Dragon620026, thanks for posting that blurb! It explains it well/simply.

Just to put things into pony perspective, the SOPA bill has the potential to cause this site - and every MLP fan site - to be shut down. Without a judicial process.

Members that have uploaded any pictures of ponies, or fan art of ponies in signatures, etc, even customized ponies are at risk of being arrested and charged with a felony.

That is how the internet will be ruined. Google's sites might, I stress, might be able to stay running, because they can afford a team of lawyers but the rest of us are screwed.

Please, PLEASE sign petitions, do whatever you can to alert people about this bill and (in a hopeful world) stop it.

And in a STUNNING show of irony..

www.maximumpc.com/arti...shing_sopa

Quote::

The torrent watching website YouHaveDownloaded.com is still astounding us with its hypocrisy-revealing powers. A new search of the site, which tracks IP addresses pulling copyrighted material from a few public BitTorrent trackers, confirms that the U.S. House of Representatives is quite the hotbed of piracy at the same time it’s working to pass the much-maligned Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA). According to TorrentFreak, it’s not just a file here and there, but over 800 copyrighted works being downloaded on U.S House IP addresses. YouHaveDownloaded.com doesn’t even track the vast majority of downloads online, so the actual number could be much higher. The pirated content runs the gamut from self-help books, to TV shows, to porn. Yes, some congressional aids have been busy indeed. Experts on the Internet and its architecture have decried SOPA’s DNS-poisoning provisions that could damage the fabric of the Internet while seeking to block supposedly infringing sites. The entertainment lobby asserts that it loses billions to piracy every year, and the the industry needs more powerful tools to stop online copyright infringement. It’s unclear if they will also be seeking to shut off Congress’ net access.

I love this. I don't use torrents, but this is just ridiculous.

torrentfreak.com/while...es-111226/

Quote::

In recent weeks we discovered BitTorrent pirates at the RIAA, Sony, Fox, Universal and even law-abiding organizations such as the Department of Homeland Security. By now it should be clear that people are using BitTorrent pretty much everywhere, and not only for lawful downloads. Today we can add the U.S. House of Representatives to that list, the place where lawmakers are drafting the much discussed “Stop Online Piracy Act” (SOPA). houseYouHaveDownloaded is a treasure trove full of incriminating data on alleged BitTorrent pirates in organizations all across the world. Unauthorized downloads occur even in the most unexpected of places, from the palace of the French President, via the Church of God, to the RIAA.

it'd be funnier if it wasn't true =_=

I dunno. Call me crazy but this seems like one of those internet hoaxes running about. The ones that warn of some virus on Facebook or like that time where rumors were going about that the internet was to be shut down or something on Nov 4 2011 while the govt did that nationwide testing thingy but that never happened or all the end of the world claims that have all thus far been total busts.

Oh don't we wish!

thomas.loc.gov/cgi-bin...:H.R.3261:

^ Bill on the Library of Congress website

According to this article, I don't think it's going to happen:
www.digitaljournal.com...cle/316812

Yeah, if this passes then my career as an artist is pretty much over.

I get about 90% of my commission clients through sites like Deviantart and Tumblr, which are all going to be shut down if SOPA passes. And it's not just me, all the other artist out there that make a living doing commissions are going to be screwed over too. Same goes for really anyone who uses the internet to do business and is not a huge company, independent game makers are going to be out of luck, cuz no one will be able to find out about their games. The next Minecraft could be out there but no one would know about it!

So yeah. I guess if the bill does pass I'm going to have to find something to do other than being an artist :c

in response to that article, StarSwirl, GoDaddy has not retracted their official stance, despite what they say to win customers back.

Keep in mind that over 350 companies are supporting this bill. That is MUCH more than those companies that oppose it.

Yep, I'm in the same boat, Rika. This bill is (inserting lots of cursing that is totally inappropriate for this forum). Blah. Honestly, I think its going to pass, but I have hope that itll be struck down in the Supreme Court at some point.

Ive been watching this very closely.

It looks like it will pass, however, they are working on ammendments to the bill. I was watching it live the night that it was supposed to pass.

What got me was their talk on international people. Im not going to open a can of worms but the issues being disussed hit me..just because of everything else happening. Even though this will effect everything that starts and is on US soil, everyone else will still be effected heavily by it.

All we can really do is keep those fingers crossed.

This is just too weird... I don't understand how I hadn't even heard of this until just now. Usually a couple of my computer/technology/internet savvy friends on Facebook post links to stuff like this.

In any case... My thoughts: I can only hope something like this doesn't get passed; if it passes, it will mean rioting in the streets. End of story.

The way that I look at it (granted, I do not have any kind of internet-related or benefitted business to worry about, so my thoughts might be a little different than others') is that I vividly remember a time without the internet, and the world kept turning. We were all fine. We still got our news and necessities to live. I understand that there *are* people who count on the internet for their income, but there *was* a time, not too long ago, where the internet wasn't even an option.

Now, I still think this is a great big load of horse poop, but if it happens, it happens. Maybe it can be used as leverage for someone in the upcoming elections? (LOL!)

Without the internet I wouldn't even have my collection. It was me discovering that adults do collect toys that made me decide to keep a few toys I had gotten at a yard sale on impulse. If it wasn't for the internet I would have given them to my now 11 year old sister, who has 90% of her toys chewed by my mom's gaggle of Yorkies. Nobody I met offline shares this interest other than one random person who works at TRU. As a matter of fact if it wasn't for the internet there would be no more niche interests since there would be nobody to discuss any interests other than what Hollywood decides will be popular.

There;s a video from JeepersMedia (guy who does the fail toy reviews) where he basically points out most the sites who now support SOPA actually in the past distrubuted a lot of the piracy software like limewire and kazza and encouraged the use of the sites and now they've turned around and gone 'we're supporting it now'
www.youtube.com/watch?...ture=share

I doubt SOPA will pass though. It's stupid even people who upload say a 'first dance' video from their wedding and it has music on it they're apparently according to SOPA a felon. Really?
Piracy is a problem but SOPA is not a way to tackle it.

I didn't use to worry about SOPA, but it's a lot more than just "the internet". The internet has become a vital part of most youngsters' lives. This is especially true in America and even more in Japan..

And some non-US people think "Oh, that's America, not my problem". But what they forget is; what happens in America tends to spread all over the world..