November 17 - end of the Internet as we know?

[Sand_Dragon]

If your politics are anything like those here (albeit with less murder), then this bill stands a fairly good chance of passing.

 

Left or Right, Neo-con or Liberal, all - ALL - of these people rely on cold cash to stay in the political game.

 

At least, that's my understanding of politics, but then, where I come from, things like ELECTION SEASON DEATH TOLL RISES TO 37 are a headline people aren't surprised to see.

[FusRoDah]

Yeah, I heard about this. The sad part is, Since most of the internet is American, it'll affect us in Europe as well. D:

 

'MURICA IS BEING UN-AMERICAN!

 

EDIT:

I heard they're probably pushing it back 'till next year!

*sheds tears of joy*

*Plays victorious music*

 

[tomfoolery]

Well, it'll affect you at first. But as time goes on more and more startups will be outside the US. Meaning while the US continues to strange innovation and all that, it'll still go on in the rest of the world.

 

Provided the nations of Europe don't follow the US' lead, of course.

[Dreamer102]

It's because Republicans are the stupidest fucking people on the face of this planet. I mean for Gods sake they think if you're unemployed that you deserve to die. I don't know if republicans proposed this bill...but it's just stupid enough that I will assume that they did. This infringes on the Constitution on an unbelievable level.

 

AMEN!!!

[roriki]

From what I've seen (And thats not a great deal, admittedly) it looks like it will only hurt the American economy.

People will just start hosting outside of the US, where the hypocritical and absurd American laws do not apply.

[SurrealCruelty]

It's because Republicans are the stupidest fucking people on the face of this planet. I mean for Gods sake they think if you're unemployed that you deserve to die. I don't know if republicans proposed this bill...but it's just stupid enough that I will assume that they did. This infringes on the Constitution on an unbelievable level.

 

AMEN!!!

 

I wish we could just blame the Republicans for this. Unfortunately' date=' the Democrats are all to happy to jump on the bandwagon for copyright (among other things like censoring for violence and sexual content, not to mention violent video games), because they actually believe it is the government's job to over-regulate stuff like this.

 

I don't know who proposed the bill originally. It was probably written by a [b']lobbyist[/b], not a politician. This is the case for the overwhelming majority of legislation passed in the U.S. The Motion Picture Association and several record companies are the major backers of SOPA, meaning some very influential lobbies are involved on both sides of the political aisle. Lots of potential campaign donations for 2012. The politicians probably pushed it back so that they don't have to vote for what is likely to be a very unpopular bill right before an election season. They also get the advantage that they can then extort those campaign donations by promising to pass it after they get re-elected.

 

The Republicans are just in on it because God forbid the Corporate Masters should have to pay their own money, and lose even MORE popularity with the masses (if that is even possible) to litigate in court. Not to mention issues like trying to litigate over websites located in Russia and China (who do not recognize international copyright laws). The Federal Government can just step in and circumvent courts and litigation altogether. As a bonus, the government can make money charging the web administrators and the domain owners application, filing fees and appeals fees to get un-banned. Best of all, doing it that way will put the burden of proof (that they are not violating copyright) on the domains.

 

The only politicians against this are they way far out crazy right wing (more big gov't bad, and its a free speech issue), and the way the hell just as far gone left wing space bats (free speech and net-neutrality issue).

 

Sadly, the last ten years have seen the 1st amendment chipped away when it comes to copyright. Digital Millennium Copyright act in early 2000's, and the PRO-IP act in 2008. SOPA might get challenged in the courts, but it takes years for these challenges to actually get to the Supreme Court.

 

Damn, sorry about writing an essay...

 

P.S. as a note, Paul and Huntsman are the only GOP presidential candidates who are against SOPA...all the others support it.