If you are wondering what all the worldwide hubbub is over Congress’s attempt to fast-track the latest anti-piracy legislation (SOPA and PIPA) without much public scrutiny (you may be wondering, since Google has blacked out it’s logo in protest, and Wikipedia has shut down entirely for the whole day), then if you read nothing else, read Confessions of a Hollywood Insider. Marta Evry, whose livelihood is threatened by overseas media piracy, nevertheless agrees these laws are bad news and should not get passed. She explains very well all the reasons why, in plain and easy to grasp terms, with links to all kinds of relevant articles for exploring each item further.
I have my own perspective on this as an academic, which I posted on my Facebook Wall. Corporations have used over-broad “copyright protection” laws to stifle academic research before. They will use these laws to do the same, and these laws are a ton worse.
Want a fast and easy way to do something about it? This is one internet petition you will want to sign. Politicians only take bribes to win votes. So if they see this is actually going to cost them votes instead, then they can’t be bought anymore. Conclusion? Make it cost.
Thank you! That was a big help!
Ah, the actual sort of piracy. Whether in digital-only media for sale or in physical goods, this should be addressed. Not that I really imagine additional legislation will help. Enforcement could be better, but certainly can be difficult in the best circumstances. Seizing domain names is not the way to do it. DMCA is bad enough, and overly abused (with impunity) by copyright trolls.
However, most online copyright infringement doesn’t cost content producers anything (not that I endorse it), and in fact, has been shown to promote the content and increase sales. The scary statistics about online piracy costing revenue and jobs have been debunked repeatedly, but certain commercial entities and politicians just keep repeating the same “facts” anyway.
Given that the Justice Department was able to shut down the file sharing service Megaupload yesterday and have several of its executives arrested on sispicion of piracy would seem to indicate that this legislation is superfluous.
sic1: Given that the Justice Department was able to shut down the file sharing service Megaupload yesterday and have several of its executives arrested on sispicion of piracy would seem to indicate that this legislation is superfluous.
The difference is that that followed a properly-sought formal indictment for criminal activity and thus observed due process. SOPA and PIPA would allow the government to do that without any due process (they also eliminate existing safe harbor laws and other protections). So, worse.
Even us non-US citizens were up in arms about this due to the possibility of internet over-lord-ship from the MAFIAA. So how did we do it? http://americancensorship.org/ itself had (note “had” as in past simple) a link whereby us international EngRish speakers could protest. And we did. I posted it to as many friend as possible, and I don’t have many friends. But reddit.com helped spread the word, too.