Let the war begin...

I think it has. And it's gonna be a beaut!!!

My money's on Anonymous.

Pretty safe bet, I'd say. They seem to be able to get anywhere they want to. I'm sure glad they're on the peoples side.

except that it's not. economists and experts of all colors have sat down, looked at the numbers, and it comes down to the same conclusion every time: people who pirate wouldn't have bought it anyways. thus no sales are being "lost". If we let the companies have this, they will go after the used game and music stores i go to because "they cut into sales" because i don't buy new music or games. ever. i only buy used. i don't buy mp3s, i would buy a used CD and rip it onto my zune before i'd buy a digital copy of anything. If there's a game I want, I buy a used copy at the play-n-trade for my xbox, i dont PC game except for my two MMOs. by the logic they use to go after pirates, they'd be busting down my door for finding ways to get things i want without putting money in big corporate pockets (and supporting local businesses at the same time!)

don't forget that the companies behind SOPA/PIPA are the ones who put out the fileshareing software to begin with.

Well said! I get all my cd's and dvd's used through Amazon. So is Amazon going to be on their list too because selling used media is cutting into the music and movie industries profits? It's what's called 'a slippery slope'. Once you start down it, it becomes harder and harder to stop. Let's just don't start!!

But doesn't buying used items mean it's been purchased once already? :)

That's right, but those re-sales are cutting into the music and movies' god given rights to profit too, so logically that's what they would go after next.

No, what comes next is those places where you can go listen to music and read authors' works without PAYING ONE RED CENT.

You know, public libraries.

Sheesh.

The libraries are already in big trouble with shorter hours, days closed and less workers. Not because of the film/music industries but because of lack of funding. They were going to completely close down the Salinas, CA library, home of the John Steinbeck archives and the area he wrote so passionately about, back in 2005. Luckily public outcry saved it. Others may not be so lucky.

CBC reported that hackers hit back... hard

That they did, and right away too. Though personally I think it would be fine if they hit back even harder. I'm convinced this was timed by the govt. just to thumb their noses at the blackout protest. Assholes!!

Well, the internet has put the heads of several dictators on the end of a spear so far.... Mubarak, Gadaffi, Assad is next. Who else will be?

Don't say it. you don't want to wake up hearing the black helicopters landing outside your house.

A reprieve!

http://www.cbc.ca/news/business/sto.....ote-delay.html

Yeah, but they are already trying to spin it. Here's a quote from an article on yahoo right now.

"The main Senate sponsor, Judiciary Committee chairman Patrick Leahy, a Democrat, said he respected Reid's decision to postpone the vote but lamented the Senate's unwillingness to debate the bill.

"The day will come when the senators who forced this move will look back and realize they made a knee-jerk reaction to a monumental problem," he said.

Criminals in China, Russia and other countries "who do nothing but peddle in counterfeit products and stolen American content are smugly watching how the United States Senate decided" it was not worth debating the bill.

The Senate bill would allow the Justice Department, and copyright holders, to seek court orders against foreign websites accused of copyright infringement."

So they're going to spin it that we don't even want to discuss the 'piracy problem' and are making ourselves a laughing stock internationally, and that the bills were only aimed at 'foreign' websites.

Even more confusing..... the MPAA, a strong supporter of SOPA is now speaking out against it?

Either they're playing "double agent", or the retaliation scared the bunny droppings out of them

I'm going for the latter myself. Then they'll be trying to figure out how to go about it some other sneaky way.

Either way, just if the war on drugs was won, California and British Columbia's economy would collapse, SOPA threatens the Chinese and Russian underground economies (which are MUCH bigger than the above ground ones) and won't sit this one out like a dog that received the "sit" command. I'm not sure the US has thought this through

SOPA and PIPA are really just the public's view of the war to seize control of the Internet.
Sort of like an iceberg where the part you can see above water is only a tiny piece compared to the huge amount of it lurking out of sight.
Since they're not allowed to do it publically, they'll try to sneak things through under the excuse of "stopping piracy".

The truth is, the Internet is the only place in the world where governments hold no real power to prevent free speech by those who know how to avoid having it tracked back to them. And they really don't like having anywhere that's not under their control.
Hence the Cold War of the Internet goes on...

True true! To thoroughly control the masses government HAS to control their access to news and free speech. They already have all the regular media in their pockets, but they haven't got the internet. It's too big. So they're hunting around for all the control they can get. I think we're going to see a BIG fight going on here probably for a long time.

here we go :P

you know i used megaupload a lot when people needed to send me big packs of reference files for commissions (not that i can't use another site similar to it... but who's saying those other sites will be around much longer?)

I guarantee they'll use this in their favor to promote the bills though.

Damm right they will. And they say the timing has nothing to do with the blackout. I say Bull shit!
Looks like a long hard fight ahead.

they did it on purpose. that's obvious.

:P here we fucking go

No shit! They've pissed off a lot of people here. Gonna be some 'interesting times' ahead, I'd say. (as in the Chinese curse...)

Megaupload will be back up very soon.

There's a global defense already set up to say it's a legitimate file-sharing service, because THOUSANDS of businesses use it to upload/download LEGAL files. ^^

You'll see.
^^

Oh, I have no doubt of it. It just is so tacky. They're thumbing their nose at us with the timing.

We might as well take it to the streets... and impeach those who put
SOPA and PIPA out in the first place!

Just don't vote for anyone who endorses them. If we all do that maybe we can get rid of some bad apples.

Why impeach, when hemp rope is organic and permanent?

Oh dear goodness.

Lookslike SOMEbody did some copyright infringement of his own...



I hope the owner of the picture sues the shit out of Lamar Smith!

Oh yeah! I read about that somewhere else too. Just like the two faced weasel. So he's another one of them who want you to do as they say, not as they do. Die hypocrites!!!!

Ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha!

Lamar Smith stepped in his own mess!

Be funny if he slips in it and gets hurt, huh?

Oh, yeah.

Then we get to imitate Nelson Muntz...

"HA-HA!"

Right on!

Not to mention ACTA. Though that battle is lost, at least for americans. Now we europeans have to stand up to defend internet freedom.