Category: the Rant Board
Some time ago, there was a topic on the boards about marijuana use, which, regardless of what your personal opinion is, is still illegal. Yet not a word has been spoken about Sopa/Pipa/the war on file sharing.
Considering how many headlines these bills made--regardless of the fact that Congress decided not to proceed with passing them--I would have thought that some semblance of a discussion would have occurred, especially in the aftermath, in other words, what's happening now.
But no. You all abide by the TOS, which state that no discussion of illegal activity can take place on the Zone.
So what's the deal? I highly doubt that anyone would find out most of our true identities just by our usernames. In fact, I challenge anyone on here--excluding those who do actually know me in real life, of which there are very, very few--to expose me. Say my real name. Can't do it? That's because I've kept a pretty low profile on here over the years, and I'm proud of that. There are millions, perhaps billions of people who happen to like the song my username references. That's partially why I chose it. Of course, you could see my previous usernames, but my profile isn't open to the public. It's for members only. So again, I'm not too concerned. Maybe some of you do have identifying information in your usernames, and that's ok. But really, the glaring irony is just too much for me, and I had to say something. And if I get banned for even talking about it in a roundabout way, so be it. I really don't give a rat's ass.
the problem with the discussion about SOPA/PIPA is that most people either:
A) Don't care because they don't believe it pertains to them.
B) Are too ignorant To understand the ramifications of these bills
C) Are too stupid to comprehend such subjects
The Tos on the site is pretty bass ackwards honestly. You have people on here who can bully, threaten, stalk and torment other users, and that's perfectly fine, but if you talk about piracy we'll ban you!
The problem with communicating on SOPA and PIPA is first, the complications take time to explain, and most people have an attention span so short a flea would become frustrated.
Second, a frank explanation of the situation quickly becomes derisive, things like "What? You support people stealing?" etc.
Some of us anymore just don't want to carry on conversations with people where intelligent conversation is not possible.
I don't think the admins care if people talk about SOPA and PIPA. There have been a couple conversations about it in Quicknotes. The TOs have more to do with protecting their interests. It would be them and not you that got into trouble if they got suspected and had to manage a legal situation.
This site is in fact their property, whether they let us come on here or not. Like you walking onto a private fairgrounds, and some people buy passes {premium membership} to members-only facilities.
I think personally the fear-mongering about software piracy is highly inflated, even though I personally have not used Torrents and don't download cracked software. Also piracy becomes less and less attractive where open source options exist. This SOPA and PIPA business is badly managed in part because most of our laws regarding intellectual property are foundationally out of date: Try 150 years out of date.
But if you'd like to discuss it, do so perhaps on its own 'Let's Talk' thread. SOPA and PIPA would crush free markets like only Stalin could dream of, but I won't get into how on this thread.
The forces protecting intellectual property are very powerful, because the patent enforcement industry does the dirty work. Despite what magazines and advertisements say, a patent in the hands of an average person is useless. Unless you have the capital to pay for enforcement it means nothing. I do think we have to work out solutions to support the research and development of products, but not stifle innovation. Draconian legislation is certainly no way to do it.
I personally don't get into it because I really don't give a damn. It has nothing to do with my life and I have other things to concern myself with. Yes yes I know I ended that with a preposition. See how little I care? lol.
Amen to the last post!
Hmmm, ok, I didn't look at it that way. But you all have made some good points. Some of the articles I've seen on the subject have gotten quite involved.
But one thing to consider is that, if these bills should come back in a reincarnated form, it's not just people who download illegal content who should be worried. Everyone would be affected in one way or another. Well, everyone who spends a lot of time on the internet, that is.
Agreed. if you like the internet, you should be worried. there are people who are very much against piracy who are also just as much against these bills. and apparently, they have been scrapped, but I have my doubts about that. having said that, though, most people I've talked to about this have their own version of the same stance. it's evil. it goes way too far, it tries to solve a problem by whiping out anything that could possibly have contributed to something that may have contributed to it, and so on. Do I care? hell yeah I care, but honestly, I wasn't expecting to post a topic about it, only to come back and see responses like, "How could you be against this! it's the best thing the government has ever done for the internet!". So, needless to say, I didn't bother. And judging by the boards lately, I'm thinking I'm not the only one who felt this way.
Fair enough. But I will say that I've seen a lot less drama and things on the boards than there was a few months ago. I wouldn't know about quicknotes because I have them all turned off, but I've definitely seen the boards in a worse state.
I have spoken out plenty about "big brother" however if this comes to pass we can then start to worry. The fact is I don't think it will.
What's this? ranting about the lack of a board topic? how dumb.
Why not start one instead of ranting about it.
ish!
Bob
But in doing so, she did create one. So, bravo!
There have been way dumber topics on the boards.
in regards to pipa and sopa, I agree with Leo in that explaining them, or even researching the bills can get quite perplexing unless you're use to reading bills and thereby have no difficulty comprehending them.
As a result of the lack of support for both Pipa and sopa, Uncle sam is now targetting firesharing websites such as sendspace or dropbox. I feel if this site want's to set an example in how it relates to issue of online piracy, they will disallow the advertising of dropbox which is something I highly doubt will happen.
I guess by not allowing any chatter of copyrighted material is banned, I would think it is due to the admins avoiding any legal ramification as a direct result of violating any laws. I had always felt it was somewhat contradictory to advertising dropbox, a service facilitating file sharing when the discussion of file sharing or any acts of piracy is banned.
the problem is, some of the files shared on these sites are perfectly legal, original content.
yes, however, from what I've read, most of the files are copyrighted. I read a figure I just can't remember what it was but it was quite substantial. An example of a site that got taken down as a result of sharing illegal material was megaupload
Again, I doubt we are going to see much action. This seems like more bullshit from the fox news supporters to me. Oh it's real, it's out there, but would this be fully active. I doubt it.