SOPA and PIPA

[Alpe d'Huez]

The disturbing part is that in the last several weeks Congress was basically passing around the hat to first the MPAA, RIAA etc. (through Chris Dodd's paws too), and another to the tech giants while all this was going on.

What's more disgusting is that what's likely to now happen is that the industries will form some sort of tenuous bond and have their own "bill" written, with some compromises, and plenty of little perks in there. This bill will go to Congress who will tie it to another bill, and it will pass - likely without many of them even reading the details in it - and Congress and the President (who won't read it either) will hail it a huge victory.

 

[Zam_Olyas]

http://tehparadox.com/forum/f11/[fsn-fsv-ul-fj-us-mf-many-more-]-dead-updated-3830664/

 

[ultimobici]

Seems the US authorities are already targeting people.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/law/2012/jan/13/piracy-student-loses-us-extradition

 

[Cobblestones]

Seems the US authorities are already targeting people.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/law/2012/jan/13/piracy-student-loses-us-extradition

The UK is our b!tch. If we want we can put any of you royalists in the slammer for 10 years. Just so you don't forget.

 

[Bala Verde]

I'd like to see what will happen when 3d printers become available to the masses. Copying 'physical' products will become a reality and accessible to 'everyone', just like the technique of copying digital content is now available to anyone with a basic computer.

Does this mean that the means of production become increasingly democratized, or deconcentrated?

No one really ever had the time to 'copy' a chair, or a car, or a book, for personal use, with the techniques available. It just takes to long, but with new technologies, these barriers seem to be taken down (really gradually), such as the photocopier made copying books and other documents easier, and recording methods allowed people to record radio songs...

I have also been wondering about the economics of duplication; the laws of supply and demand, and price setting of digital products. If a song can be duplicated infinitely at no extra cost (besides the space it takes to store the digital data on a data storage device), doesn't that mean that prices ought go down to (almost) zero?