SOPAPIPA garbage

I don't want to live on this planet anymore

www.megaupload.com/

Youtube press coverage
www.youtube.com/watch?v=sMfkR6…

to quote this article:  readersupportednews.org/off-si…

"It nonetheless sends a very clear message when citizens celebrate a rare victory in denying the Government a power it seeks — the power to shut down websites without a trial — only for the Government to turn around the very next day and shut down one of the world's largest and best-known sites. Whether intended or not, the message is unmistakable: Congratulations, citizens, on your cute little "democracy" victory in denying us the power to shut down websites without a trial: we're now going to shut down one of your most popular websites without a trial."

In a previous bill, the government was allowed to seize people suspected of terrorist activity without trial, and that is what lead to this megaupload mess (and subsequently, why some people such as Obama denied the bill - the power was already there, mixed in the words somewhere.)

.again:
"those issues should be decided upon a full trial in a court of law, not by government decree. Especially when it comes to Draconian government punishments — destroying businesses, shutting down websites, imprisoning people for life, assassinating them — what distinguishes a tyrannical society from a free one is whether the government is first required to prove guilt in a fair, adversarial proceeding. This is a precept Americans were once taught about why their country was superior, was reflexively understood, and was enshrined as the core political principle: "no person shall be deprived of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law." It's simply not a principle that is believed in any longer, and therefore is not remotely observed."

And I will disagree with the superior part, but what happened is true and incredibly sloppy.  How do they NOT expect retaliation?  Well, the reliable hacktivist group Anonymous ravaged a couple government and music industry sites.  One can't trust everything Anonymous does since it is a conglomerate with no group motive, but in times like this it's nice to count on the only group showing up which can actually achieve some level of retaliation.

My sentiments, while it is not a perfect world scenario, hackers patch, update, improve software, and foil companies and governments so many times they are their worst competition - which ultimately ends up improving the product.  Pirates steal and distribute, while which may lower funds, in the end businesses have to buy licensed copies of anything and plenty of people exist who want to buy or collect things and have them in hand.  In majority, and most importantly, these sites host freeware and user-generated content, which is not illegal and is injured by this government predation.

For SOPA and PIPA, the affect was to be able to block sites that hosted copyright infringed content - which cripples any free userbase such as this or as Wikipedia pushed forth, itself.  Basically what has happened with these bills is that, as one of the editors of Wikipedia put it, "It's like suing the Ford Company because somebody used a Mustang to rob a bank."  Websites can't possibly be held responsible for what all of its users do; or else the alternative is that a userbase would have to not exist.  It requires policing on an extraordinary level.  With SOPA and PIPA failing as bills, The government goes ahead and Shuts down (not blocks, suspends, or anything of that sort) Megaupload, on the basis that it "supported copyright infringement" or, really, that its users uploaded copyrighted material.  Who is responsible?  The hoster or the infringer?  Seven of the Megaupload founders/cofounders were arrested without trial.

As an endnote..

I would just hate for everything to be monitored, China's government as you know monitors and blocks websites, and goes the extra mile of scanning citizen's blogs to see if there is anti-Chinese sentiment.  The US isn't much better, since they record every cellphone call and have a machine search it for key word combinations.  Not to rile people up, but I think it is worth mentioning how clamped restrictions are at this point, and how little it seems to matter or occur to people.  Does it matter to you?

I hope I am not just washed up.