CGA Forums blackout Jan. 18 7 a.m.-7 p.m. Central to protest SOPA?

Odale said:
There was at one point a good chance of it passin, but now that more people know about the bill that chance has gotten smaller. I personally can't believe some people aren't upset by it. One of my biggest problems with SOPA (I'm not as familiar with PIP) is that it does not specify what type of website they are aiming at and along side that, if a website does get in trouble under SOPA, it does not get to defend itself in court. I have no problem with companies trying to defend their intellectual property, but doing it through a bill with vague language and one that will stop piracy (its more like posting copyrighted material without permission) in only one country is definitely not the way to go.

XT, I know you do an update of your everyday happenings. I've seen you do it on Facebook and I know you have your own blog and twitter account. I don't think its too much of a stretch that you might accidentally post copyrighted material to one of these social media outlets. The company that owns said copyright could shut you down without any input from you. I don't think you would appreciate being silenced.

Edit: A congressperson introducing a bill that has the ability to censor you on the internet should get you infuriated anyway, regardless of whether or not it will pass.
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Of course it's infuriating, and upsets me, but I have seen similar bills attempted to be passed for probably the last 10 years, personally I lost my taste for protesting them. And why is SOPA such a big deal when all the others weren't. They have all been similar, and this has been going on for 10 or even more years, so why now, what makes SOPA so much more special than all the attempts from the previous years?

Seems to me like maybe propaganda? Maybe an Obama reelection attempt? I have just been an on the net a long time, and it's "fishy" to me that one bill out of probably hundreds that have attempted to do the same thing, stands out, and at this time of all times... I smell underlying agendas...
 
Here's the letter I sent to my rep earlier today. I'm sure there's plenty to pick apart in the letter, but I didn't want to send a form letter. They seem so cheesy. I made sure I picked a few key stances and items from his bio on his Congressional page to include...thought that might explain why this bill is bad, in terms of his beliefs. We'll see.

Congressman Tiberi,

First, I would like to thank you for your service to our district. I applaud your efforts and hard work to to further policies seeking a smaller, less intrusive government, greater national security and a growing and expanding economy that creates jobs. I write today to address an upcoming bill that I feel goes against everything you and I stand for in these areas.

The Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA) threatens to limit our freedom of speech without truly doing anything to limit online piracy. I understand the importance of protecting the rights of copyright and trademark holders, those with intellectual property, and everyone else that suffers losses from illegal acquisition of their protected content - whether it is through online or offline means.

However, In its current form, the act has loose enough language that would give the government the power to censor the internet through blocking sites using similar methods that China uses. Search engine companies based in the United States could be forced to farther parse their results to remove entire domains or hosts instead of dealing with specific infringements.

Additionally, law-abiding online companies would have to spend significant resources monitoring individual users' content for infringement issues or face extensive litigation. Not only would this hurt existing large companies, but could potentially cause existing small businesses to shut down, and discourage entrepreneurs from creating new start-up companies. All around, this bill is bad for business.

However, I do not believe this bill will truly limit online piracy. Anecdotal "evidence" suggests there are two main mechanisms for obtaining pirated materials. First, bit-torrent systems allow users to directly connect to one another to steal protected content. Second, foreign websites that will not be directly impacted by SOPA will continue to operate, on changing their names, hosts, and IP addresses as needed to continue their illegal operations.

Additionally, filtering content on search engines may not be effective since foreign, unfiltered engines would pop up. This would hurt the domestic engines, plus expose our citizenry to content providers and search providers that may have unscrupulous business practices, poor security protocols, and expose us to additional

My suggestion would be to vote down this bill, and find alternative mechanisms to stop online piracy. There are already some websites, such as YouTube, that are already developing tools to help find and filter protected content. Tools like these could be modified in such a fashion to be useful to Internet Service Providers to filter incoming and outgoing data.

Additionally, both the House and Senate have been working on the Online Protection & ENforcement of Digital Trade Act (OPEN), which will be more effective in reducing piracy without harm to legitimate businesses and consumers.

In conclusion, I ask that you speak and vote against SOPA when it comes to the House floor. It broadens already intrusive powers to the government, hurts employers, and discourages growth in technology-related fields. I understand the need to reduce piracy, but feel that SOPA will not be effective in meeting that goal. Finally, I thank you again for your efforts and appreciate that you took the time to read my opinion.

Sincerely,

(my name and contact info)
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I <3 Extra Creditz.

Also, both AK Senators Lisa Murkowski and Mark Begich have published statements today in opposition to PIPA. My Representative Don Young is still Unknown/leaning opposition to SOPA.

And I'm not terribly surprised. Alaskans don't want any legislation that isn't going to directly (or at least appear to) benefit them in some way, and are notoriously vocal about it. Poor senators probably still have their phones ringing off the hook...
 
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