"Irish SOPA" Signed Into Law Despite Resistance

First time accepted submitter cupantae writes "Despite the protests of over 80,000 Irish people, Junior Minister Seán Sherlock has confirmed that the controversial statutory instrument that reinforces online copyright laws in Ireland has been signed into law. The statutory instrument will make it possible for copyright holders to seek court injunctions against companies such as internet service providers or social networks whose systems are hosting copyright-infringing material. This comes in the wake of the music industry bullying the Irish government."

Comments

Re:WHAT CAME FIRST ?? THE COMPILER OR ITS SOURCE ?

[SuricouRaven]

The source, of course. In assembler. That's how the first compilers were made, and later rewritten once they were able to compile themselves.

What a shame

[NewtonsLaw]

What a shame it is that 90% of the public are so complacent and unwilling to take action to protect their rights from the goose-stepping content cartels.

Imagine if, even if just for a month, *nobody* bought any music from members of the RIAA, nobody went to any theatres to watch movies from the MPAA, or bought their DVDs or even hired their DVDs.

Can you just see the look of absolute fear that would envelope them?

Even if we could find enough people to reduce their sales and rentals by 50%, that would send a very strong message that perhaps, when it comes to copyright "it's better the devil you know [filesharing] than the devil you don't [boycotts]"

Unfortunately, any move to organize a campaign of abstinence or a boycott would be doomed to failure -- because most people just don't give a damn anyway.

We get the government (and the storm-trooper tactics) we deserve they say. Maybe they're right :-(

Re:What a shame

[theshowmecanuck]

Considering this is happening in Eire one might find it kind of sad given this very famous quote:

"It is the common fate of the indolent to see their rights become a prey to the active. The condition upon which God hath given liberty to man is eternal vigilance; which condition if he break, servitude is at once the consequence of his crime and the punishment of his guilt." -- John Philpot Curran: Speech upon the Right of Election for Lord Mayor of Dublin, 1790. (Speeches. Dublin, 1808.) as quoted in Bartlett's Familiar Quotations

Re:What a shame

[Anonymous Coward]

That sends the wrong message too. There is plenty of DRM-free stuff available for purchase from hard working artists, independent film and record labels etc. .. that's the stuff we should all be buying.

"Irish SOPA" Signed Into Law...

[Anonymous Coward]

This is begging for an "Irish SOPA -> Protests -> "Irish Spring" joke.

Re:80,000 is not enough

[NewtonsLaw]

Don't forget that the public generally only knows about the things the media tells them about and -- in the list of SOPA sponsors there are a huge number of big media players -- all eager to use it to protect their content.

Hence, we've seen very little (if any) objective mainstream media coverage of SOPA and what it will mean to the average joe citizen.

Unfortunately, the real power to shape the minds and opinions of the masses lies in the hands of the likes of Rupert Murdoch and the other media barons.

We're stuffed mate!

Black March

[Anonymous Coward]

It's called Black March. I think a better awareness campaign would have made it more popular but essentially, it's about not buying or downloading any media content for the month of March in order to make a dent in the entertainment industries profits. Check it out!

Economics 101 fail

[Kupfernigk]

You don't get it, do you? If the people are poor, there isn't much tax revenue to raise. The idea is to get Governments into debt because they have a source of tax revenue and can continue to pay the interest. Therefore, the country as a whole needs to make plenty of money to pay the taxes. Since the rich avoid or evade taxes, that in reality means a prosperous middle class.

Rothschilds actually got going by realising this and placing the sons of the founder in the capitals of countries that were rapidly becoming rich. They had headquarters in places like Vienna, not Nebraska. They lent the British Government the money to buy the Suez Canal, which was a conduit for trade, thus (a) profiting from the loan and (b) profiting by lending to promote trade.

This is what is fundamentally wrong with Walmartonomics. Walmart pays as little as possible. But, to succeed, it must have plenty of people to spend money in its stores. In effect, it wants a shit economy so it can get a cheap workforce, but really it wants a high wage economy to maximise its income. This kind of works if for "Walmart" we substitute China, and for "High wage economy" we substitute "The West". But what happens when all countries have been dragged into the mire? No markets, that's what.

Ireland, Italy and Greece are in trouble because the Governments borrowed and the taxes weren't paid, either through evasion (Italy and Greece), through "avoidance" schemes (Ireland) or because also the Governments had lied about the actual GNP (Greece). This actually wasn't the fault of the bankers, but of greedy and corrupt politicians.

As I say, if Rothschilds really ran Ireland, they would do it on the principle that the best way to produce milk is to start off with well fed cows, not to start off with starving cows and demand more output for less grass. In national economics, the Old Testament is actually a much better guide than an MBA course.