Seems all countries with puppets as government signed it... Greece signed it too (like our puppets wouldn't sign whatever they are presented with as long as they get a little gift) but I don't worry about it because there are way bigger probs here than internet piracy 🤣

I think Ireland is asking for trouble. I wonder if there will be IRA-like groups coming up to tackle this. I see that the Anonymous is already on it's usual blocking/defacing move.

All these controlling measures to protect the corporate interests will breed rebellion and retribution.

Malik wrote:

All these controlling measures to protect the corporate interests will breed rebellion and retribution.

Amen to that, bro. 😀

Some "free" world this is.... ridiculous. The way things are going one day we'll log on and have no where to go and nothing to do online.

sgt76 wrote:

Some "free" world this is.... ridiculous. The way things are going one day we'll log on and have no where to go and nothing to do online.

No, not quite, there will be sites to visit and places you can go, as long as you have the funds to pay for such things and are not blacklisted.

The inet isn't free, you have to pay for all the things and information, however it will be dolled out to all those that can afford it and hence why only folks with enough means will be able to get ahead.

Now of course this is really counter to what the inet was supposed to be about, back in the Arpanet days it was for folks at Universities and Defense Contractors to collaborate and share information.

When they noted this could be brought the the entire world to help dissimenate information for free to all of humanity it was a great and noble thing indeed.

However, since corporate thinking is all about monetizing something then you get what you are starting to see now, how to control something that is supposed to be for all of mankind and charge access to it 🙁

sgt76 wrote:

Some "free" world this is.... ridiculous. The way things are going one day we'll log on and have no where to go and nothing to do online.

I know, right? I've been telling people the same thing, but a lot of them just won't believe me.

Let me be devil's advocate for a minute, Would we have artists or musicians if no one could get paid for it? You might feel differently if it was *your* material being posted all over the internet, and you not collecting a dime for any of it;

And here's what's worse, Brussels long ago enacted legislation that all members of the E.U. must honor arrest warrants issued by all other E.U. member states. What that means is if you live in the UK, Germany, France, or any other E.U. member state, and a copyright holder can convince the government of Ireland to issue a warrant for your arrest because your website, blog, or whatever contains copyrighted material, then you aren't safe from arrest even though you may never set foot in Ireland.

ncmark wrote:

Let me be devil's advocate for a minute, Would we have artists or musicians if no one could get paid for it? You might feel differently if it was *your* material being posted all over the internet, and you not collecting a dime for any of it;

OK, you make a point if this was still the way it worked but as we all know there are groups who do not really represent artists, they represent the actual media companies themselves, you know, trade groups.

These are the corporate greedmongers behind most of this type of legislation you see happening around the world, not the individual artists who really have little to know say in what happens to their IP once they sign on the dotted line.

I myself have voted with my wallet for years on this matter and have purchased very little in the way of music, I have purchased more movies and films then music in the past 15 or so years.

Do I make any difference in the grand scheme of things, no not really but it is my choice.

This isn't to say that others following my example couldn't start to put a dent into sales, but really it's more about control and money then any thing else.

The media companies want 100 percent control over who gets what and where said media file can be played, hence the freaking DRM aspect.

So fail on so many levels, let's not give what the public wnats to consume but instead make them part of a dog and pony show and then tell them they have to repurchase said media for each and every device they own.

[conspiracy] I'm sure the next step is to require a form of wetware drm installed into everyones brain that can be monitored at all times for any unauthorized playbacks. [/conspiracy]

sorry to burst your bubble... but the MPAA is just as retarded as RIAA, just not as much... they want this crap as much as RIAA does anyway
if you're in the US, there's hardly a need to buy movies anymore with Netflix and Hulu anyway

It's great to clamp down on piracy and theft and all, but most of the time it just drives the crime from the cyber realm onto the streets. THen you get pirated CDs/ DVDs / Blu-rays sold by local gangs- a great source of revenue for organized crime in many countries. And the piracy/ theft still continues, so what was that about again?

TheMAN wrote:

sorry to burst your bubble... but the MPAA is just as retarded as RIAA, just not as much... they want this crap as much as RIAA does anyway
if you're in the US, there's hardly a need to buy movies anymore with Netflix and Hulu anyway

The really big thing that they want to do, though, is to completely destroy the used market. Instead of allowing people to buy used copies from someone else, they want every copy sold to be a new copy, which makes them money. Going to digital downloads does this and I just can't believe that so many people have been stupid enough to allow themselves to be lured into their web like they have because that's what digital download does. It guarantees that every copy of a piece of music, game, book or movie puts money into their pocket and does not allow that downloaded file to be resold to someone else when you no longer want it. What does this bode for the future of libraries where all new content will be released digitally and there will be no hard copies to archive so people can use them for free? As physical media already existing wears out, there will be no new media to replace it on library shelves because it will all be digital and it will all be chained to the user who originally downloaded it.

SOPA et al are all pushed by desperate corporate bastar*s to make sure every sold copy of a media goes back to their own pockets. They pursue this madly more than the actual artists, writers and developers.

With their giant financial stronghold, they are close to the politicians, and they will get what they want.

Basically, money talks.

But they are just ignoring the common people - the ordinary users - who can control the end-point, if united.

If more of these (f)laws are installed in the current situtaion, so will be the hit back, which will be doubled, and piracy will be even more rampant, partly due to "good" users getting fed up with these corporations.

Don't you just love it when corporations rule instead of governments ? meh

Who do you think pays for the politicians' campaigns, cars, hollidays, booze and hookers?

sgt76 wrote:

Who do you think pays for the politicians' campaigns, cars, hollidays, booze and hookers?

Sounds like a good business to be in. Where do I sign up?

What scares me is not HOW MUCH you have to pay but WHAT and WHEN you can watch/play.

sliderider wrote:

sgt76 wrote:

Who do you think pays for the politicians' campaigns, cars, hollidays, booze and hookers?

Sounds like a good business to be in. Where do I sign up?

You will have to be a US Citizen and then run for public office 😜

Amen, BigBodZod.