Petition against SOPA

Jack_Frost · January 18, 2012, 8:36pm

to me this is going to be another one of those things that just doesnt go through or they vote for it and I STILL go living my life like I have been. whatever the fuck it does to the internet isnt going to stop me from living my life.

Mr.X · January 18, 2012, 10:23pm

It would cost more to enforce this bill than we are actually losing to piracy.

Make everyone supporting this pay for it out their own money instead of taxes, their tune will change real quick.

voodazz · January 19, 2012, 12:07am

I’m kind of disappointed that youtube didn’t join the blackout. Imagine the scores of pissed off “cute kitty video” watchers there would be. Congress would be in flames in a matter of hours.

odin · January 19, 2012, 12:33am

Google owns youtube… Why don’t they do it?

Stabby · January 19, 2012, 12:59am

Wow, fuck you facebook and twitter.

Firebranded · January 19, 2012, 1:36am

Excuse me while I rant a bit.

It just infuriates me how a bunch of old stalwart people are trying to vote upon new age legislation THAT THEY HAVE NO FREAKING IDEA HOW TO USE.
It’s like getting a bunch of high school grads to discuss their views on home owner’s insurance. You expect great things to come from that? I fucking wish,
What Congress doesn’t realize is that an internet censorship would be the destruction of our collective knowledge. I hate to throw out a snowball effect but this is what will happen. I’ll use a close to home example just to be relative.

Most of us use SRK hyper guide for quick strategies for Capcom games. With this bill Capcom would have the power to control and shut-down SRK if they found something they didn’t agree with on the website. Why? because SRK hosts Capcom owned copyrighted material. SRK would become a puppet for Capcom the moment this bill is passed and there’s not a damn thing we could do about it lest risking Capcom filing a claim to have the website shut-down.

This bill is a blatant attempt at Corporate takeover, Big Companies don’t give a shit about free speech. They want to protect their money at all costs. They want you to buy the damn $25.00 guidebook in addition to the 59.99 game. It’s utterly pathetic and greedy.

hubcapsignstop · January 19, 2012, 1:49am

This isnt anything new, this is what politicians do.
They are generally experts in very little other than politics, yet they are responsible for legislation affecting everything. This is also the rationale behind lobbying, which isnt inherently bad imo. Citizens just need to keep their eyes open.

Dagon · January 19, 2012, 2:00am

What sucks is that this is a two-way street. I’m sure everybody knows the “series of tubes” line, but check it out in context:
[media=youtube]f99PcP0aFNE[/media]
This is Ted Stevens, the former (and now deceased) Republican Senator from Alaska. In this speech, he is supporting Net Neutrality (or, more explicitly, opposing a bill that opposes Net Neutrality). And he has been widely panned as a fool who doesn’t know anything about technology…yet he was on our side.

Drfatality · January 19, 2012, 2:07am

A internet without Xvideos would be enough to sign this ASAP :sad:

Freakazoid00 · January 19, 2012, 2:25am

I was about to come on here and post the same thing. Good lookin out. This needs to happen. No matter how much you may want to see the latest and greatest games/consoles, just avoid it. Dont watch it on TV, dont look it on any sites except the publishers own site. Spread the word to all gaming sites, companies, publishers, etc to not support E3 and the ESA to stop SOPA.

Debaser · January 19, 2012, 2:58am

Doesn’t Canada have bad internet cause of only having one isp? Other than that I’d move there. VC is northern northern California

BananaWeed · January 19, 2012, 3:03am

There are a few big companies and a few smaller resellers, but our prices are outrageous.

ironboy89 · January 19, 2012, 4:28am

One must wonder by about this act…can the average artist/game designer/etc enforce this act? Will this benefit a artist that want to protect IP, and can average person even protect their IP from a corporation copyright infringement?

There has been cases of companies stealing work from an artist…and they weren’t to stop them.

AOS · January 19, 2012, 5:06am

SOPA stops people from “sharing” shit, but it also stops a ton of OTHER vital shit to the internet… and without these, the internet is essentially done for… and since we’re all so entangled in the web, such a drastic change is going to cause an uproar.

tl;dr version: sopa can suck your penis.

Wil · January 19, 2012, 7:45am

[media=youtube]uvXo4sGB7zM[/media]

ForsakenM · January 19, 2012, 7:55am

Even Hitler is against this, in fact I have yet to meet someone who isn’t against this.

I’ve contacted my rep., but I still want to do more. I thought this was an actual petition…

ElderGOD · January 19, 2012, 9:30am

Don’t cry. Disney owns the rights to that emotion.

Geese_Pants · January 19, 2012, 11:05am

DeadLine:

EXCLUSIVE: Internet sites on their SOPA-Strike may be conducting a blackout but Hollywood studios are conducting a boycott.

I’ve learned that Hollywood studio chiefs individually and as a group are drawing a line in the sand on the piracy issue with the Obama re-election campaign and refusing to give any more donations. The blowup came after President Obama on Saturday dashed moguls’ hopes that he would remain on the sidelines in the dispute over the U.S. House Of Representatives’ Stop Online Piracy Act and the U.S. Senate’s Protect IP Act. In a posting on the White House web site, three of the Obama administration’s top officials for Internet and intellectual property matters said that they share many of the concerns that the Internet community has about the Hollywood-supported bills. The trio said that they “will not support legislation that reduces freedom of expression, increases cybersecurity risk, or undermines the dynamic, innovative global Internet.” Intellectual Property Enforcement Coordinator Victoria Espinel, U.S. Chief Technology Officer Aneesh Chopra, and Special Assistant to the President Howard Schmidt tried to soften the blow to Hollywood by acknowledging that that online piracy is “a serious problem that requires a serious legislative response.”

They added that they plan to host an online event “to get more input” on the matter. But Hollywood moguls told me they “didn’t know it was going to be as over the top as it was” and took this as a declaration of war. “We just feel very let down by the administration and Obama for not supporting us,” one studio chief explained to me. “At least let him remain neutral and not go against it until we can get the legislation right. But Obama went against it. I’m personally not going to support him anymore and not give a dime anymore,” another movie mogul who’s also a well-known Obama supporter told me this week.

So far the most outspoken mogul against the Obama administration on this issue has been Rupert Murdoch who on Saturday told his new Twitter audience: “So Obama has thrown in his lot with Silicon Valley paymasters who threaten all software creators with piracy, plain thievery.” But I’ve learned that other moguls privately are having “direct and personal conversations” with Obama and his administration and the Democratic Party. Several moguls have informed Obama’s newly anointed Hollywood re-election liason to the entertainment community Nicole Avant and her husband who is helping her, Netflix chief content officer Ted Sarandos, that they are pulling out of major fundraisers planned over the next few days and won’t participate in any more headed by Obama and House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (whom they see as in the pocket of the Internet giants like Google).

One of those events is a major January 31st fundraiser attended by First Lady Michelle Obama at the Beverly Hills home of Avant and Sarandos. There’s another LA fundraiser for the First Lady on February 1st. And both President Obama and Vice President Joe Biden will be coming for more fundraisers here in coming weeks. The moguls are telling Avant and Sarandos to count them out. “Now is when all the fundraises are starting. But everyone in my position is really pissed. It’s a real conundrum,” one mogul told me.

Alarmed by the mogul boycott, Sarandos sent a personal plea to the Hollywood studio chiefs over the weekend begging them to continue supporting the Obama re-election campaign even though he knows they are disappointed with the Obama administration’s position on the piracy bills. Several moguls, in response, ”sent back word saying ‘Fuck You’ basically,” one insider tells me, expressing how they feel used and abused by the President despite their campaign contributions. I’ve learned that Fox Filmed Entertainment Chairman Jim Gianopulos even sat down and wrote his good friend (and fellow Greek-American) Sarandos an articulate note over the weekend the gist of which said that he and his fellow moguls won’t give any more money if they keep getting taken for granted. One insider told me, “Jim explained that this notion that the Hollywood community will continue giving regardless of its business interests has to be taken into consideration. The message was, ‘Don’t expect Hollywood to show up and say ‘Who do I write the check to’ anymore.”

The moguls are reminding Obama et al that, in the words of one studio chief, “God knows how much money we’ve given to Obama and the Democrats and yet they’re not supporting our interests. There’s been no greater supporters of him than we’ve been from the first day and the first fundraisers continuing until he was elected. We all were pleased. And, at its heart institutionally, Hollywood supports the Democrats. Now we need the administration to support us. This is a very important time for Hollywood. The issue at hand — piracy — is a legitimate concern. But Google and those Internet guys have been swiftboating the entertainment industry by saying we’re trying to shut down the Internet just because we don’t want them to advertise pirated movies. As for other claims, we make 24. We don’t make national security problems.”

The boycott even extends to many of the moguls’ families who also are big Obama and Democratic Party donors. The situation is serious because many moguls and/or their families comprise Obama’s top bundlers in the TV/movie/music biz. Bundlers as defined by opensecrets.org are “people with friends in high places who, after bumping against personal contribution limits, turn to those friends, associates, and, well, anyone who’s willing to give, and deliver the checks to the candidate in one big ‘bundle’.” These donors direct more money to the candidates than anyone else. As of September 2011 these 357 elite bundlers were directing at least $55,900,000 for Obama’s re-election efforts — money that has gone into the coffers of his campaign as well as the Democratic National Committee, according to opensecrets.org. That figure by now has significantly increased and will continue to do so.

Hollywood lobbyists are going to make sure Obama becomes a 1-term president…

Wil · January 19, 2012, 11:11am

Got a link to that source?

Edit: n/m I found it - http://www.deadline.com/2012/01/exclusive-hollywood-moguls-stopping-obama-donations-because-of-administrations-piracy-stand/

Geese_Pants · January 19, 2012, 11:25am

Yeah I updated it on my last post.

I knew Hollywood would pull something like this on Obama…fucking douchebags.