Topic: SOPA/PROTECT IP (Read 15394 times)

Büge · « **Reply #100 on:** January 18, 2012, 07:28:51 AM »

I visited the WOTC website and I thought it had been blacked out as a SOPA protest. Then I remembered they love money and saw that it was just site maintenance.

Thad · « **Reply #101 on:** January 18, 2012, 07:30:15 AM »

Quote from: Bal on January 18, 2012, 06:48:05 AM

Pro-tip: If you still want to find out how much a sea urchin weighs, just stop Wikipedia before it finishes loading, because the blackout script is the last thing to load. Not that I don't support the effort of course, but they're preaching to the choir in my case, and I need to know Peter Parker's body fat index.

Ah, I was wondering why the thing was still working. NoScript. Very good.

Not like there aren't a million mirrors anyway.

(Had the morning news on before I left for work; the guy said you could go to their website for information on how to access Wikipedia anyway -- not sure if it was a mirror link or your method. Newscaster added "There's always a workaround"; I assume he didn't realize that this also applies to why SOPA is fucking stupid in the first place.)

Quote from: Shinra on January 18, 2012, 06:09:49 AM

They've been writing articles and blog posts and posting on forums for two months. It's a big part of why the bill hasn't passed yet in the first place.

They're trying to raise awareness to the issue to the kind of people who aren't politically active.

Right, precisely. If you think Boingboing and Reddit have not actually put any effort into reporting on SOPA, then you have clearly not been reading Boingboing or Reddit. Or this thread, where I link to Boingboing approximately every third post.

People who read Boingboing and Reddit already know about this thing; in their case it's more about a show of solidarity. Wikipedia is rather a much bigger deal.

Quote from: Zaratustra on January 18, 2012, 06:49:18 AM

Rupert Murdoch is flipping out on twitter it's really funny

http://www.twitter.com/rupertmurdoch

Yeah, all the major players are throwing a fucking temper tantrum right now.

Again, Joxam's pretty much nailed it -- to them this is a very real existential threat. They legitimately believe that they are set upon by a pack of thieves who wish to destroy their livelihood, and now a bunch of freetard bullies are throwing their influence around to spread lies and uncertainty to scare people into pressuring the government into caving in.

In Murdoch's specific case, I am curious as to whether he's angry that Wikipedia is beating him at his own game, or really thinks what he does is completely different from that sentence I just wrote.

Zaratustra · « **Reply #102 on:** January 18, 2012, 07:35:57 AM »

Well you can legitimately believe a lot of things. Monster Cable legitimately believes eBay and CostCo are selling their products illegally, for example:

http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20111005/10082416208/monster-cable-claims-ebay-craigslist-costco-sears-are-rogue-sites.shtml

Most things in the world start making sense once you realize people are completely unable to relate to other people's values.

Thad · « **Reply #103 on:** January 18, 2012, 08:10:45 AM »

Something I've certainly been accused of once or twice.

But even if you disagree wholeheartedly with a point of view, it's helpful and instructive to understand it.

And in this case Murdoch and the like aren't wrong simply because they can't relate to their opponents' values, they're wrong because they refuse to accept expert opinion that tells them they are objectively wrong and their understanding of how things work is flawed on a fundamental level.

Another way of putting it: I've often wondered how it's possible to convince the American Right that global climate change is real when they won't even acknowledge that EVOLUTION is real.

Colbert's (so far) best-known and most lasting contribution to our discourse is that, in the first five minutes of his first episode, he gave us a name for this. He gave us a simple, funny, three-syllable word for the practice of discarding evidence because it doesn't fit your existing worldview.

Values are subjective. The functional basis for DNSSEC is not. That's part of why I hammer on the complete ineffectiveness of technical and legislative responses to piracy -- it may be impossible to convince their proponents that they're ethically wrong, but sooner or later they'll have to face the fact that they don't fucking work.

And thanks for the link. Galling but not surprising. And a handy reductio ad absurdum for precisely what the hell is wrong with SOPA and its proponents.

Another way of putting it is that we're dealing with people who are absolutely enraged at the thought that people would use or distribute their products in ways they don't personally intend, oversee, or profit from.

Mongrel · « **Reply #104 on:** January 18, 2012, 08:20:54 AM »

Quote from: Bal on January 18, 2012, 06:48:05 AM

I need to know Peter Parker's body fat index.

It changes dramatically based on whether or not the artist has been instructed to make Peter look like Joe Quesada.

Quote from: Büge on January 18, 2012, 07:28:51 AM

I visited the WOTC website and I thought it had been blacked out as a SOPA protest. Then I remembered they love money and saw that it was just site maintenance.

To say nothing of the fact that they've been going down the GW-route of suing anyone using their IP for anything. They're not at the "We will sue you if you tattoo our characters on your body" stage, but I suppose they'll go that way eventually.

Mongrel · « **Reply #105 on:** January 18, 2012, 08:28:21 AM »

Quote from: Thad on January 18, 2012, 08:10:45 AM

Colbert's (so far) best-known and most lasting contribution to our discourse is that, in the first five minutes of his first episode, he gave us a name for this.

I have probably heard Pee-Wee's magic word before, but I am drawing a blank right now on what it is.

Bal · « **Reply #106 on:** January 18, 2012, 08:29:25 AM »

Truthiness.

Büge · « **Reply #107 on:** January 18, 2012, 08:37:21 AM »

Quote from: Mongrel on January 18, 2012, 08:20:54 AM

They're not at the "We will sue you if you tattoo our characters on your body" stage, but I suppose they'll go that way eventually.

Yeah, like they could copyright a sunburst, a water droplet, a skull, a swirly fireball, or a tree.

Besides, everyone knows skulls are a registered trademark of Games Workshop.

Mongrel · « **Reply #108 on:** January 18, 2012, 08:47:24 AM »

The funniest trademark claim I've ever seen is that UPS actually claims "The colour brown" as a trademark on their website. Not even a specific six-digit shade of brown, just "brown".

Thad · « **Reply #109 on:** January 18, 2012, 09:00:03 AM »

A little silly, sure, but not as much as it appears. No other delivery company can use brown trucks or uniforms -- that's actually pretty reasonable. (If they were to try and apply it to cardboard boxes, then yes, that would be a problem.)

Now, McDonalds having "Smile" DOES strike me as overreaching, even viewed in the narrow context of fast food marketing slogans.

I have similar complaints about trademarks on software like Windows, Office, and Illustrator.

Zaratustra · « **Reply #110 on:** January 18, 2012, 09:51:04 AM »

"some technology business interests are resorting to stunts that punish their users or turn them into their corporate pawns, rather than coming to the table to find solutions to a problem that all now seem to agree is very real and damaging."

Before you keep reading, can you tell which side said the previous phrase?

OK now go

NexAdruin · « **Reply #111 on:** January 18, 2012, 10:28:27 AM »

I didn't realize that non-profit organizations had corporate pawns. Also this pdf implies that not offering a service is an abuse of freedoms. What.

Shinra · « **Reply #112 on:** January 18, 2012, 10:33:12 AM »

Quote

who are working diligently to protect American jobs from foreign criminals.

Who did they hire to write this thing? The people who did all the World War II propaganda posters?

If you download torrents, you download with Hitler!

Say 'booski' to the 'ruski' and buy legal software today!

Smiler · « **Reply #113 on:** January 18, 2012, 10:34:56 AM »

Man, there must be MILLIONS of Hitlers out there.

Thad · « **Reply #114 on:** January 18, 2012, 10:51:27 AM »

"Corporate" being used as an insult again. I like it.

Smiler · « **Reply #115 on:** January 18, 2012, 11:10:54 AM »

Zombocom is stickin' it to the man!

Thad · « **Reply #116 on:** January 18, 2012, 11:37:38 AM »

Quote from: http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/technology/2012/01/sopa-blackout-sopa-and-pipa-lose-three-co-sponsors-in-congress.html

Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.) withdrew as a co-sponsor of the Protect IP Act in the Senate, while Reps. Lee Terry (R-Neb.) and Ben Quayle (R-Ariz.) said they were pulling their names from the companion House bill, the Stop Online Piracy Act.

Defenestration · « **Reply #117 on:** January 18, 2012, 12:07:19 PM »

I just had a really great conversation with an aide at Reid's office.

"Is this the office or equivilent of Senator Harry Reid?" "Yes, how can I..." "Do you know the average lifespan for a rhesus monkey in the wild?" "Uh... no. Are you sure you..." "Well neither do I because WIKIPEDIA IS DOWN."

Poor guy couldn't make a single point he didn't concede.

Saturn · « **Reply #118 on:** January 18, 2012, 12:39:04 PM »

The Riaa and Mpaa are dinosaurs and this is another muscle spasm in their death throes.

I cannot understand any believes anything they say without being given money.

They claim their movies NEVER MAKE A PROFIT.

They should be fucking Audited by the IRS, not handed a license to censor

Defenestration · « **Reply #119 on:** January 18, 2012, 01:00:04 PM »

Press release put out yesterday by the MPAA:

A bloo bloo bloo

News:

Author Topic: SOPA/PROTECT IP (Read 15394 times)