Japanese hardware sales, November 7 - 13: SOPA edition

@wqerty

Pretty sure they stopped producing the Lite for the Japanese market.

@R Planteer

This is by far the darkest threat to the Internet I have ever seen. The Internet is a realm where information, knowledge, and ideas are shared. Entertainment piracy has been around long before the World Wide Web or the Internet.

This SOPA is not going to stop piracy it is going to HURT the entire Internet . This will push the pirates to drive harder, find new ways, and change their styles on getting entertainment. The only ones who will get hurt by both piracy and SOPA are the regular Internet users stuck in the crossfires.

If SOPA passes the realm that we know and love is censored. Our mouths are closed and your eyes are blinded. Our internet freedom is stolen from us and a part of our digital souls is stolen.

Please speak your mind and tell your representatives not to support this.

@R Planteer
Well, I guess this is goodbye American internet... We've had a good run, haven't we? Browsing for information, sharing art and music, socializing and discussing whatever we could think of. But that'll all end soon, with SOPA explicitly drawing borders on the net and shutting down domains and their operators as it sees fit. I'll be here on the European internet, remembering all the wonderful times we had.

Fare well, American internet!

P.S. We're taking Wikipedia with us, just so you know.

@TheRepublic I agree! Though, those same people are getting some cuts from the places that want this to pass(namely, the entertainment industry), but I hope citizen action and enough people come to their senses.

@Azurist No they pushed in under a joke that takes aim at the internet censorship bill being drafted and brought into the senate and congress in the U.S. The "joke" they made has nothing to do with Japanese hardware, and is more of a public service announcement. R Planteer links to a a good outline of the proposed bill, and Joystiq has a couple articles covering it too.

If you're problem is with them using this as a place to talk or joke about it instead of purely for the sales numbers, then I'd just say at least they are kind enough to post them at all for the few who are actually interested.

@Xero Theory I just reread my comment and it may come a bit more snarky than I ment for it to but still.

@Azurist

They always push the figures under the jump. It's nothing new.

@seaban

I would like to comment though that if this does affect the jobs of a lot of Americans it should be reworked, but not discarded.

@seaban

No, most of us are upset because this bill will radically change how the internet works. The problem is with how poorly defined the bill is. Stopping piracy isn't a bad thing, but this bill would basically gives free reign to media companies to control the internet.

@seaban

Congratulations, you're missing the point. Nobody's upset about SOPA because they won't be able to pirate anymore, because it won't actually stop piracy. Pirates have already figured out myriad workarounds to get past the censorship SOPA will implement. SOPA's not really going to do anything about piracy.

However, SOPA gives an insane amount of control over the internet to corporations. Essentially a company can force internet service providers to block any website they think is an "unfair" use of content. So theoretically they can block piracy websites, but they can also block anything at all.

Want to watch a thirty second clip from your favourite show on Youtube? See a leaked trailer for a movie someone taped on their phone at a convention? Repost a gif of a movie scene? Download a video game ring tone for your phone? Watch a gameplay demo on Youtube? Let's Plays? Fan videos? Machinima? All of these can, at any company's discretion be blocked.

The problem is that the wording of SOPA is so vague and unspecified and that there is no checks or balances made to make sure the company's claim is legitimate. For example, Bethesda (or more specifically, ZeniMax )could actually force ISPs to block Joystiq for posting those Skyrim bug videos because its "an unfair representation of gameplay" or some nonsense, because the videos are using content from their game. That would be totally 100% legal under SOPA. It just goes too far.

@Colin

That sounded a bit snarky, which I didn't mean to sound like. I usually try to stay out of SOPA talk as I'm not an American, but it's getting to the point that it could have a serious effect on other countries too.

@Colin
@libregkd

It will stop the millions of casual people who don;t know how to implement the workarounds form pirating.

While you two seem to understand the potential of the policy, many who are angry and speaking out about this are not.

However I do see your point about this:

"Want to watch a thirty second clip from your favourite show on Youtube? See a leaked trailer for a movie someone taped on their phone at a convention? Repost a gif of a movie scene? Download a video game ring tone for your phone? Watch a gameplay demo on Youtube? Let's Plays? Fan videos? Machinima? All of these can, at any company's discretion be blocked."

However, while it is great to have these things, it's not our property in the first place. As great as it is to see a leaked video, we don't have that right if the company dosn't want us too yet. It's their property.

I think there is some balance needed though.

@seaban

And thank you for a civilized discussion on the topic and not enacting

"caps lock rage"

@seaban: Even if you buy stuff legally you can still have a problem. What about all those who bought PlaysForSure or Wal-Mart music and the DRM servers shut down so they can't authenticate their devices/music? They have no choice but to strip the DRM using "illegal" tools.

What if you have a scratched DVD? Supposedly DVD ripping software like DeCSS are illegal, so you can't make backups, and if they don't have that DVD on the market anymore, what are you going to do? And are you really going to pay full price for a copy of something you already have the license to use?

The 360 is prone to disc scratching, what would you do if a game you couldn't buy anymore got messed up, and wasn't offered on demand? How about a Saturn, Sega CD, or Turbo Duo game that cost a ton of money to replace on eBay?

Accidents happen, DRM servers are shut down, and companies go bankrupt and shut down their certificate servers, sell their copyrights off to pay their debts, and this makes licensing new versions and accessing old versions a hassle. Not all copyright content redistribution can be blamed on pirates. This is why some countries allow breaking DRM in order to access your legitimate content. Some don't know how to strip DRM and just download it instead.

Sure, there's a lot of people ripping off movies that are still in the theater, or music or games that just got released, but you can't close off every avenue and label everyone a pirate. The amount of DRMed content out there is growing, and there are still many barriers to format shifting and backing up of legitimate content. Alternate means to access that content will always be around as long as DRM is around.

@TonyGeezy

It's legal to rip a DVD,any music format, even games if you have the tech. As long as you have the hard copy and are not sharing it.

The argument about disc or cartridge breakage or wear is interesting but we have to look at other products. Take a TV for example, if a TV breaks years after we buy it or malfunctions shortly after the warranty do we steal another one? Of course not, we need to buy a new one. Disc and cartridges are not guaranteed for life, that's why they offer warranty on those when you buy them.

To be honest I am not quite sure what you mean by your last two paragraphs, I understand your terms but I don;t understand why your think the second last paragraph is even going to happen. Could you please explain it so I could understand.

@seaban Please everyone, stop derailing this. To see that someone thinks it is right to ban every website which allows users to post content on the Internet is baffling. And yes, that is what this law intends to do. This law can ban instantly any site that has a single link to anything that infringes copyright (even if posted by an user, not the one hosting the website), without warning or WITHOUT REQUIRING ANY PROOF. If a big company thinks a website isn't doing enough to prevent people to post anything infringing copyright, they can shut down the website. They can shut down the website just because. Even if they shut down temporarily a site because they lied, the downtime caused can essentially force sites to close down. And since as long as you can post the URL or IP address of a website you can potentially share pirated stuff, this means any website where any user can post text, and even chat, is instantly banned. No Facebook, no Twitter, no Youtube, no blogs (except the ones from big companies), no message boards, no wikis, and no chatting, and no form of communication between people whatsoever. All that will remain are the big news sites and Netflix (if we're lucky), and it will cost a lot more than before. So the worst case scenario (which is way more likely than the best case scenario), will be a hundred times more censorship than China. This will be very convenient to Hollywood (to force people to watch their movies), the government (to censor everything), and the media (they can choke down lies down people's throats and newspapers won't close down). And this law will destroy Internet in the whole world, since not only USA has most of the Internet infrastructure, but the American government has the power and influence to force every country in the world to pass laws just like this one. Also keep in mind that opponents to SOPA won't be allowed at Congress hearings for this law, while the lobbyists will be allowed, making the approval of this law completely antidemocratic.

@seaban

Watch this: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yDX8Lyl16Qs
Now stop spreading misinformation and shut up.

@Ashitaka

Firstly I am not spreading misinformation, I am stating my opinion.
The one thing I did state concerns the legality of ripping legally acquired media.

Good video, but that's already been said.

Also that's based on someone's point of view and it assumes that SOPA will ban the internet. You should be more cautious of accepting someone's "facts" at 100% unless you have gone to the source a verified it yourself.

@seaban

Ok, how about this example. If a user posts an infringing link, the website is liable for it. So if a guy posts a link to a torrent site, or a top three worst movie fight scenes compilation, or a cover of Super Bass being sung by a three year old, the website can be immediately blocked with no chance for appeal.

However, this can apply to everything from my shitty Wordpress blog to Facebook itself. So the first time someone posts a link to a dubstep remix they made on Facebook, any company is legally entitled and encouraged to force search providers and every ISP to block users from accessing Facebook. The entire site.

The issue is that companies are being given an unprecedented amount of power that is very open to abuse.

The worst part is that it wouldn't even stop millions from pirating. All you need to do to access a blocked site is to type in the direct IP. Anyone savvy enough to run Bittorrent can just update their favourites to an IP address instead of an http one, and they're set.

@Colin
So if a guy posts a link to a torrent site, or a top three worst movie fight scenes compilation, or a cover of Super Bass being sung by a three year old, the website can be immediately blocked with no chance for appeal.

That's a very good point, If that's the case then I think the policy must be reworked. I am going to so some research on this.

Thanks for the good reply.

@seaban Apples and oranges. TVs don't go out of print, and they can't be reproduced by just copying a file.