As this game is worldwide and this problem is worldwide

[Kemia]

SOPA & PIPA

Okay... So I am a college student and. . . I came across this statement for the testimonial dated for December of 2011 in my libraries online database!! Using keywords under the military and government collection after coming across said document, I attempted to search a second time for it, and cannot find it!

In the search for this document and reading upon it (was a government testimonial) of said acts and laws protraying.

The fact my computer froze, net disconnected, computer ( I had to restart it myself) retarted, and start up again the net, attempting to search the same exact search only to find it missing from the databases!! not to be seen again...

curiouser and curiouser. . . .


However, I found this one in it's place!

For Immediate Release
Wyden Delivers Floor Speech on the Motion to Proceed to Protect IP
December 17, 2011
Washington, D.C. - U.S. Senator Ron Wyden (D-Ore.) delivered the following remarks on the floor of the U.S. Senate after cloture was invoked on the motion to proceed to the Protect IP legislation when the Senate returns from recess. Protect IP will do serious damage to the free and open Internet in order to combat infringement of intellectual property. Wyden has been a staunch opponent of the legislation and has offered an alternative - the OPEN Act - which will combat IP infringement without doing irreparable harm to the Internet.
``I understand that cloture has been filed on the motion to proceed to the PIPA legislation. As one of a bipartisan group of Senators who strongly objects to proceeding to this bill I believe it is important to begin to outline the very real dangers posed by this bill.
The primary architects of the Internet and our leading cyber- security experts have made it clear that this legislation will undermine the key technologies that prevent fraud and protect consumers on the Internet. Our nation`s leading first amendment scholars have made it clear that this bill poses a serious threat to speech and civil liberties for all who use the Internet. And our nation`s leading technology employers warn that this bill presents a clear and present danger to innovation and job growth in an area that is going to be a major source of new jobs for this century.

The only way I can share this information with you is by copy and pasting it!! So please. . . bear with me as i will probably post several more excrepts. . .

(Have we heard the last of SOPA & PIPA?) <-- Obama is against it as well!!

[Kemia]

I may hold off on posting several excrepts at once as to let the flow of opinion and debate take its voice -- Also, is this against the rules? Talking about such a hotly debated topic?

[Palem]

(I say this as someone who happily "steals" music)
Online piracy is an issue. Producing music/tv shows/movies/ect costs money and in some cases a lot of money. It's far too easy for the average joe to just go on and steal the product for free.

However, all of the proposed "solutions" are way too drastic and would absolutely ruin sites like Youtube, Facebook, Google, ect. The funny part is that those three websites alone prolly pump more money into the economy than the whole media industry does (even including money lost through pirating). I do think they'll continue to try to find a solution to pirating, but I don't think they're dumb enough to compromise the huge websites that contribute so much to the country.

[Kemia]

(I say this as someone who happily "steals" music)
Online piracy is an issue. Producing music/tv shows/movies/ect costs money and in some cases a lot of money. It's far too easy for the average joe to just go on and steal the product for free.

However, all of the proposed "solutions" are way too drastic and would absolutely ruin sites like Youtube, Facebook, Google, ect. The funny part is that those three websites alone prolly pump more money into the economy than the whole media industry does (even including money lost through pirating). I do think they'll continue to try to find a solution to pirating, but I don't think they're dumb enough to compromise the huge websites that contribute so much to the country.

Here is my curiosity how does free-user generated content (bring in the big bucks) that deals with online stuff many of the times just as Wikipedia user-generated (they site accordingly and use adjustingly) It goes back down with like the Napster incident being sued. . . (I was like 8 then...) but yeah
Maybe that is why the governemnt proposed these laws and acts, just so they can hit those big three and go after them for their money to generate back into stimulus packets?

[Kemia]

http://www.google.com/policies/privacy/preview/

this link just further proves my point. . . they are already taking steps, while it is being protested I believe these bills have passed "superficially"

If you read theri privacy policy it makes me question why the f%^k I got google chrome on my computer...

[Twyla]

I have a rather controversial viewpoint concerning the whole IP issue online:

Back in my day (Am I really THAT old?!?) mix tapes were as much a part of day-to-day life as eating and breathing. "Hey! These songs are cool! You gotta hear these guys!" For a lot of us, this was our first exposure to styles and artists we'd have never so much as heard of otherwise. In brief - these artists were getting the best promotion in the world (word of mouth) absolutely free!

While not everyone who was passed a mix tape rushed out to buy those artists' albums, a lot did - significantly more than would have bought them without the mix tapes.


One event from nearly a decade back illustrates this point perfectly. The 'Family Guy Movie' was "leaked" to the internet more than a month prior to the DVD release and downloaded by millions. While Lars Ulrich and his ilk kept screaming about how pirating was "such a serious detriment to genuine sales", initial sales of the Family Guy DVD were nearly TWENTY TIMES what was anticipated and overall sales nearly TRIPLE.

Not too shabby for a show that TV execs cancelled twice (and is STILL on the air).

Many people have followed suit with this approach. Countless bands offer free downloads of individual songs, in turn generating vastly increased sales of their albums. Many networks now offer free downloads/streams of current episodes, resulting in drastic increases in sales of collections for those shows.

Let's face it... Even with dozens (if not hundreds) of sites dedicated exclusively towards piracy, nobody is going to offer a torrent for something they think is crap. The very fact a torrent exists is because somebody says "This is great! I want everybody to know about this!!".

And while not everyone who downloads a movie, TV show, or album goes out and buys it, a lot do! Particularly in this economy, people don't risk buying media that they may just toss under the couch and forget about - they spend money on stuff they already know they like!

Not to mention all the neat bonus stuff that comes with so many videos nowadays! I'm a junkie for that kinda stuff. Sure it's fun to watch the movie, but I get just as jazzed with the behind-the-scenes footage, "making of"s, commentaries, and other stuff that simply can't generally be included in a torrent.


While the naysayers are correct in their statements that a lot of people don't buy "legitimate copies" of stuff they download, there are far more people who DO buy them BECAUSE they obtained a pirated copy. And while I fully recognize that IP holders are required to raise a fuss in order to maintain their rights (aspirin, anyone?), the truth of the matter is that piracy does far more to promote revenues than detract from them.

[flutterby]

Online piracy is just modern day shoplifting :P

[Bishop]

Online piracy is just modern day shoplifting :P

Online piracy is a direct response to the excessive pricing of products and the ease of distributing copies. The industry needs to change its pricing and distribution model. Look at companies such as netflix, lovefilm and itunes that continue to grow their subscription base. Netflix alone has doubled in the last 2 years.

Apart from that, the losses reported to be due to piracy are laughable. Every download = a lost sale according to the reports :/

[Kemia]

Online piracy is a direct response to the excessive pricing of products and the ease of distributing copies. The industry needs to change its pricing and distribution model. Look at companies such as netflix, lovefilm and itunes that continue to grow their subscription base. Netflix alone has doubled in the last 2 years.

Apart from that, the losses reported to be due to piracy are laughable. Every download = a lost sale according to the reports :/

It's funny how they wish to put a "control" on piracy <--- for as long as I can remember the government was always the big bad guys (Coming from an american) and our local neighbors/friends/ and maybe some local cops as well were the ones who kept our economy going in that small area, and even so now we cannot even do that!! Just like an old cliche' of "crooked cop" "Good cop" while the gangsters would pay off the local cops in their area for protection drug money or not the fact of the barter of give and take system
I really believe the world we live in with the banks and economies is tremendously stupendous (not sure of the denotative meaning of that, but the connotation I hope is clear enough :P) the fact that the baby boomer generation just sat back in their protests and allowed this to happen LOOKING to the government to fix their problems instead of going out and fixing it them selves! is how I feel the piracy comes around because of people who are tired of others Bull hockey <--- just like in the link I [posted if you checked it

Effective march 21st 2012 Google will start categorizing peoples IP Addresses, internet, phones numbers, third party numbers and other things (tell me how does piracy deal with invasion of privacy?) Maybe in the old days in like the 1700's when they were off the shores of Galapagos isles and the Bermuda waters (Not for certain about the dates/locations) yet back then Benjamin Franklin and other politicians I think the land of "Great Britain" (america's mother land) got involved with this because the pirates would always raid the ships for their loot and take the ships and kill those that resist; why? It just makes me think of why? Just like today why?

I know there is little relevance to this! Yet I just want to bring this up, while the pirates did destroy larger economies of kingdoms/countries , They also offered protection and was the front lines of the smaller islands where they resided and brought in monumental wealth not to mention scared much of the american governments away from trading them worthless value for the stocks of I believe it was (Sugar cane) (I will have to find a reference source again to refresh my memory but I know of a book if anyone likes non-fictions, then look out for "Caribbean Pirates" (its int he title I cannot remember the entire title, then there is another made in american "how the Us ended priacy in the 1800's blah blah, something: if you are really that into this and wanna check it out, private msg me and I will get you the names! Cause I used them as sources in a speech I did last semester as a group project final and we talked about pirates!)

[flutterby]

Online piracy is a direct response to the excessive pricing of products and the ease of distributing copies. The industry needs to change its pricing and distribution model. Look at companies such as netflix, lovefilm and itunes that continue to grow their subscription base. Netflix alone has doubled in the last 2 years.

Apart from that, the losses reported to be due to piracy are laughable. Every download = a lost sale according to the reports :/

Music/Movie piracy nothing new. 80's we used to take tapes, put scotch tape over the top and record other tapes onto them and pass them around. Same thing with VHS. The only difference now is that it is easier to access because of the internet.

[Bishop]

Music/Movie piracy nothing new. 80's we used to take tapes, put scotch tape over the top and record other tapes onto them and pass them around. Same thing with VHS. The only difference now is that it is easier to access because of the internet.

Except that was legal, and it still is. I am legally allowed to record whatever I want off the radio or from TV. Most cable now comes with a device that is built specifically to allow you to do this ;)

[_greenie]

honestly, i would pay (reasonably) for a service that allowed me to watch tv shows whenever i wanted, even if it was stream only.
i live in australia, and we can START a series of a tv show, weeks after it is finished in america/UK, so i get "pirated" copies, why? 3 simple reasons
1) it suits me... i get home late, and have a terrible memory, so will never remember to record them every time...
2) no adds for the whole show... i can not stress this enough...
3) can re-watch any time!

another minor point is that the shows can change when they come over here... ie Top Gear UK is 60 minutes long, but it fits into an hour time slot here including ads... the music changes as well...

as for movies, meh, i watch a "pirated" copy first, if i like it enough, buy it... else rarely watch them again... often delete them... sick of paying $15+ for a movie ticket to be disappointed...

charge me $30 a month for unlimited tv streaming, you got a done deal... and im not talking per-channel, im talking for the whole damn lot... include all seasons, and every tv show... if i want to watch faulty towers, i should be able to... if i want to watch season 3 of top gear, i should be able to...
charge me $1-2 each for a "watch once" movie, you got a deal... put annoying DRM on it and make me play it though itunes, i dont care.... but im trying before i buy...

[flutterby]

Except that was legal, and it still is. I am legally allowed to record whatever I want off the radio or from TV. Most cable now comes with a device that is built specifically to allow you to do this ;)

It's legal as long as you don't redistribute it.

[Kemia]

It's legal as long as you don't redistribute it.

Yeah and it also depends on variances of how you "redistribute" if you give it away and re-copy it for your self: Would this here be considered illegal because you gave away the material and not sell it? (I suppose it would be, yet I do not know. So I posted this reply!)

[Magn]

Online piracy is a direct response to the excessive pricing of products and the ease of distributing copies. The industry needs to change its pricing and distribution model. Look at companies such as netflix, lovefilm and itunes that continue to grow their subscription base. Netflix alone has doubled in the last 2 years.

Apart from that, the losses reported to be due to piracy are laughable. Every download = a lost sale according to the reports :/

This.

Every customer has a price point.

The PC game industry has been smart about this. They release their games at ~50$ and then phase out the price over time so that 2-3 years down the road, you can get the game for < 10$.

Contrast this with some music albums or foreign movies that are 25$-30$ and stay at that price forever.

Those copies are just gathering dust on the shelves of the stores that are selling them, because those that were prepared to pay 30$ for their copy already got it and the rest are just happy to either get a pirated copy or skip it entirely.

I strongly believe that if the pricing is reasonable, only a small fraction of the customer base will resort to piracy, but the pricing needs to be reasonable (and depending on their means and interests, what constitutes reasonable pricing varies from person to person, but the distributiors should be smart enough to understand and adjust their tactics to this reality... phase out your freaking prices over time or accept that there will be a significant portion of the market that will forever be closed to you, piracy or not).