Forum:S.O.P.A.

Yo, have any of you heard of the bill known as Stop Online Piracy Act, abbreviated S.O.P.A.? If passed, sites that use information (like wikis), videos, movies, or music (like YouTube)will be SHUT DOWN.

Any suggestions on what to do?-- Shade  20:13, 22 November 2011 (EST)


 * I've heard of it. Note that what you describe is really a worst case scenario but is a concern due to ambiguous wording. See here for info. All anyone can do is write letters to the public representatives to try to persuade them that the people don't want the bill to pass. --Dragonc laws (talk ) 20:17, 22 November 2011 (EST)
 * There is one thing though. This is an International site, meaning they can only stop this stuff in the United States, unless the rest of the world does the same.-- Commander  光环的家伙1234   Talk  ( Contribs ) ( Edits ) 21:51, 22 November 2011 (EST)
 * I guess I won't be here for a while then if it gets passed O_O-- Shade  23:13, 22 November 2011 (EST)
 * If the Bill is Passed but Microsoft allows the site to continue then it will still work in the US. Knowing Microsoft's history with Halo and it's fans, it's highly likely that Halopedia will be fine--210.56.81.46 02:06, 23 November 2011 (EST)


 * I looked at a summary... it seems like it's refering to websites that perform copyright infringement; particularly those that offer free, illegal downloads (or worse, charge for illegal downloads), along with sites that sell counterfeit products. We'll be fine.--  Fore  run  ner '' 11:07, 23 November 2011 (EST)

I think a lot of users have not actually considered the actual implications of this bill. The "Stop Online Piracy Act" or SOPA is introduced to give power to authorities to shutdown websites and/or make them inaccessible to the public, assuming that there is a case of infringement(s). This is not a simple regional block; the bill will allow the authorities to seize domain names which would prevent an everyday internet user from accessing a website. This can be circumvented if the IP address is still valid, and that it is memorised/written down by the user but honestly, who actually does that... Furthermore, the bill allows authorities to pressure US-based ISP companies to block/remove the website, so more issues there. As stated be several users, the bill allows authorities to block US-based websites; do note however that websites with common domains such as ".com", ".net" and ".org" is considered as a US-based website. In one case, a Spanish website hosted in Spain using ".com" was seized by US authorities for suspected infringement (Read more here). Websites with regional identifiers (i.e. ".co.uk" or ".co.fr") will be considered as a real foreign website and most likely will not be affected by the bill. So, to assume that foreign websites are not affected would be in the wrong.

The good news is that the bill has been turned down but not completely removed (Read more here).— subtank  15:09, 23 November 2011 (EST)


 * Thanks for the informative post. --Dragonc laws (talk ) 18:29, 24 November 2011 (EST)