Widescreen Gaming Forum

http://www.variety.com/article/VR1118020932.html?categoryId=4026&cs=1

The 61-page plan, unveiled by Vice President Joseph Biden and the administration's "copyright czar," Victoria Espinel, on Tuesday, is heavy on ways to boost current law enforcement efforts and to make them more effective, whether by greater coordination among government agencies or via more rigorous efforts to engage foreign governments to curb infringement.

But it also is an effort, by mere urging of the administration, to encourage more cooperation in fighting piracy in the private sector. That was a key recommendation by Hollywood studios who have at times been frustrated in their efforts to get Internet providers to take action in curbing users who routinely infringe on copyrights.

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

More of your privacy, out the window.

More of your privacy, out the window.

Pretty much, this is just an excuse.

Let me guess...

1. All internet (not restricted to US based servers) will be monitored by the US [not that they don't already do that...]
2. The US reserves the right to seize any and all electronic devices, equipment, belongings, etc. etc. of any person under the suspicion of breaking any said laws, including terrorism, national security, etc. etc. these rights to seize are immediate and are of the guilty until proven innocent perversion
3. All internet users deemed to be "high intensity" users will be audited every 5 years
4. US reserves the right to "turn off" the internet whenever it wishes
5. US can and will "turn off" individual's access to the internet for life with the penalty of death and death to any relatives of said individual and the government will take claim of all possessions and assests of said individual, relatives and relatives of relatives after issuing said order. Punishment will proceed on a fast-tracked basis, any claims of innocence will be slammed under oil-spill sized paperwork creating lawyers until they have been killed before their appeal can be heard.
6. This law is effective immediately and any who stand against it will be audited, banned from the internet and sent on an expedition to Titan.

Oh and 7. Yes this will slow down the internet and we don't care!

More of your privacy, out the window.

Knee-jerk reaction. Fact is, privacy on the Internet is an illusion. It can't go out the window, because it doesn't really exist. Remember that idiot who posted a bomb threat on 4chan and got arrested shortly after? He used public channels to broadcast information, and you can't do that and expect entitlement to privacy.

Fact is, privacy on the Internet is an illusion.

Which is why I can never run for President.

Well, or course everything CAN be tracked, and oh-so-much is recorded. But if agencies start going out of their way to look at your business, without initial cause, under the guise of something like copyright infringement, then i DO find it an invasion of privacy.

I'm on the fence when it comes to piracy. I love to buy games and media that's actually good enough to enjoy most than 5 minutes. The music i like is either freeto begin with, or is very hard to find legal copies of for less then the cost of an appendage.

That, and I think there are bigger problems than piracy.

if agencies start going out of their way to look at your business, without initial cause, under the guise of something like copyright infringement, then i DO find it an invasion of privacy.

First of all, you're begging the question that this is the actual purpose of the plan. As far as I can see, you're not basing this on evidence - you're just making an assumption in bad faith. That or misusing the word "guise."

Secondly, if you broadcast "your business" through public channels, nobody is violating your privacy by looking at it. Doesn't matter what they claim the reason is. If someone saw me browsing wart removal solutions at the embarrassing hygiene problem aisle in CVS, and they can somehow figure out who I am, I can't very well claim that they are violating my privacy by watching. Similar deal with, say, Amazon.com browsing history. It might feel more private, but it isn't.

That, and I think there are bigger problems than piracy.

With the exception of the world's biggest problem and the world's second biggest problem, there are bigger problems than *everything*. There are certainly bigger problems than PC games not supporting widescreen properly. That doesn't make me on the fence about it - I'm downright hardline about favoring widescreen support in every game.

Fact is, privacy on the Internet is an illusion.

Which is why I can never run for President.

privacy still exist at some point by the simple fact that company databases are independent
your browsing history doesn't transfer from one website to another magically ...

also some simple and not so simple actions can improve your privacy :

-nowadays paid VPN step by step solutions are common place (meaning there is several actors providing such services, enough for a potential client to have some choice in the matter), no one except the company behind it can relate what you're doing with who you are
some also advertise not keeping any history...

-plugins may improve your privacy : like, for example, noscript who prevent javascript from executing, and actually reinforce your privacy by preventing such scripts to communicate with their servers. the bad news though is that a lot of adds rely on javascript which means denying websites a source of revenue ...
this website for example uses crackerjackmack.com, googlesyndication.com, google.com & doubleclick.net
That said when you deny 99% if javascript from webpages you may actually notice that the web becomes a really fast place & your browser less crashable /CPU intensive & all that :roll:

-use IxQuick instead of google : no history kept of your searches ... HTTPS possibility ...

-many more that I'm either not aware of, or didn't remember at the time of this thread creation.

privacy still exist at some point by the simple fact that company databases are independent

Company databases has nothing to do with your privacy. All a third party has to do is watch traffic as it happens. They do not need to gain access to company databases.

-nowadays paid VPN step by step solutions are common place (meaning there is several actors providing such services, enough for a potential client to have some choice in the matter), no one except the company behind it can relate what you're doing with who you are

Of course, if enough people use VPNs to do stuff they shouldn't be doing, that will just put the heat on whoever runs the VPNs. And you can bet they would rather comply with the authorities then take the rap for what their customers do.