SOPA/PIPA and effects on yoyo community, and the greater internet

[Swatnoodle]

what I don't get, please explain it to me.

how an american law is going to affect "all the internet"?
I mean facebook, youtube etc... can't they just move to Russia, Germany or wherever else and call it a day?

one way or another, if these go away, there won't be a week until something similar comes up from, say china or brasil or wherever, right?

last I've checked, internet doesn't belong to any given country. Obviously it'll be very bad for USA, but how is it supposed to affect "all the internet"?

Yoyoexpert.com will be gone, nuff said.

Seriously though, do you know what percentage of all youtubers are American? Many sites aren't big enough to be able to ''move'', and frankly who wan'ts to?

why on earth YYE would be gone? I think you guys are overreacting a little bit, like it's gonna be the end of the world.

first off, it's NOT gonna happen, something's gonna happen, something bad, not as bad, but still bad. and in order to make that bad-yet-not-as-bad thing happen, they first need to get all you guys all worked up against something that promises nearly the end of the world. seriously, basic manipulation technique. Do you really think these guys don't know the economical consequences on american companies? they're smarter than you or I and they're surrounded by a bunch of consultants, specialists and whatnot, even smarter.


And all and all, have faith in the rest of the world. USA is NOT the world, there are capable companies and people all over the globe. For nearly a century USA was the world's leader, now things are changing and it's going to go in all directions and we're going to have to get used to that feeling.

I have nothing against protest, but on the internet, really it's more often than not orchestrated by people who know exactly what they're doing, we, you, all the internet users are being abused, internet only makes it easier.

truth is, we can't do anything about it, we think we can, we are told we can, but really, we can't. Days of civil wars and huge protests are long gone in our respective "developed" countries. If it was centuries ago, most of our leaders would have been executed for less.

But we're drifting away from the subject here. From an outsider's point of view, I think american people are being played, big time. To paraphrase Ron Paul, "Let's hope and pray that I'm wrong on all accounts. If so, I would be very pleased"

since the political powers acquired the major medias, democracy is no more than an empty shell, we the people don't decide anymore, we just do what we're "told", like all this build up of protest on the web, it was not only expected, but also I think it was intended.

the thing with a problem, is that if you want to solve it, first you got to acknowledge its existence. get educated about mass media manipulation (or propaganda) and take that power away from the medias, internet is pretty much doing that.

But also keep in mind, I'm one of those who witnessed the birth of computers. And there were always people in that field that were ways ahead of the political power, faster, better. Our websites aren't going anywhere, and if it's china or another country that'll make it happen, so be it. Whatever happens, people will always find ways around it.

Be positive, hating won't solve any problem, never had, never will.

Congress is stupid. Nuf said.

You're 13/14 right? What do YOU know about politics? I'm only 16, and while I do have an opinion on this SOPA/PIPA Bill, I don't really know enough about politics/economics to understand it. I doubt you understand it...

[jhb8426]

Sure, be against it all you want. Just don't expend too much energy and get your hopes up because they're going to ram it up your... no matter what you want.

Control of the internet is too important to be done by anyone outside of the government. 

[icthus]

Thankfully there are some serious hackers out there that will play heck with this.

[scar1358]

Sure, be against it all you want. Just don't expend too much energy and get your hopes up

dont worry im not going to spend my whole weekend writing everywhere i can to stop SOPA i was just stating my opinion and asking for yours haha

[~Z]

Here is some things that we yoyoers and the entire community to be concerned and prepare for.

First and for most, with most yoyoers they tend to use copyrighted music for any of their videos on youtube, vimeo and any other form of sharing. Due to the copyright laws right now, youtube or vimeo will tend to either give you a type of 3 warnings and your account is terminated. The other possibility is they will place ads in said videos.

With SOPA possibily happening, record labels for the music can actually have the power to go to such extremes as to turn you into the police for copyright law, and could fine you up to $5,000 dollars or more AND possible jail time. You could have a record for just one single song used in a video.

Yoyo forums and blogs. One of the most informed ways of being able to share anything yoyo related like photography and videos. Forums and blogs like Yoyoskills can also be held accountable since according to SOPA, anyone that "shares" a link to said video with copyright music can be considered a criminal as well.

So what does that mean? Any forum, any blog, or facebook itself..anyone sharing a link of somekind that forum can be held account and can even be black listed so United States citizens can no longer see the website or be shutdown.

Think I am joking? Why do you think Facebook, twitter, tumblr, and Google are desperate to fight these dracian bills? Its absolutely ridiculously and then some.

While I am saying some harsh possibilities, with these bills in place they have such powers to do that. Don't believe me?  The Entertainment industry will do some disturbing low things, no doubt about it. Even to try and jail a 14 year old child for downloading one Brittany Spear song and forever smearing her name as a person.

For the future, yoyoers have to start wising up and use creative commons music and or whenever they use music, they try and get in contact with the Record labels in order to use that. Example for me is that I become good friends with some punk rock bands. I asked if they could allow me to use their music to which they told me to ask the record label. I briefly said something to them on their fanpage for facebook and they allowed me to use whatever I want.

This also effects of freestyle videos online as well as streaming freestyles. Contests organizers will have to try and buy the license for ALL the music at such a contest that is being used. This is going to raise holy heck on all levels for contest organizers across the United States. Its already difficult as it is for getting a venue, how will they be able to deal with that?

Will all record labels do that? Probably not. Not ones owned by the RIAA that is for sure.

Wise up guys. or else our videos will just be dead silence. For further discussion about this, check out Yoyoskills.com

[~Z]

Hadoq, to answer your question about how Yoyoexpert could be closed down.

Chris of Yoyoskills pretty much answered this question. SOPA will allow the entertainment industry to shutdown any website due to someone LINKING/SHARING a video with copyrighted music on it. This will will give them such powers of authority.

This is why google, facebook, tumblr and many other websites out there are very angry. People are starting to rise up and take notice of what is happening in the present day.

You may be right about how perhaps it is all a setup, but to be honest I do not believe that. Many people in our congress/government are a generation that can barely understand any computer terminology and therefore have no idea what they are doing or talking about.

One of the most disgusting things I heard of it was how it will supposedly be good for our economy and yet will cost so much ridiculous amounts of money.

Anyways, To Josh Yee: *stare*

~Z

[AngryGumball]

Useless fact of the day:
SOPA = Soup. PIPA = pipe (in the Spanish language).
SOPA will be turned to soup, PIPA will go down the pipes.

It's definitely an ugly thing. While I don't want to really make a duplicate thread (another one exists here: http://yoyoexpert.com/forums/index.php/topic,38579.0.html), I did find it ironic that Lamar Smith, the brains behind SOPA is a hypocrite himself. His campaign site utilized someone else's photo for the background, no credit given. So by any means, according to his proposal, he should be locked up for 5 years. He should be locked up for 5 years anyway for being a total idiot and attempt to neuter our interwebs and freedom of speech, expression, etc.

For the future, yoyoers have to start wising up and use creative commons music and or whenever they use music, they try and get in contact with the Record labels in order to use that. Example for me is that I become good friends with some punk rock bands.

Is a dry bearing not musical enough for a trick video? :p j/k

[ReverseSquiggly]

Many people in our congress/government are a generation that can barely understand any computer terminology and therefore have no idea what they are doing or talking about.

The amount of times some old congressman said, "I'm no expert, but..." during the hearings was ridiculous.

[JonasK]

While SOPA is terrible, some form of legislation to fight pirates is needed. I'll illustrate how money goes around for websites that are dedicated to linking pirated content:

Advertisers pay services like google to put ads on these sites, the sites get money from google. So Google earns some money, the sites themselves are hauling in cash, and the advertisers are possible earning money from increased sales. The people who aren't making money are the people who actually make the content.

This flow of money is what needs to be fixed. Sadly, SOPA won't really fix any of it.

[Studio42]

I have a theory:

Once congress figures out that they just got all their pron cut off, they'll be repealing this. That and all their PTP music sites.

Let's look at how well they've handled the whole spam situation. That was a whole fiasco and the passed laws have been rendered completely useless and are pretty much unenforceable. The problem here is that these new laws will take countless useless lawyers off the streets(from chasing ambulances) and into dealing with these new laws.

[hobo-yoyo]

There a lot more polictics involved than just passing the bill.

I'm pretty sure that the hardcore conservatives will be angered that the government has more power, so they will pass legislations that will cut off funding for SOPA. The bill could still be in operation, but no one to operate it...
They could also pass legislation that render SOPA pretty much useless.

For example: the Second amendment clearly states that americans can own firearms. But places like DC and maryland have created so many laws that it's impossible to own a firearm. Some people get a lifetime in jail because they get a speeding ticket when they're just passing through on a vacation, and the cop asks if they have a firearm or not.


MY OPINON:

Piracy is a bad thing indeed. I'm glad the government is thinking about ways to rid of it. How would you feel if you were an artist that published a song that could normally be worth millions, but everyone just downloaded the file from youtube and stole it.

HOWEVER,
    Piracy is going to happen no matter what. They can hack into the system, go overseas, or find new methods.
    The government always manages to screw things up. If you put this kind of power into government hands... Where does it stop? could/will they abuse this power?
    If artists are so concerned that everyone will steal their music, why do they put it on youtube? Because it gets them publicity. There are still honest people like me who buy music legally from itunes. People like Lady Gaga are going to be rich no matter how much pirating is going on. They're always on magazines and running concerts etc.
 
    Is SOPA even worth it? Not only will it cost $$, but this bill means that every american will have to sacrifice great internet things, just to get rid of pirating? I bet a ton of yoyo tutorials will be taken down, just because we're trying to rid of piracting?

    What the government SHOULD do is close down websites that allow people to download illegally. ZAMZAR lets you convert youtube to MP3. People are using this to steal music. Why not shut this program down? Give me your opinion on this.
 

[noogit]

Even if yye wasn't specifically targeted and shut down, if it was my site, I would take it down myself just to pre-empt any possible lawsuit. You can be shut down just by linking to a site that gets targeted. Its completely asinine. I'm a web-developer, and if this passes I'll probably go out of business because I won't be able to sell a website to anyone because their fear of a lawsuit with no warning will outweigh their advantages of having a website in their minds and I don't blame them. If this passes, all my sites are getting shut down until I can go through them and completely sterilize them of anything that could even remotely be considered questionable.

I emailed my representative a few months ago about this and all i got was, "it'll be good for the economy and make jobs." They really have no idea what they are talking about. I would guess some of them literally have no idea what this new-fangled innerwebs thing even is.

Its appalling this was even proposed.

[gorillaz922]

i dont get why people are still going on about this....obama already said he WILL NOT pass this if it even gets to him....

[noogit]

Obama won't be around forever. The idea still exists and it got much farther than it ever should have. Maybe we lucked out this time (maybe we didn't) but this is just the beginning of multiple big industry lobbyists thinking they can do whatever they want because they pay enough for it. There have been many times in history when a president or political figure said something and did another.

It may have been annoying for some people who couldn't get to their favorite sites, but some people have their whole lives invested in the internet. Your favorite sites aren't blocked today, but the threat of my entire career going down the tubes is still there.

That's why I'm still going on about this.

[hallelu-yo]

IT'S STARTING???
Megauploads was just deleted by the feds for piracy. Even though it was endorsed by major artists (ex: kanye west)