Yes the Congress is screw-up and it defys all logic of reality , and brings extreme corruption to our system, as well as passes measures that are in total conflict of our Constitution. But here we go another measure as meaningful for there main point as Gun control is(if you ban guns the criminals will still have them) if you ban Piracy, Sharing, Hacking (oh yes, they are illegal already) the US Government will be able to control the internet as well as they did with Wikileaks... Oh but now they'll expand the illegal activity to include what most people do almost daily.... SO I guess we will all be criminals, as once you can no longer do anything with out breaking the rules you just ignore all rules..

"He who sacrifices ██████████ for ██████████ deserves neither." Ben Franklin

http://www.techdirt.com/...ad-without-sopapipa.shtml

I really don't know what to say. There is no coincidence that this happened the day after the SOPA/PIPA Protest....

It seems like a blatant smack down by corporate overlords, reminding the little guys that even if they don't get this law passed, they still own our asses.


Depressing.

Both the Democratic leadership in the Senate...

http://www.guardian.co.uk/...pa-sopa-senate-harry-reid

and Republican leadership...

http://www.techdirt.com/...dleahy-to-kill-pipa.shtml

Have abandoned PIPA.... this monstrosity has no reason to still exist.

on January 24, related PROTECT IP Act to be voted on in Senate
Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid plans to bring the Senate's version of the legislation (the Protect IP Act (PIPA)) to a vote on January 24. Reid rejected a request by six Senators for a postponement, saying "this is an issue that is too important to delay.

better move the EE site to Canada before Jan 24! :P

As of this evening it looks like Reid's cloture vote will fail. Republican minority leader says Senate Republicans won't back it which makes getting the 60 votes for cloture unlikely

It won't pass... That is, in it's current form anyways.

However, with the new Anonymous attacks that are hitting US gov't and MPAA/RIAA sites (and affiliates) due to the takedown of MegaUpload's 'family of sites', it isn't going to put people who oppose the anti-piracy bills in a good position.

I find it all too convenient that this happens a day after the protests.

so glad i dont live in the uS

Well its postponed ... and referred to a comity that will rework it and let it sneak back in when no one is looking ...

like the special provisions of the NDAA
or the raver act they added to the amber alert act

Gabe Newell on Piracy and DRM, 24 Nov. 2011:

"Q: Digital Rights Management (DRM) is a sensitive issue. Many games have been the subject of boycotts due to a draconian use of DRM. The most extreme DRM forces players to be online, and to stay online, if they wish to play the game. What are your views on DRM?

A: In general, we think there is a fundamental misconception about piracy. Piracy is almost always a service problem and not a pricing problem. For example, if a pirate offers a product anywhere in the world, 24 x 7, purchasable from the convenience of your personal computer, and the legal provider says the product is region-locked, will come to your country 3 months after the US release, and can only be purchased at a brick and mortar store, then the pirate's service is more valuable. Most DRM solutions diminish the value of the product by either directly restricting a customers use or by creating uncertainty.

Our goal is to create greater service value than pirates, and this has been successful enough for us that piracy is basically a non-issue for our company. For example, prior to entering the Russian market, we were told that Russia was a waste of time because everyone would pirate our products. Russia is now about to become our largest market in Europe."

what's a release date matter for? i rather enjoy video games and movies, but they are a waste of time, so it doesn't really matter when they're released because i ain't going to buy it until i can afford to waste some time.

I would say it goes two fold, the more you (Digital Owner try to protect product the more I would prefer to hack it/ obtain a hacked version... and over pricing I put in same category as Protecting from this aspect.)

and yes sorry I'm old...er then most here not oldest by far!
If it is something I want and under $40ish I'd probably buy it not worth the hassel, though it rarely much hassel.
but when a maker knocks themselves out to prevent it from being hacked its like a Challenge call to see if you can.

I guess it goes to early days/ poorer days of computing I can remember when Some people and Their co-workers would all bring in THeir commodore 64 computer hard drives, a monitor and computer and Their software/ They mostly obtained off bullentin boards break a game then copy for each, occasionally They would chip-in buy a game and do the same, just cause They didn't want to wait for a copy to be found, However at $40 a game on a military salary then They probably couldn't afford/ so wouldn't have even wasted Their money on buying computers if software wasn't obtainable for less then full price.
Others would be burning E-proms to convert (vending), and changing the stickers on the side walls, game machines to the latest, would Pac-man have taken off as fast??

I would suspect for most of the world that is still true today, Remember most of the world (yes more then half) still live in poverty and that is when you recognize it by UN standards ($1 a day) but even those just poor (under $2.per day) would never pay for a computer, nor internet, nor any software products. but as they become only slightly wealthier and get exposed they too rationalize that if they can buy/obtain the equipment they can enjoy the software by the various means, and only for that reason they make the equipment purchase . So yes long inded way of saying the whole Computer industry would still be in the 1980's/ bulliten board/ telenet status it was if not for software pirating/hacking. The industry is well aware of this which is also why we are still today 30 years later only arguing/ proposing this point.

I suspect we are finally crossing the point where yes there are enough sales to "theft" ratio that makes it more viable to capture the sales and hard punish the "copiers' that make it more profitable, then to continue the status quo that has carried the whole industry for the past 30 years.