Nobody is free of sin. So, it is dangerous to permit an act like that.
The author of SOPA is a copyright violator
21–30 of 43 posts
Re: The author of SOPA is a copyright violator
#22It's really easy to understand how something like this could happen. I'm sure it was a mistake by the web designer and not intentional however under SOPA he would be facing the same repercussions that everyone is worried about even though it was a mistake.
Prime example of why SOPA is so god awful.
When I was a teenager I participated in a program offered through 4H (4-h.org) every year where we would visit out State Capital and hold a mock legislative lesson over the corse of a week. Depending on what portion you had signed up for you might play the part of a Lobbyist, Legislator, Senator, Whip or even the Speaker of the House. We would have the actual representatives and lobbyists there to give presentations and offer advice while we argued bills on the floor and made our back room dealings that would decide what bills would be killed or passed (Our advisers were not very happy when one year we legalized prostitution! LOL).
You could think of it as sort of a YCombinator of politics.
Once you understand exactly how the system works you realize why it seems that so many of our representatives seem to be absolutely clueless as to what the bills they are proposing actually do or what implications they may have.
The general gist is this:
Lobbyist: This is what I'm proposing overly simplified explanation of the proposed legislation similar to how you would explain the inner-workings/programming of a software to your grandmother
Lobbyist: We have a draft of the bill ready it's important to your constituents because Three Points: from overly simplified explanation do I have your support on this issue?
Representative: Sure send the draft to my office and I'll look it over (70% never actually will)
Rince and repeat for each representative until it has enough support to make it through committee and to the floor.
Result: 70% of the representatives only have a paragraph explanation of what they are voting on. The other 30% are the ones who actually understand the bill and will either fight for or against it.
Bill passes even if it's BAD, BAD, BAD for the State or in the case of Washington, The Country.
Re: The author of SOPA is a copyright violator
#23In my opinion, when Alexis Ohanian goes before Congress, this should be something that is brought up. Just yesterday (http://hackerne.ws/item?id=3451934) we saw how Congress doesn't understand why this law would be so difficult to enforce and how broad it really is. It's something that they can actually relate to, as I imagine they all have websites of their own and having them block within the United States would be catastrophic for their future election plans.
Re: The author of SOPA is a copyright violator
#24In my opinion, when Alexis Ohanian goes before Congress, this should be something that is brought up. Just yesterday ( http://hackerne.ws/item?id=3451934 ) we saw how Congress doesn't understand why this law would be so difficult to enforce and how broad it really is. It's something that they can actually relate to, as I imagine they all have websites of their own and having them block within the United States would…
They'll just do the same thing they did with insider trading and other laws, they'll exempt themselves.
Re: The author of SOPA is a copyright violator
#25This really goes to show just how easy it would be to be accused and shutdown as a copyright violator. In this case it was probably an issue of the web designer recklessly searching for a Texas-y background and Congressman Smith unknowingly using the copyrighted image. Sure, it's irresponsible, but it's an understandable mistake to make. Enter sites with untold volumes of user-submitted content. To begin, it's unlike…
Think of the power a law that everyone breaks gives the government! They must love it. Mostly the executive branch, but others too.
Everyone who has sung "Happy Birthday" is also a pirate. Yes, really.
http://www.snopes.com/music/songs/birthday.asp
http://www.unhappybirthday.com/
Sure, there's some evidence that they may have done some iffy things with the registration, but you'd have to go through an expensive trial to prove that, so good luck.
Re: The author of SOPA is a copyright violator
#26Earlier quoted context omitted.
Think of the power a law that everyone breaks gives the government! They must love it. Mostly the executive branch, but others too.
Everyone who has sung "Happy Birthday" is also a pirate. Yes, really. http://www.snopes.com/music/songs/birthday.asp http://www.unhappybirthday.com/ Sure, there's some evidence that they may have done some iffy things with the registration, but you'd have to go through an expensive trial to prove that, so good luck.
I wonder if that is the reason most big restaurant chains, like TGI Fridays, have their own version of a song for their crew to sing when someone has a birthday there.
Re: The author of SOPA is a copyright violator
#27Earlier quoted context omitted.
Everyone who has sung "Happy Birthday" is also a pirate. Yes, really. http://www.snopes.com/music/songs/birthday.asp http://www.unhappybirthday.com/ Sure, there's some evidence that they may have done some iffy things with the registration, but you'd have to go through an expensive trial to prove that, so good luck.
I wonder if that is the reason most big restaurant chains, like TGI Fridays, have their own version of a song for their crew to sing when someone has a birthday there.
Yes, it is.
Source: http://interact.stltoday.com/forums/viewtopic.php?printertop...
EDIT: At first I thought Snopes said that, but I was wrong. Here's a different source saying the same thing.
Re: The author of SOPA is a copyright violator
#28Earlier quoted context omitted.
Think of the power a law that everyone breaks gives the government! They must love it. Mostly the executive branch, but others too.
Everyone who has sung "Happy Birthday" is also a pirate. Yes, really. http://www.snopes.com/music/songs/birthday.asp http://www.unhappybirthday.com/ Sure, there's some evidence that they may have done some iffy things with the registration, but you'd have to go through an expensive trial to prove that, so good luck.
> Everyone who has sung "Happy Birthday" is also a pirate. Yes, really.
No, not really. Probably read your citations before using them to back up your claims; they'll be less likely in contradiction.
As noted in the Snopes article, singing the birthday song is just fine for non-commercial use.
Re: The author of SOPA is a copyright violator
#29Earlier quoted context omitted.
Think of the power a law that everyone breaks gives the government! They must love it. Mostly the executive branch, but others too.
Everyone who has sung "Happy Birthday" is also a pirate. Yes, really. http://www.snopes.com/music/songs/birthday.asp http://www.unhappybirthday.com/ Sure, there's some evidence that they may have done some iffy things with the registration, but you'd have to go through an expensive trial to prove that, so good luck.
Why on earth is ryanklee's comment dead? He's right - it's not violating copyright to sing a song for non-commercial purposes. Hell, you can even cover a song in a paid live performance and not have to pay royalties. You just can't record it and sell the recording without ponying up.
edit: looks like the live commercial performance thing is not true in the US, according to snopes. I guess those guys don't have cover bands...
Re: The author of SOPA is a copyright violator
#30While it's possible that he authored his own political website, I would strongly suspect this is a proxy blame. I am all for blaming Lamar Smith as much as the next guy. My issue is assigning a state to an individual when another individual performed the state changing action. The furthest it is fair to place that assignment is shared with the entire group. edit, apparently downvoting is the same as disagreeing here…
> edit, apparently downvoting is the same as disagreeing here too. sigh. guess this teaches me to share my honest thoughts and to continue chasing integers. Sad, isn't it? Some people even seem to think that up/down votes are primarily for rating opinions. Pretty awful idea, if you ask me. I think HN very much needs some kind of discussion on this, and preferably an official policy discouraging it. Still, it's worth…
I think he was downmodded because of his spectacular failure to understand that the process of blaming A for the acts of B is exactly the point of SOPA... so complaining that we shouldn't apply to Smith the same process that Smith wants to apply to everyone else looks very short-sighted at best (and at worst, just partisan).