EA, Nintendo, Sony Quietly Withdraw SOPA Support 204
wbr1 writes "Electronista reports that Sony, Nintendo, and Electronic Arts have all pulled their support for SOPA, but have not issued any statements as to why. The house.gov list of SOPA supporters is here."
Anonymous Threatened Sony (Score:5, Interesting)
Looking at this list, there's far better targets of groups of lawyers and lobbyists that don't do a goddamn thing or sell any tangible product. Not sure why those wouldn't be prioritized by Anonymous but, well, that's crowdsourcing for you. Maybe they identified Sony as the biggest fish that would disrupt the highest number of placated sheep who might actually contact their senator when their opiate flow is disturbed? Nahhhh
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(transcript here [playstationlifestyle.net] and a few more specifics here [playstationlifestyle.net])
Aggh. Why're people so in love with links that only read "here"? They're not quite informative.
But hey, happy new year. :)
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Because it flows with the sentence it's built into?
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And until [insert browser of choice here] further obfuscates the navigation bar into oblivion you can sneak a peek at where the link goes before you click it. I, for one, do not blindly dive into water, drive my car or click links without knowing what comes next.
PS: fuck tinyURL and it's ilk. Just bury the long URL under [HERE} [w3schools.com].
Re:Anonymous Threatened Sony (Score:4, Insightful)
There's also the other form where the links are spread over the words such as "There is many tech [engadget.com] web [anandtech.com] sites [tomshardware.com]". :)
Not a big deal, but people could give it just a little thought in general. It forces you to hover over all the links and makes the page harder to read if it's printed. A good rule of thumb could be that the same text should also work completely without the links around the words.
Re:Anonymous Threatened Sony (Score:5, Insightful)
Short answer: If Sony had felt threatened by Anonymous, it would only have strengthened their resolve.
No, IMHO the reason these corporations have withdrawn their support may be twofold, one may just be because they are starting to realize that SOPA may very well backfire on them legally. With SOPA there is no real competition left, and in that environment, what you can do to your competitors, they can do to you just as well.
However the most recent event, which I think shaped their decision, is the customer reaction to GoDaddy's support for SOPA. That told them that customers are actually willing talking with their wallet, and when they do, it can hurt them.
Re:Anonymous Threatened Sony (Score:5, Insightful)
I don't think Sony gives two left shits about Anons.
It's probably when Kotaku and the rest of the gaming news media caught on to who's supporting SOPA did they shit their pants.
Re:Anonymous Threatened Sony (Score:5, Insightful)
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Their industry trade association, the ESA, still supports SOPA. So YES, all 3 companies are still supporting it "privately"
http://boingboing.net/2011/12/31/ea-sony-nintendo-pull-suppor.html [boingboing.net]
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Or just "EA, Nintendo, Sony pull a GoDaddy." Much shorter, tells the same story.
Re:MAD (Score:4, Insightful)
MAD, published by Warner Bros. (Score:5, Funny)
SOPA is the "hydrogen bomb" of censorship, and MAD is its solution.
The publisher of MAD is still on the list of supporters. MAD is published by EC Comics, a unit of DC Comics, a unit of Time Warner.
Re:Anonymous Threatened Sony (Score:5, Insightful)
SONY is only one player. I just got off the phone leaving voice mail for some others on the list. Call them. Write them. Let your voice be heard. Give examples. First I told them I understood that piracy of film and music is a problem. I then told them I could shut down Slashdot, Picasa, Photobucket, Makezine, and many anti scam websites, etc for posting photos and text that users shared but did not make. Sites I use to promote my work would be shut down if this passes. Make it clear that the piracy is a problem, but the proposed solution would shut down sites individuals use. We do not need the Internet to become just another TV or radio station for big media. The Internet would be of no use if that happens.
Slashdot could be shut down for most everything placed in quotes. This is WRONG.
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Re:Anonymous Threatened Sony (Score:5, Interesting)
Actually, I rather doubt that had anything to do with it at all.
Sony and its leaders are pretty arrogant. They know any attack is temporary. They might have to stop online sales or the collection of sales/personal data on internet connected servers or things like that, but it wouldn't otherwise faze them.
No, what I think got to them is the tremendous and mobile public response made against the likes of Go Daddy. I'm ever so proud of our internet. And by internet, I don't mean the network devices, ISPs and other business and government presence. I mean the people who use it. You reading this now are the internet... the 'series of tubes' that you are. :)
The internet is really coming into its own as a force for public expression and more importantly for change in the public's interest. It's the last chance the world really has for "peaceful revolution" as it were. For a lot of us, we imagine there will be jack-boots marching across the US and small groups of resistance everywhere. It's not that hard to imagine really. But lately, it seems the business interests which pay [read: buy] the government is having its money supply threatened. That's where the real fear comes into play.
Fact is, most of all this 'online piracy' is over things which aren't necessary for life. It's entertainment. There will always be entertainment even if we have to sing and play it for ourselves. (YouTube has proven that well enough I think) If people get pissed off enough to boycott any of them in large numbers for any amount of time, they will not just interrupt cash flow for the short term, people will begin to realize that a world without Sony or Nintendo would be... not so different... not so bad. And believe me -- a Linux based F/OSS console and gaming network would spring up so fast with Google's Android as the core, it would become a huge game changer.
They can't afford to piss off their customers any longer. THAT's the fear you are witnessing them act on.
Re:Anonymous Threatened Sony (Score:4)
You reading this now are the internet... the 'series of tubes' that you are. :)
I like the extrapolation: my body is a series of tubes that allow communication between remote parts of my body. The internet is similar, in that it allows communication between remote parts of the world. I really like the biological metaphor, because it truly is like the world is developing into a new organism. A much larger, much harder-to-destroy organism. (For the karma, it's something like a car as well. ;)
Long-form video games (Score:3)
And believe me -- a Linux based F/OSS console and gaming network would spring up so fast with Google's Android as the core, it would become a huge game changer.
Who would make long-form, high-production-value video games for such a platform? Video games distributed as free software and most games on the phone app stores tend to be short-form, the kind of game that has its beginning, middle, and end in 5 to 10 minute plays. But where's the free counterpart to Super Mario Galaxy or Twilight Princess or the single-player campaign of Call of Doody, erm, Duty series?
Why would Sony be afraid? (Score:2, Insightful)
I understand angst. I understand outrage. I understand wanting to "do something about it."
But Anonymous is a voice without a mission. They and the Occupy protesters expect the world to change policy on a dime just because they've suddenly discovered that the world sucks and the greedy get away with it.
They can both take a spin. The movement to fight the US DEA's dogmatic persecution of cannabis users and patients began before I was born. It's been a multi-generational battle, with each generation
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"They have no speakers informing the public." - So all the youtube videos from Anon, the protestors with signs, the country-wide gatherings to SPEAK and I
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So if a bunch of dirty squatters have to get in the public's face for a couple of months before the police will pull out the rubber bullets and mace to get rid of them, I should take their word at face value and be outraged that their right to free speech was violated? Pfft.
You don't know what oppression is, kid.
Re:Why would Sony be afraid? (Score:4, Insightful)
I'd fight for your right to protest the gathering of "dirty squatters," and the founding principles of our country expect you to do the same for them.
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But The Really Didn't.... (Score:5, Informative)
Re:But The Really Didn't.... (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:But The Really Didn't.... (Score:5, Funny)
"No! Not anymore! Really! We like you! Buy our crap!"
Witnesses say they were riding their shiny new signature-series GoDaddy Backpeddler 3000 a the time they overheard this...
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Re:But The Really Didn't.... (Score:5, Informative)
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Comment removed (Score:5, Interesting)
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Business Software Alliance (BSA) supports SOPA and of course their biggest supporters and founding members Apple and Microsoft.
a recent BSA bulletin:
The Business Software Alliance today commended House Judiciary Committee Chairman Lamar Smith (R-Texas) for introducing the “Stop Online Piracy Act” (H.R. 3261) to curb the growing rash of software piracy and other forms of intellectual property theft that are being perpetrated by illicit websites.
Re:But The Really Didn't.... (Score:4, Informative)
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BSA stands ready to work with Chairman Smith and his colleagues on the Judiciary Committee to resolve these issues. [bsa.org]
Did you even read the link? They're still supporting it, although not in the current form, ONLY now that there is a large stink about it. Did they not read what they were endorsing before? How about withdrawing support entirely? Too many of these companies involved and simply playing lip service. It's like saying "We promise to do our best!" promises, especially from a corporation, are not legally binding. So how is this backing off support if they want to work on it?
If it was quiet... (Score:5, Insightful)
If it was quiet, they still support it. They just don't want to lose as many customers.
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Interesting people have not noticed that Sony Music is still on the list.
Also, I noticed the National Sheriff's Association is also on the list. Guess my yearly donation will now be going to a better org.
Now the question I have is that if SOPA passes, how long do you think it will take for every business that supports it to have some sort of infringing material?
"Oh look Sony, I can tell by the metadata in your websites header image that some intern you hired years ago used a pirated version of Photoshop....
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Not Entirely Withdrawn (Score:5, Informative)
They have only reduced their support, rather than fully withdrawn it.
According to Destructoid [destructoid.com] they are still members of The ESA [theesa.com] which still supports SOPA.
Re:Not Entirely Withdrawn (Score:5, Insightful)
Well, of course. They still support it, they just don't want to announce that they support it and all the bad press, gamer retaliatation and vigilante attacks (ie., anonymous) that that implies, so they hide behind an industry trade group.
Re:Not Entirely Withdrawn (Score:5, Insightful)
Exactly.
The GoDaddy clusterfuck just taught them to not be stupid enough to connect your company name to it directly.
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Yes, but ultimately this is hardly the only abusive practice that the ESA has supported over the years. They might not be as abusive and generally evil as the BSA, but that doesn't mean that they aren't above tampering with the Wikipedia to deliver their own propaganda.
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On the other hand, I presume without some sort of agreement from EA, Sony and Nintendo, that the ESA would not officially be able to support the bill. Those three probably comprise the vast bulk of the power of the ESA. Note that while several music companies are in the list as well, but the RIAA is not.
I would say omission from the list of supporters is a step in the right direction, but actively speaking out against the bill is what would really count. As it stands there is a lot of ambiguity in their
Makes you wonder.... (Score:2)
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Where is the list of objectors? (Score:5, Interesting)
Re:Where is the list of objectors? (Score:5, Informative)
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Interestingly enough, it's probably more true than we realize. Consider the very small portion of the population that has a fetish for all things scatological. Given the fundamentally repulsive nature of the subject it's reasonable to assume that everyone else objects to all things scatologica
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They're too busy staring at money to care about objectors.
Is it me... (Score:5, Interesting)
This may be the way out (Score:5, Interesting)
I've been puzzling over the corruption caused by business influence on government for awhile.
Setting it up as a problem in game theory, the tenet "candidate who spends the most money wins the election [opensecrets.org]" makes the outcome a foregone conclusion: elected government officials will be in the pocket of corporations, in all cases.
This may be a way out.
We've bemoaned our inability to influence the political system, but here we see a striking example of the population rising up and affecting specific government actions.
Public outcry stopped the AT&T/T-Mobile merger, or at least it helped. Similarly, public outcry attempted to hurt Bank of America and GoDaddy over their political beliefs.
If we can make this work it will give us the fine control over government that we have been missing. We've been able to affect small companies - HBGary [arstechnica.com], Stratfor [nytimes.com], Ocean Marketing [kotaku.com], Sony [arstechnica.com]. (OK, Sony isn't that small, but it was a slice of Sony much smaller than BOA.)
Future companies may need to think twice before supporting oppressive or corrupt legislation - if only because of the chance that the people will rise up and hurt their bottom line.
We haven't had an effect on the really big companies yet (BOA), but I'm hoping that this grows to be a worldwide trend. We need to install a healthy dose of respect for public opinion. To put it succinctly, the companies have to fear the possibility of public retribution, both legal and extra-legal.
This will give us the power to affect legislation, to control the corruption. This will put government back in the hands of the people.
If we can make this work...
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Setting it up as a problem in game theory, the tenet "candidate who spends the most money wins the election [opensecrets.org]" makes the outcome a foregone conclusion: elected government officials will be in the pocket of corporations, in all cases.
Another way to see this is that candidate who raised the most money also had the most number of supporters...
Re:This may be the way out (Score:5, Insightful)
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I'm fairly confident that corporate donations are usually higher than individual, but I wouldn't assert it as a fact unless I had... facts.
Anyway, I think it's not so terrible. The candidate that is probably going to win, will innately attract more donations by people currying favor. The correlation there may not be causation. Also, there is no corporate donation that isn't, at some point, decided by an individual.
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Actually, it's not just the "campaign" money, it's the promise of a cushy job afterwards, and also Corps being able to pull favors for you with other congressmen who are already in their pockets. For facts, why just look at FCC members becoming *AA Goons, or just maybe search for lobbyist owns congress [citizensnewsdaily.com].
Oh, wait... You're looking for donation trails? [opensecrets.org]
Gee, that wasn't hard now was it? What's that? Oh, you want COLD HARD FACTS... you mean, the info they've paid big bucks to hide very very well? Yeah, k
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Setting it up as a problem in game theory, the tenet "candidate who spends the most money wins the election [opensecrets.org]" makes the outcome a foregone conclusion: elected government officials will be in the pocket of corporations, in all cases.
Another way to see this is that candidate who raised the most money also had the most number of supporters...
Only if contributions to, and spending on behalf, of candidates were limited to private donations with a fairly low cap so that it was actually number of supporters that determined revenue.
We do not have that situation. Corporations can now spend unlimited sums to promote a candidate. Wall Street firms with thousands of employees making high 6 figures (and up) have methods of bundling 'voluntary' maximum contributions (far above what 90% of Americans could afford) from their employees into huge packages of
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Public outcry stopped the AT&T/T-Mobile merger, or at least it helped. Similarly, public outcry attempted to hurt Bank of America and GoDaddy over their political beliefs.
[...]
We haven't had an effect on the really big companies yet (BOA), but I'm hoping that this grows to be a worldwide trend.
I had the following idea a few days ago, regarding the banking issue, and would like to hang it off your post for the world to perhaps use, or if not at least be entertained by.
The idea stems from fractional reserve banking; the fact that a bank does not have all of the money it would require on-hand if all depositors chose to remove their deposits on the same day.
It also stems from the Occupy movement.
So without further ado: Occupy Bank of America. Open an account, deposit a thousand dollars. Do this ove
Forcing a run on the bank (Score:3)
Other people have had this idea over the years.
Banks are not required to give out cash immediately. In cases where their fractional reserve is in peril, they can delay payouts for some period of time (IIRC it's on the order of 24-48 hours, but this has probably changed over the years).
They use the extra time to get a large dollop of cash from the nearest federal reserve branch. The system is set up specifically to prevent a run on the bank, which is what you are suggesting.
The best you could hope is for the
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Other people have had this idea over the years.
Thanks, and I agree -- it's not an original idea to devise some sort of financial IED to slow down the invaders/occupiers/imperialists/etc.
I'm not aware of any of these actions being illegal, but you can bet that the establishment will take a very dim view. They will begin by arresting people for trumped up charges (arresting peaceful people in line at the bank for trespassing, or public nuisance), then passing laws which make this behaviour specifically illegal.
I somewhat like the idea of it becoming harder and harder to both run a bank, and be a customer. I think if the people making the rules had a systemic view, they would instead make the leverage-based business model illegal. Rather than the paying customers' collective actions. Because failure is built in to the system (hence the systemic view is required, because look
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Admittedly cynically, I suspect that had more to do with the threat of the feds poking around than actually giving a fuck about their customers.
Kind of like in season 2 of B5, when Sheridan used the threat of "inspectors from Earth" to force Londo's hand... They probably have far worse things going on that they don't want coming out.
Success. (Score:3)
Earlier in the Corey Doctorow thread I suggested closed platforms are our fault. That perhaps we hadn't made the case well enough.
I think though. We made a victory here.
Snowball effect (Score:2)
Is this the beginning of the end of SOPA? EA, Sony, Nintendo and others pulling support. Maybe the ESA itself will pull support if enough of its members do. I hear Microsoft and other ESA members are pressuring them to abandon SOPA...
Again, how does this matter? (Score:2)
So they withdrew public support and will become private supporters.
The only support that matters to senators is private and the most important to them... money.
The only think that I can think of that might work is an organized group that publicized what politicians supported and stopped a him from being reelected but in a way that they could take credit. A politicians would listen to them then.
In this modern era what I would most want to see is direct democracy. We don't really need senators or representati
where is the list of objectors? (Score:2)
If the government is publishing the list of supporters, shouldn't they publish the list of people who have objected?
the government site is here:
http://judiciary.house.gov/issues/issues_RogueWebsites.html [house.gov]
perhaps nobody has objected?
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If the government is publishing the list of supporters, shouldn't they publish the list of people who have objected?
perhaps nobody has objected?
Uh, they did:
http://www.opencongress.org/bill/112-h3261/money [opencongress.org]
See "Interests that oppose this bill" and below.
Try, try again (Score:5, Interesting)
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With a new name. Something like Puppies and Children Protection Act. Or an Omnibus spending act.
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they will just add it as a rider on the next defense funding bill that will be needed for naval exercises in the middle east.
Don't Just Withdraw Support (Score:2)
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I explained it to one friend thusly (she's a nerd, but not a computer nerd): "It would, for example, allow Nintendo to sue and possibly shut down Facebook over the photo you posted of your (DIY) Pikachu sweater."
I've been wondering... (Score:2)
Will SOPA affect the usage of the internet for people outside of the USA, but where a recursive DNS query might happen to travel through it (for example, somebody in mexico finding a domain that is based in Canada, or vice versa)?
It's been suggested that people who utilize DNSSEC can simply ignore SOPA, because SOPA explicitly states that nobody is required to make significant changes to their software or facilities to comply with it. Will organizations that use DNSSEC be later dragged into court for "
I wish it would pass for *ONE* reason. (Score:2, Insightful)
Kill fucking Zynga.
Some of the other "supporters" aren't. (Score:3)
Checking the list of supporters vs. the legislative agenda of the organization shows some gaps.
Somebody is making this stuff up.
I See A Disturbing Trend (Score:2)
2012, the year the world changes due to SOPA? (Score:2)
I'm posting this from the future -- it's already 2012 in this part of the world (woohoo!)
I wrote my first column for 2012 today and in it I speculate that SOPA, if it's passed into law, might just be the straw that breaks the camel's back.
While governments all over the world seek to control, regulate, restrict and constrain the internet so as to protect their own power to impose ideologies on those who elect them to power, I have a feeling that SOPA could be just one step too far and might act as a catalyst
Better than Godaddy (Score:2)
I respect a silent withdrawal more than Godaddy's self-congratulatory noisy one.
It looks pretty simple to me (Score:2)
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Not all PDF URLs end with .pdf (Score:2)
You mean like the tag at the end of the link that says ".pdf" every time?
The last characters of a URL do not necessarily determine the media type of a document delivered over HTTP. The Content-type: header does. Consider these URLs:
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According to their website, their goal is to "bring Biblical principles into all levels of public policy." Can anyone explain to me which Biblical principle is at stake here?
Re:Concerned Women for America (CWA) (Score:4, Insightful)
Thou shalt not make copies of things (e.g. movies, music, fish, bread) without first paying.
Re:Concerned Women for America (CWA) (Score:4, Funny)
So JC was a pirate? I knew it! Arrrr!
Re:Concerned Women for America (CWA) (Score:5, Funny)
You know that "You wouldn't download a car" adage? Well, Jesus would and could.
He distributed illegal copies of bread and fish (see, no theft, just copying) depriving fishermen and bakers of their profits and circumvented DRM to upgrade water to wine bypassing the winery and proper grapes fermentation process.
Copyresponsibility (Score:2)
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People no longer need to invest in unknown quantities. They can take projects directly to the public and get funding, and the public gets products they want without the middlemen of distribution. Since they are paying for the costs of production up front, nobody can bitch and moan about what gets lost by copies made later.
False scarcity of intangible goods should and will die.
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You forgot the IP! You can be omni-efficient and omni-organized and still fail if you haven't paid the omnipresent patent trolls. Looks as if the process of ascertaining a level of hunger and giving an allotment of bread and wine to cure the affliction may soon be patentable, as well.
WWJD? [techdirt.com]
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Well, technically The Bible (most versions) isn't copyrightable due to the sheer age of the publication (it was the very first book off of Gutenberg's first press, FFS).
Maybe they thought SOPA would screw that up in some way?
I'm only half joking, but did want to raise the point that copyright laws have a nasty habit of unintended consequences, and maybe some crafty soul (bless him) scared 'em into thinking that they couldn't copy off and pass around hymns and such anymore.
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technically The Bible (most versions) isn't copyrightable due to the sheer age of the publication
Most English translations of the Christian Bible in common use, other than the 1611 King James Version, are post-1922 and therefore copyrighted [examiner.com]. Even the KJV is subject to copyright-like exclusive rights in Great Britain and Northern Ireland.
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This is about that most Christian of virtues, making sure that the rich don't have to earn their money.
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Re:I get the media companies, but... (Score:5, Insightful)
You have a good point about the IBEW, electrical codes and standards. The code and standards publishing bodies guard their products jealously. And they do chase down people who violate their copyrights aggressively. Sometimes too aggressively, if one assumes 'fair use' and quotes too extensively from their publications.
The NFPA [nfpa.org], the publisher of various electrical, safety and fire codes also provides training and (at one time, maybe not anymore) offered a code interpretation service (which may have come dangerously close to providing engineering services without a license). As such, they are in direct competition with other training and engineering service providers. Armed with SOPA, they could pretty much shut down any competing services. Or at least drive them off the 'Net. The IEEE [ieee.org] holds a similar position in that many ordinances simply cite their standards in statutes or regulations and expect anyone having to comply with said regulations to cough up $$$ to obtain a copy.
Obligatory bad car analogy: Think of a world where traffic laws just referred to some AAA [aaa.com] driving handbook, available only to paying members.
I'm sure that there are many analogous examples in different professions where one quasi-official publisher could effectively control their industry given sufficient ammunition.
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So? These are independent organizations that have to generate cash to survive. What would you have them do as an alternative?
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Publicly funding their code-making function would be a start. And the whole "independent organizations" thing is questionable when my legislature rubber stamps their product as a government regulation. The government is the customer for their product. The government should pay. Once they have to fund the process (instead of passing costs on to a minority of the voting public), they might stop buying into every silly little revision that gets issued.
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Yes, but they are profitable now, and in addition the people who actually use these standards pay for them.
Nationalization it isn't likely to improve on this situation.
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Try a little harder. You may feel better about yourself. Cheap ground beef leaving a bad taste in your mind? Make yourself a lentil burger instead! Latest AAA leave you hollow? Play a cheap Indie game!
A lot of how you enjoy something comes from higher-level thoughts. And besides, lentils and Terraria are delicious!
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Both MasterCard and Visa are on the list. I'd be happy with American Express or Diners Club or whatever, but living in Europe there's not much else than those two.
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I turned my back on the NFL when they went all gung-ho on the second Iraq war. They have since backed off that stance to a degree (most likely due to the Pat Tillman [wikipedia.org] backlash), but I found that I really didn't miss their product all that much. I still don't. I don't actively avoid it any longer, but I also don't seek it out. American football (not just the NFL) is a series of kludges designed to keep the game from getting too lopsided toward either offense OR defense -- no major sports league in the world c