Bill Maher on SOPA
“I know that they’re saying that apparently this bill would somehow infringe on free speech. I didn’t read the bill. I don’t know. I don’t know if anybody who has even read the bill could predict that. But it seems like it might be a red herring because people just want to steal. Because they can. You know, I call it Caucasian looting. And just because you’re sitting at your computer in your pajama bottoms doesn’t mean doesn’t mean you’re not stealing” – Bill Maher on January 20th, 2012 episode of “Real Time”
Apparently he thinks everyone that opposed this law wants “free sh*t”, even after having admitted he hasn’t read the bill.
Dismissive, knee jerk generalizations in no way address the concerns brought forward by the NetCoalition, Consumers Federation Of America and ACLU.
I guess he didn’t bother to read their statement either.
Megaupload Gone
Megaupload, the Hong Kong based file sharing service, has had their Ashburn, Virginia servers shut down by Federal authorities in the United States. And four employees of this company have been arrested in New Zealand.
An indictment filed Thursday accuses the company of having cost copyright holders $500 Million in lost revenue for having facilitated the illegal distribution of music, film and other copyrighted content. But the company claimed these allegations were “grotesquely overblown” prior to the shut down, according to USA Today.
Unfortunately Megaupload also had legitimate users, whose files are inaccessible now. The site had 150 million registered users and had 50 million hits per day.
I had used the service years back to send my own videos to fellow Youtubers, which was more convenient than sending it by email. I have since found other services but it’s still a shame to loose such a resource.
A Protect IP Video
Americans can click here to write a letter to Congress about PIPA and SOPA. Canadians can also direct their American friends and relatives to the site at http://fightforthefuture.org/pipa.
SOPA Protests Scheduled For Jan 18th
Several American sites have decided to go dark on January 18th to protest the Stop Online Piracy Act, a controversial piece of legislation that has been introduced into the House Of Representatives in the United States.
Reddit, Red 5 Studios, the Chezburger sites, Major League Gaming, Sonicretro, Gog.com, Minecraft/Mojang.com, xda-developers.com, Platform Nation, Dark Legacy Comic and TuCows (my registrar) are the first to confirm their participation. And this list of sites will likely expand as more confirmed opponents decide to participate.
Click here to read a joint statement against SOPA from AOL Inc., eBay Inc., Facebook Inc., Google Inc., LinkedIn Corporation, Mozilla Corp., Twitter, Inc.,Yahoo! Inc. and Zynga Game Network.
SOPA Protests Threatened
A new year is about to begin and protests against the Stop Online Piracy Act are being organized.
Amazon.com has joined with Google, eBay, Paypal, Twitter, Facebook, Wikipedia, Bloomberg and numerous other companies and individuals in founding NetCoalition, an organization dedicated to opposing SOPA. And there have been numerous media accounts about the possibility of self imposed black-outs by NetCoalition members.
According to Wikipedia Founder Jimmy Wales, a similar protest by the Italian version of Wikipedia had been successful in thwarting an Italian law that would have limited editorial independence. But it appears that this protest may be limited according to Wales :
“My own view is that a community strike was very powerful and successful in Italy and could be even more powerful in this case. There are obviously many questions about whether the strike should be geotargeted (U.S.-only), etc.”
If these protests are geotargeted Canadians will be able to access the sites, as usual. But Wales claims that a blackout of the English version of Wikipedia is being considered :
“One possible view is that because the law would seriously impact the functioning of Wikipedia for everyone, a global strike of at least the English Wikipedia would put the maximum pressure on the US government.”
The date of this protest has yet been published but several media outlets and blogs speculate that it may be scheduled for the 24th of January, when the United States Senate vote on the Protect IP Act.
More Boxing Week Specials
Amazon UK
and HMV UK
have just gone online with their Boxing Week or post-Christmas deep discount sales.