some pony has to say this.

[Dusty]

OK! so out of all of ya have some of you seen the Bill "Protect IP Act."?

If you ask me this is a big thing, and others need to know of this madness.

Heck are loved home of canterlot can be closed and blocked if this bill is passed.

If your on the USA side of things. all you UK pony's well be ok.

[Davroth]

I'd give this a clearer name so that everyone knows what it's about.

[AznAxis]

It's really nothing to get too worked up about. To stand behind this bill(s) is political suicide.

What I DO think that this clearly illustrates is how out of touch Congress is with today's technology. However, when the median age of your average Congressman is 55 years old, that is to be expected.

[Acynder]

These kinds of bills never get passed. It's noting to worth about. And if it does. Then theres really nothing we can do about it.

[Ginger Mint]

hi hi

If by some dark miracle this bill does manage to get passed, they're going to find it unenforceable.

[NeonVictorian]

hi hi

If by some dark miracle this bill does manage to get passed, they're going to find it unenforceable.

Rumor says theyll get the ISPs to monitor the net- making them forced corrupt cops in a way... "E.G if comcast isnt watching you then they get in trouble"

If you want to join the good fight

http://americancensorship.org/

[Davroth]

My god, people, it takes you 5 min out of your day to write your congress-man. And there are other bills like that that got passed, which lead to the way youtube has to put videos on hold if ANYONE claims copyright, as an example. I know that the bill, as it is, is completely ridiculous.

Would it kill anyone if we don't play this down? For once? Please?

[FrankT]

I don't want them to pass that LAW! I'll shoot myself if they do!

[Ginger Mint]

hi hi

I don't mean to downplay this, but I will downplay my congressmen to my hearts content. They've never represented my interests, and until people like me can either produce millions of dollars in campaign contributions or learn how to not believe what we all hear from campaign advertisements, the situation is going to remain the same. But if they do pass this bill, it will hurt their bottom line.

[Parker_Izing]

I am Spanish, so I expect you assume my right to not know exactly how your system works.

But I pieced together this little through you can find valuable, you got a Very big ally on your own country.

It's name is "Apple Computer", Really, now I tell how.

Look, lately, what's the biggest slice of Apple's income? Ipods, Iphones, Ipads, stuff mainly used to store and play MP3 files.

I calculated this quite a time ago, Filling with just legal media an iPod (40GB) skyrockets to a cost of 20.000US$ , (This using the then average price of a song, multiplied for the number of songs available on Apple's doodad. You can supose how this price is on the last 160GB classic model...

Even if the prices per song dropped a bit, it's a heckuva amount of cash, that means, iPods had never been designed for 100% Law abiding people, even if digitizing all of Records I doubt anypony can fill one of these suckers, If piracy and cheapo availability of MP3's are going to end, Apple would lose his golden egg goose, so they MUST know, they are really interested on avoiding this.

Actually Apple could be a very powerful lobby.

[Autumn]

lol... paranoid Americans.

STOP STEALING STUFF!

canterlot.com is protected, bound by and governed by UK law. You can find more detail here: http://www.legislation.gov.uk

Our content is protected under the Berne Convention for the Protection of Literary and Artistic works.

We can and will continue to link to youtube videos (only) to display our favourite show.

The reason we'll use youtube is it's size and attention. If they decide or are forced to pull the show from their servers then we'll, as a consequence, also not have access to the content. We won't have to lift a finger.

Anyway... stop scaremongering and don't worry about the latest Intellectual Property rules. There have been LOTS of 'scary' rules put in place in the past and the intarweb tubes are still around. There will be MANY more in the future.

Fact is, if you didn't licence it, buy it or make it; it's not yours. *shrugs*

[Davroth]

You do know that under that law, the American government can blacklist this site for the American internet users. That's what upsets me about this bill the most.

It also contradicts the fair use law, which means the end to political commentary, lot's of movie and game reviews and who knows what.

I don't understand the mindset where one doesn't even want to make the effort and try to take some influence on it. Writing an Email. 5 freaking minutes. Costs nothing.

This frustrates me to no end.

[FrankT]

Believe me, this will affect the British as much as it will the Americans!

[Davroth]

I just read that not only Sony, Nintendo and EA are in support of the bill, both Microsoft and Apple back it, too.

That's a lot of cash.

[RnbwDashIsWin]

the US House plans to pass it and is not allowing ANY opposition...

on the other hand, the Senate plans to block it. I can only hope.

[FrankT]

That's it then.... with big names like that, we've lost!

[Total-Tortilla]

How I picture it:

Congress: hey mr president we wanna censor the internet

Obama: what no you idiots i have to blog

Still, it makes me nervous when ISP's, including my own, are blocking sites that are against SOPA and the IP-Act.

[Xiee]

This is starting to sound like the Y2K bug as the days pass. I guess all we can do at this point is wait and see.

[Lucan]

The sad part is the fact that us americans are too WEAK and STUPID to allow this to happen. You know what?

I say -

- Congressmen who supported this bill won't get elected (unless the US is really THAT stupid)

- This will damage the US economy, and will probably be lifted very quickly. The US relies heavily on the internet. The congress is just... erm... "special needs," if you know what I mean, for even thinking of allowing this miserable failure of a bill even be considered.

- Many people will probably leave the United States due to this. This is the government taking away our freedom, making unconstitutional laws. Canada is safe, why don't we all just flock over there?

- Hell, they might as well just shut down the entire internet if they do this. There's no safe sites out there.

- Also, too late to completely get rid of pirating music and games. People like me already have plenty of games pirated, and don't really need any more games (Music, on the other hand, cannot be limited...)

- Again, unconstitutional law. God bless the Supreme Court, who is bound to strike down this law faster than *historical figure 1* struck down *historical figure that historical figure 1 killed quickly and brutally.*

Need I say more?

TLDR: If this is passed, either move to canada or have faith in the supreme court. Rainbow Dash is best pony.

[FrankT]

I don't know the phone number for my MP!!

[Lucan]

I don't know the phone number for my MP!!

What?

Oh, and...

I just read that not only Sony, Nintendo and EA are in support of the bill, both Microsoft and Apple back it, too.

That's a lot of cash.

Google's strongly against it, and that's even MORE cash. Have you ever checked their stocks? A bit over a year ago, I was bored, so I checked. To my suprise, it was over $500 (I think $525 per share). I doubt their stock's value is any lower than it was back then.

EDIT: I was right, it's now $584.96, obviously higher than $525. Also higher than Nintendo's, EA's, Apple's, Sony's, and Microsoft's stocks combined. Don't believe me?

584.96 GOOG (Google)

373.38 AAPL (Apple)

24.84 MSFT (Microsoft)

17.57 SNE (Sony)

21.69 ERTS (EA)

143.50 NTDOF (Nintendo)

We have ourselves a very strong ally.

[Davroth]

sure we have, but It's not like those are the only supporter of the bill. And I'm not 100% convinced that the stock value can be used as a measure of their venue.

From what I understand, stock value is determined by how many people want to buy them (in a supply and demand kind of way). So sure, they can be used as a measure for overall success, since they display the trust of the investor, but that's about it.

[FrankT]

I feel like a traitor. I meant to call my MP about the soap, and I didn't do it!

[Dessa]

...Wyden has put a hold on the bill in the Senate' date=' and has promised a full filibuster. Currently, there appear to be 60 votes to overcome that filibuster,...

[/quote']

Source: http://www.dailykos.com/story/2011/11/28/1040530/-Congress-is-close-to-destroying-the-internet-%28no-hyperbole%29

For those of you who don't follow American politics, the filibuster is often the hardest hurdle to overcome during a bill's passage, so this is big news. House Minority leader Nancy Pelosi has come out against it, which is good news (she's got a good record of holding her party together on big votes like this, and I'm not sure that this bill can pass the house without minority support -- but keep in mind that there are a lot of corporatist Democrats out there whou would surely favor this this bill).

Also, Obama doesn't seem to have taken a position on it yet, so if all else fails, we can take it to him for a veto.

So can this bill pass? YES. I had the same initial reaction as you all "oh, it wont pass, it'll be political suicide, etc." It can. Time to get active, bronies.

And don't feel so safe, Artax. This bill goes after real fundamentals, like name servers in the US. US members would be unable to access this site, and membership here would suffer. Consider this: How many times in the past has the United States done something boneheaded that has messed things up for the rest of the world? It's kinda what we do.

Anypony who thinks this is alarmist hasn't been following how monumentally effed the US political process has been of late.

Take action here: http://americancensorship.org/

[Nite Frite the Scare Mare]

DON'T PANIC!

This bill is vile, draconian and will grievously affect the internet if it is passed. But we will adapt. We will persist. And we will survive. As fandoms have always done scince the dawn of man.

Pluss, at least in it's current state, I dout it will get passed. The public outcry has been imence. The eveidence of the power a public veto can whield was clear with what happened in Russia a while back, though time will tell if it stopped the bill altogether. I think that thanks to the outrage this bill has generated it will be vetoed and our fandom, and indeed every fandom, will continue to exist and thrive. Even if th unthinkable happens and the bill is passed, I doubt that Hasbro will let any pony fan site go down or remove any videos frm youtube. They're not stupid. Without a fan following, it is unlikley that any franchise would last long at all. Companies know this, Hasbro in particular.

The internet has survived the creations of viruses, spy ware, hackers, spamers, Anonymous, Chuck Noris and even "The Millenium Bug". I belive the internet, and our fandom, will survive this.

Sleep deprived rant over