I suppose alot of you know what SOPA is but for those that dont:

SOPA (stop online piracy act) The US senate are planning to pass a new copyright law which will basically stop us from using anything copyrighted.
Examples:
If you make a youtube video and you have a game poster in the background, that will be seen as an offence and you will be breaking the law.
If you post a picture to facebook and you are wearing a tshirt with a copyright logo on you will be breaking the law. etc...

Basically, anything you do that contains copyrighted materials (even if its unitentionally in the background or is not breaking the current copyright laws) you will be procecuted. Whats more is if you are posting these things to websites those websites could also face being shut down. Merqury City would be at risk for us posting copyrighted content.

So we will be extremely limited in what we do compared to what we can do now. Using major websites like Facebook and Twitter will be hell. Yesterday was a SOPA black out day which saw websites like Wikipedia and Failblog shut down their websites and google currently has a petition against the movement.

Here is the link to the petition: https://www.google.com/landing/takeaction/

I think its absolutely insane that the internet as we know it would completely change if this new act is passed. Please sign onto the petition and help spread the word.
I also want to know your thoughts about this subject. Please discuss

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Life Is Music, Play It Louder
Im an 21 year old designer that loves music, gaming and curry -- Twitter: @DamonHayward

This is the dumbest idea that could possibly be thought of. SERIOUSLY!

And I tried to sign the petition but it doesn't work in the UK (says invalid postcode)

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This post was sponsored by my parents.

yeah im in the UK too. I just put 6 random numbers in and it was accepted

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Life Is Music, Play It Louder
Im an 21 year old designer that loves music, gaming and curry -- Twitter: @DamonHayward

also, have you guys heard of all the shit Anon is causing? taking down big name music and governmental sites one at a time in protest. this shit's getting serious...

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Today the government shut down MegaUpload because it is " an international organized criminal enterprise allegedly responsible for massive worldwide online piracy,"
http://www.justice.gov/opa/pr/2012/January/12-crm-074.html

Federal prosecutors already have the power to shut down websites. Why do they need SOPA? I tell you why: because they want to do the same thing without due process and be able to black out websites that are critical of the government such as WikiLeaks.

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http://mashable.com/2012/01/20/sopa-is-dead-smith-pulls-bill/

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Life Is Music, Play It Louder
Im an 21 year old designer that loves music, gaming and curry -- Twitter: @DamonHayward

aaaannnd they're trying to bring it to Canada. Awesome.........

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I don't think this will pass and if it does it will be another prohibition people may do it anyways even if its unintentional. Plus Obama's against it.

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its yet another system clearly put into place by people who know nothing of the internal mechanisms of the current system.
fucking politicians.
its all about the power to silence.

Honestly, I love sopa. alpmaster knows what I'm talking about.

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transientb.bandcamp.com

same bro

ACTA (basically the EU version of SOPA, but more damaging to the general public) got a kick up the ass recently too.

http://politics.slashdot.org/story/12/03/29/1630200/european-parliament-takes-step-toward-burying-acta

It seems that on occasion governments are prepared to listen to the people... and probably also that people in the government like a bit of illegal downloading just as much as everyone else.

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Charmy comes in all different colors - UrbanDictionary.com

aahhh brilliant. Its a shame they dont listen more often

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Life Is Music, Play It Louder
Im an 21 year old designer that loves music, gaming and curry -- Twitter: @DamonHayward

SOPA may have sort of died, but now they have CISPA!

http://www.privacyisawesome.com/

They're going to keep trying to pass legislation like this. We need to get CISPA killed, then we need to push for legislation that protects our right to privacy on the internet.

If you are an American, do your part! Your representatives will listen to you! You just have to be proactive and seek out their attention and badger them about it. You have to let them know you won't allow them to get away with stealing your rights.

Well said ele.

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I second that motion.

I don't get why young people never find things like this on the net, and try to say anything about it.

Sadly, this is my own generation I'm talking about. I feel like they've indoctrinated all of them, excluding people who never followed the herd of hipster-ism and hot-topic, so that their voice would be squelched.

Anyone else feel like that?

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Yeah, a lot of people feel like that. A lot of people feel like no one else cares, and they usually refer to some silly culture thing like "hipster-ism and hot-topic"

It's funny, because it's another twisted emanation of the hipster. "Yeah, I hate CISPA. You've probably never heard of it..."

The problem is that people will fall into that attitude and assume there's nothing they can really do, without ever really trying. Or, on the opposite end of the spectrum, they'll go psychotic and find themselves taunting militarized riot police with bumper sticker slogans, shrieking profanity in large groups, thinking they are fighting for the good of all. Somewhere in between, there is a rational, mindful person who accepts the sad, sober reality of the world, and focuses on practical steps that can be taken to ward off specific dangers.

We are in the beginnings of a major storm that has been brewing for a long time. Best not lose your head or your hope now, or you'll have no chance when things get serious.