Today a large majority of sites are protesting two proposed bills SOPA and PIPA. These two bills are designed with the idea in mind to stop online piracy. When everyone screams that this is not a problem, so what, or that this is the internet it falls on deaf ears in congress.
Piracy is a problem for the movie industry, mainly because its forcing them to innovate and provide means that give us the services we want. I subscribe to Hulu Plus and Netflix Instant, I own a computer but not a television. (I avoid TV.com due to their horrible design and features, their Android app doesn’t prevent my screen from turning off while watching a video so I have to pause it every 15 seconds.) Now because I wanted to watch Dexter and the Big Bang Theory recently I had no means which were available to me to watch it. So I was forced to pirate it. I watch House, Castle, and a number of other shows, but don’t mind the commercials I get while watching them on Hulu. Piracy is not about stealing… its about getting a service which isn’t offered to you.
The SOPA and PIPA laws are focused on sending people to jail for providing the services that the entertainment industry refuses to combat through innovation. But then again so what, right? Afterall breaking the law is still breaking the law…. except that’s SOPA is not designed to combat piracy. It’s designed to censor the internet.
Life without the internet
Essentially we are going to give control of the internet to the corporations of America. These are the same company’s who tried to stop the release of the VCR and MP3 player stating that they would damage their market. They already have partial control of things like YouTube and abuse the hell out of it. In protest of the DNS takedown of Megaupload recently Will.i.am, P Diddy, Kanye West, Chris Brown, Jamie Foxx, Kim Kardashian, Lil John, The Game, Floyd Mayweather, Serena Williams, and Ciara created a song. It was taken down by the record companies. They had no legal, moral, ethical, or any other rights to the song but had the ability to take it down anyway… no questions asked.
But because we have the internet we have, people are able to re-upload it and share it and now I’m able to share it with you right here, in the video below.
If this were the post-SOPA internet, likely you would never even know it existed. The record industry would have the ability to censor it from the Internet, and since SOPA says anyone hosting a link to illegal content or even the intent of hosting anything they will have the right to shut you down.
I am a small time web developer, I make websites to share content and have fun and whatever. My most profitable web site is basically a peer-to-peer network for Army soldiers to share Army files. Nothing secret, or fancy, mostly powerpoint files on things like how to administer first aid to a bullet wound. According to the U.S. copyright laws I am able to use copyrighted images in those files under the fair use ruling because they are for educational use. However the platform exists where anyone can stop by and share whatever they want. Actually that happened once, where they started sharing answers to online ACCP exams before I put a stop to it.
SOPA would give me the option of bankruptcy or jail.
- What can I read to get more information?
