Stop SOPA - USA members, please read

[Kura]

Here's a neat little thing:
http://stopcensorship.org/

There's a senator intending to filibuster to stop this bill from going through, and this website is collecting names so that he can filibuster by reading off a list of names of people who are opposed to it. I see no reason people outside the US can't add their name to this, since the point is just to overall generate a list of names of everyone who DOES NOT WANT.

[Aleema]

Filibustering makes me frown. We should be represented without underhanded tricks.

[Voight-Kampff]

Filibustering makes me frown. We should be represented without underhanded tricks.

Heck, I'd just be thrilled if "we" were represented at all—as opposed to having our representatives monopolized by corporations or individuals who happen to have more money than God. Even those who occasionally appear to be on the side of the common folk, I suspect are acting on behalf of another player, whose objectives just-so-happen to coincide with the will of the general public.

Um...not that I'm profoundly jaded, or anything.

[Sapphi]

I submitted my name.

It might be obnoxious, but I'd rather keep my internet >_>

[PyTom]

Heck, I'd just be thrilled if "we" were represented at all—as opposed to having our representatives monopolized by corporations or individuals who happen to have more money than God.

We need a simple government. I don't want one that actively tries to represent anyone's interest - I just want one that stays the hell out of our way.

[Aleema]

Filibustering makes me frown. We should be represented without underhanded tricks.

Heck, I'd just be thrilled if "we" were represented at all—as opposed to having our representatives monopolized by corporations or individuals who happen to have more money than God.

True that.

[dott.Piergiorgio]

No no, the shift from retail to ESD was a massive difference for AAA companies. When I worked in a smaller company I remember we would get about 1-3 euros each copy sold at retail for 20+ eur (distributors were taking most of profits). Now Beteshda gets 30% of 49.99 eur from Steam, so "slightly more" and without any worry about warehouse space to stock returned copies and so on. It was an incredible revolution for the big companies, the main reason they didn't get there sooner was because indies used to make games under 40-50mb, while AAA companies even in the early years (2000-2005) had games of at least 500mb if not more and internet broadband wasn't so widespread as it is now.

sorry for beeing not having done a clear-cut of the PC and console gaming environment... when I discuss the digital distribuition, I was referring to the console market, where the gains obtained by the elimination of the printing and distribuition costs ends mainly into the royalty holder ($ony, m$, etc.) instead of the actual developers. So, for example, Bethesda can get 30% for, say, the PC version of Skyrim (money actually much deserved, IMO), but I seriously doubt that they get a fair share for an hypothetical (for the reasons you pointed) digital copy of Skyrim for PS3 or X360...)

Hope to have cleared my point, and my apologies for the delay in replying...
Dott. Piergiorgio.

[jack_norton]

Ah ok, I don't know much about the console situation indeed

[Voight-Kampff]

Is the end nigh?

http://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/news ... merges.ars

[Ramidel]

Okay, who spiked the punch on Capitol Hill? Fess up! The world owes you!

[Van Knox]

They are voting today. Drum roll, please.

[PyTom]

http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=3356323

They're voting on amendments now. The link above is to the live stream. Someone needs to slap some knowledge of how the DNS works into congress.

[Voight-Kampff]

Someone needs to slap some knowledge of how the DNS works into congress.

You know, you hit the nail on the head.

<rant>Lets be honest: no member of the legislature is going to be knowledgeable about every subject that they vote on. In part, that's why lobbyists were allowed to solicit Congress. It allowed experts in a given field to inform the legislature about the consequences of a given bill.

But of course, over time, the system has corrupted itself.

I've pondered ways in which one might rectify the issue. Banning lobbyists won't do any good. Even if all members of Congress really could be shielded from their influence, we'd then be left with a profoundly ignorant legislature. And I don't know that we'd be better off.

Best I've come up with is regulating lobbying groups. Set up some sort of "National Register" for groups that wish to lobby congress. The catch? No lobbying group can interact with congress unless their "National Register" contains a membership reaching a certain threshold. Lobbying groups have to represent a substantial fraction of the public—the amount of money they wield, or the amount of money they represent should be irrelevant.

If a hypothetical "Informed Citizenry for Net Neutrality" lobbying group contains a register of 50 million average Joes, well then, they get to officially lobby Congress on Net Neutrality. If the MPAA only has a register of 50,000 people, well then too damn bad. That's not enough people to warrant special consideration within Congress.

And if a corporate entity tries to "capture" a lobbying group for its own nefarious purposes, well, all the citizenry needs do is remove their names from the register, thus dropping the group below the threshold allowing them to lobby Congress.</rant>

[PyTom]

I personally don't like a speech limiting bill. Rather, I'd like a bill (or better yet, a constitutional amendment) that imposes term limits on the members of the house and senate. (Say, 3 terms for a congressman, and 2 terms for a senator.) The idea is that this would tend to discourage "professional politicians", and ensure that a large number of members of each house are no longer constantly running for re-election.

It would also ensure that we're getting people from the real world into politics. These problems will go away in a decade or so - when people who understand how the internet works - or know people who do - become congressmen. But until then, we'll see crap like this as the copyright interests try to survive for a few years longer.

[PyTom]

They just submitted The Internet is for Porn into the congressional record.