Please READ this thread immediately! Important!!!

[soulster]

The major entertainment and information sites are set to shut down in just a couple of hours. Here's an important video that explains what the situation is, an what is at stake:

http://fightforthefuture.org/pipa

Here are more links about this very important issue.


Read these NOW because some of these sites will be shut down in a few hours.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stop_Online_Piracy_Act

http://news.cnet.com/8301-31921_3-57...ffect-you-faq/

http://money.cnn.com/2012/01/17/tech...ined/index.htm

http://www.webpronews.com/sopa-black...e-info-2012-01

BTW, I posted this in the Motown forum so most of you will see this.

[marv2]

Thank you Soulster. I heard about this just a few days ago.

[soulster]

http://sopastrike.com/

This is gonna be huge! Check out how many sites are protesting.

Google
Wikipedia
reddit
Mozilla
WordPress
icanhaz
cheezburger network sites [[FailBlog, theDailyWhat,Know Your Meme, etc)
Tucows
VanillaForums
The RawStory
Open Congress / PPFInternet
ArchiveMiroUniversal
Subtitles
Namecheap
Twit
Picdot
SUBMoveOn.org
Gog.com
MineCraft
Tor Project
webhostingbuzz.com
Rage
Maker
Destructiod
Red 5 studios
A Softer World
Greenpeace International
The LeakyWikiXDA-Developers
Center for Technology and Democracy
Electronic Frontier Foundation
Indenti.ca
Major League Gaming
ImgurMonticello Capitol
Crypto Cat
Colossal Mind
Errata Security
FreakOutNation
Slash
THREE
Focus On the Facts
City News
Strategy Tune
WPS Security
Lockopen
SUSE
Smirking Chimp
Bread Without Bullet
siSchool at Syracuse University
nomacs
Image Lounge
Computer
Hope
Phantom
TSNews
2Map.com
Safex.tk
Dateline
Zero
Liberty Confidential
Victor Rix
WJ
Simpson
Spurs of The Moment
peeje
Digi
Base
Ron Bercume Design
Jazz Sequence
Plague Studio
Viper
Zero
One
Elephant Talk Wiki

[carlo]

This is craziness. Stop corporate greed!

I don't think illegal downloading and piracy is the main reason for a decline in music and movie sales. There are so many things out there now, like Youtube, which gives people access to free entertainment. Consumers are no longer limited to a small variety of options. People are constantly stimulating themselves in other ways. You're no longer limited to buying a CD or going to a movie. Just go to your local mall and check out how many people are zoned out with their heads sucked into their iPhone or Blackberry. It's a new source of entertainment. These greedy corporate pigs need to get real. The creativity just isn't there anymore, which is part of the reason why everyone is sampling and covering the old music and so many of the new movies are now re-makes of the old ones or 3-D versions of the old ones. They need to take responsibility for their own mess. Stop going after the little guys. Piracy has been around for generations. People were able to make cassette tape copies of their vinyl LP's and CD's long before the internet existed. You could easily make a copy of something and give it to a friend or sell it from the back of your truck. Nothing has really changed...except everything is much easier to access with the introduction of the internet. It's the entertainment industry's own fault for initially embracing these new formats and technologies. Now they're trying to make everyone else pay for their own mistake.

I agree that artists and other individuals alike should be able to make money from their own work. I also agree that their content should be protected. HOWEVER, I believe that the lobbying that's going on right now is very extreme and goes so much more beyond that. As I previously stated, the ship is sinking, so to speak, and now the crew is trying to hold on to whatever they can to save their own lives. To make everyone else pay for the industry's mistake is not right. The issue at hand is much larger and I believe it goes beyond simply protecting copyrighted content. What's next? Electric dog collars?

[jillfoster]

I agree, and glad you posted this! this is very important for all of us to stand up and say NO. The entertainment conglomerates are already on their way to the ulimate goal of eliminating public domain, they keep extending copyright again and again and again... you just watch, theyr'e gonna go for copyright being FOREVER next.

[paladin]

Wikipedia has shut down for today in protest.

[BobC]

Carlo--I think you are right about stagnating creativity and the vast amount of competition that didn't exist years ago--but you are seriously downplaying the piracy thing. I work in video games with tech savy people and they will laugh in your face if you suggest actually buying anything. You can literally get anything for free--and most of the pirating sites are not in this country, so they don't give a damn what laws we pass. I do 3D art, and the program I use, 3DS Max, is close to $4000. Now our jobs are heading straight to China and other places who absolutely pay nothing for the same program. If we Americans are caught with pirated software, we are fined and fired, but the Chinese get away with it and no one cares. Yay globalism! And the best part is our own politicians have set things up where Americans are the ones who have to do everything by the book, including purchasing software--which puts us at a distinct disadvantage.

[jobeterob]

I appreciate what you say Bob, but I think I still agree with Carlo and Jill; although I might be convinced otherwise.
And I can understand that artists that were relying on some royalty income from the sale of CDS have been done out of that income; they can go out and do the odd concert if they are still able but hoping for sales of CDS is hoping against hope.

However, as a general rule, these guys are fighting a battle against a river running downhill. The world has changed and it happened about 1995. Downloading is never going to stop. This is like the invention of the phone and the car and hydro electric power. There is no going back.

As for the corporations, most of them have laid off thousands of employees already. They aren't the first companies in a sunset industry.

[BobC]

Agree with them on which point? There is a bigger picture here, IMO. As Sammy Hagar points out in his memoirs--there is no more recording industry due to piracy. The only bands record labels are interested in anymore [[with a few exceptions) are kiddie bands [[like Justin Bieber) because their fans want the packaging and loner notes and cute pictures of their heart-throbs. That's fine. BUT, truly original, creative bands tend to appeal to older people who don't care about the packaging so they just download the music free--hence they make very little money and get dumped. If people are worried about lack of creativity these days, I can honestly say that there are some AMAZING artists out there but they aren't making any money. Yeah some can tour, but the real money used to be in hit records. If a Radiohead came out today they'd never get signed. I think that sucks.

I agree that perhaps this piracy thing might be unstoppable but that doesn't mean I have to like it. I think if you create intellectual property, and there is a market for it, it should not be stolen. I am an artist and this is killing the art field.

[soulster]

Bob, p[iracy is a small problem. The industry has yet to even prove how piracy is hurting them in terms of revenue.

[BobC]

Sigh.

The drop in record sales has been incredible. Motown artists who used to make $40k to $80K on royalties are now getting close to nothing.

Anyway--back to the original topic--the senator hacks pushing this bill are now backing off. This bill will go away/

[jobeterob]

I'm sorry for the artists that lost their retirement incomes. But this has happened over history to many occupations. Travel agents are gone. Kodak is pretty much gone. Developing pictures is gone. The Yellow Pages appears to be going away - at least in paper form.

But when a Government artificially stands in the way of it's citizens, they will eventually lose. This is the why lobbying in Washington is so wrong ~ because a lot of that is artificial. So was most of the Middle East artificial and it's going away too, as will Syria sooner or later.

It may be that we will not have the number of artists becoming reasonably well known and available anymore. We might just have a few and the big will be bigger - Adele, Bieber, Buble, Lady Gaga and we might have fewer good quality but lesser known artists like the Marvelettes and Contours. A shame.......but it might be a side effect.

[soulster]

Sigh.

The drop in record sales has been incredible. Motown artists who used to make $40k to $80K on royalties are now getting close to nothing.

Anyway--back to the original topic--the senator hacks pushing this bill are now backing off. This bill will go away/

This is not going away! You better take a look at this: http://donttreadonmike.com/2012/01/1...the-next-sopa/

The record labels have yet to prove that piracy is the root cause of their losses. There are many factors that have contributed to the downturn of the record industry's fortunes, including the creative way the RIAA figures its data. The economy has seen a steady decline in the last decade. That's the biggest reason for the losses. The next one is the relative lack of music that appeals to a large cross-section of fans. The next is that the business model has changed. Before, all there was was CDs. Now we have downloads that allow people to cherry-pick individual songs over buying whole albums. On top of all that, the artists/companies continue to compress the purity-shit out of the music which causes listening fatigue.

[marv2]

This is getting deep. I saw last night that Canada anticipates the same if this new law becomes effective in the U.S.

[marv2]

Ok guys I just heard 2 mins ago that Rupert Murdoch is strongly supporting this new law and that the Hollywood Entertainment industry is claiming that it stands to lose upwards of 100,000 jobs unless this law is passed! They're good aren't they?.......... Real good to tie job loses to this issue.

[144man]

I'll be pissed off because if this law is passed it will give the US scope to extradite more British citizens to the US for activities that aren't even illegal in the UK.

[soulster]

I'll be pissed off because if this law is passed it will give the US scope to extradite more British citizens to the US for activities that aren't even illegal in the UK.

The bill isn't going to pass now. Key congressmen are reversing their opinion on these bills. However, if you look at what the FBI just did with Megaupload, arrested the players and the owner in new Zealand, this could get ugly.

[thelastsupreme]

So many ways to look at this SOPA thing.
On Twitter, and news sites it has been announced that in retaliation, hackers have closed down The Jusice Dept website and Universal Music. http://news.cnet.com/8301-1009_3-573...iracy-arrests/

[carlo]

For years, I've heard various individuals say that in the future, war will no longer be fought on land using weapons. The new type of war will occur on the internet. In this 21st century, our world is so dependent on technology and computers. It's very possible that our entire system could collapse. It makes me wonder. There are hackers who can easily take down a website. I wonder if there are hackers who have the capability of taking down corporations, banks, communications, etc.? It's scary when you think about it. Everything is out there, floating in cyber space. Can everything fall apart with the push of a button? I know I'm sounding paranoid, but maybe it could be possible. We've mostly seen the good side of technology. Will we ever see the bad side? I hope not.

[jobeterob]

Susaye: Is it fair to say that most of the artists you know would be in favour of this type of bill, even if it were a watered down version?

[jillfoster]

So many ways to look at this SOPA thing.
On Twitter, and news sites it has been announced that in retaliation, hackers have closed down The Jusice Dept website and Universal Music. http://news.cnet.com/8301-1009_3-573...iracy-arrests/

It is fascianting for sure. I wonder what the future will hold. Of course, the MPAA fought tooth and nail against the Video Casette Recorder, even delaying mass market of it until 1978. They claimed it would kill the movie industry, and we see how that turned out. Why don't the file sharing sites just limit th size of the files you can upload, so nobody can upload entire episodes of shows, or entire movies? Music... that would be tougher.