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Sopa

Mistakes will be made SOPA or not.

Your damn right they will, and SOPA protects the government from retaliatory prosecution for those mistakes.

See, I'm not real big on worrying about nearly impossible what if's. I'm not going to even ask you to explain but if a patron is able to walk into a bar every night and set up illegal gambling in the back without anyone knowing about it, the place has far bigger problems than the governments actions.

I didn't say that this person set up illegal gambling, only that they conducted their illegal activities here. It could be an internet bar where this person uploads all sorts of illegal content? Do you think the owners would easily find out about it? Not likely, until the feds bust down the door. Yet as I stated before, he can't do anything and could potentially go out of business as a result of a patron. When and if he did go out of business, SOPA prohibits him from being compensated through civil suit for the mistake.
 
I didn't say that this person set up illegal gambling, only that they conducted their illegal activities here. It could be an internet bar where this person uploads all sorts of illegal content? Do you think the owners would easily find out about it? Not likely, until the feds bust down the door. Yet as I stated before, he can't do anything and could potentially go out of business as a result of a patron. When and if he did go out of business, SOPA prohibits him from being compensated through civil suit for the mistake.

If it's a reasonable thing that someone could use my business to facilitate illegal activities, I am going to be pro-active.
 
If it's a reasonable thing that someone could use my business to facilitate illegal activities, I am going to be pro-active.

Most people would say the same thing, but how would you know? You can't police everyone at every second that you're in business. At the moment you're not policing, you'll be held responsible.
 
Most people would say the same thing, but how would you know? You can't police everyone at every second that you're in business. At the moment you're not policing, you'll be held responsible.

A business should know what is on their computers.
 
Paypal.....not long ago.

If I get poor service, I don't steal the silverware. I eat somewhere else next time.

No one, in this case, has stolen anything, nor are they planning to. They ARE, however, being ACCUSED of doing so, and being found, in so many words, guilty, UNLESS they make a phone call to prove their innocence.
 
If I go to a bar and snort a line of coke in the bathroom, and get busted for doing so, should the bar get shut down too? I mean, after all, they provided the facilities for me, to snort my line of coke.

Also, the amount of damage, in terms of lost sales, for a bar that gets shut down, with a sign out front saying drug activities, would be INCALCULABLE. I mean, in reputation alone, it hurts, long after the event.

In CT, a strip club got hit with some sort of probe, or something, they thought they were running a prostitution thing on the side. They busted in, etc etc...made a BIG splash in the papers. Turns out, no evidence of prostitution was ever found, nor any convictions made, etc.

But you know what's NOT there anymore? That strip club. Went out of business. And believe me, it had NOTHING to do with their business model, lol.
 
A business should know what is on their computers.

No amount of security is completely secure. If you're running a small internet cafe, you wouldn't be able to afford the "hard to crack" security, at which point it doesn't matter if you know or not. Again, you can't police everyone at every second.
 
If I go to a bar and snort a line of coke in the bathroom, and get busted for doing so, should the bar get shut down too? I mean, after all, they provided the facilities for me, to snort my line of coke.

Also, the amount of damage, in terms of lost sales, for a bar that gets shut down, with a sign out front saying drug activities, would be INCALCULABLE. I mean, in reputation alone, it hurts, long after the event.

In CT, a strip club got hit with some sort of probe, or something, they thought they were running a prostitution thing on the side. They busted in, etc etc...made a BIG splash in the papers. Turns out, no evidence of prostitution was ever found, nor any convictions made, etc.

But you know what's NOT there anymore? That strip club. Went out of business. And believe me, it had NOTHING to do with their business model, lol.

This. 1Perry this is likely to happen far more often under SOPA. Unfortunately for the people, SOPA keeps us from doing anything about it. We can't sue the gov. for ruining our business, so unless they opt to just hand us cash for damages (highly unlikely), we're screwed. How is that fair? Don't give me the "life isn't fair" thing either, because we're talking about rights, and the liberty to do what you want in terms of business in this country. Which is something the libertairians believe should be protected by the gov. However clearly in this sort of incident, they're walking all over our rights.
 
No amount of security is completely secure. If you're running a small internet cafe, you wouldn't be able to afford the "hard to crack" security, at which point it doesn't matter if you know or not. Again, you can't police everyone at every second.

It isn't going to happen as that would mean the arrest of librarians and shutting down library's. It isn't going to happen.
 
This. 1Perry this is likely to happen far more often under SOPA. Unfortunately for the people, SOPA keeps us from doing anything about it. We can't sue the gov. for ruining our business, so unless they opt to just hand us cash for damages (highly unlikely), we're screwed. How is that fair? Don't give me the "life isn't fair" thing either, because we're talking about rights, and the liberty to do what you want in terms of business in this country. Which is something the libertairians believe should be protected by the gov. However clearly in this sort of incident, they're walking all over our rights.

I would give Kevin credit for a rare arguement that escapes the scare tactics is what I would have to say about this.
 
I'm not trying to use scare tactics, I'm just trying to put things into a perspective that people who may or may not be into computers and the internet can more easily understand, in order to maintain a proper balance between private industry and government control over that industry.

SOPA would give uncel sam UNCHECKED power to close businesses based on the actions of those businesses' patrons, WITHOUT any form of redress process.

That's overstepping the bounds.
 
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