SOPA and the Fortress

Does the Fortress gave a stance on SOPA? Should it have?

I think SOPA is a threat to the Fortress, as it is to any site with user generated content. Is noticed bgg is down in protest and I think that's a good thing to raise awareness. SOPA shows what the world will be like when corporations run it: not innovation, not freedom.


If you don't know what SOPA is or does, today is a good day to educate yourself
Cheers

Jur

This is a very pithy run-down of the the attitudes encapsulated by SOPA:

radar.oreilly.com/2012/01/the-presidents-challenge.html

And this is a very long but interesting argument about why SOPA may just be the tip of the iceberg, and why education is the only solution to the problem:

boingboing.net/2012/01/10/lockdown.html

As with any loss of freedom, it starts small and slow and before you know it, it's gone.

All such "incrimentalism" should be fought tooth and nail.

This instance may be cloaked in the idea of protecting "corporations" but don't be fooled that they are the villains or really the beneficiaries of this. Your friends in government are the ones that gain when they get to control the flow of ideas.

At least my friends in government change every so often, the corporations stay the same and maintain the same interests: pervert the market to raise their profitability. Even considering the insane amount they spend on lobbying, that is still cheaper (and more secure) than innovating.

I agree that most modern governments are unable to resist the power of corporations (or other lobby organisations who are too powerful to be linked only to one political party) and that in some ways governments have their own interests to follow (looking busy/getting reelected/showing they're in charge and know what they're doing), but those interests are almost always independent of political viewpoints and actual policies. That's what makes corporations so effective in lobbying: they have a clear bottom line and they know how to get it.

A rather eloquent defence of theft via internet here:

ploum.net/post/im-a-pirate

He may be pushing the envelope too far but his basic concept is what I've always espoused - make media cheaper, easier to get and more comprehensive and more people (including me) will gladly pay for it.

MattDP wrote: A rather eloquent defence of theft via internet here:

ploum.net/post/im-a-pirate

He may be pushing the envelope too far but his basic concept is what I've always espoused - make media cheaper, easier to get and more comprehensive and more people (including me) will gladly pay for it.

I think iTunes proved this really well with .99 songs. It's easier for me to pay a buck for a high-quality song than to scour the internet and hope I find a good one.

Netflix initially took off like a rocket because you got a lot of content for a little money per month. Then the content providers smelled cash, and have since been trying to buttfuck both customers and Netflix.

It's the big-money content providers who are behind SOPA; there are a lot of artists and creative types who want nothing to do with this. I have never seen any type of industry who actively hate their customers as much as the content/media providers do (MPAA, RIAA, Viacom, AT&T, etc.) I forget which executive said it, but he basically said he'd love to charge every music customer on a per-listen basis, and saw ripping your own CDs in iTunes as piracy and as such should be a criminal (!) offense. Yes folks, these are the jackasses behind such legislation as this.

Fortunately for all of us, President Obama has already said that even if this shit makes it through, he will veto it in its current form. Proof positive that voting matters, kids.

I wouldn't count too hard on that veto. If it passes veto-proof I doubt he would. Presidents tend to sign bad bills that pass by that margin anyways rather than make a statement by vetoing it and making the chuckleheads do it over.

It isn't that it's bad, just that it's so fucking vague that it will get used horribly. And inevitably politically.

...SOPA may just be the tip of the iceberg.

Yeah, I have a feeling that in the next 10 years we will see more and more political arguments focusing on the internet and what it means for us all. Net neutrality is the biggest issue that seemingly no politician in the US knows about yet.

This is a big deal. I would definitely encourage all F:ATties in the US to contact their Senator/Rep to ask them to oppose the respective bills. I actually wrote Sen. Moran of KS, and he wrote me back confirming his opposition to PIPA. So they do read them.

San Il Defanso wrote:

...SOPA may just be the tip of the iceberg.

Yeah, I have a feeling that in the next 10 years we will see more and more political arguments focusing on the internet and what it means for us all. Net neutrality is the biggest issue that seemingly no politician in the US knows about yet.

This is a big deal. I would definitely encourage all F:ATties in the US to contact their Senator/Rep to ask them to oppose the respective bills. I actually wrote Sen. Moran of KS, and he wrote me back confirming his opposition to PIPA. So they do read them.

Word. Did that with my Rep. Scalise and to both Senators Landrieu and Vitter. Nary a response from any of them. S'okay. I keep track of who votes for what via Govtrack. Any of them votes for this shit and this will be brought up during re-election.

SOPA ain't dead, not by a long shot. The worst thing that can happen is that it's attached to an appropriations bill and it ends up getting signed that way. Any time SOPA related material's popped up and I've been retweeting my ass off about this. This needs to go away, for good.

I believe Steve Avery blacked out last night. Not sure if he was protesting.

I wrote my senator and recommended they rename this HFDTBS #1.

I find it ironic that Boardgamegeek is protesting SOAP. I mean, after all, with all the gamer funk at GenCon and BGGCon, you'd think they'd be all about SOAP.

Slick Rick said it best: "Dave, the dope fiend shootin' dope/who don't know the meanin' of water nor SOAP".

I don't get it.

/end sarcasm

SOPA is dead. PIPA (the Senate version) is very much alive. Please contact your Senators and express your opinion. I would argue that expats and foreign nationals contact ALL Senators, as they will be taking the Internet as is away from you.

SuperflyTNT wrote: I find it ironic that Boardgamegeek is protesting SOAP. I mean, after all, with all the gamer funk at GenCon and BGGCon, you'd think they'd be all about SOAP.

Slick Rick said it best: "Dave, the dope fiend shootin' dope/who don't know the meanin' of water nor SOAP".

I don't get it.

/end sarcasm

sarcasm aside, I think they did take a big step. It's easy for wikileaks and wikipedia to black out as their users will generally be positive to the cause, but that's not as clear cut for bgg.

Of course they have a big interest, with a big chunk of user generated content that might lead anywhere. So I'm glad they do. But as a site with a large user generated input, does this matter much to FAT?

Most of the articles I read on this are so biased one way or the other I don't feel like I can trust any of them. Unfortunately I'm too friggin lazy to read the act myself... so this makes it hard to have an opinion that's worth anything.

Do I think you should be downloading stuff for free that legally should cost you money.. No, I don't. I'm a musician, of course I don't, go buy my album on iTunes you bums! But what do they plan to do about it? I don't think there should be criminal charges and the logistics sound like a nightmare to me. I pay for most of what I enjoy via internet.

I think Louis CK has done a great job selling his latest show for 5$ when if it was on iTunes it would cost 15-20$. I know this because I buy comedians sets all the time on iTunes (and I've downloaded some I couldn't get otherwise, like Bill Burr's "Let it Go" special which wasn't available otherwise) and it's pricey. But at 5$, simliar to the cheap Ap model I have no problems rationalizing paying for it.

JJ, it's not about not having to pay for downloads. I'm with you, own almost no music that I didn't pay for. The thing is, piracy won't be deterred by these bills. you can still enter in the IP address and find the site that way. It's legislation that will only make it more difficult for people to actually post any kind of content on the internet. It flies in the face of what the internet has been up until this point.