GoingToAlpha (XBL: GoingToAlpha | PSN: GoingToAlpha)

@mjanosko

Or: http://gigaom.com/2012/01/19/megaupload-indictment/?utm_medium=content&utm_campaign=syndication&utm_source=cnn&utm_content=megaupload-shut-down_473304

@mjanosko

See:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Berne_Convention_for_the_Protection_of_Literary_and_Artistic_Works

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/World_Intellectual_Property_Organization_Copyright_Treaty

Has anyone actually READ SOPA or PIPA? I'm guessing not, as most people don't have any clue what the bills actually SAY.

All SOPA and PIPA do is impose penalties for financial institutions who continue to allow payments to blocked sites, merchants who peddle counterfeit wares, and poison non-authoritative DNS records (a provision that was actually DROPPED last week.) for sites allegedly dealing in said counterfeit wares (be that a Metallica album or a knock off Prada bag or a KIRF electronic device).

The bills are primarily updates to punishments for existing trade and counterfeiting laws (as can be seen by the countless references to OTHER bills within the actual documents). SOPA and PIPA will not create new laws, they will simply undo 80+ years of legal precedent on trade and counterfeit laws.

That in itself is even MORE dangerous than poisoning non-authoritative DNS servers (you can always point your hosts file to the sites IP address, or simply use an authoritative DNS server instead of the DNS provided by your ISP). SOPA and PIPA set the precedent that there is NO PRECEDENT.

If these bills pass we can look forward to all sorts of bills that "redefine penalties" in effort to undo any judicial precedent already on the books. Effectively this is nothing more than an end-run to eliminate the power of the Supreme Court, both states and federal. "We don't like your ruling, so we will make a bill eradicating your recorded precedent".

Most of the bills referenced by SOPA and PIPA directly deal with "knock off" products, and not necessarily IP infringement or "digital piracy". It's funny that no one points this out. There are references to the DMCA and the other existing anti-piracy laws, but these ARENT NEW LAWS. Just new penalties. And they certainly do not deal with JUST digital offenses. We already have laws on the books to deal with copyright and trade violations, we just didn't like the existing rulings, so we found a way around them.

On the whole "internet freedom" thing the whole ordeal is irrelevant as ICANN has proposed requiring a license and providing legal documentation for anyone who wishes to buy (or retain an existing) URL. No more anonymous registrations. What's the point of hosting a potentially infringing site if your ACTUAL contact information is embedded in the WHOIS reply?

Besides, if they REALLY want to get these passed, just ear-mark it on a defense appropriations bill. No one votes against those. Anti-war is anti-American, damnit!

@Silvaan The FBI didn't take any action against any individuals not on US soil. This was a joint investigation and the countries that were housing the servers and the staff were all in on it. It's not like the FBI just hopped on a plane and kicked in someones door 5,000 miles away.

@Teeree

It's not necessarily that it will be blocked.
First, the bills, for the most part, simply update penalties for existing laws, mostly legacy copyright, customer advocacy, and infringement laws, the documents reference these existing pieces of legislation as you read. A lot of these individual bills are being tailored without much notice from the general public in anticipation of SOPA/PIPA.
That being said, the penalties include forbidding merchant services from allowing money to be paid to sites, forbidding the import of goods from merchants, forbidding search engines to return blacklisted sites in queries, and removing the listing of NA DNS records.
These are NON AUTHORITATIVE DNS servers, not the international DNS servers, or say, a local DNS server you run on your machine. You can easily circumvent this by using private DNS servers for hosting your DNS or to pull DNS records from. Hell, you can circumvent it by updating your HOSTS file to point whatever URL you want to the IP address of the site that still exists.
The site isn't actually blocked, it's just been poisoned on the NA DNS side, an IP address or Authoritative DNS server will get you there just fine. It isnt exactly blocking, so much as poisoning the public NA DNS tables.

Of course some of the NA DNS servers (GoDaddy, Network Solutions) will also adhere to federal takedown notices of the site in question should you be hosting it at one of these places (pretty sure they do this now anyways). Either use a non-US webserver, or a private webserver and you can be insulated from that scenario as well.

Either way I'd rather SOPA/PROTECT IP didn't happen. There is already existing legislation on the books detailing the actual crimes that are punishable by SOPA/PIPA - including punishment recommendations on some, and precedents set in courts. Some of the laws date back to the 40s (a particular customer protection act I can't quite recall the name of...) and have some long standing precedents for punishment. All this does is throw 80 years of intellectual property precedent out the window and starts all over with lots of super bad nanny-state nonsense.

It's nice to see people finally talking about PIPA. I was starting to think the whole "look over there" tactic with SOPA as the scapegoat was going to happen without a peep.

Also, good on ya' Runic.

@mjanosko

Hrm apparently I have reached the limit on nesting comments.

This was directed at @Doctalen in my thread above.

I actually thought about that after I made the post. A guy can dream, can't he?

@Hank Hill
It wouldn't be the first time a company re-released a game to use a more modern engine. I can think of two big ones that are coming out in the near future.

How do we know the new Engine wasn't designed in exactly the same fashion as 343's new Saber engine for Halo Anniversary?

Fingers crossed for HD/new texture/new engine/whatever releases of the first 4 games as "Extreme DLC". My head might literally explode.