Anonymous goes on a rampage in response to Megaupload being shutdown

[MantaRevan]

I don't like anonymous, I've never liked anonymous, and that was a stupid move as well. All it says to them is that the bill should be more urgently passed.

 

[Mr. Dictator]

Tough beans. The DMV can do the same thing to your driver's license: they can take your license away, any time they please.

Is this your honest reaction to the government enforcing thought control for private interest?

How can anyone take you seriously when you say things like this?

 

[CaptainF]

No way!! The two cases are completely different. When China shuts down a web site, it is stifling free speech. The specific goal of the Chinese government is to control the people. The U.S. government didn't shut down Megaupload to stifle free speech; the government did it to stifle crooks. Consider: why hasn't the U.S. government jumped onto CFC and shut down this thread?? A thread which certainly is chock-full of dissident ideas.....

Gotcha.

What about all the other people using megaupload for legitimate purposes? What about the US government's censorship of Wikileaks?

Yeah, it's all violation of free speech. Totally ineffective, to boot.

I call "slippery slope" fallacy on Dawgphood.

Hardly. If you can destroy one form of data (digital data on the internet), why can't you destroy data printed on paper? There is no difference, even if you prefer to plug your ears.

 

[wilycoyote]

I don't like anonymous, I've never liked anonymous, and that was a stupid move as well. All it says to them is that the bill should be more urgently passed.

After thinking about it, I am very against them. How is acting like a child, hiding in the anonymity of the internet honorable? They are just trolls.

 

[Antilogic]

What about all the other people using megaupload for legitimate purposes? What about the US government's censorship of Wikileaks?

Yeah, it's all violation of free speech. Totally ineffective, to boot.

Here's the "Gotcha!" response graphic:

(It needed the symbol of the FBI instead of the Republican elephant, but my photoshopping skills weren't up to it tonight.)

 

[Camikaze]

Side note: there's no violation of Freedom of Speech anywhere within SOPA. If you post praise for Wikileaks on Twitter, and the government shuts Twitter down, that's not a violation of Free Speech--however if the government arrests you for writing that tweet? That is a violation of Free Speech. The right to Free Speech does not give you the right to be heard; you are not entitled to a platform on which to speak your piece. If somebody wants to provide you a web site? Fine. If somebody wants to shut down the web site you write posts on? Tough.

So by this logic Obama would be perfectly justified in shutting down Fox News if he didn't like something said on there. That wouldn't be protected by free speech. Because, hey, the newsreaders are still able to talk to the cameras, it just won't be transmitted. They're still welcome to speak their mind, but they aren't provided with a platform to do it. Similarly, it'd be totally cool to shut down an opposition newspaper, right? Because again, it's just dealing with the platform, not the actually ability of journalists to put pen to paper.

 

[Traitorfish]

Nope. Didn't find that anywhere in SOPA. Though I did find a couple other things that are great ideas: immunity for web sites that voluntarily take action against copyright infringers, and proper avenues by which copyright holders are required to follow in order to file a grievance.

Side note: there's no violation of Freedom of Speech anywhere within SOPA. If you post praise for Wikileaks on Twitter, and the government shuts Twitter down, that's not a violation of Free Speech--however if the government arrests you for writing that tweet? That is a violation of Free Speech. The right to Free Speech does not give you the right to be heard; you are not entitled to a platform on which to speak your piece. If somebody wants to provide you a web site? Fine. If somebody wants to shut down the web site you write posts on? Tough.

That's the thing. This is the United States. This government (even an idiot like Obama) bends over backwards to avoid abusing the powers it has. Given the same powers, places such as China and Syria and North Korea will be much more abusive than the United States is.

I would be fascinated to know, in light of the first quoted post, what you actually imagine an "abuse" to be. There doesn't seem to be any degree of censorship that you actually consider unacceptable.

 

[ParkCungHee]

Puh-lease.

All this will do will further strengthen resolve in support of SOPA and PIPA.

Actually, it serves to undermine the current legal narrative against Megaupload.

The current understanding that the RIAA et al. is pushing is that pirating exists through large, powerful websites like Megaupload, with the intent to profit from the practice, and therefor the power to shut down websites will be effective in combating piracy.

If they attention turns to shadowy, not-for-profit, decentralized networks of 20 something internet users, then the overreaching powers of the government no longer seem reasonable.

Of course, the point where we've reached where vandalism is necessary to indirectly raise attention to the way things exist in reality shows that the government is totally unqualified to deal with this issue.

 

[GoodGame]

Among the target are the Department of Justice' site, the RIAA, MPAA.org, the US Copyright Office, EMI, the FBI, and the french copyright authority the HADOPI.

What do you think of this? Frankly I believe they had it coming. I predicted that this would happen as soon as any major shutdown's happen. I hope this is a smack in the face for SOPA and PIPA. Imagine what could happen if those are passed.

This has had no influence on SOPA/PIPA being put on hold and shows Anonymous is a bunch of narcissistic vandals. I hope they get arrested. I did more good writing to my congressman about SOPA than Anonymous did about the topic.

If the website broke the law while being sited on American soil, then good for them getting arrested. Anonymous vandalizing the USA in response shows they have no respect for national sovereignty, nor law, nor democracy. Again a bunch of narcissistic vandals.

 

[Traitorfish]

If the website broke the law while being sited on American soil, then good for them getting arrested. Anonymous vandalizing the USA shows they have no respect for national sovereignity, nor law, nor democracy.

Yeah, they're a cool bunch.

 

[cardgame]

Democracy in the US is largely a farce on the national scale, anyway, so that's not really signifying anything.

 

[PacoDeth]

Here's the "Gotcha!" response graphic:

(It needed the symbol of the FBI instead of the Republican elephant, but my photoshopping skills weren't up to it tonight.)

The best I could do with only a few minutes while at work.

 

[Hehehe]

Side note: there's no violation of Freedom of Speech anywhere within SOPA. If you post praise for Wikileaks on Twitter, and the government shuts Twitter down, that's not a violation of Free Speech--however if the government arrests you for writing that tweet? That is a violation of Free Speech. The right to Free Speech does not give you the right to be heard; you are not entitled to a platform on which to speak your piece. If somebody wants to provide you a web site? Fine. If somebody wants to shut down the web site you write posts on? Tough.

Yes, freedom of speech is a negative right (meaning that no-one is obliged to provide a medium for you). What you, my friend, fail to understand is that very same negative right means that the government is not allowed to stop you from using that right (for example, by shutting down your medium such as a website). If the government was allowed to do that, it would be censorship (which is the opposite of free speech)

 

[GoodGame]

Democracy in the US is largely a farce on the national scale, anyway, so that's not really signifying anything.

Ok thanks cardgame, that was helpful.

 

[NickyJ]

I guess now we're going to have a pirate war. Instead of wooden frigates firing broadsides, we're going to have pirates and government fighting on the infinite Sea of Internet!

 

[GoodGame]

 

[aimeeandbeatles]

I don't really think you're a real media pirate unless you crash into some big chain store with a real pirate ship and loot out all the DVDs and CDs and games.

 

[DJ Bonebraker]

I don't really think you're a real media pirate unless you crash into some big chain store with a real pirate ship and loot out all the DVDs and CDs and games.

I would pay good money to go and see something like that happening!

 

[MjM]

Anonymous!

 

[Antilogic]

The best I could do with only a few minutes while at work.

That's exactly what I was looking for!