Selfsufficientish.com

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

Imagine a World
Without Free Knowledge

For over a decade, we have spent millions of hours building the largest encyclopedia in human history. Right now, the U.S. Congress is considering legislation that could fatally damage the free and open Internet. For 24 hours, to raise awareness, we are blacking out Wikipedia.

What do you say about this ?

basicaly SOPA or the stop online piracy act, is a blunt tool funded by and lobbyed by, large companies who are involved in the media release markets. (think disney, time warner etc) and related stuff like music.

if it was intended to target the mass piracy systems then they may have a point (i resent having to rpelace CDs every few years because they wear out) but the simple fact it can be used by private companies to silence a critical werbsite.

for example

I find all the music released by Nickleback to be crap.

that comment, as it includeds a referance to a bands name, which is copyright, is enough under the legislation, to have SSish shut down by the owners of the copyright.

i could comment on an article in a music magazine online and say that nirvana is a better band than nickleback and even as its an unstubstantiated post on a user reply that is enough to have the website closed down.

i link to a wiki page and thats enough to close the site down.

i put a utube vid link up of a music vid, even one put up by the BAND themselves, its enough to close a site down.

wiki obviously discusses things which are copyrighted, but does so not for profit, however under the legislation the smple fact of having information about anything is enough for it to be closed.

facebook? put up a picture you take of a band, or of a poster, thats enough for the legislation as it is written

and it is not limited to US sites, this is the thing, it is a blanket thing.

when the chinese have a blanket ban on websites from the government its called censorship. when the US permits private business to blanket ban websites its called piracy prevention.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uvXo4sGB7zM

that vid is quite accurate and amusing.

OK, tnx for your explanation, I get it right now

Paul's analysis is a very neat summary of the potential issues. Given the US hegemony over the internet, and the tendency of lawyers et al there to litigate even beyond their jurisdiction (very costly even where there is no case to be answered, in the end), this could affect anyone posting opinions anywhere.

Stopping piracy - which is theft - is a reasonable thing to do: inhibiting freedom of opinion and of expression is not.

bugger had a bigh reply done then as well. but clicked the wrong thing. ah well rewritting time

my views on as "piracy" are totaly different for anumber of reasons. for starters it is not theft. have i hypotheticaly deprived the owners of the copyright of the media in question perimantly? No i have not.

in addition there are factors within the systems which dont add up

Take elvis. his music is imensly popular yet he has been dead for how long? i would WIKI it but as elvis and everything about him is owned by gracelands under SOPA it would be shutdown simplky for having access to basic facts. not the media, but the information about it. which is basicaly the point of the blackout.

who now "owns" elvis music? answer is a corporation. a private business own it NOT a person or group of persons.

under the copyright legislations once the owner(s) of the material dies it becomes the ownership of the estate for a few years then goes into free circulation. this is a holdover iirc from book copyright however can a corporation "die"? no it cant. it can close, but in that case all assetts can and will be sold, so the legal mechanism for something to enter the realm of free intelectual property is circumvented. it CAN NOT practicaly occur.

why is this? well its because the US had a legal brainfart which it stated that companies and corporations have the same rights as individuals. something which the copyright legislation DID NOT envision. it onlyu invisioned small groups and individual people owning the materials. who had a finite lifespan. and also it never envisioned the scale to which media now makes money. an album can become platinum within an hour of release, in the past it could take YEARSs

and please remember that a band does not own its music anymore after it has signed a contract. it has a right to play it, record it, and make money from it but the OWNERSHIP is in the hands of the record company. the corporation.

so now we have very old law being used within modern technological systems. and the 2 just do not fit. why is this?

take a CD. i have replaced some CDs 7 or 8 times over the past 15 years. the format is very fragile. yet when i buy the CD i buy more than the disk i buy the right to own that bit of intectual property. why then do i have to rebuy that property because the media device is so useless? why cant i walk into a store with a dead disk and pay the nominal fee to replace it? like for like. media for media? because that system will not create a returning profit system for the copyright holders who thanks to what i mention above now hold the rights in perpetuality. yet i ALREADY have paid once for the right to own and access that content.

now i have no massive problem with people or even companies making profits from sales of media. it is a skill and they market it. however given the modern technologies and above all the new legal thinking (which i DO have an issue with) is it not better to consider this approach

Once a piece of media has been "sold" enough times to create a set level of profit (lets use a film and call it a hypothetical 10million) this is after wages, production costs, etc etc 10 millionin the bank OR has been avalible for purchase for more than say 10 Years ( if it doesnt make 10 mill in 10 years then its crap) should that medias copyright not be released. it has made its cash, and then it is released into a libary of human intelectual acheviement, which you can download it from.

i admit i like having the DVD in a case on ashelf. i would buy somethings and wait for others. (nick cage movies mainly as i resent paying for SUCH bad acting)

at this point we need to differentiate between free intelectual content and free to download.

is the media within that library free to download? the answer is no it should not be. nor should it be the system we have at the moment for perpetual overpriceing of old media. it should be a pepercorn fee to access and DL it. you dont get the extras, you dont get the disk. you simply get a file on a PC. you want the extras , you want it on a printed disk, wth a case then you are looking at buying it in that format

all your doing is removing a MASSIVE chunk of the costs involved which go to a company by freeing up the intelectual rights.




this fee is not for the content. this fee is simply to cover the costs of the server banks in which the media remains.
the content IS free. having made its money and can now retire to not be a corporate pimps litle whore.





hitler says piracy is a servie issue. the sercvie provided sucks vs cost.

Just another step in the USA's goal of ruling the world.
I was taken aback by the BBC news about Richard O'dwyer a few days ago http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-so ... e-16544335
especially the part .. "Mr O'Dwyer said he was "surprised" when police officers from the UK and America seized equipment at his home".
So now it seems that the UK is allowing US police to actively pursue these hardened criminals by extending their American jurisdiction to the wilds of Yorkshire.

"The Net interprets censorship as damage and routes around it."

Paul,your way ahead of me in this stuff,but your arguement is coherent and convincing.




Whatever,if the US authorities are in favour..................

The United States was founded by a bunch of people telling their government to go to hell. Every now and again, our politicians need reminding of that.

Here is the first victim of the US goverment... http://usdoj.s3-website-us-east-1.amazonaws.com/

Anyone interested in a petition to protest about it?

http://www.avaaz.org/en/save_the_intern ... ter_b/?sbc

I say protest rather than stop because Amerika will just do what the f**k it likes and sod the rest of us,

Love and Peace
Jim