How would you fix SOPA?

[Saucycarpdog]

Now that SOPA has been postponed indefinitly, we won't be seeing it again until some major changes are made. But that brings up the question of how it can be fixed so it can both please the masses and still fight piracy.

So, let's just say you were suddenly put in charge of fixing SOPA. What changes would you bring to it?

 

[FalloutJack]

Ummm...all of it?

Seriously, throw it out in favor of some sort of plan that eliminates piracy by eliminating the need FOR pirates to pirate. If they don't got a reason, you don't got a problem. Address the real problems at hand, like the bad business that makes people want to download free stuff, or the DRMs and the DLCs that are entirely pointless things to put in when you should have FINISHED THE GAME, or even the notion that maybe the whatever-it-is...is being restricted for a ballsy-stupid reason that should be thought out better. There is a more open-minded way to get this shit done right and not get half the fucking internet to rally against you.

 

[Twilight_guy]

I don't think SOPA can be fixed. It puts the responsibility on the wrong parties. This is a very grey area, where opinions vary and there isn't a clear right answer and I don't know if any law can fix it all. Maybe a series of small laws to act as stop-gaps and stop legitimate piracy in increments would help but it would be a a constant battle against a moving target that way. Course, it sort of is going to be like that no matter what.

 

[Smooth Operator]

Well we should get all representitives and supporters in a room have a sit down and then fix it with fire...
I go with simple solutions.

 

[The Preened Mr. Fust]

Trying to pin down the internet is like trying to hold a handful of sand without letting a single grain escape. If you come at it with an iron grip you'll hold onto as much as that which slips through your fingers.

 

[Gmans uncle]

There's only one thing that can fix SOPA...
Fire.

 

[chimeracreator]

I would scrap the DNS provision and make it only apply to civil cases. I would also axe the bit about making streaming content explicitly illegal because you can already fine people for that if you REALLY want to, no need to add a second penalty to the mix.

That would leave the section that allows infringed parties to get a court order to have payment and ad networks to cease doing business with foreign websites that are found to be infringing. There's no reason for this to apply to domestic websites because the DMCA already allows the websites to be taken down for infringement in their entirety if necessary.

It should also be noted the SOPA is NOT just about copyright infringement. It's also about patent and trademark infringement. There are a lot of counterfeit drugs coming into this country that do more harm than good, and this more limited form of SOPA would help stop that (by blocking access to payment platforms) without destroying free speech.

 

[Yopaz]

I don't normally macro on Escapist, but this warrants one. It's the only solution to SOPA IMO. Put it on an empty atoll and drop a 50mT hydrogen bomb on it.


FRom obit.


It's the only way to make sure.

Pretty much this. It hurts both the consumer and those making it. Hopefully they will all realize that.

 

[Darren716]

We get a safe we put SOPA and Pipa inside, we put the safe on a space shuttle and fire it as far away from here as possible, the best way to get rid of your problems is to launch them into space.

 

[floppylobster]

Global release dates is number one. Cutting the number one reason most people started downloading. And get working on better systems of digital distribution.

Then target laws at people uploading not downloading. If you stop one you stop the other but the downloaders outweigh the uploaders 10000/1.

As for the movie industry - start by not paying actors 10 million dollars to appear in a movie. The actual cost of making a film is a fraction of what people get paid for it in real life. If everybody treated it like a normal job and got paid like normal people (or even above average normal people), and everybody working on the film charged what their work was really worth, (and not what a 100 years of price hikes has allowed them to), then films would be cheaper to see, cheaper to buy, cheaper to make and the public would not try pirated copies to avoid the overinflated prices that have driven some to look for cheaper options.

 

[Veylon]

Fix SOPA?

First thing, I think the corporations have a point. It's incredibly difficult and expensive for each and every company to police the entire internet and warn each and every individual user of each and every infraction and then convince whatever legal authority exists in whatever part of the world to do something about it. There needs to be a central clearinghouse of some sort that can do this instead of the current legal nightmare.

Maybe a new dedicated agency or association, funded by the companies that want in, that can do all this grunt work in an organized and transparent fashion. It can issue take-downs, explain the reasons, and sue/be sued in place of the companies themselves. There doesn't need to be any of these legal shennanigans where X company sues random person Y for hazy reason Z. Everything should take place in broad daylight by clearly defined rules.

I don't think there's much of a basis for anything as far reaching as SOPA. Piracy is bad, to be sure, but all the methods that can effectively combat it are worse.

 

[chimeracreator]

This doesn't tie into SOPA directly and is more of a DMCA concern, but one thing that could be done to make the lives easier for large scale copyright holders to protect their assets would be to provide funding for the US Copyright Office so they could work with the tech industry to create a single open digital fingerprint standard for audio and video files (these are different from digital signatures).

This would allow for the development of a PUBLIC library of these fingerprints so third party media companies would be able to scan uploaded content and check it against these databases to help avoid infringement in the first place. YouTube has been working on developing this internally for some time, and the existence of a public database of this sort would help solve many website owners concerns about violating the safe harbor as a mere query against this database would be enough to show that they did their due diligence.

Content companies would likely complain about having to fund such a system, but they would have no legal ground to stand on. US Copyright laws used to have a filing requirement, and there is no reason would couldn't put one back in place to ensure that the entire national can be put on notice for a potential copyright violation.

 

[Varil]

I was going to post "with fire", but clearly a few people here have better ideas than me.

Like nuclear fire.

SOPA needs "fixing", but only in the way you "fix" a dog. By making sure it can't procreate.

 

[JesterRaiin]

What changes would you bring to it?

I'd start with this :

http://huiswerkmuziek.ru/upload/information_system_16/1/1/3/item_113/information_items_113.png


And then i'd hire this man to invent better solution :

http://i0.kym-cdn.com/photos/images/original/000/120/409/gaben%20stares%20into%20your%20soul.png?1304621076

 

[Jack and Calumon]

Scrap it, build a new bill.

Yes online piracy is an issue, but SOPA/PIPA and this new one ACTA are not the answers. We need a bill that will not treat every person like a criminal and won't damage the net. We need a bill that recognises parody, journalism and, most crucially, the people on the internet. SOPA/PIPA did not consider the people, only the MPAA, who are currently throwing a temper tantrum it did not get passed. The MPAA want this bill because they say a waning interest in theatres, when convenience of home DVDs and Netflix is so much greater. The MPAA wants the money it believes it deserves, and in some respects, it does deserve money and justice, but that does not give the MPAA any right whatsoever to stomp on every single person in order to get to this goal.

What I'm saying is that this bill was crafted specifically for the MPAA and all the other corporations affected by piracy, but not for the people of the net, which is where the biggest flaw lies. The only option is to scrap SOPA and come up with something new.

Calumon would only undermine the seriousness of this.

 

[ReinWeisserRitter]

The only way to fix SOPA is to get rid of it. This is like asking if there's a way to fix a bomb that can't be diffused.

How would I fix the problem SOPA is clumsily trying to address? It'd start with making IP holders take more responsibility for their products, rather than blaming consumers for those products' shortcomings. This would include limiting the wasting of their money (such as what goes to actors, some of the most ridiculously overpaid people on the planet) that they then try to wring out of consumers with inflated prices.

People ***** at those who pirate all day long about how self-entitled they are, but the companies who make the products have become no less so. No one ever tells the corporation to change their spending habits or redirect their marketing or distribution efforts; it always falls to the buyers to take responsibility, to change their ways. There is no clear culprit for this issue (assuming the issue isn't more made up than is being stated in the first place); the people who make the product have just as much responsibility to make it attractive to buy as the buyers do anything else, and until they're willing to understand that, this fiasco will never come to an end. If piracy were such a black and white, widespread issue as claimed, services like Steam, a service on a platform that is claimed to be dying because of piracy, in case you forgot, wouldn't be doubling their revenue year after year. You don't hear them pointing the finger at the consumer and calling them criminals, do you?

 

[Sixties Spidey]

Scrap it completely. Also, get people who understand the internet cover to back (NOT Lobbyists.) to make those bills.

 

[Something Amyss]

How would I fix it? Assuming I had the power to, I would make politicians and corporate executives understand that there is no viable way to fight piracy without harming the legit consumer, and that infringing on the rights of the innocent to catch the guilty is completely contrary to the Constitution of the United States.

But, since that's probably not possible....

There's only one thing that can fix SOPA...
Fire.

And lots off it.

 

[Something Amyss]

And then i'd hire this man to invent better solution :

http://i0.kym-cdn.com/photos/images/original/000/120/409/gaben%20stares%20into%20your%20soul.png?1304621076

Great, we could have a better internet in 200 years.

 

[Snotnarok]

By not using it, because if they have the means to have the U.S. federal government shutdown megaupload arrest the team and pursue even the graphic designer they clearly have too much power already.