SOPA likely to Pass

[Flick James]

sopapilla   

A delicious Mexican food treat.

[The Gravekeeper]

Question is, why is the entire issue of internet access dedicated to movie studios who are afraid people might be watching their product for free? Who are they and why should we care? The broad expanse of communication that the internet is is more than some goober watching "She's All That."

The proponents of SOPA are arguing, whether they know it or not, that the possibility of a pimply-faced teenager watching the latest movie for free is more important than every single thing the internet is capable of.

That's stupid, and the legal precedents they are willing to enforce to make sure that doesn't happen boggle the mind.

You should care simply because the people who are pirating movies are doing an injustice to the people who work hard to make them, hurting the economy, and (until I'm convinced otherwise) efforts to stop them have no effect on your legitimate rights.  I defend copyright and intellectual property because it is the cornerstone for creative people to be able to make a living in the free market doing what they love.   

I presume you're not at all concerned when access is blocked to a child pornography site.  Efforts to stop child pornography haven't brought the Internet to its knees.  Several EU countries already block sites dedicated to copyright infringement (i.e., Pirate Bay).

What specific proposal boggles your mind? I see a few minor problems with the bill but nothing that couldn't be fixed.  The majority of arguments I've seen against it are slippery-slope arguments, and I never take those very seriously.

Well...there is one justification for pirating copyrighted material, and that's if you don't have a way to legally access it. For example, Valve, a video game developer, was warned against making their services more available in Russia since "they're just going to pirate it anyway." Lo and behold, when the service and products became available for purchase in Russia, far fewer Russians were pirating Valve products. People will keep downloading, streaming and overall just pirating no matter what, it's true, but fewer people will do it if they have legal access to the thing they're interested in.

[Zapranoth]

@Gravekeeper, that is by no means a defendable "justification."   

[The Gravekeeper]

@Gravekeeper, that is by no means a defendable "justification."   

I'm not saying it's perfect, but it's certainly not "I just don't want to pay for this product." It's saying "I'm interested in this, but this is quite literally the only way I can enjoy since it's either not available for purchase in my neck of the woods/country or is no longer available for purchase at all."

[Rev. Powell]

@Gravekeeper, that is by no means a defendable "justification."   

I'm not saying it's perfect, but it's certainly not "I just don't want to pay for this product." It's saying "I'm interested in this, but this is quite literally the only way I can enjoy since it's either not available for purchase in my neck of the woods/country or is no longer available for purchase at all."

There is certainly an ethical gray areas with OOP/abandoned copyright stuff, but they don't relate to SOPA.  Why would someone file a SOPA claim to stop someone from giving away something free, unless they were selling it?  Anyone who stuck to pirating that kind of grey-area stuff would remain just as safe as all the bootlegger DVD-R sites are today.  Their protection lies in the fact that no one has an economic interest in spending the time and effort to take them down.

[Flick James]

It would appear that many of the fears associated with SOPA are the same fears that accompany the security bill in Washington (the military detainment one I can't remember the nomenclature of): Big Brother Fear. I'm not trying to dismiss or trivialize that fear, I have it too. However, that fear also carries with it an automatic knee-jerk reaction to anything that grants increasing policing powers to the central government. In an increasingly global world where state or regional jurisdiction simply cannot handle certain concerns, we are going to continue to see more of it. I'm not saying I like it, as I am a big supporter of states' rights. Rev's input is invariably level-headed and measured when it comes to these kinds of debates, and let's face it, he understands the law better than most of us. I don't think he dismisses the concerns as trivial either, I just think he doesn't see the concern that the "black helicopter" crowd does.

[Jim H]

@Gravekeeper, that is by no means a defendable "justification."   

I'm not saying it's perfect, but it's certainly not "I just don't want to pay for this product." It's saying "I'm interested in this, but this is quite literally the only way I can enjoy since it's either not available for purchase in my neck of the woods/country or is no longer available for purchase at all."

There is certainly an ethical gray areas with OOP/abandoned copyright stuff, but they don't relate to SOPA.  Why would someone file a SOPA claim to stop someone from giving away something free, unless they were selling it?  Anyone who stuck to pirating that kind of grey-area stuff would remain just as safe as all the bootlegger DVD-R sites are today.  Their protection lies in the fact that no one has an economic interest in spending the time and effort to take them down.

It happens.  I know someone who was at one point selling at cost CD-R copies of the Radioactive Dreams soundtrack on eBay, and got notice filed against him.  Funny though, it's now easily available on a variety of sites for free (youtube included) - maybe the issue was that people were paying for it?

The biggest issue with stuff like SOPA is it just makes it too easy for them to shut down grey area stuff, or accidental infringers.  It can have negative effects because of that, where companies use it in an attempt to protect their assets in ways beyond protecting themselves from pirates.  Further damaging of Fair Use, of course, being the obvious one.  And Fair Use has been narrowed down more than it should have been already. 

[Leah]

It didn't pass.

[Rev. Powell]

It didn't pass.

The House version was killed (at least temporarily).  A similar Senate bill is still alive.  I don't know what the differences are.

[Rev. Powell]

And Fair Use has been narrowed down more than it should have been already. 

What do you mean by that?  I'm not aware of any recent changes to the law.  Fair Use decisions are made by courts on a case-by-case basis using a four factor test (and different federal circuits have slightly different precedents in terms of interpretation).  That means that decisions can end up being all over the map, but I'm not aware of any systematic narrowing.

[Flick James]

An interesting development. I just went to Wikipedia, which is blacked out at the time of this posting, and was met with the following message:

Imagine a World
Without Free Knowledge

For over a decade, we have spent millions of hours building the largest encyclopedia in human history. Right now, the U.S. Congress is considering legislation that could fatally damage the free and open Internet. For 24 hours, to raise awareness, we are blacking out Wikipedia. Learn more.

Clicking on the "learn more" link talks about SOPA and PIPA, the latter being the Senate bill that is apparently still alive. I still don't know enough about either to make an intelligent comment, but it seems clear enough that Wikipedia is concerned.

[Flick James]

Hmm. theoatmeal.com is doing the same thing. I wonder how widespread the blackouts are.

[Vik]

Not that I have a lot of traffic but I also blacked out my two film review sites (Wordpress gave the option).

[bob]

I found a complete list of websites having a blockout yesterday...can't find it now

only ones I remember that haven't been listed are Word Press that TGWTG.com

[Vik]

This video explains perfectly why this is completely horrible. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tzqMoOk9NWc&feature=g-u&context=G292e6e4FUAAAAAAAAAA