SOPA is Back!!! MFC models & users beware

[Wombat Attack]

Oh, President Obama... he makes me so sad. I wish he was nice. But, it looks like he isn't...

So the bill that would potentially KILL the internet as we know it, and in effect KILL websites such as myfreecams is going to be reintroduced by none other than our fearless leader President Barak Obama - So if you're a model and you make a fairly good income on mfc, stopping SOPA (aka the so-called Stop Online Piracy Act) should pertain to your interests. Everything and anything that can be done to stop this bill MUST be done.

Under the new version of this bill it would make streaming copyrited material "A FELONY."

For now a petition has been established at whitehouse.gov ... the first of what are likely to be many petitions everyone must sign. Everyone is also going to need to get in touch with their Senators and let them know that their support of this bill is unacceptable.

For now, please go here: https://petitions.whitehouse.gov/petiti ... 3/LMzMVrQF
Register and e-sign the petition. SOPA was killed before and CISPA has been killed twice due to the people railing out against it - we're going to have to do it again, or else these fascist scumbags will have what they want: a dead internet.

 

[Evvie]

 

[RebeccaT]

I may come across as really dumb here...but how does this effect MFC?

Here in the UK it is against copyright laws to play music for which I don't hold a licence but we all have it playing in our rooms. Or does it have different implications in the US?

A models broadcast is copyrighted to MFC and it is they who are streaming it.

I may have got the wrong end of the stick, so please ignore me if I have...or actually, I'd be interested to learn more.

 

[Wombat Attack]

I may come across as really dumb here...but how does this effect MFC?

Here in the UK it is against copyright laws to play music for which I don't hold a licence but we all have it playing in our rooms. Or does it have different implications in the US?

A models broadcast is copyrighted to MFC and it is they who are streaming it.

I may have got the wrong end of the stick, so please ignore me if I have...or actually, I'd be interested to learn more.

The reason it affects MFC are so many it hurts my head to think about - BUT, to be more specific in one instance in particular: it would be considered a FELONY for a model to play music she does not own the rights to. Does this mean the model will be held liable and hauled off to jail, fined and imprisoned? Well, maybe. Who knows how these laws are interpreted these days -- but what would happen is that MFC, it's servers and whoever pays those bills would be the ones held liable and have the felony charges pressed against them ... why then would they bother to run the risk of thousands of models operating freely in their own rooms? They wouldn't. The site would essentially need to be shut down. This is how the previous interpretation of SOPA would have worked at least anyway ... this is a revised edition of SOPA - so perhaps it wouldn't be interpreted in quite the same way iin terms of enforcing it - but who knows. Why take the chance?

 

[Evvie]

I may come across as really dumb here...but how does this effect MFC?

Here in the UK it is against copyright laws to play music for which I don't hold a licence but we all have it playing in our rooms. Or does it have different implications in the US?

A models broadcast is copyrighted to MFC and it is they who are streaming it.

I may have got the wrong end of the stick, so please ignore me if I have...or actually, I'd be interested to learn more.

The reason it affects MFC are so many it hurts my head to think about - BUT, to be more specific in one instance in particular: it would be considered a FELONY for a model to play music she does not own the rights to. Does this mean the model will be held liable and hauled off to jail, fined and imprisoned? Well, maybe. Who knows how these laws are interpreted these days -- but what would happen is that MFC, it's servers and whoever pays those bills would be the ones held liable and have the felony charges pressed against them ... why then would they bother to run the risk of thousands of models operating freely in their own rooms? They wouldn't. The site would essentially need to be shut down. This is how the previous interpretation of SOPA would have worked at least anyway ... this is a revised edition of SOPA - so perhaps it wouldn't be interpreted in quite the same way iin terms of enforcing it - but who knows. Why take the chance?

Indeed, why take the chance of playing music you don't have the rights to?

Although it is my understanding that it is not difficult to acquire the rights to a wide variety of music. So...

Models on Streamate already have to comply with copyright laws when doing TV shows. I hear it's not that hard to do.

 

[LacieLaPlante]

Yeah, I just have to turn my music off for TV shows. Not a big deal.

I'll do my best to stop it from passing, but if it does, we always have options like this:

http://www.dmx.com/pandora/

 

[Wombat Attack]

Yeah, I just have to turn my music off for TV shows. Not a big deal.

I'll do my best to stop it from passing, but if it does, we always have options like this:

http://www.dmx.com/pandora/

I'm not trying to come off as a troll or a prick or a shit-stirrer. I am saying this not as a smug asshole, but as someone who enjoys the internet as it is, and does not want to see it die a slow death if SOPA passes ... in terms of MFC, I really have to say that you're missing the point when I bring up how it would be illegal to use songs you don't have the rights to use ... because if SOPA passes, myfreecams can theoretically be held liable, as a felon, for the actions of its users. Do you remember Kim Dotcom and what happened to him? He was persecuted (illegall as it were) because he ran the servers that people were using to transfer what corporations felt was "their" property. He didn't host it, stream it, or distribute it. All he did was create the technology for the people to transfer files - whatever it might of been. Ultimately Kim Dotcom had to be freed because there were no laws on the books (rightly so) to persecute him. If SOPA existed then he'd be a convicte felon serving 10-30 yrs. As it stands now there are no rules regulating internet use of "copyrited" material like there would be if SOPA passes. If SOPA passes the whole game changes.

And by the way, it's not just use of songs. That was one issue I used because it's the one I'm most familiar with - there are issues involving the privacy and personal banking information of MFC customers that would be compromised, there are issues that could and would regulate what MFC models can and can't talk about on the webcam shows, and then there are always the small tack ons that get added into bills like this that we have no idea about until after it becomes law ... So what I'm saying is, rather than act like everything is hunky dory if you just follow certain guidelines as the internet is structured now, realize that with this passing the rules change drastically for not just MFC - but the entire internet in general. Therefore it is in everyone's best interest, MFC users and just your basic internetter, to do whatever they can to keep this from happening.

 

[JerryBoBerry]

Yeah, I just have to turn my music off for TV shows. Not a big deal.

I'll do my best to stop it from passing, but if it does, we always have options like this:

http://www.dmx.com/pandora/

It's MUCH much more than that.
Here's some of the uproar from the first time this bill was introduced (The new bill makes it worse by the way. Now you'll be going to jail instead of just blocked)

Your favorite sites will be restricted.
SOPA and Protect-IP will have a serious impact on start-up sites, but the big ones are in real danger as well. Sites you may use regularly – Facebook, YouTube, Tumblr, Reddit, Flickr, Etsy, Twitter – could be blocked by the government for linking to copyrighted information.

One person out of millions on Facebook posts a link to download a free MP3, and Facebook is liable.

Supporters claim that SOPA is targeted at rogue sites, but if that were really the case, its language would be more specific. As it stands now, the bill uses incredibly vague wording, as if the enforcers are simply saying “just trust us, guys.”

At the risk of sounding like a conspiracy theorist (a phrase I don’t care for much), this could snowball into something as massive as the end of social networking as we know it. Sure, it’s the worst case scenario. I suppose the question is, do you trust the US government with the power SOPA gives them so much that you don’t feel this outcome is even a possibility?

Note to Lacie -- notice Etsy is included there.

You will be restricted.
I don’t just mean you won’t be able to pirate without getting sued (and come on, you shouldn’t be pirating anyway). I mean it’s possible you won’t be able to take a cute video of your toddler dancing with Lady Gaga playing in the background, then upload it to YouTube. Or reblog a funny clip from your favorite TV show on Tumblr. Or tweet a link to a cool tune you found on SoundCloud.

Educators and artists will be restricted.
Understandably, piracy regulations are often aimed at colleges and, as a result, educators who use OERs (“open educational resources“) – materials and communities created to be built upon and used for educational purposes. In a letter to Congress, a large group of educators and OER experts stated that SOPA could “undermine this framework and chill the creation of educational content.”

Libraries and librarians also face a threat from this bill; the Library Copyright Alliance examines the latest amendments to SOPA and why they are unacceptable in their own letter to the House.

And the artists? “Stop Online Piracy Act” sounds like something intended to help those who work in creative mediums, right?

“The best way to combat piracy is to provide consumers with easier access to desired content.”
Or, as David Miller pointed out, it’s “another classic usage of rhetoric” that obfuscates what the bill is actually about. Sites like YouTube, Vimeo, and SoundCloud have helped struggling artists flourish in the last few years by offering them something unprecedented: free and immediate access to potentially millions of fans.

Not to mention a way to connect with one another and build a community. Before my husband (a musician) even moved to Seattle, he had auditions lined up with several bands after contacting them with a link to his online portfolio, which included videos of him performing both original and cover tunes. A crime that could be punishable by law if these bills pass.

SOPA will cause job loss and damage our already struggling economy.
Let’s look at a few facts.

The Internet adds about $2 trillion to the annual GDP, according to a 2007 report by Dr. Robert D. Atkinson, President of the Information Technology and Innovation Foundation
Internet advertising is responsible for $300 billion of economic activity
As of 2005, 724,000 Americans started home businesses thanks to eBay
About 200,000 more new jobs were created thanks to Facebook’s app
The unemployment rate in the US is currently 8.6 percent, and we have Congressmen and women attempting to push through a bill that will severely damage one of our few thriving industries.

SOPA sets an example that will be followed.
More from the above letter:

[SOPA] is directly at odds with the United States’ foreign policy of Internet openness, a fact that repressive regimes will seize upon to justify their censorship of the Internet.

I can’t word it any better than that. While the supposed purpose of SOPA might be different than China’s reasons for censorship, what it proposes is similar to the Great Firewall…something Chinese bloggers find bemusing.

After years of condemning China’s online censorship, it looks like we’re on our way to building The Great Firewall of America. Other countries, democratic and communist alike, will absolutely follow. Looking down that path, it’s hard to imagine what the Internet will be like in a few years…but I don’t think “open” will be an appropriate adjective for it anymore.

These are just a few points. Do a simple google search and see for yourself. There are thousands of companies and webpages devoted to killing SOPA. This is the worst thing to have ever threatened the entire internet. It's NOT just about music, even though only the music and movie industry giants are the ones who are pushing for it by spending big bucks.

One final thought from research.

Google, Facebook, Twitter, Zynga, eBay, Mozilla, Yahoo, AOL, and LinkedIn wrote a letter to key members of the U.S. Senate and House of Representatives, saying SOPA poses "a serious risk to our industry's continued track record of innovation and job creation, as well as to our nation's cybersecurity."

Above info was taken from http://matadornetwork.com/change/10-reasons-action-sopa/

To put all this into a more direct cam related meaning. If you remember there's a thread on here 'Models who are Musician's.' I'll take MandyMetal for example. She posted a song she recorded of a cover. https://www.ambercutie.com/forums/viewtopic.php?f=15&t=12625&p=365800#p365633 If she does that again after SOPA gets passed she could be tried as a felon and face a multiple year jail sentence.

It's a shitty bill that needs to be killed and all who keep trying to resurrect it need to be kicked out of public office for life.

 

[yossarian]

I have yet to see a single credible source in this thread, only panic and people running around screaming with their hair on fire.

 

[JerryBoBerry]

I have yet to see a single credible source in this thread, only panic and people running around screaming with their hair on fire.

I shudder to think what you demand to be 'credible.'

http://www.ibtimes.com/sopa-google-...st-internet-censorship-letter-congress-371516

http://www.protectinnovation.com/downloads/letter.pdf

If there's not enough information out there on the internet for you then your welcome to whatever becomes of it after this bill's passed. I for one hope it doesn't.

 

[Wombat Attack]

I have yet to see a single credible source in this thread, only panic and people running around screaming with their hair on fire.

Amazing to me that people know how to post a comment on an internet forum, but no sense enough to understand how to use Google.

 

[yossarian]

Those sources are two years old and refer to the old bill that was voted down.

There is no new bill, only a proposal. It's certainly worth talking about, but spewing rumor, old information and hearsay onto a message board without attribution or credible sources (beyond "some guy wrote a petition to stop this thing we're telling you exists") while running around in circles screaming about how the sky is falling and teh internetz are going away is just tiresome.

 

[yossarian]

I have yet to see a single credible source in this thread, only panic and people running around screaming with their hair on fire.

Amazing to me that people know how to post a comment on an internet forum, but no sense enough to understand how to use Google.

Yes, it's my responsibility to check what every message board wacko tells me to panic about.

 

[JerryBoBerry]

I have yet to see a single credible source in this thread, only panic and people running around screaming with their hair on fire.

I guess I won't get too upset since this is coming from the guy who makes a joke comment most of the time as a way of replying to others comments on the forum.

 

[yossarian]

I have yet to see a single credible source in this thread, only panic and people running around screaming with their hair on fire.

I guess I won't get too upset since this is coming from the guy who makes a joke comment most of the time as a way of replying to others comments on the forum.

Ah, I was probably too bitchy by a third. I'm just tired of people screaming onto message boards with uncorraborated shit that is supposed to signify the end of the world. I have no doubt SOPA is coming back. I also have no doubt it will meet the same fate as it did before. Congress got spanked pretty hard on it the first time--I doubt it will even make it that far. I think I was objecting more to the OP's breathless, the-sky-is-falling tone than any of the actual info. Carry on.

 

[Sevrin]

To put all this into a more direct cam related meaning. If you remember there's a thread on here 'Models who are Musician's.' I'll take MandyMetal for example. She posted a song she recorded of a cover. https://www.ambercutie.com/forums/viewtopic.php?f=15&t=12625&p=365800#p365633 If she does that again after SOPA gets passed she could be tried as a felon and face a multiple year jail sentence.

That sounds unlikely since it is an original performance, and not a copyrighted recording. Does anyone have a link to the draft bill? Right. There isn't one. At the moment, what does exist is a green paper.

Link: http://www.uspto.gov/news/publications/ ... npaper.pdf

In 2012 the Online Privacy Act was brought fourth to congress to be passed which would have negatively affected everyone on the internet as a whole. The people fought back and it never happened. Several times now since then it was revised under a different title with changes and tweaks to the wording to again try to get it to pass without the general public knowing about it. Each time it was found out, and then repealed.

Here we are in 2013 and again dealing with a portion of SOPA, this time the streaming of copywritten works is at the forefront of this particular law to be. If a particular stream contains any copywritten material of any sort the uploader and creator of said content can be found guilty and automatically placed in prison for years on felony charges.

They'd be a lot better off having someone proofread their petitions. At least they should be clear about what they're protesting. SOPA stands for Stop Online Piracy Act, not Online Privacy Act. That petition was drafted by an idiot.

MFC could get a licence to cover all the streamed content, and pay for its use. They can afford it, although they would likely want to limit the number of models online and thereby limit access for marginal earners.

When we advertise, we have to pay models, photographers, stylists, etc, and we pay for the production of the item we are advertising. As a member of MFC, I've spent several grand each of the past few years for the privilege of being entertained. We have all complained about freeloaders. What is the difference between them and people enjoying free streamed music or movies? If anything, this legislation will protect the interests of online performers more than it will cost them money.

There's a little something in there which will be of particular interest:

Improving the operation of the DMCA’s notice and takedown system.

Although the notice and takedown system has generally worked well with respect to traditionally hosted online content, both right holders and ISPs have identified a number of ways in which its operation can become unwieldy or burdensome. One potential solution to ease the burdens involved with the notice and takedown system and improve results could be to create best practices for identifying infringing content and sending notices, for takedown procedures, and for ensuring that infringing content once removed does not immediately reappear. This would benefit right holders, ISPs and end users alike, by supporting a more efficient and reliable notice and takedown system. To that end, the Task Force will convene a multi-stakeholder dialogue involving right holders (both large and small), ISPs, consumer representatives and companies in the business of identifying infringing content, on how to improve the operation of the notice and takedown system.

 

[Wombat Attack]

To put all this into a more direct cam related meaning. If you remember there's a thread on here 'Models who are Musician's.' I'll take MandyMetal for example. She posted a song she recorded of a cover. https://www.ambercutie.com/forums/viewtopic.php?f=15&t=12625&p=365800#p365633 If she does that again after SOPA gets passed she could be tried as a felon and face a multiple year jail sentence.

That sounds unlikely since it is an original performance, and not a copyrighted recording. Does anyone have a link to the draft bill? Right. There isn't one. At the moment, what does exist is a green paper.

Link: http://www.uspto.gov/news/publications/ ... npaper.pdf

In 2012 the Online Privacy Act was brought fourth to congress to be passed which would have negatively affected everyone on the internet as a whole. The people fought back and it never happened. Several times now since then it was revised under a different title with changes and tweaks to the wording to again try to get it to pass without the general public knowing about it. Each time it was found out, and then repealed.

Here we are in 2013 and again dealing with a portion of SOPA, this time the streaming of copywritten works is at the forefront of this particular law to be. If a particular stream contains any copywritten material of any sort the uploader and creator of said content can be found guilty and automatically placed in prison for years on felony charges.

They'd be a lot better off having someone proofread their petitions. At least they should be clear about what they're protesting. SOPA stands for Stop Online Piracy Act, not Online Privacy Act. That petition was drafted by an idiot.

MFC could get a licence to cover all the streamed content, and pay for its use. They can afford it, although they would likely want to limit the number of models online and thereby limit access for marginal earners.

When we advertise, we have to pay models, photographers, stylists, etc, and we pay for the production of the item we are advertising. As a member of MFC, I've spent several grand each of the past few years for the privilege of being entertained. We have all complained about freeloaders. What is the difference between them and people enjoying free streamed music or movies? If anything, this legislation will protect the interests of online performers more than it will cost them money.

There's a little something in there which will be of particular interest:

Improving the operation of the DMCA’s notice and takedown system.

Although the notice and takedown system has generally worked well with respect to traditionally hosted online content, both right holders and ISPs have identified a number of ways in which its operation can become unwieldy or burdensome. One potential solution to ease the burdens involved with the notice and takedown system and improve results could be to create best practices for identifying infringing content and sending notices, for takedown procedures, and for ensuring that infringing content once removed does not immediately reappear. This would benefit right holders, ISPs and end users alike, by supporting a more efficient and reliable notice and takedown system. To that end, the Task Force will convene a multi-stakeholder dialogue involving right holders (both large and small), ISPs, consumer representatives and companies in the business of identifying infringing content, on how to improve the operation of the notice and takedown system.

Everything in this post exposes why SOPA is bad for myfreecams, and bad for the entirety that is the internet. Look, if you have problems with "freeloaders" on a site that is called MyFREECams - that's another matter entirely. But limiting the number of models on myfreecams to only those who can earn the most will in itself kill myfreecams. Maybe it won't be a quick sudden death - I never even claimed it would. But it would be a slow painful death. Part of what makes MFC so good is the wide variety - and that variety, like everything you find on the internet - exists because of the reasonable amount of net neutrality we still have.

Nobody is making you pay the thousands you do on advertising, whereever it is you're spending it, that's your own issue. But information, by it's very nature, exists to be free and open sourced - no matter what it is you're talking about. Sure there needs to be some sort of guiding principles, hence the present laws already on the books. But to try and centralize and legislate the internet and the infinite amount of information contained on it - nobody wins that in the long run. So if you have a problem that someone is playing a YouTube video to hear a song they didn't pay for and then equating it to MFC users who don't tip models well then you are A. the most blatant example of a person who will be the cause of the death of the internet and B. sound like you're a vested interest in terms of having this bill get passed.

And you are missing the point, because SOPA will effect the entire internet, it's not just about Myfreecams - but oh yeah, you're the person who doesn't like people listening to music on YouTube or whatever it may be. To say SOPA would benefit the models on MFC, or any performer is intellectually dishonest. What you should say, assumming whomever it is who is operating MFC pays for licensing fees (that they shouldn't have to pay for to begin with_ so that they can still operate, is that SOPA might protect the 6-12 models who earn big and will abide by the strict guidelines imposed on them by new legislation. Meanwhile the thousands of other models will be flat out work. And who is to say MFC owners want to even risk dealing with what the possible penalties may be that they will be liable for if a model slips out of line.

SOPA will kill innovation by pretending to make it out to be about "Stealing other people's property." That in itself is a dishonest twisting of the facts. Killing innovation, variety and the dynamic nature of myfreecams - will ultimately end in it's demise. Just like the same for the rest of the internet. MFC is merely a microcosm of the larger picture.

 

[Evvie]

SOPA will kill innovation by pretending to make it out to be about "Stealing other people's property." That in itself is a dishonest twisting of the facts. Killing innovation, variety and the dynamic nature of myfreecams - will ultimately end in it's demise. Just like the same for the rest of the internet. MFC is merely a microcosm of the larger picture.

How is SOPA out to kill innovation? Is innovation copyrighted by someone?

 

[Wombat Attack]

SOPA will kill innovation by pretending to make it out to be about "Stealing other people's property." That in itself is a dishonest twisting of the facts. Killing innovation, variety and the dynamic nature of myfreecams - will ultimately end in it's demise. Just like the same for the rest of the internet. MFC is merely a microcosm of the larger picture.

How is SOPA out to kill innovation? Is innovation copyrighted by someone?

Ever see something on reddit where an image from a movie is taken and someone attaches a silly caption to it? Or someone produces a parody of a song, records it and puts it on YouTube ... well all of that goes away. That's how it kills innovation. Don't be fooled by the "stealing of property" argument they use. Nothing is getting stolen - it's all 1s and 0s, i.e. information, being used. 90% of what you find being produced and sold on etsy will be considered illegal.

SOPA is not out to kill innovation directly, that's not why it's trying to be passed into law. SOPA is about trying to preserve an outdated and obsolete business model which copyrite owners are desperate to still make money on. As a result it will kill innovation.

There are already laws on the books that deal with unwarranted intellectual property use. They are good fair laws. We don't need this nonsense that SOPA will usher in. The glorious free, fair and neutral internet that we know will cease to exist. Innovation will go with it. AND ON TOP OF THAT, passing SOPA only provides a precedent for even more fascist legislation to be passed in the future.

 

[Nordling]

If you're going to make all these assertions, you really should include citations for each claim.

Where for instance, did you see that the Obama administration is all for SOPA? Last I've seen, the White House generally opposes it, although with the caveat that it supports discrete legislation to fight FOREIGN piracy.

 

[Maia99]

I doubt this will happen. Copyright as it is, I don't think it has any sense at all. That's why is was taken down in the first place. If so, artists will disappear in a few years and there are so many artists down there who begin with playing covers of favourite known bands and also don't have the money to buy the license to play it. Also it sounds too communistic for a free country like they claim to be. I've heard rummors about closing porn sites or anything related to porn industry in Europe. Guess what, never happened.

 

[SerenaMoon]

All I keep hearing in my head when I see "kill innovation" is that scene in Dan In Real Life when the teen daughter yells "YOU ARE A MURDERER OF LOVE!"

We get it, "SOPA bad," "free internet good." Don't come off like an irrational child when you are trying to explain something. We are not idiots. Everyone is right, you only information to back up anything are outdated articles and it's just stirring unnecessary pandemonium. Just sounds like you don't like Obama on a re-read. We get it, he's not perfect, not so great and likes to listen in on us taking a dump. Without any real new information, non of this really warranted a forum topic. Write a blog.

BTW: If you wind up citing some half-hearted Huffington post story I may barf all over your face. Just saying.

 

[IsabellaSnow]

I'm in two minds about all this. Essentially the internet is killing many industries. People aren't paying for things anymore. They don't bother watching tv as they can see it all online whenever they want, no point buying, renting or going to see a film as you can watch it online in the same quality with less hassle and for free! No point buying books, and Amazon is practically single handedly destroying the book industry. And google has tried to claim they have the right to post books up online paying nothing to the authors! No point buying porn, again, it's free!
As much as having all this freedom online is cool, I enjoy watching films, listening to music, reading books and watching porn. I don't want these industries to die, which if something doesn't change they will. Not yet, but eventually, over time they will.

I still fail to see, besides the music thing, how this would seriously effect camming. Not only are the servers of MFC not even in the US, so how would MFC be liable to American laws? But also men would no longer be able to watch/download illegally pirated porn/cam shows. If this were the case then people would eventually start getting used to the idea of paying for porn, and would be much more likely to go to camsites, and even want to spend money.
I mean I'm sure there'll still be free porn sites, but rather than being full of stolen videos they'd be videos belonging to the actual sites where money gets made of advertising.
Maybe the way they're planning on bringing it in might be bad, but the all round idea of it... well, something does have to change. The internet has become too free. People are starting to think of free stuff as a right rather than a privilege.

I do think it would be very hard to monitor camsites for this, seeing as recording models playing music for proof would be illegal, and you wouldn't be able to tell if they even live in the US. If they targeted serial cappers personally I wouldn't be shedding tears over it.

 

[SoTxBob]

...If they targeted serial cappers personally I wouldn't be shedding tears over it.

Woah !! Now there's a concept... do something to actually go after and prosecute these scourge of the camgirl world...

 

[Sevrin]

...If they targeted serial cappers personally I wouldn't be shedding tears over it.

Woah !! Now there's a concept... do something to actually go after and prosecute these scourge of the camgirl world...

One person's capper is another's innovator. Y u h8 innovation?

 

[IP-Police]

If you're going to make all these assertions, you really should include citations for each claim.

Where for instance, did you see that the Obama administration is all for SOPA? Last I've seen, the White House generally opposes it, although with the caveat that it supports discrete legislation to fight FOREIGN piracy.

To provide a citation to back up Nordling's comment here is a link to the WhiteHouse.gov site where the Obama Administration responded to the SOPA Petition from last year: https://petitions.whitehouse.gov/respon ... e-internet

From our experience at Intellectual Property Police we can tell you that there are many many pirate websites owned by North Americans that specifically operate their illegal operations remotely out of various European counties (most commonly The Netherlands).

This has become increasingly popular to do over the last several years. To the point that there are a number of very large data-centers that lease server space out to companies that specifically market, advertise, and brand their services for being "DMCA Ignored" or "Offshore Webhost". There are even entire forums and websites dedicated for these "DMCA Ignored" or "Offshore Webhost" web-hosting providers to advertise on! Here, see for yourself: https://www.google.com/search?q=dmca+ignored

Dealing with these types of hosts to remove Intellectual Property can be a downright nightmare at first. When we encounter one of these non-compliant hosts we typically direct our various resources to both unearth who is behind the site and then we follow this up by discovering information relevant to their financial channels. In other words, we find out who actually owns a pirate site that won't comply with us, we find out their PayPal address or advertising channel, and then we present our information to them as a final warning to remove the infringing content. Usually at that point the attitude seems to change about 180 degrees because it doesn't take much for us to inflict serious consequences on them for actively engaging in piracy.

We are fortunate that in the last year PayPal (the pirates preferred method of money transfer) has decided to become extremely strict on permitting use of their service for anything related to file sharing. Recently we had a situation where a cyberlocker site was flat out ignoring all of our emails we sent to their various support@, admin@, dmca@, etc accounts. We gave them a fair amount of time to respond, and when that response never came we sent an email over to PayPal and suddenly that cyberlocker's PayPal was terminated. This particular cyberlocker was gaining enormous popularity at the time which has since receded dramatically.

So dealing with foreign piracy is a serious concern as I described it can take a lot of effort to extinguish it in comparison to domestic hosting providers. It will certainly be interesting to see how this bill plays out as it gets revised in coming weeks/months. My gut instinct tells me that given the overwhelmingly negative feedback we had domestically for this bill, stemming from nearly all of the big players responsible for putting us in the information age, that it is very unlikely to pass with much of anything that could impact business domestically. What would be nice however is to tell countries like The Netherlands that either they have to get their act together with these data-centers running completely illegal operations or else the U.S. government will cut off their internet routes...

 

[Just Me]

SOPA will kill innovation by pretending to make it out to be about "Stealing other people's property." That in itself is a dishonest twisting of the facts. Killing innovation, variety and the dynamic nature of myfreecams - will ultimately end in it's demise. Just like the same for the rest of the internet. MFC is merely a microcosm of the larger picture.

How is SOPA out to kill innovation? Is innovation copyrighted by someone?

Ever see something on reddit where an image from a movie is taken and someone attaches a silly caption to it? Or someone produces a parody of a song, records it and puts it on YouTube ... well all of that goes away. That's how it kills innovation. Don't be fooled by the "stealing of property" argument they use. Nothing is getting stolen - it's all 1s and 0s, i.e. information, being used. 90% of what you find being produced and sold on etsy will be considered illegal.

SOPA is not out to kill innovation directly, that's not why it's trying to be passed into law. SOPA is about trying to preserve an outdated and obsolete business model which copyrite owners are desperate to still make money on. As a result it will kill innovation.

There are already laws on the books that deal with unwarranted intellectual property use. They are good fair laws. We don't need this nonsense that SOPA will usher in. The glorious free, fair and neutral internet that we know will cease to exist. Innovation will go with it. AND ON TOP OF THAT, passing SOPA only provides a precedent for even more fascist legislation to be passed in the future.

Complete and utter bullshit. Parody and satire is protected under the 1st Amendment of the US Constitution. It also falls under "fair use" in regards to copyright.

 

[HiGirlsRHot]

Wombat, you really should study copyright law. Pretty much every example you gave is already illegal under existing copyright right laws. While felony prosecution under copyright violations are rare they are possible. The exception are the Lady Gaga toddler video which is probably allowed under fair use, and certainly any type of parody.

The big difference between Streammates and MFC is that SM actually enforce copyright laws which is why many SM rooms don't have music but most MFC rooms do have music. Virtually every model is violating copyright law by playing music, unless they use something like the commercial version of Pandora.
I am a little surprised that the RIAA (recording industry) hasn't gone after MFC yet. One of the most sleazy things about MFC is they require models to pay MFC legal bill in any type lawsuit regarding copyright issues.

I saw nothing in the now dead SOPA bill that would change anything about music in cam rooms, it is illegal now and would be in the future.

Wombat

SOPA is not out to kill innovation directly, that's not why it's trying to be passed into law. SOPA is about trying to preserve an outdated and obsolete business model which copyrite owners are desperate to still make money on. As a result it will kill innovation.

Ah so that is the real thing you object to. You think everything on the internet should be free. No doubt the current copyright system is outmoded and desperately needs to brought into the 21st century. But I am struggling to understand why people who create art: music, games, photographs, books and yes even performance art like cumshow should not want and deserve to make money.

 

[Jupiter551]

with the caveat that it supports discrete legislation to fight FOREIGN piracy.

OMG fuck non-American pirates in the butt!!

I love how the USA tried to extradite Kim Dotcom from New Zealand, where he's a citizen, to answer crimes in a company he never targeted nor set foot in lol. Good job world bullies! Look up Mark Emery sometime, a Canadian citizen extradited and jailed for years for allegedly selling marijuana seeds online - except that isn't against the law in Canada, and he never set foot in the USA.

Sorry and I know this is OT, it just gets to me lately the sheer xenophobia in wording like this, and the PRISM project (sure, it's totally morally okay to spy on NON-US citizens not like we're people too or anything with natural rights...)

 

[JerryBoBerry]

Look up Mark Emery sometime, a Canadian citizen extradited and jailed for years for allegedly selling marijuana seeds online - except that isn't against the law in Canada, and he never set foot in the USA.

Have you looked him up? Just read the wiki article on him. Looks like a long time offender with a history of arrests in Canada for the exact same thing he was extradited. I'm thinking he deserved more. From what I read he's kind of scum. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marc_Emery