What to do if SOPA hits.

[Ruwrak]

I doubt it's gonna hit at all.
Seeing at how close it is to blocking the fundamental right 'freedom of speech' (something the USA is always so proud of) it would be downright hypocritical really..

 

[DRes82]

I would laugh at you americans a bit more... Then I would get on with my life.

Why would you laugh? Why do foreigners think that they would be immune to this bullshit?

Look, if the big brother eyeball that decides what to blacklist turns its gaze on you, you're going to be fucked...regardless of what country you're in. Americans provide a huge amount of traffic and revenue to the internet.

Also, if some US based site that you like...for example Durham, North Carolina based Themis Group draws the ire of the government, then no more Escapist for ANYone. Its not just DNS blocking. It provides grounds for lawsuits and jail time.

Thirdly, this would set a precedent for other governments. If this passed, who knows what your leaders would do. If past events are any indication, I'd say the UK, Canada, and Australia would probably follow suit.

Seriously, children. Use your brains.

 

[CrazyGirl17]

If it passes, I'd leave the country with my brother... but I don't have the money for that. I think I'd like to join the so-called SOPA-Cloaks though.

 

[Zeckt]

Thanks America for ruining the economy here in Canada and now for ruining the internet too. At least we recovered better. Hey, if you think I'm mad at the states just think about all those third world countries that are charged 25-40% of their wages by corporate America just for fresh water think of you.

Ironic there's a thread about a civil war in America. You guys should go through with it, not against the government though but against the corporations that have you dancing on strings and have 99% of your money.

 

[Jinx_Dragon]

SOPA tax? Please tell me how charging the victims money makes the situation any better.

It is not, that is the whole point in it.

We have no ability or right to force another government to throw out laws they do not agree with but the people being affected by their own government can. So, on this grounds, it is alright for us to use what little power we do have to show our distaste at these people losing control of their own government. The only thing we can do is make a fee, as the owners of the site we do have the right to charge for our services.

The victims your talking about are the ones who can bring about change, so are they really powerless as you believe?

Honestly, I don't think SOPA has a chance in hell of passing now. Should it manage to do so it will be the apathy in the masses that allowed it to succeed in taking away even more of their rights. The only way to fight this apathy is to force them to care about something, and the only thing they always care about is their own value. Force them to realize it was cheaper, and not just easier, pre-SOPA and they will rise up like the angry beast that masses always are.

 

[Jinx_Dragon]

Thanks America for ruining the economy here in Canada and now for ruining the internet too. At least we recovered better. Hey, if you think I'm mad at the states just think about all those third world countries that are charged 25-40% of their wages by corporate America just for fresh water think of you.

Ironic there's a thread about a civil war in America. You guys should go through with it, not against the government though but against the corporations that have you dancing on strings and have 99% of your money.

Think of it this way, if SOPA passes then a lot of websites would flee to another part of the North American Backbone and that will be Canada. We might have only half as much infrastructure but it will be cheaper and a lot less restrictive. The sudden move would also boost interest in the electronic community and kick start economical growth in Canada.

 

[Double A]

SOPA tax? Please tell me how charging the victims money makes the situation any better.

It is not, that is the whole point in it.

We have no ability or right to force another government to throw out laws they do not agree with but the people being affected by their own government can. So, on this grounds, it is alright for us to use what little power we do have to show our distaste at these people losing control of their own government. The only thing we can do is make a fee, as the owners of the site we do have the right to charge for our services.

The victims your talking about are the ones who can bring about change, so are they really powerless as you believe?

Honestly, I don't think SOPA has a chance in hell of passing now. Should it manage to do so it will be the apathy in the masses that allowed it to succeed in taking away even more of their rights. The only way to fight this apathy is to force them to care about something, and the only thing they always care about is their own value. Force them to realize it was cheaper, and not just easier, pre-SOPA and they will rise up like the angry beast that masses always are.

So now I'm liable for all the apathetic fuckwads in this country, considering I have to pay the Lazy Tax too? I thought blanket proposals that don't get rid of the problem were the enemy here. Hell, I can't even vote till I turn 18 (which is the 26th of this month, but still, not my fault the old people in office are there).

The bad thing about this kind of thing is that the plebs won't care care until it's too late. If we the People smack it down before it passes, most won't care. And if it does pass, I can only hope for 6 months of continued activism at the most.

 

[thahat]

A situation like that? Only one thing TO do- give up. "It's just the Internet", they'll say. "Stop being such a nerd and get a life", they'll say. "Maybe you'll finally get some time outside", and so on. It's pretty damn hard to seem respectable and sincere when you're bitching about how you can't watch/download what you want on the Internet.

Isn't that kind of one of the main points of the Internet, you can watch or download whatever you want, and reasonably fast to boot?

But that' the thing, it's just the Internet. The stuff that's "still important" (read: able to be used by companies and business, such as email, file servers, etc) will still be intact. But all that nerdy geeky shit that doesn't matter such as games and videos and whatever will be the only things affected, and lawmakers just really don't seem to care about that.

you missed a bit there saysing $$$revenue. all that 'geeky shit' is what in effect pays for the internet. or large parts of it, by being popular, and thus getting commercials, commercial people pay the geeky shit hosters, who pay server parks, who thus have more busyness, who can now have economies of scale, which lowers the prices, which makes mailservers offer better quality for the same amount of spam/advertisement. and this is only the first few effects i can think of XD

 

[TheRundownRabbit]

Hey, I'm American and I hate this just as much as anyone, and also, lets know the difference between the US and the US government. Im part of the USA, I don't want to mess with your websites nor act police over the world...its my shit-for-brains government that wants to do that, remember that just because I live here, doesn't mean I support everything my government does. But I'm going to be leaving this country anyway, economy is in shambles and we've had complete dumbasses in the Whitehouse for 2 decades...and now this SOPA act, this blatant violation of what my country actually stands for.

And yeah, it would suck that a lot of websites I use pretty much every day will be blocked in the US, killing their revenue streams, but as soon as it affects the SOPA-supporting companies or even the government...all the companies and politicians will look up and shout, "Save us!" and we'll look down and whisper, "No."

(I wonder how many more things can be misquoted to apply to the situation?)

HAH! Nice. Its true, I bet many people and companies supporting SOPA will not see how bad it is for them until its actually active, and maybe thats the big one, many have their heads so far up their asses that they can't notice how this might hurt them. nice avatar btw

 

[Pandaman1911]

A situation like that? Only one thing TO do- give up. "It's just the Internet", they'll say. "Stop being such a nerd and get a life", they'll say. "Maybe you'll finally get some time outside", and so on. It's pretty damn hard to seem respectable and sincere when you're bitching about how you can't watch/download what you want on the Internet.

Isn't that kind of one of the main points of the Internet, you can watch or download whatever you want, and reasonably fast to boot?

But that' the thing, it's just the Internet. The stuff that's "still important" (read: able to be used by companies and business, such as email, file servers, etc) will still be intact. But all that nerdy geeky shit that doesn't matter such as games and videos and whatever will be the only things affected, and lawmakers just really don't seem to care about that.

you missed a bit there saysing $$$revenue. all that 'geeky shit' is what in effect pays for the internet. or large parts of it, by being popular, and thus getting commercials, commercial people pay the geeky shit hosters, who pay server parks, who thus have more busyness, who can now have economies of scale, which lowers the prices, which makes mailservers offer better quality for the same amount of spam/advertisement. and this is only the first few effects i can think of XD

And do you HONESTLY think that anyone in any of the branches of government has put even a single scrap of thought into this bill? They're just showing where their true allegiances lie and are bending over to the corporations. Which was bound to happen at some point, I suppose. I just wish that it wasn't now.

 

[JoesshittyOs]

And this is what tor [https://www.torproject.org/] is for.

This sounds almost a little too appealing. Any risks from downloading this?

 

[TheEvilCheese]

I can honestly see people going on the forums of SOPA supporters and posting huge amounts of copyrighted material and then contacting the copyright holders. If it works, the point is made. If it doesn't the enforcers are called out on their hypocrisy and there is more ammo to use against them. In fact, I'd be willing to bet that happened.

Oh, to all you people saying you use a public DNS? Doesn't matter. Google DNS =/= Verisign. Do some research.

As for me? Well I will live as close to my current life as possible, as the internet has proven time and time again; there is always a way.

 

[Something Amyss]

I can honestly see people going on the forums of SOPA supporters and posting huge amounts of copyrighted material and then contacting the copyright holders. If it works, the point is made. If it doesn't the enforcers are called out on their hypocrisy and there is more ammo to use against them. In fact, I'd be willing to bet that happened.

It won't work, largely because they can still take the material down.

Besides, when has the public cared about hypocrisy?

 

[michael87cn]

Only one thing to do here. Time for IP blocking. The USA wants to mess with the world because we break 'their rules' even if we don't break the rules of our own country, very well. Then how about just every foreign website IP blocks American IPs. I know it's a lot of work. But they may only use the power of SOPA on websites that are or partly meant for US citizens.
Also I know it means there will still be a lot of good websites disappearing, and that's sad. But it will probably only take three weeks before either non American counterparts will reappear of the really popular websites... Or the original creators must maybe consider immigrating.

And I know there will be Americans upset with this statement... But I'm sorry it's your government, it sucks, but the rest of the world shouldn't get punished for it as well. Besides happened often enough that I tried to access an American website and I got a pop-up that I wasn't allowed onto it in my region or country.

Honestly I feel bad for Americans, but I'm fed up with the USA trying to play police over the world. It's time for a global boycott. And I know this won't fix everything.. But if it happens actions must be taken.

Why do you say USA as if you speak for all of us? I am not for SOPA... I really think it inappropriate to blame an entire country for what a handfull of people decide. Target what is actually your target there buddy.

And by the way it will never happen - too much lost money.

 

[Devil's Due]

(removed by the National Security Agency)

 

[Sandytimeman]

snip

Kinda a dick move bro, the american people arn't even behind this bill, I've been sending emails, calling, and telling all my friends to contact their senators to stop this bill. I've been doing everything in my power and if the bill hits I'll probably lose google, yahoo, facebook, amazon, escapist, thatguywiththeglasses, and etc already because of the nazi sopa law. Don't need to lose anymore sites >.<

 

[Techsmart07]

And I know there will be Americans upset with this statement... But I'm sorry it's your government, it sucks, but the rest of the world shouldn't get punished for it as well. Besides happened often enough that I tried to access an American website and I got a pop-up that I wasn't allowed onto it in my region or country.

Honestly I feel bad for Americans, but I'm fed up with the USA trying to play police over the world. It's time for a global boycott. And I know this won't fix everything.. But if it happens actions must be taken.

Don't be sorry. As an American, I would totally understand such a reaction if SOPA did actually hit. A large portion of the time I hear something a politician supports or did, I just want to go up to them and punch them in the face. We have problems in our own country that are way more important than piracy. They should focus on that first, but unfortunately, that's not how the government wants to run things.