SOPA and PIPA

So yeah, I know the whole net knows and you probably know to, but there are these bills being debated today known as SOPA and PIPA. Basically if they get passed, they will censor a lot the internet, so the government can better control it.

This only applies to United States and a lot of people aren't supporting the bill. If it does get passed, which I find highly unlikely, a lot of sites you frequent can be censored for you. Even our forum probably.

Anyway if you haven't, go here and say no. Yeah it's probably not needed, but who knows? People have done surprisingly dumb things before. And the fact that this bill was even considered or is now being debated isn't anything small.

https://www.google.com/landing/takeaction/

One forum I've frequented even went offline, as a sample as to what the bill would look like I suppose.

http://forums.airbender.net/

Google even has a pretty funny image up for them.

actually, last i heard, two major components to the bill were dropped and the White House said they wouldn't support SOPA or PIPA. so I think we're safe for now.

Yeah I just heard that before I left for work. But still, the fact that it was even debated in such a large group is kind of scary.

yeah. i mean, honestly, i think the entire country might have went into an uproar if it was passed.

If it was passed, there would be a riot, and an ugly one at that.

yes, yes there would be.

I'm actually getting kind of annoyed at all the sites shutting down temporarily. I frequented some sites that still aren't up. I get it, it might be an effective statement, but it's also hurting yourself and others.

Im getting kind of annoyed too but at the same time, it forces me to do what I was supposed to do today XD

I feel sorry for anyone who has school work to do and can't log on wiki.

technically, you're not supposed to use wikipedia for schoolwork :p

I know that, but the information is often more then reliable if no one has tampered with it wrongfully. I've used wiki to often get started with my projects and then branch out from different sources from there.

^ i was kidding :p ive used wikipedia for school too XD

Everyone has, but schools always discourage it.

exactly. except for my astronomy professor. he didnt really care XD

Okay, so I figured I'd bring this up here since it's kind of relative. Apparently, Megaupload was taken down and the people who created the website were arrested.

Because of this bill? Or is it unrelated? I always thought that place was pretty legit, wow.

(Urviel used to host the episodes from that site, good thing I took those down when we moved over)

Its separate from the bill.

And yeah, the site was pretty well known as a good place for uploading illegal content. But still....I think it's a little ridiculous that considering all the people that download illegal material they actually arrested these people without a warning or something. And they actually went to New Zealand to arrest them.

It's like the government wants everyone to hate them :p.

Isn't that out of their jurisdiction if they're off shore? I know that that's the place where some free online gaming company had all of their down-loadable game content. It's well known to, so I don't know what's going to happen to them now.

Yes it is out of our jurisdiction but they got permission from New Zealand.

Oh, I also forgot to mention that they had the nerve to arrest the graphic designer. Seriously, wtf is up with that. I feel sorry for that guy who was just doing his job by ...you know..just designing the website @_@

Unless he or she was helping with the illegal activities and so forth, that is going too far. They're just acting like thugs now, but what's new.

There's also a video going around tumblr where a guy explains that most of the big companies like CBS, NBC, etc. actually supported pirating websites through smaller-branch-lesser-known companies. so basically, it's because of them that illegally downloading became as popular as it did because those sites were the only ones originally offering downloads of the programs you needed to download illegal stuff in the first place.

in other words, the government is f'ed up and needs to get their **** together or riots are going to become a realty. Anonymous already attacked a bunch of websites like the Department of Justice, MPAA, etc.

then again, Tumblr is known for being overly dramatic at times so I can't say if this is a serious serious issue at the moment.

edit: they also apparently arrested some college kid in the UK for linking to illegal sites on his website. at the rate they're going, we're all f***ed and going to jail :p. see you in prison Lee :D

The internet is known for being dramatic, come on. I'll believe it when I see it. We have nothing to worry about.

i know. i was kidding about the jail thing :p that would just be seriously messed up if that happened XD

Well it's hard to tell with you :P You're just too gullible at times.