The SOPA Bill [YOU MUST READ THIS! NOW! DONT IGNORE THIS!]

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RoboBlue
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Post by RoboBlue »

Keening_Product wrote:Would the Keen mods be in breach of SOPA/PIPA? They have the implied approval of Tom Hall and John Romero but there is no formal permission granted from iD software.

Same goes for this forum with its use Keen character images.

More generally, would the blocking of a site require a complaint or would the US copyright/justice departments just consider this to be in violation without an objection being raised?
The Keen mods could probably be considered to violate existing copyright law, as well as the PCKF logo and the emotikeens. I know, I know, they're probably "fair use", but if the PCKF hosts/owners were ever sued, they would probably be forced to settle.
Thus, fair use could already be considered "practically illegal", because it's perfectly legal for a large lawyer-backed corporation to stomp it out.

Life sucks when the law is relative.
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VikingBoyBilly
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Post by VikingBoyBilly »

Most of the keen mods only come with Keen 1 or Keen 4, which are freeware to begin with, and the mods of other keens don't provide the games to run them with because they're not shareware episodes, so it should be fine.
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Post by Keening_Product »

Thanks RoboBlue - great answer!
VikingBoyBilly wrote:Most of the keen mods only come with Keen 1 or Keen 4, which are freeware to begin with, and the mods of other keens don't provide the games to run them with because they're not shareware episodes, so it should be fine.
But the graphics are still used and the purpose of those two games was to sell the other five. Shareware =/= open source.
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VikingBoyBilly
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Post by VikingBoyBilly »

The bottom line is John Carmack owns keen and he made it clear that he doesn't give a garg about it, so it's unlikely he'd lift a finger to protect his IP from the EEEEEEEEEEeevvvvvvvvvvvvil keen modders.
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Post by Benvolio »

and if we were forced to shut down our forums... sure we could just send copies of our latest mods around the globe in the post, complete with illustrious cover-art and printed instruction books... i still got a stash of 5 1/4 inch diskettes somewhere!
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Post by Lava89 »

Yeah, we could just create a mailing list or just camp out in the GameFaqs board for Keen Dreams.
Benvolio wrote:complete with illustrious cover-art and printed instruction books...
That idea alone sounds awesome.
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Post by KeenEmpire »

Keening_Product wrote:Would the Keen mods be in breach of SOPA/PIPA? They have the implied approval of Tom Hall and John Romero but there is no formal permission granted from iD software.
Yes and no. If I understand it correctly, copyright violations aren't really much of an issue for this forum, mainly because this is an old game and the copyright holders don't really care about us anymore.

That said, SOPA/PIPA does open the door to easy shutdown/censoring of sites in general, either by trolls, people who are in competition making dubious claims, automated searchbots that search every site for the slightest link to infringement, or even the aforementioned copyright holders (if it becomes much easier to shut us down, some idiot might then decide they'd rather have $50 than risk us outshadowing their original product. Even if it is fair use, our community doesn't have have expensive lawyers to argue that case).
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RoboBlue
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Post by RoboBlue »

It's official: justice is dead.

Sorry to be such a downer, but it really depresses me to see someone getting away with such a horrible abuse of the law via something that smells suspiciously like blackmail. :(
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Post by Keening_Product »

RoboBlue wrote:It's official: justice is dead.

Sorry to be such a downer, but it really depresses me to see someone getting away with such a horrible abuse of the law via something that smells suspiciously like blackmail. :(
I'm interested to see them take on something like YouTube. Although the studios use it to promote their artists, I'm sure they're not happy about unauthorised posting of content. YouTube doesn't remove it unless there's a proper complaint it seems.

If websites in the US can have this happen to them already, would SOPA/PIPA have made much of a difference to them on a legal front? (Obviously there's the whole censor part of it that would be different.)
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RoboBlue
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Post by RoboBlue »

Assuming Megaupload isn't guilty of money laundering or whatever, then no, they can't easily do what they did.

However, the US government hasn't exactly been known for obeying its own laws as of late.
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Post by VikingBoyBilly »

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NzS5rSvZXe8

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7tXbSKyCReE

edit: Text to appease the mighty god, Ceilick Image

But yeah, this pretty much explains the whole MegaUpload debacle in depth.
Last edited by VikingBoyBilly on Tue Jan 24, 2012 4:21, edited 1 time in total.
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Post by Ceilick »

VBB, if the content of your posts consists only of links, I will delete them. Don't do it.
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RoboBlue
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Post by RoboBlue »

VikingBoyBilly wrote:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NzS5rSvZXe8

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7tXbSKyCReE

edit: Text to appease the mighty god, Ceilick Image

But yeah, this pretty much explains the whole MegaUpload debacle in depth.
My brain broke about five minutes into the first video, and I can't seem to find a lot of information on what he's claiming (CBS conspired to invade TPB and infect users with spyware?)
Is this real, or just a conspiracy theory?

Edit: Doesn't download.com host mostly user-submitted files, similar to megaupload and the rest? The fact that editors reviewed P2P software is somewhat damning, but it in no way implies that CBS intended for download.com to be used to aid in piracy. Plus, it's like like those P2P programs didn't have their own sites; download.com was a secondary host who just wanted to capitalize on popular files (not unlike megaupload).

Edit 2: Is he suggesting that hosting a file is the same thing as paying to support the owner of that file?
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Post by KeenEmpire »

RoboBlue wrote: Edit 2: Is he suggesting that hosting a file is the same thing as paying to support the owner of that file?
Aye, copyright infringement alone is not technically criminal, but he still brings up a good point considering the extremes of our justice system. Even in the best case scenario, what about the people who had received some from of payment (or chance to be paid?) under MU's system, etc.

I think the second video is worth spreading because, well, copyright law needs an overhaul, and in order for that to happen, people need to be scared. Not so sure about the first.
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Post by KeenEmpire »

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