OT: Wikipedia shutting down tomorrow

[Adrian C]

Kids, you've got less than 10 hours to do your homework ...

[John Rumm]

US law... seems to be missing a trick there!

[Jethro]

[Man at B&Q]

So what is wrong with shutting down websites that host pirate material and telling search engines not to link to them?

Storm in a teacup if you ask me.

MBQ

[Part Timer]

Fantastic - don't have to resort to Google's cache.

[The Natural Philosopher]

Because they can shut down sites that link to the sites..and on..and on.

Lets say you are a community website: someone in the USA decides that one piece of the material on your site is lifted from some site on the net and then pleads copyright. Your whole site is now offline to the USA.. Your course is to hire some USA based legal firm haha and get the order rescinded>?? purlease.

Shortly after that you mention this in an angry fashion and say 'frankly the president of the USA should be shot' in a irritable non serious way.

THAT is a crime against the united states that you can get extradited for.

No, we have seen time and again how legislation designed (=thrown together in a political frenzy) for one purpose gets misapplied to another..people getting arrested under terrorism laws just because they have a penknife in the boot of the car..suss laws etc. etc.

A mechanism that allows the USA on risk of dire sanction to shut down any part of the internet it doesn't like - hell NOTHING is easier than uploading some dodgy material to site you don't like, and then demanding it gets shut down..

Peer to peer is almost impossible to police anyway - you can use port hopping protocols that switch endpoint addresses ever few minutes - same as military and indeed some commercial datacomms does spread spectrum frequency hopping.

You can, given enough servers as well, even spread the payload across many countries..and many different addresses and domain names.

Buggering with DNS wont even dent that.

[Adrian C]

Alternatively with Javascript enabled, hit the escape key after the wikipedia topic page loads. Script will then abort loading the darkness over it.

[Andy Champ]

The web sites may well be in jurisdictions where it's not a crime to copy the material. And sites like Wikipedia don't really control what people put up - nor Facebook etc - people can post up what links they like.

Oh, and please don't call them pirates. The Somali coast has a pirate problem.

Andy

[polygonum]

The copyright side of this is obviously the main issue. But we could be seriously affect by a sneaky little bit of SOPA that appears to be unrelated to the rest of it.

There is a clause that prohibits sale of prescription-only medicine without a prescription.

You might think this a "good thing". But my partner actually does buy some of her medicine, without prescription, from the USA. And we do not want that to stop.

The reasons for this include:

o NHS being unwilling to pay for this medicine. o An entrenched view of some senior medics that this medicine is unnecessary. Despite it being widely available and prescribed within the USA. o Our unwillingness to pay for private prescriptions. o The exceptionally high cost were we to get private prescriptions for this medicine fulfilled within the UK.

Some time ago, her GP was willing to prescribe it and she did get some on the NHS. But that is now very rarely done.

The government does quite well out of this. They don't pay for the medicine or prescribing costs. They get VAT on the value of the package as imported. And they have to provide fewer GP appointments and testing that might otherwise be the case.

Bearing in mind also, that the definition of prescription-only might well be derived only by USA classifications, even people just buying ordinary OTC substances or supplements might suddenly find them unavailable.

And no-one appears to recongise this aspect of SOPA.

[dennis]

>>> The copyright side of this is obviously the main issue. But we could be

Like it is in the UK?

I wonder if its legal for you to import it into the UK?

[polygonum]

>>>>>> The copyright side of this is obviously the main issue. But we could be

The wording of SOPA requires a lawyer to interpet - my take is that it could well apply to supplying anywhere, any which way round. That is, from the USA to other countries and between other countries as well as into the USA from other countries.

Are you suggesting I am a criminal?

POM is not the same as controlled.

Yes it is 100% legal in the UK to import such medicines for personal use. My partner actually does this for herself - but I think no-one would object if I did the ordering on her behalf. The Department of Health, the MHRA, HMRC and others are all fully aware of it. The practice is even mentioned on some of their web sites and at least condoned.

There are at the very least hundreds, and I suspect quite a few thousand, who import these specific medicines on a regular basis.

[Bob Eager]

Just as well, or dennis would have no hesitation in turning you in. He enjoys that.

[polygonum]

Well he'll have to find his enjoyment elsewhere on this occasion.:-)

[The Other Mike]

What precisely can't you get in the UK?

[dennis]

Well you can do as you like as far as I care, as long as you are not harming others like some of the idiots here post about.

[polygonum]

Prescription desiccated thyroid.

[The Other Mike]

Ahh, that's much less of a borderline treatment than those on a gluten free diet routinely get prescribed.

The bread is about the equivalent of about a tenner for a large loaf,

[grimly4]

You obviously are, since Dennis implies it.

[polygonum]

The argument is entirely about whether it is a valid treatment. In the U= K, =

since the introduction of synthetic thyroxine and the TSH test, every =

other option has been dismissed. Despite there being no proper research = =

comparing desiccated thyroid to levothyroxine. It was just kinda assumed= =

it would be better. And, to be fair, decades ago, the desiccated could =

vary somewhat and have uncertain stability.

Once Thyroid BP got taken off the available lists, it was only possible = to =

prescribe foreign brands. And some doctors have done so - but at the =

possible cost of their careers. And at relatively huge cost to the NHS =

(because it is treated as a special with corresponding mark-ups). E.g. =

maybe =A31 a month for levothyroxine, =A320-40 for privately imported =

desiccated and, I guess, around =A3150 or more per prescription for NHS = =

special import desiccated.

Unfortunately all too many people simply don't do well on synthetic only= . =

But without that research, we don't know why - we merely speculate or =

assume. Which leaves empirical approaches as the only way of choosing wh= at =

to take.