Amin
Hall of Famer
I made an exception to the "no politics" rule here at S.C. to participate in the internet blackout today and start a discussion because SOPA and PIPA threaten the existence of the free internet and sites such as ours.
Here's a brief theoretical example of how this legislation would work: SeriousCompacts.com is hosted in the UK, and one of our members posted a copyrighted image from Getty in our forums without permission. Getty Images requests that access to our UK server is blocked, and bam: No more access for US members to Mu-43.com.
SOPA and PIPA would put the burden on website owners to police user-contributed material and call for the blocking of whole sites. Making matters worse, there would be no penalty for a false accusation, so in the example above, Getty wouldn't even have to be correct to get us taken down. Big media corporations could (and would) use a "shotgun approach" to remove our access to any sites which they perceived as even a small detriment to their corporate profits, and small sites like ours wouldn't have the resources to defend themselves.
Congress is planning to resume hearings about this legislation soon, and the time for you to be heard is now. Learn more about this dangerous legislation and what you can do to help at Stop American Censorship — a campaign from Fight for the Future.
This topic is now open for discussion. Lets all take extra care to be courteous to others in the discussion regardless of their stance on this matter and avoid going off topic into politics which are unrelated to this issue.
Here's a brief theoretical example of how this legislation would work: SeriousCompacts.com is hosted in the UK, and one of our members posted a copyrighted image from Getty in our forums without permission. Getty Images requests that access to our UK server is blocked, and bam: No more access for US members to Mu-43.com.
SOPA and PIPA would put the burden on website owners to police user-contributed material and call for the blocking of whole sites. Making matters worse, there would be no penalty for a false accusation, so in the example above, Getty wouldn't even have to be correct to get us taken down. Big media corporations could (and would) use a "shotgun approach" to remove our access to any sites which they perceived as even a small detriment to their corporate profits, and small sites like ours wouldn't have the resources to defend themselves.
Congress is planning to resume hearings about this legislation soon, and the time for you to be heard is now. Learn more about this dangerous legislation and what you can do to help at Stop American Censorship — a campaign from Fight for the Future.
This topic is now open for discussion. Lets all take extra care to be courteous to others in the discussion regardless of their stance on this matter and avoid going off topic into politics which are unrelated to this issue.