American Censorship SOPA & PIPA

[BaronBonBaron]

"Yesterday's internet-wide protest may not have killed Congress's anti-piracy efforts completely, but a lot of legislators (including some co-sponsors) suddenly can't run away from the bills fast enough. According to Ars Technica's count, 18 Senators, mostly Republican, have withdrawn their support for the Protect IP Act in the last 24 hours, including seven former co-sponsors. Roy Blunt of Missouri (pictured), is another one of the co-sponsors who turned on the bill, following Marco Rubio's lead. Most are now calling PIPA "flawed" or "not ready for prime time," but since they didn't seem to feel that way on Tuesday, it's pretty clear that Wednesday's public protests have had at least some of their desired effect."

http://news.yahoo.com/republicans-ba...121420287.html

[nearmiss]

America has the best government money can buy.

Lobbyists spend billions each year, just lobbying Congress.

They buy all the influence ther billions can buy.

Americans don't know zip about how the stupid bills get to congress, that are created by lobbyists.

There are more rats (influence peddlers) among lobbyists than can be counted on American politican scene.

http://www.opensecrets.org/lobby/index.php

If the rats persist with these types of bills they will eventually succeed. The American people are too busy lying on the sofa, sucking up potato chips, french fries, and watching TV to care about politics.

When Nikita Kruschev banged his shoe on the table and declared, ‘We shall destroy you from within’ during the infamous "Kitchen Debate" - he knew what he was talking about. He was talking about the destruction of the so-called American Republic being replaced with communism.

[von Pilsner]

Originally Posted by nearmiss

Americans don't know zip about how the stupid bills get to congress, that are created by lobbyists.

Not necessarily true, but since I do not have millions myself I find it difficult to be on capitol hill lobbying congress to support my interests.

Originally Posted by nearmiss

The American people are too busy lying on the sofa, sucking up potato chips, french fries, and watching TV to care about politics..

Ouch - you could probably make your point without insulting every American... Not caring and feeling disenfranchised are 2 different things and I believe you may be confusing one with the other. Most adults I know have opinions about the current political scene here and as far as I know most of my friends and co-workers vote. I'm not sure how that equates to not caring.

[Oldschool61]

Originally Posted by nearmiss

America has the best government money can buy.

Lobbyists spend billions each year, just lobbying Congress.

They buy all the influence ther billions can buy.

Americans don't know zip about how the stupid bills get to congress, that are created by lobbyists.

There are more rats (influence peddlers) among lobbyists than can be counted on American politican scene.

http://www.opensecrets.org/lobby/index.php

If the rats persist with these types of bills they will eventually succeed. The American people are too busy lying on the sofa, sucking up potato chips, french fries, and watching TV to care about politics.

When Nikita Kruschev banged his shoe on the table and declared, ‘We shall destroy you from within’ during the infamous "Kitchen Debate" - he knew what he was talking about. He was talking about the destruction of the so-called American Republic being replaced with communism.

Corporate take over is facist. Problem is republican primarily as well as some dems allow business to be people and now we see the damage being done.

[addman]

It seems -right now- that the bill probably won't be passed and rightly so. This is a victory for freedom on the internet and I bet for every try that those money mongering suits do to limit it will meet even stiffer and stiffer opposition. Here in Finland I've done what I've could, commenting on online news articles and informing people on why this SOPA (which actually translates directly to "garbage" in Swedish) bill is such a bad thing.

At the same time though, here in Finland, thepiratebay.org has been blocked by Elisa (which is a big ISP here) because they have been threatened to pay hefty fines by the "IFPI" (International Federation of the Phonographic Industry). It was a court order and Elisa had to comply or pay fines, they chose the former. Other ISP's here are under the same "threat" but nothing has come of it yet. Sadly, I have Elisa DSL connection so I can no more access the piratebay. It does not bother me in the sense that I can't download pirated music/software/games/movies, if I wanted to there are countless alternative sites.

IT DOES OUTRAGE ME THOUGH THAT IN A SO CALLED FREE AND MODERN SOCIETY AS FINLAND I CANNOT VISIT ANY WEBSITE I WANT, PIRATE SITE OR NOT PIRATE SITE. I AM ASHAMED OF HAVING TO LIVE IN A COUNTRY WHICH ROBS ME OF MY LIBERTIES ESPECIALLY IN SUCH A SNEAKY AND QUIET FASHION AS THIS COURT RULING.

"It's just one website and a pirate one as well" some might say. I see it as the beginning of the end of the free internet that we have had so far.

[Oldschool61]

Originally Posted by addman

It seems -right now- that the bill probably won't be passed and rightly so. This is a victory for freedom on the internet and I bet for every try that those money mongering suits do to limit it will meet even stiffer and stiffer opposition. Here in Finland I've done what I've could, commenting on online news articles and informing people on why this SOPA (which actually translates directly to "garbage" in Swedish) bill is such a bad thing.

At the same time though, here in Finland, thepiratebay.org has been blocked by Elisa (which is a big ISP here) because they have been threatened to pay hefty fines by the "IFPI" (International Federation of the Phonographic Industry). It was a court order and Elisa had to comply or pay fines, they chose the former. Other ISP's here are under the same "threat" but nothing has come of it yet. Sadly, I have Elisa DSL connection so I can no more access the piratebay. It does not bother me in the sense that I can't download pirated music/software/games/movies, if I wanted to there are countless alternative sites.

IT DOES OUTRAGE ME THOUGH THAT IN A SO CALLED FREE AND MODERN SOCIETY AS FINLAND I CANNOT VISIT ANY WEBSITE I WANT, PIRATE SITE OR NOT PIRATE SITE. I AM ASHAMED OF HAVING TO LIVE IN A COUNTRY WHICH ROBS ME OF MY LIBERTIES ESPECIALLY IN SUCH A SNEAKY AND QUIET FASHION AS THIS COURT RULING.

"It's just one website and a pirate one as well" some might say. I see it as the beginning of the end of the free internet that we have had so far.

Cant you use a proxy site to access thepiratebay?

[addman]

Originally Posted by Oldschool61

Cant you use a proxy site to access thepiratebay?

No I don't think so. I don't care so much about piratebay and how to go abouts accessing it. It's just the fact that it's actually blocked, here, in Finland, this is not supposed to be China. That bugs me.

[swiss]

Originally Posted by Oldschool61

Cant you use a proxy site to access thepiratebay?

Sure you could, a simple vpn connection would do the trick.

[nearmiss]

It's not about pirate bay or intellectual theft...

It's about taking over communication between people.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0gyivhkllMA

Radical extremists can't take over the country while allowing free speech to flourish.

Mark Lloyd = http://radio.about.com/od/miscellane...Mark-Lloyd.htm

I regret saying this. If this goes down and gets approved. You watch the EU and other countries fall into the same line.

This is a biggy of the worst sort.

A Saudi shiek just bought a 300,000,000 interest in Twitter. Why? Twitter and Facebook were the communication mechanism in the middle east revolutions in Egypt, Yemen, etc,etc.
Saudi Arabia has enormous oil reserves. The extremists want to get hold of that country with all that oil wealth to wage their jihad?

The facts aren't all in yet, but if the extremists get control in Libya... look out, because Libya has 9th largest oil reserves in the world. All that oil means lots of money to wage the Jihad.

The internet is the free press of the entire world right now, except for China and a few others. Control the press and communication between the people is imperative to radicals.

So yes! This legislation can have world changing impact on freedom of speech worldwide.

[BadAim]

I'm always amazed at the naivete of people who believe themselves to be smarter than everyone else. How freaking long can people really keep blaming George Bush for the failures of the present (and the past) administrations? Good job keeping this thread non political. The Socialists will get their wish and take this republic apart piece by piece, then blame the conservatives for the inevitable collapse. The sad part is that the inept bureaucracy and broken political system that is facilitating the whole thing so very well will have no idea what happened....... and neither will the majority of Americans.

I guess we deserve you Euro's derision. Good luck with your own inevitable collapse.