is a different beast altogether. Worst "journalism" I've ever seen.

At least their bias is clear as water, their lack of professionalism makes anything they spew impossible to take seriously, if you ask me. I mean, that Anonymous report could easily catch anybody's attention if they didn't use terms like "Hackers on Steroids" and "Internet Hate Machine!".

They'd be much more effective if they could make more coherent points and present themselves more professionally. And that's a scary thought.

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FOX news is a different beast altogether. Worst "journalism" I've ever seen.

At least their bias is clear as water, their lack of professionalism makes anything they spew impossible to take seriously, if you ask me. I mean, that Anonymous report could easily catch anybody's attention if they didn't use terms like "Hackers on Steroids" and "Internet Hate Machine!".

They'd be much more effective if they could make more coherent points and present themselves more professionally. And that's a scary thought.

 

Oh, I completely agree. I utterly despise FOX News. I didn't watch the video, I was actually just commenting on the link with the reasons America isn't the land of the free.

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But if the law only applies in the US, why should a site based in Hong Kong be forced to comply to it? It's a case where the law wouldn't be similar.

 

 

 

.

 

Diplomacy, reciprocity and political expediency. It'd be more than my fingers could take to explain it fully, but it essentially boils down to maintaining good relations with other states, the hope that they will do the same and the ability in a realist sense to gain some leverage in future interests.

 

Edit: something I should add is that international law would apply in a case like this. A lot of international law is "soft law" i.e. states can choose to ignore it because there's no-one able to enforce it, but in this case China is very keen to be seen to be doing something aut copyright theft and piracy. So it is politically expedient for the authorities to apply international law in this case.

Edited by Iun

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Diplomacy, reciprocity and political expediency. It'd be more than my fingers could take to explain it fully, but it essentially boils down to maintaining good relations with other states, the hope that they will do the same and the ability in a realist sense to gain some leverage in future interests.

 

Edit: something I should add is that international law would apply in a case like this. A lot of international law is "soft law" i.e. states can choose to ignore it because there's no-one able to enforce it, but in this case China is very keen to be seen to be doing something aut copyright theft and piracy. So it is politically expedient for the authorities to apply international law in this case.

 

Right, I realise I wasn't thinking clearly in my earlier response, as I thought it wouldn't constitute a crime in the first place (this is a case of copyright law, only the owners of the IP need to be american to constitute a crime under these bills, which means the site owner's citizenship doesn't matter. Wasn't exactly remembering that, which means I need to go sleep :heh:)

 

Also, granted, Hong Kong was a weak example (was just lazily following on what Gibbs said :heh:), but certainly pirates could find a place where the state doesn't care.

Edited by Jonnas

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but certainly pirates could find a place where the state doesn't care.

 

I'm pretty sure that list would be very similar to the list of places with intermittent power and unreliable and slow internet connection.

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I'm pretty sure that list would be very similar to the list of places with intermittent power and unreliable and slow internet connection.

 

And, more importantly, that list would mostly include countries with appalling human rights records.

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And, more importantly, that list would mostly include countries with appalling human rights records.

 

Suddenly Mogadishu doesn't seem like the best place for your servers...

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