STOP SOPA NOW!

[Piccolo Daimao]

And you can't always "know" people. Politics makes you power-mad;

I still digress, I know people that wouldn't go "power mad" or "corrupt" under stress. Maybe other things, but none of those. I feel a lot of people are just too greedy from the gecko and these qualities are just amplified when in a position of power (of course that's not always the case, some people do fall victim to stress, but every single situation has a cause and effect, thus rendering every situation different and complex).

Well, that's just me. I'm a skeptical misanthropist. I'd rather be an animal, like a cat or something, than a human. But that's another matter.

And what's "greedy from the gecko"? Is that a reference to Gordon Gekko?

Anyway, we should probably get back on-topic soon. This isn't wholly related to SOPA.

[Perfect]

misanthropist

Ah, I'm quite the opposite actually because of Dragon Ball, ironically (in fact I'd say it's made me a bit of a philanthropist). ^.-;;

And what's "greedy from the gecko"? Is that a reference to Gordon Gekko?

Erm, the Geico Gecko to be exact. Seeing that I've always found them to be a rip off (greedy) auto insurance company, substituting for "Get go".

Anyway, we should probably get back on-topic soon. This isn't wholly related to SOPA.

Yeah that's why I was introducing Bill Maher as the next point of discussion.

[Piccolo Daimao]

misanthropist

Ah, I'm quite the opposite actually because of Dragon Ball, ironically (in fact I'd say it's made me a bit of a philanthropist). ^.-;;

That's fair enough.

And what's "greedy from the gecko"? Is that a reference to Gordon Gekko?

Erm, the Geico Gecko to be exact. Seeing that I've always found them to be a rip off (greedy) auto insurance company, substituting for "Get go".

Ah, OK. I understand.

Anyway, we should probably get back on-topic soon. This isn't wholly related to SOPA.

Yeah that's why I was introducing Bill Maher as the next point of discussion.

I agree with you on Bill Maher, who's yet another example of a hypocritical and unemphatic bastard who only cares about himself.

[Raithos]

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/01/21/techn ... .html?_r=1

sopa is dead.

for now.

Cool. You're forgetting ACTA and PIPA

Not really, that article states both sopa and pipa were nurfed. I don't know about acta though.

[Fox666]

The only reason Obama got elected was because he was Black.

That's a little exaggerated. Of course it was a good marketing strategy, but it wasn't the only thing that made him president. After Bush, americans would vote in anything that wasn't Republican.

it's damn near impossible to not be a fake, greedy, corrupt, selfish, two-faced, unemphatic, untrustworthy, power-mad fat cat.

I digress, not always. Everyone's different, I know people that'd never subjugate themselves to such acts. It's just you don't see those types of people in politics.

In some sense, politics attracts that kind of person.

[Perfect]

His race was a big marketing ploy that people bought into, not the whole reason, but with that and a combination of liberal socialistic ideas (that for some idiotic reason people believed would better the economy).

Edit: I mean look at his wife's ill-formed logic about her only being proud because her husband got elected.

In some sense, politics attracts that kind of person.

Yeah, big time.

[Bussani]

SOPA was about a lot more than just stopping piracy or blocking a few sites.

Trust me, I know. I was just saying that was one thing SOPA would have allowed, which isn't allowed without it.

[dbboxkaifan]

FileSonic's still working but disabled its service.

FS is crap to me, maybe someone likes and cares about it, I don't.

[cloud1414]

They are just putting their tail between their legs and playing it safe so they dont end up like MU. But I found this interesting article.

http://www.techdirt.com/articles/201201 ... nals.shtml

[samuraix123]

So before 2012 is over and done with. Does anyone else think that this is going to get worse? What's your predictions?

[Eire]

FileSonic's still working but disabled its service.

FS is crap to me, maybe someone likes and cares about it, I don't.

IMHO they just committed suicide- who will buy premium now? Other websites just finished "pay per download" program.

[Fox666]

The link posted here is quite an interesting reading:

Busta Rhymes Backs Megaupload, Says Record Labels Are The Real Criminals
from the who's-hurting-who dept

Well, well. As we pointed out when the Megaupload shutdown happened yesterday, the company had recently named top producer (and husband to Alicia Keys) Swizz Beatz as CEO. Swizz knows tons of artists who respect him, and it seems that some of the biggest names in the business are pretty pissed off that the US government shut down Megaupload. First there's Diddy, who put out a couple tweets pledging support and telling him to never stop.

But what's a lot more interesting are the very direct statements from Busta Rhymes, who is clearly pissed off at the US government claiming that Megaupload is a criminal operation. Putting his tweets together, he states:

(...)

There's a key point in all of this that we missed in our earlier analysis about paid accounts at Megaupload. In the indictment, the government seems to assume that paid accounts are clearly all about illegal infringing works. But that's not always the case. In fact, plenty of big name artists -- especially in the hip hop world -- use the paid accounts to make themselves money. This is how they release tracks. You sign up for a paid account from services like Megaupload, which pay you if you get a ton of downloads. For big name artists, that's easy: of course you get a ton of downloads. So it's a great business model for artists: they get paid and their fans get music for free. Everyone wins. Oh... except for the old gatekeeper labels.

In fact, this is part of the ecosystem, especially in the hip hop world. It's why the artists also support those hip hop blogs that the RIAA insists are dens of pure thievery. The artists release their tracks to those blogs, knowing they'll get tons of downloads -- and actually get money. If they do deals with labels, they know they'll never see a dime. Putting music on Megaupload is a way to get paid. Working with a gatekeeper is not.

And yet... Megaupload is the criminal operation? Seems like the actual artists know otherwise.

What Busta is pointing out is that services like Megaupload -- while it may be run by some sketchy individuals and probably crossed the legal line in some cases -- are actually a great new business model for artists, while also being the future of distribution. It's a great way to distribute, make money, and let fans get the works for free. And that's why the major labels are so freaked out by cyberlockers. It's not because there's so much infringement on there, but because it's a system whereby artists can get paid and can better distribute their own works to fans... without signing an indentured servitude contract with a label, which never pays any royalties.

Did Megaupload break the law? Perhaps. But it seems clear that the real fear on the part of the RIAA and the major labels is not so much about that. It's the recognition that such a distribution and payment system undermines much of their reason for existing, and takes away their ability to control artists. A smart label would learn to embrace these things. But we're talking about the major labels here, and so instead, they run to the US government -- who clearly knows nothing about the way modern artists monetize and distribute music -- and lets them try to paint a picture of just how "evil" services like Megaupload are.

But the artists know better.

[MCDaveG]

Yeah, this is definitely over the top, and SOPA is now not only US matter, but the US goverment pissed me off finally, even tough I'm not citizen of United States.
Not only is megaupload good for distribution of music, but as the label I'm publishing my music on, is located in Greece with mixing studio where the remastering is done, it's cool sending service.
I had account on megaupload also and as the master tracks have sometimes to 1Gb per track in the highest studio quality possible, we were uploading the music in cyphered data and the guy on the other side of the planet downloaded it in a while and applied password.
Now lot of my data is lost as I can't acces the site nor my data manager and I'm currently in work on next Album.....
Damn, it.
Well, f**k post! It's damn long and costy for sending one DVD each week and the last resort for physical items, as my author copies of vinyl came with damaged cover tough it was in secured package. Like those cretins on airport are playing football wit it (one of the most horrible things you can see out of the plane window is the employees taking care of your luggage). and no e-mail will transfer about 1 gig of data.

So they screwed me a lot Lucky the label I'm in pre-production dealing with is located in Germany, I can ride the ICE for 4 hours to deliver the DVD personally........
What startles me even more is that these retards even own nuclear ammunition.

[Gonstead]

Who tweets that poorly for a supposedly real organization?

[dbboxkaifan]

Well, good news for the folks who use RapidShare and MediaFire, the staff of both has came out and made it clear how both of their websites/hosters work unlike MegaUpload.

RapidShare: http://bit.ly/AAK3RX
MediaFire: http://bit.ly/wg0moC

Some positive news.

The rest of the other hosters are on trouble, I think and removing the data/blocking.

[tinlunlau]

Wow, all this political talk has me reminded of a TV series recently aired on Hong Kong's TVB. The show? "When Heaven Burns", about 4 aspiring bandmates travelling to the snowy mountains of Xinjiang, China. Of course, they get stranded on the snowy mountains. Their lead singer gets injuries and was presumably on the brink of death. The other 3 were debating whether or not they should kill and eat their presumably dying friend until one of them lost his senses and stabs the guy to death. The 3 bandmates ate their friend's flesh and blood, raw. Fast-forward 18 years and they have all parted separate ways. One of them is trying to redeem himself by campaigning himself into the Hong Kong legislature and working at the Workers Rights Association. I don't want to spoil too much because this is a really great show. But there was a quote that really hit the mark and I guess in some ways, it's relateable anywhere else. Which brings me to the point of my mentioning about "When Heaven Burns".

The character played by actor Bowie Lam (from John Woo's "Hard Boiled") got fed up with his political campaign and got on the loud speaker to tell citizens that "politicians are self-serving greedy people that only fulfill a minority of their promises to appease the public."

Then, there was that quote in the series finale about how "harmony is not about 100 people giving the same opinion but rather, a collection of different opinions from 100 people treating each other with mutual respect." (I'm not sure if that was how the quote was exactly but that is the basic jist of it)

And mind you, this was a show that's been shelved for over 2 years. Adding to the fact that the producers and writers wrote this more than a year before it was even completed. Yet it still rings true to this day. So yeah...

[MCDaveG]

And mind you, this was a show that's been shelved for over 2 years. Adding to the fact that the producers and writers wrote this more than a year before it was even completed. Yet it still rings true to this day. So yeah...

That's because it works like this for that long, as the politics exists on this planet.
From dawn of the civilization.
I think a great allegory on politics is described by Orwell in 1984. Well, you can't compare our democracy or other totalitary systems for 100% with 1984, as it is describing a totalitary system to absurd levels, but lot of traits of the Unsoc and goverment there are like mirror to the people who are directing the politics.

PS: There is some new system in Czech republic from the new institution for fighting the corruption and they started a database of corrupted politics, who have their names aligned with business sector and weird names.
They listed 1000 of them only from the capitol city and said that this is only beginning.

[SHINOBI-03]

In the end I say "Don't blame the tool, blame the user."

I use a knife to slice a bread. Does that mean I'll use it to kill someone?
I drive a car. Does that mean I'll always break the speed limit or run over people?
I use a hammer to nail a door. Does that mean I'll use it to break someone's skull?
I use a file share website. Does that mean I'll use it to share pirated material?

[samuraix123]

Mike mozart released another video
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ai2ra0Hw ... AAAAAAAMAA
I feel bad for the Youtube community, This guy has them all scared to death.

[Piccolo Daimao]

In the end I say "Don't blame the tool, blame the user."

I use a knife to slice a bread. Does that mean I'll use it to kill someone?
I drive a car. Does that mean I'll always break the speed limit or run over people?
I use a hammer to nail a door. Does that mean I'll use it to break someone's skull?
I use a file share website. Does that mean I'll use it to share pirated material?

That's true. It's unfortunate that these politicians want to blanket everyone (stupidly, even themselves) under their punishment as a result of a number of people misusing their responsibility.