Disclaimer: While Baptized by Fire usually discourages political discussions, and these views do not represent the whole clan necessarily, it is a subject worth noting as it pertains to our online presence as a community of gamers and the gaming industry. Discussion will be allowed in the forum, but keep it peaceful.

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I had heard some about PIPA and SOPA, but had not done any research...until today when I saw a big red "PIPA & SOPA? HOW ABOUT NOPA!" when logging into Minecraft. :P - www.minecraft.net/

I then went to Google to do some searching and realized they were also censoring their logo. Websites like Reddit, Wikipedia, Firefox, and Mojang are shutting down their websites in protest on the 18th along with thousands of others presumably.

So, I think this deserves at least an attention grabbing banner change and news post to get the attention of all our members so they can become informed.
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Please take the time to do some research on PIPA and SOPA for yourself. Get involved and maybe your influence will be good, whatever good might be. [/size]

Working for "The Man" I can understand the desire to protect their intellectual property and to prevent the piracy of their content. Let's face it, how many of us know ways to get stuff for free that we *should* have to pay for?

I feel this breaks down to a few key points ::

1) The ease and availability of pirated content
2) The general feeling that content is not worth the price of acquisition
3) The need to re-purchase the content due to media failure, changes in standards, etc.

To that I can point out a few "success" stories ::

1) Netflix's streaming library and availability on PC, XBOX, etc
2) Apple's iTunes store allowing people to purchase "media licenses"
3) Services like Spotify

These are signs that the industry is trying to make things better and more available. But let's face it, they're still not quite where they should be - or need to be - to entice more people to acquire their products legally instead of illegally.
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That said - addressing the methods employed by both SOPA and PIPA are excessive and are only going to continue to encourage the pirates to continue their efforts and shift their methods - and caught in the crossfire will be many people that will be innocent victims to the overwhelming powers granted by EITHER of those acts to directly impact anything that may be remotely considered IP infringement - which is an even greater abuse of power than the Patriot Act is.

In the end, cooler heads need to prevail - and I do agree that some powers should be granted to put cease and desists on various sites that obviously offer nothing more than unlicensed illegal content... but a blanket law that allows them to contact internet providers to directly sever entire sites on an accusation is absolutely and completely wrong.

--Micah

I think some of these sites protesting are on the same page as you Akkim.


Even Wikipedia joined in today: www.wikipedia.com

Don't forget Reddit Paco! Reddit is also down. :-/ ( www.reddit.com )

Oh no! SOPA censored my logo, lol!
But yeah, I strongly oppose SOPA. Anything that limits free speech I oppose. These big corporations are just too lazy and greedy to change their business model. Streaming services like Grooveshark, Spotify, and Pandora have got it right. They give consumers a chance to preview the album before purchasing it. I find that incredibly helpful instead of buying an album on a whim and it turns out to be garbage. Corporations need to open their eyes to technology and innovation instead of relying on what worked in the past. Even Artists I listen to, are ok with people downloading their work. It's just that the record company wants more and more money, when in reality, more of it should go to the artist. Internet has really enabled art to be more genuine over the years and also more accessible, with SOPA, that could change.

Now maybe I'll get work done today with Reddit being down. At least my other 2 favorite sites: twitter and clanbbf are still up

I quickly read thru some of the info and wow to me it seems like the government is taking the easy way out by trying to place such strict laws.

This is ridicules.

I like thinking about things this way. Let's talk MW2 here it was releases November of 2010 and has sold,14 million copies.
14,000,000.00
x 60.00

---

8,400,000,000

Wow talk about cash flow. I am pretty sure that even if 1 million copies dole they have paid for the production for the game multiple times over.


Now let's look at another avenue. (sorry for this guys I don’t keep track of new albums)
Katie Perrys album teenage dream sold "ONLY" 192,000 copies I its first week.

192,000.00
x 15.00

---

2,880,000.00

In one week they made almost 3 million. Consider in the cost of labels, copyrights, shipping, and all that extra good stuff these companies are making a killing and they are complaining about a handful of pirated software.


Another thing I have an issue with Is the price of things. any new release PC game is going to be 60 bucks and has been for years yet the PC community is dropping and the economy is low so you would think the prices should drop but no heck some 2 year old games are still at their original price its mad crazy.

I agree that we need to put a stop to piracy and everything but the actions they are trying to take are above and beyond they are taking the easy way out in my opinion.

Was doing dome snooping on Lynsies comp and one of her sites had a banner to.

Etsy is a place to buy and sell homemade crafts she buys our dog tags, cool baby stuff and much more on this site.
www.etsy.com/

... AAAAAAAAAA

Havent gotten to watch this yet since im on Lynsies comp might watch it tomorrow but thought i should post it

Doesn't bother me. Not really going to elaborate; be like trying to argue with a bull on why he's F'ing up the china shop.

I think this is an appropriate issue our group should be interested in and discussed. It affects us directly and we should understand it. This is dangerous legislation that has good intentions but there are deep issues in carrying it out. It just needs to be re-thought out. I am glad it is going down but it will not be gone for long, and we really need some solutions to this. It is not an easy thing to solve. We need to protect our IP as well as our freedoms.