New Bill Would Require U.S. ISPs to Block Pirate Sites

The only reason we have any of the freedoms we have is because the people who wrote the constitution were afraid of what might have happened otherwise.. This bill is simply another step towards an inevitable progression towards a totalitarian society, which progress is only throttled by the imagination of the those in power and what they believe the administration will cooperate with.

Spam and malware domains generate income for most of the rest of the software and hardware industry, which is probably why they weren't even mentioned in the bill. Public interest is almost never the primary focus when legislation is being written. If anything the government does makes no sense, it's only because you haven't determined the most important legal factor of all.. Cui bono ..who profits?

24c said:

This thread is sponsored by Robin Hood and his Merry Men, you know, the guys in tights in a forest called Sherwood.

Hi there
Was he actually WRONG.

In my experience Local Govt officials are about the worst example of "Mini Hitlers" in ANY country. Give "Nobody's" a tiny smidgen of power and just see what happens.


I'm sure the old Sheriff of Nottingham was a really HONEST law abiding soul who never received any Patronage from the Kings officials - did he.

I believe in those days as well Tax collectors were entitled to a %ge of what they could actually collect.

Thank goodness THOSE days and that method of tax collection are over.

Actually if you believe in "conspiracy theories" then most Virus and Malware programs are really written by people working for AV companies so they can frighten people into buying their anti Malware and Virus products.

Cheers
jimbo

jimbo45 said:

24c said:

This thread is sponsored by Robin Hood and his Merry Men, you know, the guys in tights in a forest called Sherwood.

Hi there
Was he actually WRONG.

In my experience Local Govt officials are about the worst example of "Mini Hitlers" in ANY country. Give "Nobody's" a tiny smidgen of power and just see what happens.


I'm sure the old Sheriff of Nottingham was a really HONEST law abiding soul who never received any Patronage from the Kings officials - did he.

I believe in those days as well Tax collectors were entitled to a %ge of what they could actually collect.

Thank goodness THOSE days and that method of tax collection are over.

Actually if you believe in "conspiracy theories" then most Virus and Malware programs are really written by people working for AV companies so they can frighten people into buying their anti Malware and Virus products.

Cheers
jimbo

Taking something that doesn't belong to you is wrong. Feel free to justify it all you want/ need to - it is still wrong.

24c said:

jimbo45 said:

24c said:

This thread is sponsored by Robin Hood and his Merry Men, you know, the guys in tights in a forest called Sherwood.

Hi there
Was he actually WRONG.

In my experience Local Govt officials are about the worst example of "Mini Hitlers" in ANY country. Give "Nobody's" a tiny smidgen of power and just see what happens.


I'm sure the old Sheriff of Nottingham was a really HONEST law abiding soul who never received any Patronage from the Kings officials - did he.

I believe in those days as well Tax collectors were entitled to a %ge of what they could actually collect.

Thank goodness THOSE days and that method of tax collection are over.

Actually if you believe in "conspiracy theories" then most Virus and Malware programs are really written by people working for AV companies so they can frighten people into buying their anti Malware and Virus products.

Cheers
jimbo

Taking something that doesn't belong to you is wrong. Feel free to justify it all you want/ need to - it is still wrong.

Hi there
My post was about UPLOADING stuff that I've PAID for the same as I could do with a CD track -- why not -- I don't support Piracy -- and I certainly DO NOT support any organsation that will attempt to block ISP's.

We can see where all this will lead to if left unchecked -- any left wing or Union organisation in the USA could have their websites shut down by a future Republican or relatively Right Wing govt for supporting "Subversive" views - and by the nature of typical Politicians these days "Subersive" can tend to mean different to those from the ruling party.

Even worse these days they can even throw "Anti Terrorist" legislation against these sites -- much harder to defend against.

Once we go down this road there isn't any end until maybe the events of 1939 - 1945 rears up an ugly head again.

Cheers
Jimbo

OK!

jimbo45 said:

24c said:

jimbo45 said:

Hi there
Was he actually WRONG.

In my experience Local Govt officials are about the worst example of "Mini Hitlers" in ANY country. Give "Nobody's" a tiny smidgen of power and just see what happens.


I'm sure the old Sheriff of Nottingham was a really HONEST law abiding soul who never received any Patronage from the Kings officials - did he.

I believe in those days as well Tax collectors were entitled to a %ge of what they could actually collect.

Thank goodness THOSE days and that method of tax collection are over.

Actually if you believe in "conspiracy theories" then most Virus and Malware programs are really written by people working for AV companies so they can frighten people into buying their anti Malware and Virus products.

Cheers
jimbo

Taking something that doesn't belong to you is wrong. Feel free to justify it all you want/ need to - it is still wrong.

Hi there
My post was about UPLOADING stuff that I've PAID for the same as I could do with a CD track -- why not -- I don't support Piracy -- and I certainly DO NOT support any organsation that will attempt to block ISP's.

We can see where all this will lead to if left unchecked -- any left wing or Union organisation in the USA could have their websites shut down by a future Republican or relatively Right Wing govt for supporting "Subversive" views - and by the nature of typical Politicians these days "Subersive" can tend to mean different to those from the ruling party.

Even worse these days they can even throw "Anti Terrorist" legislation against these sites -- much harder to defend against.

Once we go down this road there isn't any end until maybe the events of 1939 - 1945 rears up an ugly head again.

Cheers
Jimbo

I agree accept you seem to have it backwards... The left are the ones in power right now and are responable for trying to pass this bill.

Darician said:

madtownidiot said:

No point in arguing about it, we're all in agreement here (unless someone reading this has had their head in the mud for the past 9 years)... and as a matter of fact, the reason I started this thread was because I immediately saw the bill for what it is. As I posted in the other thread, throughout history the primary purpose of government has never been to protect the people, it's always been about protecting the rich from the people...

This is 100% true. This bill is about nothing more but ensuring that the rich continue to get richer. It is formatted nicely to sound like it's stopping a legal issue but in reality, it's to have more control over the internet; something the government would love to exert full control over if possible.

The internet is really a bastion of freedom at this point because it's a free exchange of ideas and it is for the most part unregulated when compared to other mediums such as radio and television. If the government is allowed to determine what constitutes a pirate site, they could define something that simply goes against their ideology as a pirate site and block it based on some legalese that they come up with. I certainly don't trust them with decisions of any kind really, especially the US Government that manages to screw up anything it touches. Don't want to get too political but this bill screams bad idea to no end.

As far as piracy being lost sales, I've heard this tired and old argument time and time again and it makes me laugh a bit more each time. I remember in 2007, the MPAA said they were losing millions and millions from all the piracy of movies yet not much later after that statement in 2007, they stated that they had set record profits for the movie industry. I thought "what's the matter, the record not high enough?" Seriously, and I am not advocating piracy, but it is extremely difficult for me to feel any sympathy for these entities because they lost a million or two out of 100 some million.

The fact is with lost sales, this is a flawed view because particularly with movies, I've asked people who watch some movies streamed online for free and they flat out say that if they had to pay for said movies they watched, they just wouldn't have watched them. In this regard madtownidiot is right, these are not potential customers and never will be; they are simply people who want a free lunch and if they can't get it free, then they won't bother with it. Same with software, people will use it for free if they can but if they have to pay even one penny for it, they'll either find an alternative or plain not use it. And the funny thing is I believe Steve Ballmer has said that if software is pirated, they'd rather have people pirate their software simply because it spreads their name. And it truly is a testatement to the popularity of Windows that many people would rather go through the trouble and risk of pirating Windows than getting a legally free copy of Linux. Again, not advocating piracy but these are truths.

But back to the main point, the US Government attempting to regulate anything is always a bad thing because they always manage to do it in favor of corporate interests and screw everything up. If you want an example of government regulation out of control, look at smog checks in California. Or another example, banning the use of cell phones without a hands free headset; you can talk to the companies that make all these accessories about how exactly that safety measure got passed.

Darician Triple A+

Bootz said:

jimbo45 said:

24c said:

Taking something that doesn't belong to you is wrong. Feel free to justify it all you want/ need to - it is still wrong.

Hi there
My post was about UPLOADING stuff that I've PAID for the same as I could do with a CD track -- why not -- I don't support Piracy -- and I certainly DO NOT support any organsation that will attempt to block ISP's.

We can see where all this will lead to if left unchecked -- any left wing or Union organisation in the USA could have their websites shut down by a future Republican or relatively Right Wing govt for supporting "Subversive" views - and by the nature of typical Politicians these days "Subersive" can tend to mean different to those from the ruling party.

Even worse these days they can even throw "Anti Terrorist" legislation against these sites -- much harder to defend against.

Once we go down this road there isn't any end until maybe the events of 1939 - 1945 rears up an ugly head again.

Cheers
Jimbo

I agree accept you seem to have it backwards... The left are the ones in power right now and are responable for trying to pass this bill.

Hi there
it works EITHER way round -- I'm not too familiar with the Internal Politics of the USA but the point was to say that organisations CONTRARY to the views of the Ruling party WHETHER LEFT OR RIGHT could easily have their websites banned by this type of legislation.

Cheers
jimbo

24c said:

Taking something that doesn't belong to you is wrong. Feel free to justify it all you want/ need to - it is still wrong.

Like I said earlier, according to copyright laws you aren't even aloud to lend, yes lend the media you purchase. Now I've never met anybody who doesn't do that. So it makes me smile when people high and mighty about piracy.

So where does it stop? Go round fining people for letting their mate watch a DVD they bought.