The MPAA Says Blackout Protests Are an Abuse of Power

[Hardcore Til I Die]

Anyone here pirating stuff can get the f**k out of this thread as you don't have a valid say.

Anyone here opposing the bill but pays for everything 100% legitimately, you may morally have a genuine, valid say.

People need to think about WHY they're opposing the bill before they oppose it.

And btw, 90% of you, if not a higher percentage, need to read the details of the bill, and not just what blogs pick from it.

Not saying I'm for the bill. But a vast majority of internet users who are opposed know jack s**t about it beyond their favourite blog or tech news site has filtered to them, in their own words.

Agreed. Pirates are the cause of this problem and they'd never be trying to pass the bill if not for pirates. Could potentially be the end of the Internet as we know it for the sake of a few free songs. Pathetic.

[shakey]

Anyone here pirating stuff can get the f**k out of this thread as you don't have a valid say.

Anyone here opposing the bill but pays for everything 100% legitimately, you may morally have a genuine, valid say.

People need to think about WHY they're opposing the bill before they oppose it.

And btw, 90% of you, if not a higher percentage, need to read the details of the bill, and not just what blogs pick from it.

Not saying I'm for the bill. But a vast majority of internet users who are opposed know jack s**t about it beyond their favourite blog or tech news site has filtered to them, in their own words.

Might help to learn what it is about before you say people don't have a valid reason to boycott it....

And that twitter site shows just how stupid and ignorant the masses are :(

[Lyric]

The MPAA/RIAA are a abuse of power, and a complete joke.

[ViperAFK]

Anyone here pirating stuff can get the f**k out of this thread as you don't have a valid say.

Anyone here opposing the bill but pays for everything 100% legitimately, you may morally have a genuine, valid say.

People need to think about WHY they're opposing the bill before they oppose it.

And btw, 90% of you, if not a higher percentage, need to read the details of the bill, and not just what blogs pick from it.

Not saying I'm for the bill. But a vast majority of internet users who are opposed know jack s**t about it beyond their favourite blog or tech news site has filtered to them, in their own words.

Anyone has a say, 'pirate' or not. Because this bill fundamentally threatens the free internet. To be realistic, this will do little to stop pirates, they will find ways around it as they always have. What this does is hurt everyone from legitimate end users, to legitimate online businesses and websites. Search engines, and sites with user posted/aggregated content will be expected to spend tons of resources aggressively policing their sites for "copyright violations". This will effect so much more than just pirates.

These bills set a very dangerous precedent. This bill paves the way for blocking entire domains with DNS filtering. As in one user, or a small subset of users post copyrighted content on a site that also serves tons of legitimate content, and the whole domain can get blocked.

And then there is the biggest issue. Who determines what is. and what isn't copyrighted content? Fair use gets thrown out the window. Just think about youtube, no one gets hurt because of 30 second video clips being posted, but the current DCMA system is already heavily abused. Its already common for DCMA requests to be files when the company doesn't even have a copyright for the video, or just because there is some music be played in the background. What do you think will happen when the government can block entire domains? Its not just about those filthy movie or music pirates, anything from images to small video clips can be identified as 'copyright violations'.

Anyone for this bill is either severely misguided or an MPAA/RIAA shill. Sure, piracy is bad, most can agree on that, and we should have legislation to combat it, but it should not be legislation that limits our rights and sets such a dangerous and easily abused precedent.

I am sure some people oppose it for selfish reasons, but what these sites are doing with the black out to spread awareness is a good thing. We can not let the government walk all over us like this just because the masses are so often oblivious and uniformed.

[Mr. Gibs]

Agreed. Pirates are the cause of this problem and they'd never be trying to pass the bill if not for pirates. Could potentially be the end of the Internet as we know it for the sake of a few free songs. Pathetic.

Anyone here pirating stuff can get the f**k out of this thread as you don't have a valid say.

Anyone here opposing the bill but pays for everything 100% legitimately, you may morally have a genuine, valid say.

People need to think about WHY they're opposing the bill before they oppose it.

And btw, 90% of you, if not a higher percentage, need to read the details of the bill, and not just what blogs pick from it.

Not saying I'm for the bill. But a vast majority of internet users who are opposed know jack s**t about it beyond their favourite blog or tech news site has filtered to them, in their own words.

Imagine this. Some years in the future you have a kid who did something funny while you were watching tv, so you grab your phone/camera w/e and upload it to youtube. Inadvertently a tiny bit of "Random TV show" was included in your video, now the publishers for "Random TV show" can shut down youtube because of that.

Google Images will no longer exist since it will inadvertently index some copyrighted content. Sites like Reddit and Wikipedia will be gone, hell Neowin might be in trouble too.

How exactly is this going to stop piracy? The US doesn't have legal jurisdiction in every country of the world (though they sure as hell try), so websites hosting pirated content will just move over to another server in another country (like say China) and there's absolutely nothing the US government can do about it apart from maybe DNS block it in the US (but then ip addresses work).

[Hardcore Til I Die]

Imagine this. Some years in the future you have a kid who did something funny while you were watching tv, so you grab your phone/camera w/e and upload it to youtube. Inadvertently a tiny bit of "Random TV show" was included in your video, now the publishers for "Random TV show" can shut down youtube because of that.

How exactly is this going to stop piracy? The US doesn't have legal jurisdiction in every country of the world (though they sure try), so websites hosting pirated content will just move over to another server in another country (like say China) and there's absolutely nothing the US government can do about it apart from maybe DNS block it in the US (but then ip addresses work).

I said pirates are the cause of the problem. I didn't say sopa/pipa are the solution. ;)

[Lyric]

[dknm]

Just another shining example of thieves crying "thieves !"

[ViperAFK]

Agreed. Pirates are the cause of this problem and they'd never be trying to pass the bill if not for pirates. Could potentially be the end of the Internet as we know it for the sake of a few free songs. Pathetic.

The cause of this is a government that would rather listen to money from the MPAA, rather than what the people want. The unfortunate truth is there will always be pirates, and trying to pass these horrifically broad bills, setting extremely dangerous precedents is in no way an acceptable solution.

The best way to deal with pirates is not clinging to outdated business models, suing customers, and pushing severely biased legislation through congress. If companies make their content conveniently available, well priced, and don't restrict it with encumbered DRM than people will have less incentive to pirate. Pirating is not something that can just be wiped out, but most people will buy your product if it is good.

For example, I am not going to lie, I used to pirate a lot of games. Now I own ~80 games on steam alone. I buy all my music on amazon mp3 and 7digital (I never used to buy music digitally back when itunes was the only big dog and had DRM encumbered tracks).

If I still wanted to get stuff for free, I could get it DNS filtering or not. This bill will harm businesses more than it will harm pirates, and isn't that directly the opposite of the bill's intentions?

[Mr. Gibs]

The best way to deal with pirates is not clinging to outdated business models, suing customers, and pushing severely biased legislation through congress. If companies make their content conveniently available, well priced, and don't restrict it with encumbered DRM than people will have less incentive to pirate. Pirating is not something that can just be wiped out, but most people will buy your product if it is good.

If I still wanted to get stuff for free, I could get it DNS filtering or not. This bill will harm businesses more than it will harm pirates, and isn't that directly the opposite of the bill's intentions?

Bingo.

[LaP]

rofl what ?

That's epic fail imo.

[capr]

If anyone in the senate had half a brain and was reading this stuff, their mind would be made up... it's too bad that most don't have half a brain.

[shakey]

If anyone in the senate had half a brain and was reading this stuff, their mind would be made up... it's too bad that most don't have half a brain.

They have brains, it's just focused on the $$$$

Most of them are old and don't care about the real future, only themselves and what they can leave to their family.

[xirtam]

I said pirates are the cause of the problem. I didn't say sopa/pipa are the solution. ;)

And poor provision of affordable online services gives rise to pirates in the first place.

[Hardcore Til I Die]

The cause of this is a government that would rather listen to money from the MPAA, rather than what the people want. The unfortunate truth is there will always be pirates, and trying to pass these horrifically broad bills, setting extremely dangerous precedents is in no way an acceptable solution.

The best way to deal with pirates is not clinging to outdated business models, suing customers, and pushing severely biased legislation through congress. If companies make their content conveniently available, well priced, and don't restrict it with encumbered DRM than people will have less incentive to pirate. Pirating is not something that can just be wiped out, but most people will buy your product if it is good.

For example, I am not going to lie, I used to pirate a lot of games. Now I own ~80 games on steam alone. I buy all my music on amazon mp3 and 7digital (I never used to buy music digitally back when itunes was the only big dog and had DRM encumbered tracks).

If I still wanted to get stuff for free, I could get it DNS filtering or not. This bill will harm businesses more than it will harm pirates, and isn't that directly the opposite of the bill's intentions?

You're not looking back far enough. This bill would've never been considered by the government had pirates not pirated stuff, causing the riaa/mpaa to lose so much money.

I will reiterate that I don't support either of these bills. Perhaps your reply was for somebody else :p

[LaP]

Anyone here opposing the bill but pays for everything 100% legitimately, you may morally have a genuine, valid say.

I am. I have a very good salary and do pay for my entertainment. The reason why i'm against MPAA, RIAA and such is not because i am for piracy. I'm against those simply cause the users are not protected well enough. Right now it's an eye for an eye. I don't see why the laws should protect companies more than users. As long as it is an eye for an eye we need to accept piracy even if it is bad.

From ridiculous EULA, broken softwares out of the box users can't return cause the box is open to DRM softwares hidden as device drivers the companies are ready to do anything to make more money. And they can do anything actually ... Why it is legal to install an hidden device driver that is not a device driver on my computer without asking me first ? My computer is my work tool. It's what i use to make money. Nobody should have the right to install something on it without asking me first. When it happens to me it's as bad as someone breaking into my house.Things like this should not be legal. DRM fine. DRM on my computer not at all. It should be clear on the box DRM will be installed on my machine and should ask me before installing it. I should be able to return the software even if the box is open when it's broken.

If gouv wants to regulate it needs to regulate both side.

[Amarok]

Wow. That's .. Wow. Amazingly I like the MPAA less than I did before. That's impressive.

I dislike these companies, and the SOPA/PIPA bills not because I support pirates (I don't.) but because they make life harder for legit customers and have little to no impact on pirates.

[winlonghorn]

Tomorrow huge sites like Wikipedia and Reddit will "blackout" in protest of SOPA, and the MPAA doesn't like the behavior of these "technology business interests"one bit.

The statement comes down from none other than MPAA Chairman and former Senator from Connecticut Chris Dodd:

Even if this is really only an obligatory posturing statement from the monolithic organization, it's almost laughably heavy-handed and hyperbolic. As private enterprises, Wikipedia and Reddit have the right to exercise free speech the same way as anyone else. More importantly, though, it's awfully brazen of the MPAA to accuse the sites of inhibiting access to information when SOPA is essentially a pro-censorship bill.

Source

lol! abuse of power!? I think they need to take a step back and look in the mirror!

[sullysnet]

all about money......makes me sick :pinch:

[scratch42069]

I can't help painting broad strokes with paintbrushes but anyone questioning why anyone would be against this is either a shill or a troll. You know that's the case when the first rebuttal is piracy knowing full well the reason people are opposed to it is the furthest thing from supporting piracy.

[neufuse Veteran]

so wait, the companies are abusing the power they have by taking the information away and stiffeling peoples ability to get it, yet they (the MPAA/RIAA) want the ability to do the same thing and that's not a problem?

[Boz]

It's funny how Apple didn't do any action to raise awareness to this issue. Neither did Microsoft. We can clearly see now which companies are really working to protect the internet and which ones are the ones who are just silent on the issue as they initially supported SOPA/PIPA (Apple, Microsoft etc) and are like weasels now not putting their support in protecting our internet freedoms.

Makes it very clear what companies to support. Great job Microsoft and Apple, not that I expected either would do anything that is for the benefit of consumers and open internet.

[m-p{3}]

Abuse of power? Not really, everyone is fighting for their own interests. I just see that as a fair way of dealing with inequalities.

If you want to abuse our rights to freedom of information for your corporate interests, don't expect people to let it go without a fight.

[neufuse Veteran]

It's funny how Apple didn't do any action to raise awareness to this issue. Neither did Microsoft. We can clearly see now which companies are really working to protect the internet and which ones are the ones who are just silent on the issue as they initially supported SOPA/PIPA (Apple, Microsoft etc) and are like weasels now not putting their support in protecting our internet freedoms.

Makes it very clear what companies to support. Great job Microsoft and Apple, not that I expected either would do anything that is for the benefit of consumers and open internet.

you shouldn't have to black out a website to make a statement, MS already released their stance on it that is all they feel they need to do

[nub]

Makes it very clear what companies to support. Great job Microsoft and Apple, not that I expected either would do anything that is for the benefit of consumers and open internet.

http://blogs.computerworld.com/19601/microsofts_opposition_to_sopa_is_solid_and_sincere_not_half_hearted