SB Nation Officially Opposes SOPA And PIPA

“Okay, Michael Jackson didn’t come to my house to use the bathroom…
but his sister did!”

… I permit limited discussion.

In general, politics should be off-limits here. You can disagree with that, but this is my site and I’ll establish the rules.

Your points are far short of the context of political discussion that Al will not allow on this site. The steroid hearings may have been grandstanding by congress, but they were not partisan. The president’s greeting of sports champions is tradition and again, non partisan. Curt Schilling’s political opinion fit very well within the rules of BCB insofar as being off limits. The songs sung at games since 9/11 are patriotic, not political. The shutdown of baseball during WWII was short lived and the result of national emergency, not politics. This is a baseball site and although the discussion will occasionally skirt the political realm, it never enters it. There are ample other web sites in which to vent one’s political angst. BCB, thank goodness, is not one of them. In the case of SOPA/PIPA however, I find it completely acceptable due to the direct impact this pending legislation has on the future of this site as well as ALL others. Such legislation is needed to protect classified information and intellectual property but SOPA/PIPA, as written, is not the answer. It needs to be tossed ASAP and a do over commenced immediately.

Seriously, coming from you, that does mean something. Appreciated.

This is an attack on a copyright holder?

That’s the takdown statement I see (with a different name after ‘claim’) on youtube. I’ve never seen any attack.

Nobody is disputing that pirating is bad. But these bills aren’t the way to do it.

Let’s say that Al and I get into a disagreement. I decide to hit back at him by linking to copywritten material from somebody who is hyper-active about SOPA violations. Then I send that other entity the link I posted (obviously from another one of my hundreds of email accounts).

They go nuts over the violation, and cue the Cosell voice, down goes BCB!

Is Al’s livelihood deserving of less due process than the original copyright holder’s?

… as you well know, I am a member of the Directors Guild of America. Many DGA members have also had their work pirated.

There is no doubt that piracy of creative works is a major issue. These proposals as written are not the correct answer. As written, they could shut down NON pirate sites simply because a commenter posted a link to stolen material.

NOW do you get it? The proposals have to be rewritten. As they stand, they are wrong, and so are you if you support them.

And Sopa/Pipa isn’t going to punish the thieves. They’re going to punish other sites that are uninvolved in the theft.

Pirate bay, the target of these bills, has no fear. There’s tons of work arounds for them.

you have to already have a better alternative ready before you want something stopped.

It’s not a rhetorical question.

For instance, the Online Protection and Enforcement of Digital Trade (OPEN) act, currently being promoted by Google on their “End Piracy, Not Liberty” page.

To summarize from the OPEN Act website:

The OPEN Act secures two fundamental principles. First, Americans have a right to benefit from what they’ve created. And second, Americans have a right to an open internet. Our duty is to protect these rights. That’s why congressional Republicans and Democrats came together to write the OPEN Act.

Find more info here: http://keepthewebopen.com/

http://mashable.com/2012/01/17/sopa-dangerous-opinion/

The IT people that appeared before congress prior to the writing of this legislation were told in no uncertain terms that regardless of the merits (technical and otherwise) of their position on this, they would have no impact on the outcome. Just last evening on one of the many excellent panel discussions on the PBS Newshour, and man named Mr. Huh put forth a cogent argument agains SOPA/PIPA. He, and myriad others agree on the need to protect intellectual property but this is not it.

That’s a pretty big deal legally.

How about this – What films have you been a part of in the past??

Instead of using google I can just type in the url to Pirate Bay or Bit Torrent. And boom, I can get anything I want.

There is no way the cousin of the grip, or anybody other than a select few, should have access to it. If the guy doing the digital transfer or CGI does it, there has to be prosecution of that individual, not penalizing the technology that makes copying those bits easier.

I’ve spent many years consulting off and on at Microsoft. When I go in there, I’m allowed to access my own little corner of their corporate network. Would I have access to the source code for Windows or something? No way. Network and database permissions will keep me out of where I’m not supposed to be.

A friend of mine (gone now, may she RIP) who lived in Hong Kong could get DVD’s of Oscar screeners on the street before members of the academy got them because they were burned right across the border in a facility in China. Now how dumb is that. Effectively turning the digital copy loose on the world and blaming everybody else.

Why aren’t they burning individual copies for people with their name watermarked? Because studios would have to pay Americans a living wage to do it and China is cheaper.

Best was helping a major Russian pirate go to prison

YARRRRR! Was his name REDbeard?

…because that’s never going to happen. I do sympathize with your situation, but SOPA and PIPA are not the answer.

Has everything to do with THIS political issue being relevant to baseball and this website.

Is that Al is only discussing a political issue that he and SB Nation feel threatens their business and could impact this community. But he is not advocating other political positions, yet stagnating free speech about them.

… even that treads dangerously. Up to now, people have stuck to the facts surrounding the bill, as I asked. Let’s keep it that way.

I didn’t put words in your mouth, you’re the one who suddenly put SOPA squarely at Dodd’s feet.

Dodd certainly helped, but this was a team effort by lobbyists including those from the RIAA

This is getting a little bit away from discussion of the proposal.

Stop here or I may have to close comments.

You were a little cavalier in your statement, though.

It’s no different than that DVR coder you described above. It’s just scale, capital, and the means for production.

Maybe you should just leave out the pointless examples of coal, refridgerators and DVRs next time. You didn’t make any kind of point with that either.

Then I started watching video’s of Dunns death and got sad. Then I finished with a video of Steve-o and Chris Ponteus in wrestling mach against Umaga. That was hilarious they were so trashed.