It's reasonable usage so you don't have to pay ...

In most cases they do, otherwise they wouldn't put the hard work in. It still no justification for someone who has put no work in to have it for free or to make money (like MegaUpload) out of it.

Copyright is important, otherwise people like myself wouldn't make anything.

IP can be taken to the extreme ... Apple comes to mind.

Excellent and informed post!

You cannot push the blame on the hack-group.And call them Scum... H- groups can be compared with Protestants, because now-a-days only masses of people will move things forward.
“We The People” that has almost no meaning anymore for the most people…

It lost its energy. People are afraid of almost everything these days...And to have a virtual Protest with a early forward warning demanding a change isn’t anything else than going to protest against something in Real Life with a group of people the only difference is that it happens on a virtual platform.
A hacker group warns exactly as peacefully Protestants do-+ a hack does not constitute a violation in RL! Also it does not kill people! It only hurts the imaginary digital barrier and the Pyramid-system behind it.
The whole thing is called gray zone left open by the founders…
I know im not making friends with this post but its my personal feeling about it.

There are lots of ways to spin things like this.  Obviously if you are customer of MegaUpload and not utilizing it in a way that breaks the law, well - having the site be taken off the net and losing your data obviously sucks.  I don't believe MegaUploads provided any sort of guarantee that your data would be available - I'm sure it seemed that way.  Anyway, if your favorite restaurant that has your fav food is closed for a health code violation even though you've never been sick, I think the most logical thing would be to try to deny activity to the several websites for a little while.  That will really stick it to them and cause global change.  Its a bit ridiculous, no?  Even more silly when the root complaint is likely that they should be able to access copyrighted material for free.  

"H groups can be compared with Protestants." 

uh... ok then.  Or terrorists... or maybe just hackers or folks able to coordinate simple attacks.

You can look at it how you like, of course.  There are certainly pros and cons to these sorts of people.  Take for instance the Sony hacks.  A business was shown to have lax security and as a result compromised their customers data.  Data that the customers foolishly trusted Sony to protect.  End result, Sony updates it security and the consumers are supposedly better protected as a result.  So, the hack could be viewed as something positive if you only focus on the changes made.  That said, these benevolent, kind, protesting some crap hackers steal the personal data of thousands of people.  I don't recollect if they took credit card info as well in this case.  Anyway, by sticking it to the man, they violate as many people as they can to make a point.  I don't applaud this.  Not only are they hurting their direct target (Sony), but they are hurting every single person with the threat and/or action of distributing their personal data at their discretion.  That's not so benevolent.  If we are just talking about denying access to certain websites - well, congratulations on being a nuisance.  It's a regular Arab Spring.

My major problem with SOPA is that it throws out the baby with the bath water.

Innocent users are de facto included when a site like this is taken down and can lose their content.

Any site storing users content should be forced to copy the content and return it to the users if it is taken down.

Also, a way to take down sites should be created which will not destabilize DNS.

I don't know. A lot of people would like to see an internet without video clips on YouTube. Especially politicians who don't like their most embarrassing moments or policy flip flops a mouse click away. You'll all probably think differently if they arbitrarily start taking down big sites with claims of IP violations. I could be wrong.

Well, granted that would be nice anyway.  They'd have to make that a law to force compliance, I'd think.  Obviously, even that would be a huge mess. 

re: youtube - I'm curious as to how long it would be able to avoid something like SOPA.  I'm certain there are thousands of copyrighted content that is being displayed there.  In the past, they've gotten around things like that by removing content on request - I'm under the impression they don't do any sort of policing of their own sight.  There would definitely be a huge public outcry if they were shut down.  No policing in the first place is just silly, though.  Obviously, it wouldn't be easy to police, but a mechanism for keeping copyrighted content from being uploaded in the first place would be better... sigh.

http://business.financialpost.com/2012/01/20/u-s-congress-pulls-sopa-legislation/

FTW.

Agreed!

There goes a lot of Sins of a Solar Empire m0ds down the drain.   Modders need services like this for their content since even Stardock can't deal with files sizes over 100mb. I didn't even realize they hosted pirated content as I just follow a m0d link and don't surf the site.

As for the "FTW" comment, it is temporary at best. From the article DOC linked...

Lamar Smith, the Republican chairman of the House of Representatives Judiciary Committee, followed suit, saying his panel would delay action on similar legislation until there is wider agreement on the issue.

Probably wait until the US starts another war and the news and public are preoccupied with something else. Or bury it on the back of some other legislation. Not sure how the US works doing that but I remember hearing something about it.

Thanks to people like DOC we can be kept up-to-date even if the MSM does not want to report news they do not want you to hear. We must stay diligent.

Thanks a bunch Doc, keep up the good work 

Sometimes I visit paranoid news websites when I'm afraid I might be getting that way myself, so that I can convince myself to come back more to the mainstream by seeing how goofy the really paranoid people are.  I found this guys' video, and dang if he doesn't make an interesting point, in that the power players behind the passage of these laws, or the introduction of them as bills...they're the originators of the software used to pirate things off the internet.  Someone please point out to me the flaw in this guy's logic, because I can't come up with anything:

A-fucken-men to THAT!

I'd have to say the government is definitely pulling a "Two-Face", especially Obama and his thretening to veto stuff. Veto my ass, he's all about securing corporate interests.

@Karen:

1. Use Doc's Razor: Don't ascribe to conspiracy what can be ascribed to the desire to sell tin foil. (this is a quotable).

2. "Post hoc ergo proctor hoc" (or A is antecedent to B therefore if B then A, and A caused B) is not correct logic. In this case, nut bag asserts that since these companies distributed software which could be used for piracy, that was their intent.

Since that is illogical, there must be a fact to explain it (the 'conspiracy'): To wit, the takeover of the internet.

The fallacy is illustrated by this:

Cars can be used to kill people. Therefore, the auto makers are conspiring to take over vehicle licensing and own all the roads.

The former example is wrong because the software was intended to distribute legal, licensed content not pirated software. Just like cars are intended to be driven safely, within the law: Not to kill people and take over licensing and all roads.

This nut job wants to kill SOPA. Maybe with good reason, maybe not. Doing it because of his "reasoning" would be incorrect, and crazy.

I would have to say the car designed here for nabster and kazaa is more like ...

but not to worry, I promise not to shoot at the guy that cuts me off...

EDIT: Oh crap he's dead. Sorry, a moment of lapsed judgement   

Thank you...I can go back to my work now.