loss of freedom online?

[Mr Coeur de Lion]

http://wikimediafoundation.org/wiki/English_Wikipedia_anti-SOPA_blackout I hope this bill fails. Governments are starting to get too much control in things that don't concern them.

[NormanH]

I think governments were alarmed by what happened in Tunisia and Egypt and are using 'piracy' as an excuse

[Clarkkent]

[quote user="Mr Coeur de Lion"]http://wikimediafoundation.org/wiki/English_Wikipedia_anti-SOPA_blackout I hope this bill fails. Governments are starting to get too much control in things that don't concern them.[/quote]

Forgive me if I've got this wrong, but I thought that this bill was being driven by the entertainment industry who are frightened that they would lose their royalty income.

[suein56]

[quote user="Clarkkent"]Forgive me if I've got this wrong, but I thought

that this bill was being driven by the entertainment industry who are

frightened that they would lose their royalty income.[/quote]

That's what I thought too ... IIRC I read that Barack Obama himself was in trouble with the big film/entertainment media bosses for not wanting to sign up to the tougher parts of this legislation. The bosses called him names for not siding with them but for cosying up to Silicon Valley.

Sue

[Quillan]

[quote user="Clarkkent"]

[quote user="Mr Coeur de Lion"]http://wikimediafoundation.org/wiki/English_Wikipedia_anti-SOPA_blackout I hope this bill fails. Governments are starting to get too much control in things that don't concern them.[/quote]

Forgive me if I've got this wrong, but I thought that this bill was being driven by the entertainment industry who are frightened that they would lose their royalty income.

[/quote]

That's how I read it it. I also thought that it was rather strange that I don't seem to remember them doing the same thing when they introduced such a law in France. Seems to me its a typical American "me, me, me " attitude. If that is the case then sorry they don't have my support.

[Quillan]

I thought I would add that it does say in the link when refering to SOPA "if passed, would seriously damage the free and open Internet, including Wikipedia". Does this mean that Wikipedia activly pirate stuff?

[NormanH]

I believe that the media industry are very much in favour, but that the real issue is one of Governments being afraid of the power of instant communication over which they have little control or censorship at the moment

As I said in my first post, the uprisings in North Africa showed the power.

[Mr Coeur de Lion]

I assumed it was a government incentive. It never occured to me that the honest media were behind it.

Hopefully Obama will do the right thing and veto it then.

[NormanH]

It seems that there has been a pre-emptive strike:

http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/2012/jan/19/us-government-megaupload-piracy-indictment

And an interesting video

http://www.guardian.co.uk/science/grrlscientist/2012/jan/19/sopa-internet?intcmp=239

And a sensible woman's view

http://www.lepoint.fr/politique/election-presidentielle-2012/megaupload-ferme-le-nouveau-contrat-social-avec-les-internautes-d-eva-joly-20-01-2012-1421432_324.php

[NormanH]

And even a cartoon

http://motherjones.com/media/2012/01/mark-fiore-cartoon-internet-freedom-sopa-pipa-mpaa

[NormanH]

Another attempt, which could curtail such things as generic medicines and open source software

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anti-Counterfeiting_Trade_Agreement

[Quillan]

One only has to read the third paragraph to see who is really behind this. Quite staggering really when you think of software. I can remember years ago a product called AutoCad (used by architects to create drawings). It cost thousands of pounds but every copy sold outside America had a 'dongle'. No 'dongle' and the product didn't work. If, however, you got a copy from the US no dongle was required. So it seems to me things are going backwards and not forwards.

The big question however is who (physically), how and who pays for this to be implemented from the ground up i.e. people employed to find out who is doing what illegally. Just like in the US with their border agency once you are inside the US or the EU there are no border controls so another group will have to be set up and at whose expense. To my mind it should be those that are sponsoring this legislation but then I guess they will only pass the cost on to the consumer. This is self defeating because by doing so the prices of things will rise and more people are likely to break the rules because they simply can't or won't pay.

The most alarming thing is generic drugs. There is an assumption, and it's a very wrong one, that people in Europe, the US and other countries are well off so they can afford to pay whatever the drug companies charge. I think that in situations where people are not well off and if they can't easily get hold of the generic version of a drug at a far lower price they won't buy it because they can't afford it. This could, in some cases, end up in permanent disability (which will cost society millions if not trillions) or worse they could actually die. We have seen this in the US where they don't have a social care system as such and with people who have no health insurance or they have and it has run out.

I read in Le Monde today about Hadopi and Apple. They are trying to say that since Hadopi became law the sales of ITunes has risen dramatically. I think this is absolute rubbish because firstly the UK is amongst the figures and they don't have any such law (to the best of my knowledge) and secondly implementing the law is far too difficult because they can't actually catch anyone. It's a bit like having a speed camera with no film, go fast pass the camera and you get fined but then we can't fine you because we have no film and we can't catch you. The only people Hadopi have caught so far is people inside the Ministry of Culture which is real egg on their faces. I personally don't know of anyone who has even received a warning letter from their ISP yet for downloading anything illegally and I certainly don't know of anyone who has had their ISP turn them off.