How many here contacted their representatives in regards to SOPA?

[Larry Edgerton]

Just kinda curious.....

Larry

[Harry Hagan]

I might, but still researching both SOPA and PIPA.

[John Shuk]

I did and am glad that I did.

[Van Huskey]

Yes, hopefully Congress can take a breath and do more to get this right. It needs to be done and it will never be perfect, as no laws are, but they need to work to cause the least amount of problems.

[John Aspinall]

SOPA and/or PIPA is one of the most bone-headed pieces of proposed legislation to come down the pike in a long time. (And yes, I include the time when the Indiana State Legislature tried to set the value of pi to 3.)
Even if you know absolutely nothing about the Internet, the complete absence of due process should have been a gigantic red flag.

[John Coloccia]

All my representatives are already on notice. LOL.

[Rod Sheridan]

I had to look up SOPA and PIPA on the interweb......LOL.

What do you think of anti-piracy laws?

If I'm providing copy righted, copied material in a physical form, such as a copy of a DVD or book, it's a legal issue.

If I'm providing a copy on a file server should I be in the same legal trouble?

In my opinion there's no diffrence, I've taken intelectual property that doesn't belong to me, and distributed it without permission or compensation to the rightful owner.

The difficult issue is how to enforce it, and who to hold responsible...............Rod.

[Brian Palmer]

All of them that are in my area.

http://www.recordonline.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=%2F20120118%2FNEWS%2F120119732

[Greg Peterson]

DMCA only applies to domestic ISPs, websites and search engines as US copy rights end at our border. In 2008, congress passed the PRO-IP act which grants ICE the ability to to seize a sites domain name and IP address. Neither act pertains to foreign domain names or IP address.

SOPA AND PIPA are meant to provide mechanism to tie online pirates to assests in the US so that the legal system can collect civil judgements cut off sources of revenue (Visa, Mastercard, PayPal...).

Here is an fairly basic explanation of SOPA/PIPA (http://www.dailykos.com/story/2012/01/18/1055849/-Confessions-Of-A-Hollywood-Professional:-Why-I-Cant-Support-the-Stop-Online-Piracy-Act-(UPDATED)?via=siderec).

I don't think the legal eagles fully appreciate the unintended consequences these two bill would create.

Clearly there is a need to protect copyright material. However, I would no more go to a lawyer to design an information network than I would go to an network engineer to write a will.

[John Coloccia]

We already have laws that cover ALL of this. SOPA is simply another power grab. All you have to do is enforce current copyright laws. Oh, they're too hard to enforce? Too bad. Patents are hard to defend too. Tough. The Fed needs to get out of our business.

People steal from retail stores too. Should the police, without any cause, be able to randomly search anyone walking around the mall for stolen goods? How about just walking down the street with a bag? Or pockets. It's the cost of doing business. Stomping all over my liberties and freedoms for the sake of private interests is not the charter of our government.

[Greg Peterson]

People steal from retail stores too. Should the police, without any cause, be able to randomly search anyone walking around the mall for stolen goods?

Don't give 'em any ideas.

[Shawn Pixley]

Did it. Yep

[paul cottingham]

We already have laws that cover ALL of this. SOPA is simply another power grab. All you have to do is enforce current copyright laws. Oh, they're too hard to enforce? Too bad. Patents are hard to defend too. Tough. The Fed needs to get out of our business.

People steal from retail stores too. Should the police, without any cause, be able to randomly search anyone walking around the mall for stolen goods? How about just walking down the street with a bag? Or pockets. It's the cost of doing business. Stomping all over my liberties and freedoms for the sake of private interests is not the charter of our government.

Very well put, sir. I am Canadian, but Harper loves to follow the American govt around, so I fear we are next. It troubles me that govts seem to feel the need to protect the profits of companies that are bent on not adjusting to the times.
If this was 70 years ago, I suspect the same people would be trying to get the govt to protect the profits of railroads. By restricting cars.

[Phil Thien]

This is nothing but a game of Wackamole.

Every time someone tries to stuff the file-sharing genie back in the bottle, they challenge very intelligent developers to create new ways to share IP.

If I was a left-coast content provider, I'd probably leave well enough alone.

Because one of these iterations, some brain-storming teenage kid is going to conceive of a way to share files that is nearly undetectable.

And if you can't detect it, you can't disable it (much less prosecute offenders).

And when (not if) that happens, we will see a landslide of people jumping back into the file sharing "game."

[Glenn Vaughn]

People steal from retail stores too. Should the police, without any cause, be able to randomly search anyone walking around the mall for stolen goods? How about just walking down the street with a bag? Or pockets. It's the cost of doing business. Stomping all over my liberties and freedoms for the sake of private interests is not the charter of our government.

SOPA targets the foreign sellers - those who adverise. There is no provision to search for possible infringement. U.S. laws cannot be enforced in other countries - this is why so many Russian and Asian sites deal in pirated or counterfeited material Big monet for them - big frustration to the copyright/patent holders.

[John Coloccia]

SOPA targets the foreign sellers - those who adverise. There is no provision to search for possible infringement. U.S. laws cannot be enforced in other countries - this is why so many Russian and Asian sites deal in pirated or counterfeited material Big monet for them - big frustration to the copyright/patent holders.

I understand what SOPA is. It goes after the foreign sites by burdening US companies and citizens to take all sorts of actions, including internet CENSORSHIP.....you know, like China, Iran and others. I don't really care how frustrated copyright holders are. Being frustrated is not a valid reason to impose this kind of control and burden on US companies.

[Jerome Stanek]

Yeah I did

[Larry Edgerton]

The reason I asked is that I am somewhat isolated and did not have a feel for how others really felt about this. I pay absolutely no attention to the traditional news sources even though I do read them, and I basically work alone six days a week so had no handle on how the general public felt.

I am glad to see that I am not alone in my concern. I do think there is a problem as well but did not feel that this draconian sort of solution was the solution. Actually I agree with someone else's statement that it willl be difficult to stop with the fast moving changes in technology, and I feel that they know, or should have known this, so it is a power grab as John has expressed.

On this very forum information from other sources is often used, and as I read it would be subject to censorship.

To those that think that the government is not in the business of censorship you should have a conversation with my sister. She is a librarian, and is also president of the Michigan Library Advisory Council, and as such is constantly fighting attempts at censorship. It is something that we do need to be aware of.

Larry

[Brian Elfert]

The idea that the movie, software, and recording industries are losing billions to pirates is silly. They are assuming that every single person who pirated their material would have paid full price if they could not get a pirated copy. The reality is that most people would simply never purchase the material if they had to pay full price for it.

This is different than stealing from a retail store as physical goods costs the store money to purchase. I'm certainly not condoning piracy, but it isn't costing as much as people claim.

[Tom Winship]

The nine most terrifying words in the English language are, 'I'm from the government and I'm here to help.' (http://www.sawmillcreek.org/quote/33742.html) http://www.sawmillcreek.org/icon_info.gif (http://www.sawmillcreek.org/quote/33742.html)http://www.sawmillcreek.org/icon_plus.gif (http://www.sawmillcreek.org/myquotations.php?add=33742)http://www.sawmillcreek.org/icon_email.gif (http://www.sawmillcreek.org/quote/33742.html#email)http://www.sawmillcreek.org/icon_blank.gif
Ronald Reagan

[Brian Tymchak]

Well, FWIW, the White House has come out with a pretty strong statement (http://www.whitehouse.gov/blog/2012/01/14/obama-administration-responds-we-people-petitions-sopa-and-online-piracy)against this legislation. So, even if it were to make it to the President's desk, I have hope it would be vetoed. However, given the way our gov works these days, it might get buried onto page 3576 of some omnibus budget bill.

[Greg Peterson]

The nine most terrifying words in the English language are, 'I'm from the government and I'm here to help.' (http://www.sawmillcreek.org/quote/33742.html) http://www.sawmillcreek.org/icon_info.gif (http://www.sawmillcreek.org/quote/33742.html)http://www.sawmillcreek.org/icon_plus.gif (http://www.sawmillcreek.org/myquotations.php?add=33742)http://www.sawmillcreek.org/icon_email.gif (http://www.sawmillcreek.org/quote/33742.html#email)http://www.sawmillcreek.org/icon_blank.gif
Ronald Reagan

In this case, you are correct. I find it interesting that for this case the Hollywood elite are convenient victims and congress has to rally to their cause. In a few months we will be back to being lectured to about how Hollywood elitists are the corrosive agent behind all our societal ills.

[Curt Fuller]

Stomping all over my liberties and freedoms for the sake of private interests is not the charter of our government.

Apparently you've not paid much attention to what your government is doing lately.:rolleyes: Maybe you meant "intended charter".

[Curt Harms]

Don't give 'em any ideas.
Amen to that.

[Curt Harms]

The idea that the movie, software, and recording industries are losing billions to pirates is silly. They are assuming that every single person who pirated their material would have paid full price if they could not get a pirated copy. The reality is that most people would simply never purchase the material if they had to pay full price for it.

This is different than stealing from a retail store as physical goods costs the store money to purchase. I'm certainly not condoning piracy, but it isn't costing as much as people claim.

IMO, 98% of the crap produced by the entertainment industry isn't worth the effort to pirate it, never mind the legalities :)
I suspect that in the case of software, Windows specifically that Microsoft isn't all that distraught about piracy, especially in the 3rd world. Better to keep most people using Windows rather than have them looking at alternatives, even if they don't get paid for all the copies in use. They get paid for enough to keep the lights on.