new law that will prohibit the streaming of games if passed.

Rich old white men who want to keep making money the exact same way as they always have instead of adapting (because that's how capitalism is meant to work).

ACTA baffles me, and unlike SOPA is a direct threat because Australia has signed it (although at least the internet censorship bill is dead in the water now). I can't understand where all the pressure is coming from - do entertainment companies of all things really weild power comparable to big banks and oil companies? How many strings could they possibly be pulling all over the world that they haven't already exhausted? Either they are exerting enormous pressure somehow, or there is not one political leader anywhere in the Western world who understands what ACTA would actually entail. Any attempt to implement it would be either political suicide or a sign that every single first world country is suddenly in love with totalitarianism... because of kids downloading music. There's no governmental money or power to gain from that. Everything about it is so stupid I'm hoping it'll forget to breathe and kill itself before anything happens.

I think politicians are really just fumbling in the dark. They often don't understand the laws they're being asked to pass because the organizations who would benefit from the laws don't want them to. Remember the Patriot act in the US? Senators were shown a bill, recessed, then asked to sign it. Except the damn bill had been rewritten overnight. Politics is a dirty, money-driven game.

But hey, just because the Republican party is full of... um... Rich white dudes... Doesn't make them at fault. Totally not. *Digs own grave*

Here in Australia, child pornography and generic Nazi stuff are used as a justification for every kind of proposed internet control bill. (I'm serious. There is a neo-Nazi festival happening in Brisbane. Happens every year. Someone always suggests that stronger internet control is needed to squash 'hate groups', then refers to festivals like that one.)

 

Okay, so, politicians don't know what they're doing, and it's not up to citizens to protest.

Who the fuck is supposed to get shit done?

 

the goddamn batman, who else?

 

He is the hero politics deserves.

 

Stop.
Stop.
Stop the political circus.

):

What we need is to wipe out China

 

If politicians are corrupt, they shouldn't be politicians. That would solve half the problems in a heartbeat. The other half would be solved by banning lobby groups. *Ironic because I'm a supporter of the Australian Christian Lobby* Politicians should not exist in this twisted alternate reality where the only way to reach them is by protesting. As a Christian, I disapprove of intimidation. I need to make that distinction. Protests where someone sends a message to an unreachable political system are fine. What is not fine is dirty 'scrap this bill or we will make you suffer' tactics. It makes me sick to my stomach.

 

I just don't understand. How does America own the Internet? God bless America but we've gotten too big for our britches.

 

You just realized this?

Yeah no I want no part of this political circus but I wanted to say that.

 

America doesn't own the Internet, though. Nobody does. And I noticed that years ago.

 

No kidding, I was just agreeing that America is getting too big for it's britches.

 

Yes, I was born in America but I find myself Disagreeing with it's ways Constantly. But Who or what owns the internet though?

 

Well you see America owns all the servers located in America by virtue of those servers being under the jurisdiction of American law because they are in America.
Of course, the government doesn't own those servers, private parties do, but the law is the law so ?!?!?! politics sure are a thing

They are a thing now? I thought they were an idea.

 

If politicians are corrupt, they shouldn't be politicians. That would solve half the problems in a heartbeat. The other half would be solved by banning lobby groups. *Ironic because I'm a supporter of the Australian Christian Lobby* Politicians should not exist in this twisted alternate reality where the only way to reach them is by protesting. As a Christian, I disapprove of intimidation. I need to make that distinction. Protests where someone sends a message to an unreachable political system are fine. What is not fine is dirty 'scrap this bill or we will make you suffer' tactics. It makes me sick to my stomach.

Ambient Malice, if you can't stand people who don't agree with your political beliefs (not sure how serious you were when you said that), consider expressing them in a less forceful and abrasive manner. It will make people who disagree less likely to get angry.

P.S. As an all-around human being, I disapprove of intimidation. Good for you for being Christian, though.

 

So has SOPA passed or not? im getting no definite answer and Im not about to believe Dunc

 

Who can know

 

Ambient Malice, if you can't stand people who don't agree with your political beliefs (not sure how serious you were when you said that), consider expressing them in a less forceful and abrasive manner. It will make people who disagree less likely to get angry.

P.S. As an all-around human being, I disapprove of intimidation. Good for you for being Christian, though.

I was joking, of course. Maybe I should have made that clearer. I thought appending "Or ducks. Or Twilight." Made it clear I was taking the piss.

See, I'm one of those unfortunate individuals who makes antagonists of people who technically agree with him. I'm not the sort to pick a fight. It just happens when people feel strongly about an issue, and I seem to be taking the opposite side. Except I'm not - this is known as being 'between a rock and a hard place'.

SOPA and PIPA are prime example of poorly written legal ideas which wouldn't see the light of day without lobby groups. This is the core of my hypocricy on the matter: I am sympathetic towards lobby groups when I agree with them and they behave appropriately. But at the same time I aknowledge that lobby groups are fundamentally dangerous - a lobbyist has no regard for the law because they are dedicated towards altering it.

I have a feeling that the noose is tightening around true internet freedom. The current economic instability is making some of the hotbeds of unfettered data -- legal, grey, or otherwise -- vulnerable to the minipulations of whomever bails them out. Governments will sell their citizens into slavery if it will protect the entity that is the government.

 

I wouldn't've been so concerned about the bills if they hadn't received such a serious reception in the first place.

 

There is too much copyright anyway. Example: all classical music and classical paintings should be available @ internet for free download...it's cultural heritage...the great Russian (ex. Sowiet) museum, the Hermitage had (has?) free entrance... while Italian museums charge about 50-60 Euro... I think it is theft of public domain. It is cultural heritage. I am a capitalist, but if the Sowiet Union had survived the internet era sure all that would be free for the public, an example the West would likely have followed...Enough of meaningless "what if" ...

I don't like internet piracy, but neither the tendencies of censorship and control if it starts to be inhuman...