I'm from post-communist country in Eastern Europe. When I was a child I associated the word "freedom" with word "America" (meaning "USA"). Not any more.

Well said GWS.  +1   

Cyberwar ...... battle it out with an online geekedy geek near you.

The fools ... one misstep, just one and you can kiss this ball of dirt goodbye. Haven't got half the freakin' brains they were born with!

I'll believe that when Texas executes one of them.

We're very much in accord, GW Swicord.

DDOS attack now underway on FBI 's website as part of #OpMegaupload

Speaking as a staunch critic of modern IP regimes, I most heartily say, "Yes."

I love good rhetoric more than the average bear, but screeds like the one you apparently copied from someone claiming to speak for Pirate Bay don't do much for the long-term argument among folks who want work within law to get rid of laws that make no sense.

That screed notes several interesting and important points in both the history of IP law and the practice of making money from ideas. But it does a disservice to those of us who might sympathize with or wholly endorse the underlying political positions because it offers no references to quality sources that support the various fact claims and analytical perspectives. 

Why does your link take you to http://t.co/XyRi0r0I instead of http://www.fbi.gov/ ?

Just realized that the SOPA bill is racist.

I was on a chat and this kid said, "soup" instead of "sup." So I responded by saying "sopa," meaning soup in spanish. His response was:

"that's all any of you internet fags are talking abot

 i'm going to play vidya games now anywaylaters"

They better change that shit or I'll release the horde into America.

I was speaking with my sister about this MegaUpload thing and she's quite pissed because it was the site her scrapbooking group used to store and share their brushes, filters and other elements.  She reckons about 15 gigs of her own work is suddenly gone from the net, no longer for others to share until another suitable venue is found.  Fortunately, she has backups of it all, but that's not the point.  Her entire group has been disadvantaged, not to mention penalised, by this FBI decision.

For mine, the FBI should be dealing with REAL CRIME, and the MPIAA, RIAA and other scum sucking capitalist pigs should be taking these IP matters through the civil courts, as was originally intended by legislation.  We ordinary citizens cannot get law enforcement to act on our behalf when it comes to personal business matters/dealings, and neither should these filthy rich bastards who think the cops/FBI are at their beckon call.

If I lived in the US and MPIAA or RIAA lawyers/representatives ever knocked on my door for any reason, I'd probably open fire with a mouthful of abuse first, then take a baseball bat to the mongrels.  Why, because the bastards aren't there within any true legal capacity, but to intimidate, bully and threaten people who told are they have no rights. 

Yeah, piracy is wrong, but thes fuckers are going all the wrong way about combating it.  The more 'big brother' and aggressive they become, the more these rebel organisations are going to come back with a vengeance to disrupt and destroy the corporate bigwigs.  How about fairer and more realistic pricing?  I mean, 20 bucks in a cinema for a 1 1/2 - 2 hour picture.  I refuse to pay it, but if I want to see something badly enough, rather than pirate it, I'll either rent or buy it on DVD/Bluray, or wait until it comes on telly if its not that important/good.  Still, prices on digital media are too high and could come down, but no, the execs wouldn't take a salary cut to enable that idea and still make a profit.  Nope, and as far as I'm concerned the Hollywood moguls [their legal parasite and associations] asked for what they're getting.

I hate to get all melodramatic here, but this reminds me of The Dark Knight.

Batman* and Co. went after the Mobs money - the one thing they treasured - in order to shut them down permantely.  The Mob responded by unleashing The Joker onto Gotham City to kill Batman, which didn't work out so well because The Joker wanted to play games, not end them.

The Government institutions, namely in the United States where - more often than not - a Politician is elected on the back of a campaign where the biggest contributors are third party Corporations looking to elect people who'll protect their right to expect billion dollar profits for a disproportionate amount of work, are now going after the internet.
They'll eventually shut it down.  SOPA/PIPA?  Ha.  It's called the Anti-Counterfeit Trade Agreement (ACTA).  It's an international piece of legislation being negotiated around the world as we speak.  It's protected under National Security Laws, so don't worry - you won't read about it until it's actually signed into effect.
It's "The Man's" ace in the hole.

The question, them, is who is the internet's Joker and - more importantly - how bad is it going to get? 

Really crazy stuff. Hard to believe they can just take down a huge website without any due process.

lMegaupload sold memberships (as in, "for cash") to watch unrestricted commercially owned, pirated movies and planted adware in with the membership to boot--for years. There's no moral high-ground or democracy issues here.

Starkers, problem is that sites like MegaUpload are WMDs. Weapons of Mass Distribution.

Pirates would be much less willing to distribute pirated software, movies, whatever, if they had to host it themselves, i.e.; pay for the bandwidth. I bet they would be less willing to 'share' if bandwidth costs came out of their own pocket.

Sites like MegaUpload, LetitBit, etc..., are all making money based on the work of others (just have a look at the list of items seized from the owner of Megaupload, I lost count of the Mercedes and 82" LCD TVs), and they operate on a thin veil of legality: they will abide to a DMCA take down notice, but knowing very well that in a few hours the same file will be back with a different link. At least Youtube has content filters, these guy's don't even care - they can't, they know very well what *really* drives their business!

As for movies and music and such, it's about time the RIAA, MPAA, and their likes embraced a new business model instead of fighting against it: if people want to watch a new movie in the privacy of their own homes instead of in a theater, then sell it to them and adjust your price accordingly, don't be greedy! The way to fight piracy is not to go after the end users (although going after the distributors and the crackers is a different story altogether), but to make it much more convenient to simply buy the damn thing! Look at what Steam is doing for games!

Piracy is a cultural thing. If everybody around you thinks it's ok to do it, then you're likely to do it as well and think nothing of it. But if people frown on it, you have the opposite effect. It's the minds and attitudes that need to be changed.