Keep fighting the good fight! We need people like you to protect our little corner of the internet.
The ending made me sad, though.

Say no to SOPA until it has specific wording clarifying that it can only target foreign websites, which is all it would need to target if it is suppose to be against piracy. The DMCA can already shutdown websites in the USA for illegally torrent/file sharing, so they don't even need this power on our own soil. They need it vs foreign websites that DMCA CAN'T target. It should also state that it can only target websites that allow the download of such files, not simply show bits of footage such as what is in reviews, hence the "fair use" clause.

Don't forget about the Protect IP Act. The Protect IP Act gives copyright holders the same power to file injunctions against (alleged) violators, and it specifically targets domestic websites.

We're all behind you. I've contacted a bunch of senators by now. And now that one of the internet's founders is against it, that increases my hope a bit.

Keep fighting the good fight from your friends in the United Kingdom!

very interesting documentation. this was really touching, and I hope it will work out the way you want.

good luck from germany :)

Too bad no-one bothered to stop the law that allows the US to arrest it's citizens with no evidence, and detain them indefinitely without giving a trial

it came into effect yesterday
I'd be careful in your place

Aren't the considering one that will make it mandatory to house soldiers in emergencies as well. Which means that if that one, and the SOPA pass then officially the United States government will have shit all over three of the Rights in the Bill of Rights. Which is just lovely.

Please don't sully SOPA support with this nonsense. The government already could do all of this. They were already doing it in Gitmo. That bill just defines when, and Obama specifically got it negotiated down to where Al Qaida operators can still get jury trials.

Ignorance of this is just going to make people think we are ignorant about SOPA as well.

Nonsense? Sure, they were already doing it but now they've actually made it LEGAL. People should have stood up when they first started doing it, yes, but this was the last straw, they REALLY should have been flooding the streets. But no, of course not. And I don't really blame them, I know it's human to like to live in a bubble and only believe what they want to believe. I guess future will be the judge on the issue.

Also, I heard nothing of any changes about the trials. And I can't find anything about it either. All I know is that there was discussion about Obama wanting changes made. Can you give me a source for that?

What law gave them the power to arrest citizens without evidence? How long are they detained wothout evidence? Are they sentenced without evidence?

So this Bill's can cripple the Internet pretty fast, at least from what io get out of it. But the Funny thing with the numbers is, that they cant proove them in anyway but build the Bill's around them?
Well the Swiss-goverment's Research showed that
1: Most poeple dont even know that a Site is illeagel if they "use" it
2: The money they save there isnt lost for the Company's cause all they save on watching a movie online, instead of buying the DVD, is spent later on another DVD, for example.
So in that Case the money that the entertainment industry will earn doesnt change at all, but the taxincome from such site like ThatGuyWithTheGlasses. com would at least change if not even some poeple get unemployed because of that, what would mean: Less Tax income for the Goverment and less earned Money that will be spend in the entertainment industry...

So please keep fighting, you're right about it!
Oh and Greetings from Germany.

You do have our support, this effects everyone, and it's not just a matter of free speech - people's jobs are at risk if these things pass, and they abuse the power they're granted by that passing. It's very much like DRM, where it's going to come down on the legitimate user, over and over again it's always the same story; the legitimate user is punished by companies going after the negative entity. This will be no different and the result will be the same. The peaceable people will suffer, while the negative elements will continue on without a problem. For any single negative entity they'll try and take down, a dozen more will pop up, and it's for a very obvious reason - we all know why the negative elements exist, there's no getting rid of that, even if you take away every single possible right a Human Being might have to take.

Keep up the good fight!

But I disagree with the notion that Google should be more evil. Google is evil enough already.

This is a little scary... I was under the impression that SOPA was turned down, though?

Nope. They just decided not to vote on it for a bit. Then once they do it goes to the Senate, who does the same thing. Then after THAT it goes to the President who has the power to veto it right out of existence.

There's a long way to go yet.

So Paw was just there to look good? I can support that!

Coming from germany I can assure you, theses problemes are occuring everywhere, because people in the legislative don't know shit about the internet but still have the balls to pass laws about it.

I cannot believe, that some politicians don't understand that good intention (on their part) does not equal guarantee.

Laws are tools, tools can be misused. If I intend to use my hatchet only to chop wood does not mean that someone else can't use it to kill people.

We had a similar bill in Hungary roughly a year ago. Vague descriptions on what counts as illegal and what doesn't, sites can be charged based upon the content of the comment section, etc.
Fortunately, thanks to EU pressure (and massive protest from all kinds of media) it didn't pass.

Anyway, don't give up!
Good luck guys!

Solidarity from Canada! Fight the Powah!

You have my support from Norway. I used the link at the message popping up each day here at thatguywiththeglasses, for the ones who's not from USA.

Good luck to you all, I pray it will not pass.

she re-edited this the first time she uploaded it you could see todd face at 8:33 haha

if those bill will pass, Anonymous or any other hacktivity group probably gonna make something big... i hope bills won't pass, keep it up TGWTG team! Jeste?my z wami!

Unemployment will go up, hackers will rebel, anti-Hollywood boycotts will do more than just pledge not to buy, & rich people will have dog turds thrown at their limos on the way to work.

Very interesting

0% of the people I've talked to IRL or online support SOPA. We figure if it passes, the next president will veto it if this one doesn't. Unfortunately I hear the have a backup bill in case SOPA fails.

If the bill goes into effect, unemployment is going to go through the roof, & less importantly, we'll have to actually watch TV again.

You look classy, Paw.

did they say anything about censoring foreign sites? I spend a good chunk of my internet time on Japanese sites.

If I got it right it concerns sites with American based domains like .com and .net etc. Somebody correct me if I'm wrong though, because I have no idea if this info is correct.

You mean more importantly?lol

But seriously, most tv now is shit. anything i do watch, i watch online, because what's the point of paying for these expensive plans when one watches so little tv(I'll bet that's one of the reasons they want to pass this)?

Funfacts about me (which no one will care about, but *shrug*) I am from the DC area. And I went to high school with the sons and daughters of a few congressmen and senators. My father still lives next door to one as well. My very first ever boyfriend has dreams of being a politician (and dumped me for not trusting the government). Oh and my bff is the grandson of 4 lobbyists. I've been jaded about the way the US government works since 2001, when I was 10.

I've called, I got my father to call in as well as talk to the congressman who lives next door to him (in an informal setting). And I can't help but wish and wish that this does not go through. I will be moving back to DC in April to work at a small music label. I wont be making as much as I do now, but it will be something that I will enjoy doing and there is a good chance that if this goes through I wont have the job anymore.

The ironic thing is that you hear ads all the time, down there, with the voices of elected officials urging you to support small businesses and so many of those people are actually considering something that will greatly hinder the small businesses that they are urging the American people to protect.

I would say that they're just saying to protect small business because that's what Americans want to hear. They probably couldn't give two shits as long as they get paid.

And, you probably already know this, but you're much better without that guy. ^_^

Stop Online Piracy Act Vote Delayed, Probably Well Into 2012

Story : http://arstechnica.com/ tech-policy/news/2011/12/ stop-online-piracy-act- vote-dela

The House Judiciary Committee considering whether to send the Stop Online Piracy Act to the House floor abruptly adjourned Friday with no new vote date set - a surprise given that the bill looked certain to pass out of committee today.

The committee's chairman and chief sponsor of the legislation, Rep. Lamar Smith (R-Texas), agreed to further explore a controversial provision that lets the Attorney General order changes to core internet infrastructure in order to stop copyright infringement.

Smith said the hearing would resume at the "earliest practical day that Congress is in session." That could be weeks.

The abrupt halt to Friday's proceeding, which followed a marathon-long, 11-hour hearing Thursday, was based on a motion from Rep. Jason Chaffetz (R-Utah). He urged Smith to postpone the session until technical experts could be brought in to testify whether altering the internet's domain-naming system to fight websites deemed "dedicated" to infringing activity would create security risks.

Glad you guys are doing all you can to get this stopped. My one question is, does it affect those who post art on Deviant Art or any other website?

I'm just happy to see Nchick rockin the wawa coffee.

Good for you for standing up to this bullshit law. Personally, I don't think that the government will listen to the populace and instead focus more on big businesses... but I'm just cynical. But I'll fight this thing as much as I can.

Good job to all of you for all your efforts!

Lindsey, great camera work and editing. This mini-documentary looks fantastic :)

On a lighter note...
Nella, I love your cocktail knowledge and I love the scarf you are knitting!

It's all about the money isn't it.

I wish that the people making this thing would also soon realise that what-ever they do, if any-thing gets through, is not only an American things, the internet is a global matter and affect people globaly.

I'm from Denmark, and I love this site. It taught me a lot through the years, and I would hate to see it go down.
Further more, I just very recently made it into The Agony Booth, as a video producer of my own, it's a break through which I fought for for a very long time. Finally I am doing some-thing a lot like what I always wanted to do, and just like that, even though I am not a part of America, the American government is going to take that away from me? because the site is mostly run by Americans? whom all fought so hard for so long to make the booth what it is today.

What about Beanzie, Film-brain or Welshy? that's France, England and Wales represented right there.

It's not an American matter, it just isn't, it's global. And the American government has no right, it borders on the line of arrogance.

I really don't think it will do much good at all, but I and several other people here from Denmark got together and wrote a letter, which I had even more people sign and send to America.

I wish you all the best of luck! really! and I sincerely hope this is just a faze, but you'll never know.

The problem is, they are trying to set borders to something where borders don't exist. Well, in this case I guess Channel Awesome is based in the US so we should all follow US laws while here, I guess? Kind of like when in another country you have to follow the laws of that country. But of course, a proportionally huge portion of the Internet is based in the US, meaning that the US has way more power than any other country on this issue and there's just nothing we can do about it... Other than like found new websites ourselves.

I guess you could get around the problem by moving your site to a foreign domain? And maybe register your company in Switzerland or something. Not that I have any of the juridical knowledge to judge if that's true or not.

I'm from Denmark too ;)
It's great to see another Dane do something about this. I've sent a note to DR, in hopes that we'll see more about this issue on the news. I have not seen or heard ANY news about this in Denmark so far. As you wrote, this is not only going to effect Americans, this will effect everyone!

I hope the Danish news-organisations will realize that this is a global issue, and the Danish public should be informed. We too deserve to have our opinion heard.

Google is now big business and has reversed many of its stances. I know it's trendy to love teh google, but it's also naive, almost disturbingly so.

On the other hand, I think a decent case of the guys supporting this sort of legislation has been in the news recently. Megaupload is suing Universal over a video Youtube took down over a DMCA claim. The claim was false, the artist supposedly appearing in an infringing clip wasn't in the video at all. forget her name, don't care,

What Universal really objected to is Megaupload paying musicians to do an ad for what they consider a piracy site.

if things go well i will be moving to the US in aobut a year, and if so i would join the Angry Joe army and siege the whitehouse, and i dont mean protest :P im talking Molotov's and the other good stuff :D

Ya'll are awesome. Not having had a lot of experience in that kind of speaking, it sounds like you guys made a good case ... even if it was with people who might not have listened.
This bill is scary for a variety of reasons, but the fact that those two guys who support it support it for different reasons and have completely different ideas about it is especially frightening! Did you tell the other's aide about the discrepancy?

P.S. Paw, you should dress like that more often, just sayin' ... I think the aides were swayed by your sexiness!

Nice editing, Lindsay! Good luck to all of you!

Remember 'Black Thursday' back in 1996.

Thousands of Internet citizens turned their web pages black in protest of the then radical law the government was trying to pass.

We should do that again. But for more than a single day.

ALSO, people should make videos...telling big business... all the things that they were going to buy... but will not if this bill is passed.

This is all about money.

Let them know we have the power.

I would make a video... telling them, I will not be seeing the latest movie or be buying any new music for the foreseeable future.

Another hearing for SOPA won't be until the new year, and I don't know what will happen now. I just hope things go right. Glad you guys are fighting the good fight, but since it's politicians, our words are heard just as how they hear us: rabble. These boys in Congress need to listen to the people who know how the Internet works, not lobbyists.

Why did China create their Golden Shield Project/The Great Firewall of China? Because China itself was behind it all and went by it all the way through. Why did US want to create SOPA? Because US got the backing of Hollywood and music corporations. See? China's firewall is not the same as our version! China's is backed by China, and US is backed by $$$!