I was reading techdirt recently, when I ran into this article. It is a scary read, so make sure you read it. It basically describes how the MPAA is trying to convince the International Trade Committee to force ISP's to block "pirate" sites at the border of the Internet. It's disturbing, because to the MPAA/RIAA/etc, "pirate" sites don't just mean sites that there is actual pirating going on on, but sites that they want to shut down because they don't like them.
Copyright holders have been trying to shut down non pirate sites under the guise of "copyright infringement" for years. A list of copyright infringing sites I read online had gaming sites on it, for instance, including a site that hosts modding sites for quake (telefragged.com) and a site that hosts mods/patches/etc (filefront.com). This list was published by a group in the industry, saying that these sites are all "pirate" sites and not to advertise on them. The group was controlling advertisements and apparently modding = copyright infringement to them! For years copyright infringement claims have appeared on youtube. People like EMG, UMG and other record labels have tried to take down videos they DONT own the copyright too. Copyright infringement fraud is at a high on that site.
The following sites could be seen as sites they would want to shut down:
soundcloud.com (indie music hosts get targeted by the RIAA often, my bands music is here)
grooveshark.com (indie music hosts get targeted by the RIAA often, my bands music is here)
last.fm (indie music hosts get targeted by the RIAA often, my bands music is here)
youtube.com (infringing content is high on yt, admittedly, plus lets plays equal copyright infringement now)
reverbnation.com (indie music hosts get targeted by the RIAA)
xmetal-empirex.com (indie music hosts get targeted by the RIAA)
any and all blogging hosts (due to the infringing content posted on these)
that includes blogger.com. wordpress.com. livejournal.com, and many others
doomworld.com (hosts modding sites, modding = copyright infringing to them)
dukerepository.com (hosts modding sites, modding = copyright infringing to them)
skyrim nexus (hosts modding sites, modding = copyright infringing to them)
fallout nexus (hosts modding sites, modding = copyright infringing to them)
filefront.com (hosts modding sites, modding = copyright infringing to them)
fileplanet.com (hosts modding sites, modding = copyright infringing to them)
and many more
These people want to shut down anything they ACCUSE of being copyright infringement. They want the ISP's to monitor everything, and shut down things that could be copyright infringing. It's disgusting. Something has to be done about this. I suggest all gamers, modders, independent music producers all contact their representatives, to try to stop this. According to techdirt it will probably not happen till late 2015, so we have time... But it's important that we do something to stop this nonsense...
