• The Author of SOPA Is a Copyright Violator
    33 replies, posted
[QUOTE=vice][IMG]http://assets.vice.com/content-images/contentimage/no-slug/8f0afd098c7ef31dd3e8da72ca2f7abb.jpg[/IMG] US Congressman and poor-toupee-color-chooser Lamar Smith is the guy who authored the [URL="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stop_Online_Piracy_Act"]Stop Online Piracy Act[/URL] . SOPA, as I'm sure you know, is the shady bill that will introduce way harsher penalties for companies and individuals caught violating copyright laws online (including making the unauthorized streaming of copyrighted content a crime which you could actually go to jail for). If the bill passes, it will destroy the internet and, ultimately, turn the world into [I]Mad Max [/I](for more info, go [URL="http://motherboard.vice.com/2011/12/15/break-in-case-of-censorship-what-are-our-free-speech-fail-safes-if-sopa-passes"]here[/URL] ). I decided to check that everything on Lamar's [URL="http://www.texansforlamarsmith.com/"]official campaign website[/URL] was copyright-cleared and on the level. Lamar is using several stock images on his site, two of which I tracked back to the same photographic agency. I contacted the agency to make sure he was paying to use them, but was told that it's very difficult for them to actually check to see if someone has permission to use their images. (Great news, copyright violators!) However, seeing as they're both from the same agency and are unwatermarked, it seems fairly likely that he is the only person on the entire internet who is actually paying to use a stock image (and he'd be an idiot not to). So I took a look back at an archived, pre-SOPA version of his site. [IMG]http://assets.vice.com/content-images/contentimage/no-slug/e02fad0d4dfe8ad26d50e77620f85ede.jpg[/IMG] This is a screenshot of his site as it [URL="http://web.archive.org/web/20100819183728/http://www.texansforlamarsmith.com/"]appeared on the 24th of July, 2011[/URL] . [IMG]http://assets.vice.com/content-images/contentimage/no-slug/0a05b04c506c176ced370d5303810e06.jpg[/IMG] And [I]this[/I] is the background image Lamar was using. I managed to track that picture back to [URL="http://www.flickr.com/photos/oxherder/4189641199/in/pool-89888984@N00"]DJ Schulte[/URL] , the photographer who took it. And whaddya know? Looks like someone forgot to credit him. I contacted DJ, to find out if Lamar had asked permission to use the image and he told me that he had no record of Lamar, or anyone from his organization, requesting permission to use it: "I switched my images from traditional copyright protection to be protected under the Creative Commons license a few years ago, which simply states that they can use my images as long as they attribute the image to me and do not use it for commercial purposes. "I do not see anywhere on the screen capture that you have provided that the image was attributed to the source (me). So my conclusion would be that Lamar Smith's organization did improperly use my image. So according to the SOPA bill, should it pass, maybe I could petition the court to take action against www.texansforlamarsmith.com." Oh dear. Luckily for DJ, there are people out there like Lamar making new laws to protect the little guy against online copyright theft. Keep fighting that good fight, Lamar! [B]UPDATE[/B][B]S:[/B] Why did Lamar's site go down after this post went up yesterday? We aren't sure, but [URL="http://www.vice.com/read/lamar-smith-serial-copyright-violator"]something smells fishy[/URL]. We need your help! [URL="http://www.vice.com/read/find-sopa-cosigners-copyright-violation"]Join our "Shop a SOPA" Copyright Hypocrite Hunt [/URL]and help us find copyright violations on the other 31 SOPA co-sponsors' websites. [I]We've contacted the office of Lamar Smith and are waiting on a response.[/I] [I]For more on SOPA, [URL="http://motherboard.vice.com/2011/12/15/break-in-case-of-censorship-what-are-our-free-speech-fail-safes-if-sopa-passes"]read this[/URL] .[/I] [I]For more on our disappointing elected officials, [URL="http://www.vice.com/read/im-not-mad-at-ron-paul-just-disappointed"]read this[/URL].[/I] [I]Or maybe you're in the mood for some [URL="http://www.vice.com/the-cute-show/Kittens!"]kittens[/URL].[/I] [I][I]Follow Jamie on Twitter: [URL="http://twitter.com/#!/JLCT"]@JLCT[/URL] [/I][/I] [/QUOTE] Source: [URL]http://www.vice.com/read/lamar-smith-sopa-copyright-whoops[/URL]
i hope he dies
indeed [editline]13th January 2012[/editline] also he looks like a douchebag
God, I hate that shiteating grin he has on his face. It's like the standard grin for politicians.
that first picture just screams bad poker face
DEATH PENALTY!
I hope his tupee loses it color.
i hope this guy gets shot russian style with a smith & wessen and is left to rot
I hope the law doesn't pass.
seriously if you think I'm being overly harsh, read this thread [url]http://www.facepunch.com/threads/1155285[/url] it's nothing to do with him specifically, but he's the kind of person who is fine with sending people to federal jail, essentially for money that student is probably gonna get killed or at the very least have his life fucked up if he ends up in federal jail. Lamar Smith is no less than a would-be tyrant.
What a fucking moron. Still, no one's gonna go "oh, so you're a copyright violator? Guess we'll stop the whole SOPA thing since you're a hypocrite and whatnot." Partly because the people in charge of this stuff probably don't know how to use the word "whatnot" in a sentence, but mostly because simply showing someone making a law is a hypocrite doesn't completely cancel out any law they attempt to get passed related to the thing they've been proven doing before, or whatever. You know what I mean.
[QUOTE=Turnips5;34200227]seriously if you think I'm being overly harsh, read this thread [url]http://www.facepunch.com/threads/1155285[/url] it's nothing to do with him specifically, but he's the kind of person who is fine with sending people to federal jail, essentially for money that student is probably gonna get killed or at the very least have his life fucked up if he ends up in federal jail. Lamar Smith is no less than a would-be tyrant.[/QUOTE] the reason he's doing it is because the owner of the prison gets 40,000$ a month per prisoner(if i can remember correctly) if im wrong either way they get a lot of money just with one person now imagine a whole prison
I hope this guy doesn't get re-elected.
It's nice that the website now [URL="http://www.texansforlamarsmith.com/robots.txt"]blocks the internet archiver from archiving it.[/URL]
[quote]Why did Lamar's site go down after this post went up yesterday?[/quote] best part
The photograph in question has been removed from the site as far as i can tell.
A bit over a century ago, people who went against the freedom of the people ended up being hanged. We're a bit more civilized now, but some good old waterboarding would do him good.
[QUOTE=zombini;34200567]The photograph in question has been removed from the site as far as i can tell.[/QUOTE] it was on there but he's trying to save his ass
The webmaster of the site also disallowed web crawlers. [url]http://web.archive.org/web/20100819183728/http://www.texansforlamarsmith.com/[/url] [url]http://www.texansforlamarsmith.com/robots.txt[/url] Someone's paranoid
thread music [media]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0xLGuSAfBiw[/media] [I]This is the world you're in And this is where ours begins A borderless nation of thoughts to replace Your walled-in existence in space[/I] oops. this was supposed to only go in the other thread whatever
When will we know if SOPA will pass or not? Last time i checked it should have ended almost 20 days ago but they changed the date for some awesome reason? Haven't been reading the news lately. Nevermind. Just read more about it and found out.
The website changed.
[QUOTE=confinedUser;34200180]indeed [editline]13th January 2012[/editline] also he looks like a douchebag[/QUOTE] Bit of a dick move to judge by his looks.
[QUOTE=ZombieDawgs;34201166]Bit of a dick move to judge by his looks.[/QUOTE] Well to be fair, so is trying to take a big steamy shit on internet freedom.
that picture is the exact problem with america right now old retards who think they can make the country better when they actually just make it worse
Can't I just not like the guy for being a politician? I mean their pretty much all idiots who only think about how things were run in the past without looking at what to do for the future.
What a stupid hypocrite. Why isn't he in jail for being a copyright violator?
I didn't realize until the article mentioned it but is his toupee purple
[QUOTE=Zeke129;34201470]I didn't realize until the article mentioned it but is his toupee purple[/QUOTE] Kinda, yeah.
[QUOTE=ZombieDawgs;34201166]Bit of a dick move to judge by his looks.[/QUOTE] I don't know about you but I like to have my freedom to browse what the hell I want to browse and I'm an asshole so why does it matter?
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