There's this wonderful video you have to se *THIS PAGE HAS BEEN DMCA'D, BITCH*

[Thadius]

http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2012/03/15/american-isps-to-launch-massive-copyright-spying-scheme-on-july-12/

If you download potentially copyrighted software, videos or music, your Internet service provider (ISP) has been watching, and they’re coming for you.

Specifically, they’re coming for you on Thursday, July 1st.

That’s the date when the nation’s largest ISPs will all voluntarily implement a new anti-piracy plan that will engage network operators in the largest digital spying scheme in history, and see some users’ bandwidth completely cut off until they sign an agreement saying they will not download copyrighted materials.

The content industries calls this scheme a “graduated response” plan, which will see Time Warner Cable, Cablevision, Comcast, Verizon, AT&T and others spying on users’ Internet activities and watching for potential copyright infringement. Users who are “caught” infringing on a creator’s protected work can then be interrupted with a notice that piracy is forbidden by law and carries penalties of up to $150,000 per infringement, requiring the user to click through saying they understand the consequences before bandwidth is restored, and they could still be subject to copyright infringement lawsuits.

Participating ISPs have a range of options for dealing with customers who continue to pirate media, at that point: They can require that an alleged repeat offender undergo an educational course before their service is restored. They can utilize multiple warnings, restrict access to only certain major websites like Google, Facebook or a list of the top 200 sites going, reduce someone’s bandwidth to practically nothing and even share information on repeat offenders with competing ISPs, effectively creating a sort of Internet blacklist — although publicly, none of the network operators have agreed to “terminate” a customer’s service

So you remember that whole freedom of speech clause in our bill of rights?

Yeah, me neither.

Seriously starting to look like colonizing mars is a better and better option these days...

[Shyria Dracnoir]

Page not found!

Sorry the page you were looking is not here.


How oddly appropriate.

[Aldurin]

Hm, it says July 1st when I read the article, are they pushing down the deadline?

[Thadius]

Not intentional, but fixed.

Let me illustrate the problem for anyone not getting it.

Let's say two companies, M and R, are getting together with the telecommunications industries, henceforth referred to as T. Together, they are issuing massive fucking clubs to all content providers, and asking them not to be tempted by the power they hold.

Anyone struck by these clubs will have M and R come down on T like a ton of bricks, who will then basically say 'NO MORE INTERNET FOR YOU, INFRINGER.'

Even if you were struck by accident, being able to defend yourself is a pipe dream, as they need only the flimsiest of reasons to strike you.

Brian, for example, could hit everyone that posted a sprite comic on this website. Hell, he could strike everyone posting a sprite comic remarkably similar to his own.

The big thing, though, is that Nintendo could come along and say 'Yeah that's FF1, that's OUR territory, enjoy the rest of your days without internet' to Brian.

Basically, the internet would dissolve into a mass of people with clubs, is what I'm saying.

[Menarker]

Geez, another stab at SOPA again... Different means, same shit.

Here is a petition site to attempt to curb this again.

http://act.demandprogress.org/sign/backdoor_sopa/

[Shyria Dracnoir]

Signed and shared.

[Amake]

Why would an ISP volunteer to sell out their customers, I wonder. Over here ISPs give the IP farms shit whenever they try to squeeze information from them about the illegal activities of their customers under our various copyright laws, citing conflicting laws that exist to safeguard peoples' privacy; probably more because they understand that it's good business rather than from the goodness of their hearts.

So, how much do you figure RIAA and MPAA are paying the president for this?

[Grandmaster_Skweeb]

Contribooted and spread this shit like the plague.

I just have to wonder how many times these pigheaded idiots have to be shot down for doing the same thing under a different name.

[Kyanbu The Legend]

Already signed and shared on facebook.

We can't let them win this fight.

[Magus]

Clearly this will stop all piracy.

[Fenris]

I'm more surprised they say July 1 is on a Thursday when it's on Sunday...

Also, signed.

[Marc v4.0]

As someone with a major 'inside source' to one of those companies, I have to question the validity of this. My person would be in the know of this sort of thing, and this article was the first they heard of it.

[rpgdemon]

Somewhat related: What was the name of that internet regulation law from the UN that was passed in the US, but was still going on in the EU? Does anybody know what I'm talking about? Is this a thing?

[A Zarkin' Frood]

You probably mean ACTA. The thing we're constantly protesting against.

[Magus]

As someone with a major 'inside source' to one of those companies, I have to question the validity of this. My person would be in the know of this sort of thing, and this article was the first they heard of it.

Yeah, I couldn't find anything about this on various sites you would think would talk about.

[Pip Boy]

3 days before Independence Day seems like an appropriate time to put out a piece of invasive legislation in the name of protecting corporate money.

[Menarker]

Another petition link here. Quote below is the content of the email I got that leads to the link just below.

http://www.theinternetvshollywood.com/?

It's us versus THEM again.

Hollywood attorneys are trying to use the courts to circumvent Congress and implement a backdoor SOPA/PIPA scheme.

Fight Back: YOUR FILES ON Google, Dropbox, Facebook, Tumblr, Instagram, YouTube, Flickr, etc. and even your emails are in jeopardy.

We need to make sure the judge understands that his decision will affect millions of people.

Demand Progress is fighting back in the courts and standing up for Internet users. We are taking on the United States and the MPAA. Please click here to support our legal brief -- the court will be hearing the case TOMORROW.

BACKGROUND: One day after the Internet staged a massive blackout to protest Congress's Internet censorship legislation (SOPA/PIPA), the United States responded by seizing millions of ordinary user files hosted on the popular website Megaupload.com.

With an aim of shutting down Megaupload and other Cloud-based hosting services (like Dropbox, YouTube or even your email provider), the government is trying to claim website operators should face decades in prison for the misdeeds of some of their users.

But while they pursue trumped up criminal charges against the companies' founders, they are shutting down dozens of websites, and leaving ordinary Internet users without any way of retrieving their files.

Please click here to sign on as a supporter of our legal brief: The judge will be hearing the case TOMORROW, and we need to make sure he understands that his ruling affects millions of us.

Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak called the case against Megaupload a "threat to innovation". Wozniak likened the Megaupload site to a highway and those who shared pirated movies and songs to speeding motorists.

"You don't just shut down the whole street because somebody is speeding," he said.

Numerous laws on the books already give copyright holders plenty of avenues to stop actual infringement, but that's not enough to satisfy Hollywood's lawyers and lobbyists.

And get this: The prosecutor in the case, Neil MacBride, previously served as the Anti-Piracy Vice President of the Business Software Alliance, where he represented the intellectual property interests of countless multinational corporations.

Now Hollywood's lobbyists, represented by the Motion Picture Association of America, want him to make it nearly impossible for ordinary Internet users to get their property back.

Please click here to sign on to our legal brief, and make sure the courts understand that millions of Internet users will be impacted by the judge's decision.

[rpgdemon]

Yeah, the contents of the spam they send make me question their legitimacy. US versus THEM. THEY'RE SELLING US OUT. Sounds like chain letter nonsense.

[Thadius]

So some good news:


Free speech activists, web site owners, internet users, and even some celebrities, have banded together in support of the Declaration of Internet Freedom. The petition calls for free and open access to the web from around the world. To help get a grasp on what it's all about, we've asked an activist from the Electronic Frontier Foundation (one of the declaration's many supporters) to answer your questions.
You can take a look at the full text of the act right now, and it boils down to five principles:

Expression: Don't censor the Internet.
Access: Promote universal access to fast and affordable networks.
Openness: Keep the Internet an open network where everyone is free to connect, communicate, write, read, watch, speak, listen, learn, create and innovate.
Innovation: Protect the freedom to innovate and create without permission. Don't block new technologies, and don't punish innovators for their users' actions.
Privacy: Protect privacy and defend everyone's ability to control how their data and devices are used.


http://lifehacker.com/5923111/let-the-eff-convince-you-to-sign-the-declaration-of-internet-freedom

Other people are just as tired of this bullshit as I am.

I'm not sure if this will result in the internet seceding from the US or what.

But I totally support those principles. Were there an easy way for me to sign that declaration without needing to be in an organiza-

...

Well that was an idea I hadn't considered.

*Promptly signs as a member of the organization NPF, status: Poster*