RealGM

As you may have heard, SOPA (Stop Online Piracy Act) and related bills propose to introduce into US law the idea that a website should be cut off from the internet just because it is ACCUSED of copyright violation, on a guilty-until-proven-innocent basis. That carries obvious risks for a site like RealGM, whose employees and readers alike post a lot of copyrighted material, and even with best intentions surely stray from time to time at least into a gray area of arguable copyright violation.

But as is argued in http://www.texttechnologies.com/2012/01 ... ic-debate/, there's another kind of threat from SOPA as well -- stifling of online discussion by malicious accusation. The point was raised by the owner of another sports forum, and it's a good one -- when passions run high, or when there are tangible interests at stake, people may be tempted to take down websites they dislike by any not-illegal means possible (and in some cases illegal ones as well). SOPA could be a VERY strong tool for that kind of mischief.

I just read this article on SOPA (http://news.cnet.com/8301-31921_3-57329 ... t-you-faq/), because honestly I have been out of the loop on the whole thing. I knew what SOPA was vaguely, but now after reading about it, I can't believe so many people are for something like this. Because as you pointed out the use of it would definitely turn into a 'shutting down specific sites, because you don't agree with them' type of philosophy.

I understand policing the internet is a hard thing to do, and it has always been a losing battle, but this isn't going to fix anything in the long term. I could definitely see this website being shut down if this bill passes, as well as many many others that just make the internet fun. No AOL...no Yahoo...No Ebay. They are justifying this bill by saying websites like these take away jobs from other companies. But wouldn't those companies just be putting thousands out of work at the same time as well? Are we living in a country now that doesn't support capitalism in that regard?

or is it just a problem with companies using IP addresses outside of the US that they have a problem with? This whole bill is so vague. I hope people comment on this thread from both sides, because this whole thing is just confusing me right now.

I wanted to put this in the Current Affairs forum, but failed about three times to find it and falsely concluded it no longer exists. Mods, please consider moving this.

By the way, in a similar thread on KFFL, they've said they're guessing they'd shut their forums if SOPA passed.

KGboss wrote:I just read this article on SOPA (http://news.cnet.com/8301-31921_3-57329 ... t-you-faq/), because honestly I have been out of the loop on the whole thing. I knew what SOPA was vaguely, but now after reading about it, I can't believe so many people are for something like this. Because as you pointed out the use of it would definitely turn into a 'shutting down specific sites, because you don't agree with them' type of philosophy.

I understand policing the internet is a hard thing to do, and it has always been a losing battle, but this isn't going to fix anything in the long term. I could definitely see this website being shut down if this bill passes, as well as many many others that just make the internet fun. No AOL...no Yahoo...No Ebay. They are justifying this bill by saying websites like these take away jobs from other companies. But wouldn't those companies just be putting thousands out of work at the same time as well? Are we living in a country now that doesn't support capitalism in that regard?

or is it just a problem with companies using IP addresses outside of the US that they have a problem with? This whole bill is so vague. I hope people comment on this thread from both sides, because this whole thing is just confusing me right now.

http://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/news ... piracy.ars meanders, but it otherwise does a good job of addressing the question "If you don't like SOPA, what would a better alternative look like?"

For the record, RealGM is against SOPA.

Like Wikipedia, Google and so many other sites, we feel that this would be a destructive bill that would censor the Internet as we know it today.

YEAH! ANARCHY IN THE REALGM!

just saw this on twitter. anyone find any substantial source to prove this to be true?

InsideHoops InsideHoops.com
SOPA is dead for now! The badly-constructed SOPA and PIPA anti-piracy bills are postponed indefinitely

No sources but after the public outrage, they are going to be careful if they try to do this again.

I do not expect them to try it again this year.