If commercial copyright was 5 years or even 10 Disney would have to prove market value by keeping on producing great stuff. As is, their latter abuse of the classics is making it quite clear that they’ve grown lazy.

And no wonder. They are in large parts relying on the cast-offs from a long-dead animator instead of producing quality.

Ironically enough I have no problem showing a computer-illiterate luser how to set up one-click VPN and filesharing but it’s bluntly impossible for me to teach them basic computer and password maintenance.

SOPA achieves no targets at all. It’s simply an increasingly desperate measure as a result of enough vested interests shrieking “DO SOMETHING!!!” in a wild panic.

As far as “copyright” is concerned…no, it is not a thing anyone can logically support other than in theory. In practice, any copyright system possibly bar some of the more liberal creative commons configurations will simply be a weapon in the hands of the one who can afford the most lawyers.
It’s the exception to the rule where copyright actually benefited the artist, not the trend. And it’s been that way since the 16th century when the Stationer’s Guild pushed through “copyright” as the logical extension of their monopoly on printed goods.

The theory of copyright as a tool of benevolence for artists and society is as useful as the theory of perfect communism – it cannot survive contact with the human race and is too open to abuse.

I suspect that’s the real goal here. The people pushing for SOPA and other internet censorship laws know full well that tech savvy users can bypass such restrictions, but they also know most ordinary citizens really aren’t all that tech savvy. They know they’ll never get their $1+ per song or 20+ bucks per Blu-Ray from hardcore pirates, but there’s a big difference between a small percentage of people downloading stuff they probably would never pay retail for anyway and the hordes of consumers that actually gobble up their products realizing that they can get the same music and movies for free. If even one person says “this torrent stuff is too much hassle now, I’ll just go to iTunes” then the RIAA will consider that a win. Never mind all the legitimate sites that will be hurt, the independent artists who will have a harder time getting their music out (actually, that’s probably also intentional since the major labels don’t really want it to be easy to go independent), and so forth… it’s all about keeping the sheep nice and ignorant so they’ll keep feeding bloated industries who would rather just buy legislation than update their outdated business strategies.

And of course the politicians love SOPA, since governments hate not being in control of things. I’m still hoping that SOPA won’t pass, but if it does I for one am not voting for ANYONE who voted yes on it. It’s crap like this (and the attempts to force other countries to enact similar laws) that are making me ashamed to be an American instead of proud.

…and sheep everywhere. Fact.

Don’t kid yourself – sheep aren’t limited to any specific geographic location.
The European “union” is proof of this… ;-)

MAFIAAfire being top of the list first of course :)
http://mafiaafire.com/report_site.php
(btw guys, I LOVE the way you kept the .com domain and used mirrors.)

It’s not just about business, profits and how money is made or even exchanged for goods & services.

This war goes to the very heart of freedom, democracy, openness, cooperation, fair trade and the right NOT to continue being ripped-off by money-grabbing, corporate thieves who want to sell you the same item time & time again you’ve already paid for.

It’s about justice, fairness and true market forces (without the corruption of monopolies and their out-dated CopyWrong laws).

Thanks for making 2011 a better year for many ordinary people and sites worldwide, and may that trend continue in 2012 my friends.

Unless the MAFIAA and their paid-for political puppets in the US government, the DHS, ICE, DoJ, US Office of the Trade Representative and US embassies worldwide somehow and miraculously wise up and see the true folly of their fascist censorship régime in protecting an industry who wants to stay in the 20th century instead adapting their profit-model to the 21st century popular people’s movement called the internet.

All power to MAFIAAfire for as long as you guys are needed to thwart these demented asswipes on their fevered and frenzied pursuit of ever-increasing profits.