In the united states, congress is trying to pass "US Senate Bill S.968" which will allow all internet to be censored in the USA. AKA, "PROTECT IP, which is an acronym for “Preventing Real Online Threats to Economic Creativity and Theft of Intellectual Property.” The name of it is VERY decieving

I say that is just, plain, wrong to allow this bill to happen. The country has fought AGAINST this in the past, and has tried to fight for freedom! This censorship bill is the exact opposite! It can easly lead to propaganda, and anything contradictory to the government can be REMOVED. Does that remind you of anything from the world wars? I can think of a few examples... *Cough, censorship in Germany*. How does it sound compared to Soviet Russia? Say something bad about the governement, get punished, and your statements removed!

It will also allow for ALL INTERNET USE to be monitored by the government. This includes downloads, websites visited, and if wanted, they could see what you write!

If you beleave in freedom, please sign this petition, and talk to the people at your town hall. http://americancensorship.org/

Once America does it, it will open the doors for a lot more countries... It's just a chain reaction



If not Uh Oh.


Note:This is not a spam bot.  :P

Thing is, it says to ECONOMIC CREATIVITY, and theft of intellectual property.
It's not right to steal people's ideas, and they'll basically be protecting our right of freedom of speech won't they?

When I first read about this it had an innocent tilt. The bill was lobbied heavily by well to do artists, musicians and film industry in order to control piracy. But now, it has been written in a broader context it seems.   

I made a big massive post about PIP, but I have deleted it and having done some more reading, I am slightly less opposed to the idea.

Protect IP act will allow the courts to prosecute people who host websites for the explicit act of hosting illegal content. It will also give them powers to erase hyperlinks that then link to those websites. If it's put that way, then yeahhhh I can kind of see where they're going with that. The bit I disagree with is one of the major parts of the SOPA act, which I shall move onto...



SOPA is the act giving US the rights to get court orders against websites outside of the USA. PIP will also try to stop websites outside of the USA, but SOPA is really the act that gives them the powers to do so.

What, wait? No, really... They're creating an act to let themselves go after people and hosts in other countries. That's like a kids game where one of them sets the rules that he is allowed to punch the other kids, but they can't hit back or use their own opinions on the matter. I just don't get it... Some countries have laws which makes it legal to host 'illegal' material, but you can't grant yourself the power to track down people inside that country - The internet is global and it is owned by the users. It's a case of "America - World Police" stepping in again. As far as I am currently aware, you must ask another country to arrest a certain person and deport them - You can't just walk in and arrest them or whatever.


Given all of this, I am refusing to purchase my web space in the US. I will use UK servers... I cannot trust the USA to not block my site (I don't plan on hosting anything illegal, but they clearly don't understand web-logistics) so I will give my money back to the UK economy. I will do business with UK hosts, UK advertisers and, where possible, UK subsidaries of search engines. I mean, they plan on blocking Flickr under SOPA - I suggest everyone affected sends their premium membership bill to congress - They can refund me the difference.

Whatever the verdict, one thing is clear - If people want illegal content, PIP and SOPA will not stop it. The internet is beyond anyones control. Nobody has a switch to the internet. It cannot be shut down, it cannot be controlled. If you block off the roads out of a city, those who are smuggling may just take the route of the sewers.

Aw come on... Intelectual property theft is something that has been around since the beggining of man-kind. We're a colective species and our knowledge is based on someone else's ideas that were based off someone else's ideas. That's how it works. The internet has a few security problems that's for sure, but if the artists (or, to be more exact, the producers) didn't want their work to be "stolen" they shouldn't have put it on the internet. Everything you put online is going to be public domain no matter what you try to do. Sooner or later some people will be able to download your work for free. Now what the U.S. government is trying to do is basically control EVERY SINGLE website, and since most of them are based on the US it seems to me that we will be seeing the internet being cleared up from one day to another...

But that's the point, even CDs have anti piracy measures that avoid its contents from being copied and yet people manage to do that. I remember the SEGA CDs had that in the 90s and it didn't last more than a few years before someone cracked the contents open and started making bootleg CDs. You can't stop piracy no matter what you try. Heck, if that's so, then youtube breaks the law every single day by publishing content in their home page without asking the creators of the video for consent. 

Xpand wrote on Jan 5^th, 2012 at 8:32am:

So long as you create content, it is at risk of being stolen. The solution is simple... Don't think up an idea! But that really is the only way to do it. If an idea isn't ever created, it cannot ever be stolen. It's mighty impractical, but it works 

Youtube isn't doing anything wrong though... You sign the terms and conditions on Youtube when you publish your material... You're making an agreement, and as the creator you should be aware that your content is being made freely available. Youtube are one of the sites not currently up for deletion (by SOPA/PIP) because they are actively monitoring their channels to see if material is being uploaded illegally. We've all heard the Youtube National Anthem that gets selected if you put up music belonging to someone else. On Facebook, one of their terms and conditions basically says that you are allowing Facebook to publish your images, and that you are giving up some of your rights for their publication and transmission. You're simply agreeing that they can use your images, and that anyone who sees your image can also use it.

I used a song as a backing track for my video on Youtube once. I had an email through saying that the company who owned the music would put adverts on my video. I deleted the video... They're not owning my popularity