novastorm13 Posted January 19, 2012 Share Posted January 19, 2012 (edited) Today - most of the Net had a blackout/strike-out because of the SOPA/PIPA laws that are currently being kicked around in Congress. These are laws that are so VAGUE in their structure, if you have so much as an icon with 'copyrighted' material, the site you are on could get shut down. We won't even discuss what will happen to mod sites/fan sites (fanfiction, videos, graphics, etc) should this law come to pass. Though I admire the basic idea behind the bills (protecting copyright owners from having their materials sold/redistributed for profit by the pirates) - it is basically (at its core) censorship - and this from the land of the Free. So in protest, from 8AM EST to 8PM EST - a lot of sites went on strike and whole slews of people stayed off the Net during that time. My wife put her site up as joining the protest and the both of us stayed off the InterWebs from 7AM up until 8:30PM as a way to show solidarity. For those of you who joined the protest and stayed away from the Net for those 12 hours of strikeout...for those who have called their senators and congressman and expressed your displeasure over these bills - congratulations! And kudos to you! Hopefully our leaders will listen - and we're hoping the 12 hour silence across the Webs (and blacked out sites) will show the US government what the Net would be like if these bills passed. For those of you who ignored it - shame on you. And if these bills actually go through, you will have nothing to complain about. Let's hope that doesn't happen, but if it does - remember, you could have added your voice, but neglected to do so. Enjoy your time here while you can. Hope we have this site for many years to come. We'll just have to see on January 24th. For those who feel 'shamed' or feel this was a 'bad idea' - three questions: First of all, did you read the post? Two did the post make you think? Third did you ask yourself 'How does this post apply to modding?' If yes to any of the above three - JOB DONE. The whole point was to put the information out there...for people to know, for them to form an opinion. So it doesn't matter how I did it. Of course, it DOES matter if you knew about but didn't care because you feel it won't affect you. Just keep thinking that - and try to go DL the latest Mods from MegaUpLoad. Of course, MegaUpLoad no longer exists because of this. For those of you who wish to jump in on it, but feel they don't know how - or they want to know more about the subject (if you are not American) I think an email from one of my friends to another of my friends covers it best: I don't live in the United States. How can I help?: Contact your local State Department, Ministry of Foreign Affairs, or similar branch of government. Tell them you oppose SOPA and PIPA, and any similar legislation. SOPA and PIPA will affect sites outside of the United States, and actions to sites inside the United States (like Wikipedia) will also affect non-American readers -- like you. Calling your own government will also let them know you don't want them to create their own bad anti-Internet legislation. I will not argue this subject. I will not get drawn into a discussion on how/why I posted this the way I did. Did you read this post? Did it make you think? Are you now aware of the seriousness of the situation? If not, then keep scrolling. If you are aware how very deeply SOPA/PIPA affects you (as a net user and an individual) then mission accomplished. Nitpicking will not be responded to. That's all semantics anyhow - I am not responsible for your personal feelings. I do feel it is my responsibility to share such information with people who could be hurt by these laws. Which is each and every one of you. Just ask users of MegaUpLoad. Edited January 19, 2012 by novastorm13 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BCbrad Posted January 19, 2012 Share Posted January 19, 2012 (edited) For those of you who ignored it - shame on you. And if these bills actually go through, you will have nothing to complain about. Let's hope that doesn't happen, but if it does - remember, you could have added your voice, but neglected to do so. Enjoy your time here while you can. Hope we have this site for many years to come. We'll just have to see on January 24th. The 9/10th of the world that deosn't live in America can not have a direct effect on this bill, only indirectly by expressing out dis-satisfaction without opening the gate to being labelled as a t*****ist or pirate. Or can we, I'd like to know. Any suggestions? Edited January 19, 2012 by BCbrad Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NorthWolf Posted January 19, 2012 Share Posted January 19, 2012 Horrible approach to this. Making anti-SOPA proponents look bad by saying this kind of thing. Most of the world isn't in America, and even those who are and don't take action shouldn't be up to ridicule. Many people cannot take the time to be informed on the matter, and calling them out for not acting has a 1% chance of swaying their apathy. An appeal on the lines of, "SOPA could really influence your life on the internet, if you haven't taken action please consider learning about SOPA and doing so," is more likely to succeed and is, in my opinion, a lot more level-headed and reasonable. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SoberBarn Posted January 19, 2012 Share Posted January 19, 2012 I was actually just wondering about this, and thought maybe this SOPA/PIPA thing could effectively shut down mod sharing for us Americans. If that's the case, it will be a sad day to be an American. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JanusForbeare Posted January 19, 2012 Share Posted January 19, 2012 Horrible approach to this. Making anti-SOPA proponents look bad by saying this kind of thing. Most of the world isn't in America, and even those who are and don't take action shouldn't be up to ridicule. Many people cannot take the time to be informed on the matter, and calling them out for not acting has a 1% chance of swaying their apathy. An appeal on the lines of, "SOPA could really influence your life on the internet, if you haven't taken action please consider learning about SOPA and doing so," is more likely to succeed and is, in my opinion, a lot more level-headed and reasonable. This. I feel for the cause, OP, but why try to create conflict and division amongst its supporters? Shame is one of the lowest forms of rhetoric. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
novastorm13 Posted January 19, 2012 Author Share Posted January 19, 2012 For those of you who ignored it - shame on you. And if these bills actually go through, you will have nothing to complain about. Let's hope that doesn't happen, but if it does - remember, you could have added your voice, but neglected to do so. Enjoy your time here while you can. Hope we have this site for many years to come. We'll just have to see on January 24th. The 9/10th of the world that deosn't live in America can not have a direct effect on this bill, only indirectly by expressing out dis-satisfaction without opening the gate to being labelled as a t*****ist or pirate. Or can we, I'd like to know. Any suggestions? I don't live in the United States. How can I help?: Contact your local State Department, Ministry of Foreign Affairs, or similar branch of government. Tell them you oppose SOPA and PIPA, and any similar legislation. SOPA and PIPA will affect sites outside of the United States, and actions to sites inside the United States (like Wikipedia) will also affect non-American readers -- like you. Calling your own government will also let them know you don't want them to create their own bad anti-Internet legislation. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rabidNode Posted January 20, 2012 Share Posted January 20, 2012 Apologies but seriously land of the free America... that is kind of over.All we have to do is look at patterns and the choice has been made. Link drugs to terrorism shut down avenues of homeopathic remediesLink file sharing and piracy to terrorism and porn shut down freedom of exchange on the internet Law is built on precedent from one bill to the next. The internet's landscape will change in the future and become less free and why is that...While we were warned decades ago now about no viable alternative nodes or internet flow has been created.Cable and DSL already cap and shape bandwidth and if they wanted to shut down sites they would. Just look at the history of file sharing.Its mostly a done deal and its all based around precedent... I mean take a look at Skyrim... linked directly to Steam forcibly and now the Ck has been held back because Steam Workshop wants the control over MOD flow.Guess what the precedent was here... Many declared Steam a good thing not even thinking about the repercussions. Internet 3.0 or 4.0 will be streamlined marketing and yah streamed video but with the same ad base as TV. As far as net neutrality... blah. That is over and done with too. Access to certain info via google or other search engines or sites has changed drastically over the years. It is not seen simply in a one year interval but as a pattern. I am not trying to down on people being active but american activity usually consists of get high off idea go back to normal get high off idea go back to normal. There is nothing consistent about our collective whole that will truly make lawmakers not push whatever they want through the hill. They been bandying these bills for years now and the discussion about them have been ongoing for years. Right now they are just tweaking the final versions and putting on the show. Its precedent seriously who is going to actively blacklist or boycott something today for any extended period of time. We want to save the freedom of the net. Go freaking ask google to make a new node system and bypass the cable companies. Lawmakers currently and normal companies are going to do whatever the hell they want regardless. A sad day yes for sure but some of us well we saw this coming like 10 15 years ago based on patterns precedent and the backbone of the american people to stand true for any length of time. Just simply take a look at any true discussion of the precedent of the distribution of games such as skyrim or better yet take a look at the original nexus morrowind ad free and its evolved version new vegas nexus with 30 second ads. When all is said and done the collective is the force of change and we vote to go down this path of these 2 bills over and over. Yah they will get some tweaks but unless we honestly grow a backbone on so many levels its a done deal. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TashasOnline Posted January 20, 2012 Share Posted January 20, 2012 To put it bluntly, SOPA/PIPA will not stop the sharing of mods, it could, however, hinder it due to copyright infringement. E.G. "Blacking" out an entire site because one person posts a mod that contains copyrighted content. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Syco21 Posted January 20, 2012 Share Posted January 20, 2012 Horrible approach to this. Making anti-SOPA proponents look bad by saying this kind of thing. Most of the world isn't in America, and even those who are and don't take action shouldn't be up to ridicule. Many people cannot take the time to be informed on the matter, and calling them out for not acting has a 1% chance of swaying their apathy. An appeal on the lines of, "SOPA could really influence your life on the internet, if you haven't taken action please consider learning about SOPA and doing so," is more likely to succeed and is, in my opinion, a lot more level-headed and reasonable. This. I feel for the cause, OP, but why try to create conflict and division amongst its supporters? Shame is one of the lowest forms of rhetoric. http://www.thenexusf...69#entry4341969 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ashfyr Posted January 20, 2012 Share Posted January 20, 2012 \even if SOPA and PIPA are passed, wont there will always be things like the TOR project that can hide your location, thus making SOPA ineffective? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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