SOPA has returned!

[BitFaced]

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/08/0 ... 20479.html
http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/the ... art-of-it/
https://www.techdirt.com/articles/20130 ... sopa.shtml

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1fTt4K4Cae4

https://petitions.whitehouse.gov/petiti ... 3/LMzMVrQF

Once again politicians are trying to rid the internet of any copyrighted material, which can include anything as small as a child just singing a copyrighted song. Not to be too blatant, but if you can please spread the word about this.

[Skykid]

Boy, this is becoming like work.

Can't they get the message already.

[Edmond Dantes]

No offense, but when someone says "SOPA has returned" the first thing I want to see is a link to a news report that SHOWS it has returned, not a video where some bearded hippie rants about its evils.

Maybe he does that later in the video, I dunno--I didn't finish watching because his rants were just tiring and weren't what I was interested in seeing.

So, bottom line: Is there any actual proof that SOPA has "returned?"

(EDIT: I'm not denying that it has. I just want clear, unambiguous confirmation)

(I mean granted, it's going to happen eventually. Maddox wouldn't be wrong, would he?)

[Despatche]

did you seriously watch the video and ignore the description

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/08/0 ... 20479.html
http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/the ... art-of-it/
https://www.techdirt.com/articles/20130 ... sopa.shtml

sopa hasn't "returned", btw. it's just lost round... what round are we on again? whatever. point is stuff like this doesn't die, ever, not even supposed to. "can we come in now?"

edit: i apologize, bitfaced; this was all mostly in reply to edmond dantes above.

[BitFaced]

Okay, okay, okay. I've changed it. And linked the petition just in case.

[Stormwatch]

Broken links are broken.

[Ed Oscuro]

The links two posts above work.

[BitFaced]

Fix'd.

[Stormwatch]

This insanity won't stop until the very concept of copyright is abolished.

Obligatory reading: Against Intellectual Monopoly, by Michele Boldrin and David K. Levine.

[7711]

This insanity won't stop until the very concept of copyright is abolished.

Obligatory reading: Against Intellectual Monopoly, by Michele Boldrin and David K. Levine.

Looks interesting, thanks

[Ed Oscuro]

Indeed! Reading through the USPTO's denial of a storyline patent.

They clearly err in saying that within literature there is no building on "prior art" but it is true that this building is a matter of opinion, not of objectively validated improvements to the design, so I guess it still flies.

[Lord Satori]

Instead of targeting schools and whatnot, they should shoot up these political dumbasses and do the world a favor.

This insanity won't stop until the very concept of copyright is abolished.

Obligatory reading: Against Intellectual Monopoly, by Michele Boldrin and David K. Levine.

I remember seeing a quote somewhere that went something like this: "The one thing God cannot do is understand the purpose of copyright law."

[ChurchOfSolipsism]

a storyline patent

haha that's fucking insane. Don't these people have even the most basic sense of decency?

[trap15]

Don't these people have even the most basic sense of decency?

You wish!

[Ed Oscuro]

a storyline patent

haha that's fucking insane. Don't these people have even the most basic sense of decency?

Nope, and they don't have any skills either: "It has been suggested that the claimed storyline is rendered obvious by a combination of Rip Van Winkle, stories about hypnosis, and/or the movie Vanilla Sky."[/url] There is a hilariously exhaustive study of this exact case here, including a lot of references to "prior art" versions of the storyline Andrew F. Knight wanted to claim for himself. Lots of people had fun writing responses to this one; somebody in Australia got into it, and here's a response from Harvard, "Pure Fiction: The Attempt to Patent Plot"

Knight even has a webpage up about it:

http://www.plotpatents.com/about_us.htm

Yes, this has been dead for nearly a decade, but the website still exists! It's being updated, too, with references to an appeal or something docketed in 2012.

[BIL]

Good stuff Mr. Oscuro!

Recognizing that fierce competition for publication and financial reward focused on the quality of storytelling, as opposed to the quality of the underlying storyline itself, and further recognizing that even the world’s most skilled storytellers (of which he is clearly not) rarely turn a profit, his unique fictional storylines have matured into pending patent applications instead of novels or screenplays. He thus seeks reward on the true value of his innovations—the underlying storylines—instead of forced, sub-par expressions of these underlying storylines.

WHOA, IT'S BEAUTIFUL. An entrepreneurial lawyer indeed. brb patentin ma stories, then, I'll buy all the games~

[Despatche]

haha that's fucking insane. Don't these people have even the most basic sense of decency?

no, and they can't really do anything about it. they have to play the game like everyone else, or the system will completely reject them.

once people do realize why these types of things happen, we'll have a real way to "attack" them.