UK's SOPA - the Digital Economy Act

[Khanht Cope]

What does this law mean to users from a privacy standpoint? Is my ISP about to start tracking my every click? that's an incredibly off-putting thought.

Are VPNs effective against that?

 

[samsonguy920]

I'm just a little surprised that with all the ACTA and SOPA chat going around that no-one seems to care about us poor Brits

This situation is because of ACTA, a multi-government treaty which Britain became a part of. This isn't because of SOPA, which actually has nothing to do with ISP's having to monitor all their traffic.
Yes, it sucks that your government went behind your back and did this without Parliament participation, but don't play the pity card when you blame the wrong things. Obama pulled the same crap on us in the US when he signed the US's part in ACTA, after he pushed congress to stop with their bull on SOPA and PIPA.

 

[Yopaz]

Including the word economy is a great way to make it sound like a good thing since we all love the economy.

 

[TwiZtah]

I have an interesting question: How would YOU try to stop piracy, without infringing on privacy?
Piracy is obviously illegal, and while we don't want a big-brother state, how are we going to stop piracy without making it easier for the police to crack down on crime?
The only way I see piracy stopping is some sort of more effective digital tracking. Sadly.
I mean, take the original Humble Indie Bundle, you know, the one that you could play 0.01USD for?
25% still chose to pirate it. Shows that the problem isn't with the prices, but how comfortable people are getting away with an easy crime.
Maybe if they made the actual transaction easier (Paypal is a ***** for plenty of people living outside of the US), but I doubt it would solve the problem with regular-priced games.
Piracy is like shoplifting candy, really. It isn't considered that much of a crime, and so many do it simply because you can get away with it, even easier than shop-lifting.

So; If not SOPA or something similar, how would YOU stop piracy?

Edit: http://arstechnica.com/gaming/news/2010/05/humble-bundle-gives-pirates-what-they-want-gets-ripped-off.ars
Humble Bundle Pirated.

those scumbag 25% wouldn't have bought it anyway, so there was no loss per say anyway.
However! who says that those who pirated the bundle did not buy it afterwards?

Anywho, this is an easy question. No one will EVER be able to stop piracy, because those who crack games etc. are lightyears ahead of the governments in technical skill etc.

The only thing developers/movie makers/artists can do is to make GOOD FUCKING MATERIAL, not all this shit that is pumped through the system everyday. Game devs sees their customers as their enemy, invasive DRM for example. There is no trust.

Look at guys that have massive goodwill, like Tim Schafer, he got, what is it? 1.5 million dollars from ordinary people to make a game, because Tim Schafer loves games and wants to make a game for gamers. Then we have Activision or Ubisoft who fucking hates their customers. No wonder you get fucking nuked by every corner of the internet.

 

[Wintermoot]

If not SOPA or something similar, how would YOU stop piracy?

piracy is partly a service problem RELEASE YOUR FUCKING MOVIES/SOFTWARE INTERNATIONALLY AND ABOLISH THE REGION SYSTEM.
granted not all piracy is done because of regional releases some of it is because people are lazy (steam will fix this) or the high prices (again steam Portal 2 dropped from 60 to 20 euro,s in a couple of days)
or at least not a law that kills everything on the internet (yes you kill piracy but also everything that makes the net so great)
PS
some people are just dicks

 

[Doitpow]

If not SOPA or something similar, how would YOU stop piracy?

The old fashioned way, make producers earn the respect of their customers. If they respect you, they pay.

You see Mojang going bust? Or Valve? Or Jonathan Coultan?

OP
This thing is pretty entrenched, I did my dissertation on it, and that was over two years ago