Xylak
New Member
So, on the back of conversations in the random link thread, I thought I'd drag the SOPA topic out of there.
While SOPA & PIPA are pretty much done for (in their present incarnations) in the United States, there are still plenty of other governments considering (or actually implementing) similar laws.
I've provided some starting places for you to get some info on these issues and am presuming that you, dear reader, are smart enough to go searching for more information yourself.
ACTA : Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement [More...] & [More on UK signing up]- covering European Union, the United States, Japan, Canada, South Korea, Australia as well as a few other countries
Bill C-11 : Canada [More...]
SI : Ireland [More...]
Snide (already passed): Spain [More...]
All these proposed (and actual) laws have very broad definitions that can easily be misused and abused by those with power (i.e. money!).
While I fully understand and appreciate a corporations desire to protect itself from loss of earnings due to theft (which includes downloading etc), this kind of draconian, heavy-handed and loosely-written legislation is not the way to combat it.
These are predominantly driven by the entertainment industry big players (movies, music, games) who are most affected by pirated and downloaded content and are the same ones who predicted doom and gloom when the tape cassette and video recorder were both launched. I, for one, did not see them diminish significantly in size or influence as a result of either of these technologies.
This is just the tip of the iceberg - there's plenty more out there including the fact that Google already allow companies like Universal Music Group to remove ANY videos from YouTube that it wants to - whether it own any copyright or not [More...]
While SOPA & PIPA are pretty much done for (in their present incarnations) in the United States, there are still plenty of other governments considering (or actually implementing) similar laws.
I've provided some starting places for you to get some info on these issues and am presuming that you, dear reader, are smart enough to go searching for more information yourself.
ACTA : Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement [More...] & [More on UK signing up]- covering European Union, the United States, Japan, Canada, South Korea, Australia as well as a few other countries
Bill C-11 : Canada [More...]
SI : Ireland [More...]
Snide (already passed): Spain [More...]
All these proposed (and actual) laws have very broad definitions that can easily be misused and abused by those with power (i.e. money!).
While I fully understand and appreciate a corporations desire to protect itself from loss of earnings due to theft (which includes downloading etc), this kind of draconian, heavy-handed and loosely-written legislation is not the way to combat it.
These are predominantly driven by the entertainment industry big players (movies, music, games) who are most affected by pirated and downloaded content and are the same ones who predicted doom and gloom when the tape cassette and video recorder were both launched. I, for one, did not see them diminish significantly in size or influence as a result of either of these technologies.
This is just the tip of the iceberg - there's plenty more out there including the fact that Google already allow companies like Universal Music Group to remove ANY videos from YouTube that it wants to - whether it own any copyright or not [More...]
