Jack the Potato said:
Burnie Burns made a great point on the Rooster Teeth podcast this week about what actually caused SOPA. It's not congressmen who don't understand the internet, nor is it greedy publishers trying to get as much money as they can. It's you, the people who download things without paying for them. Piracy caused SOPA, and it's what will cause the next SOPA and the one after that. As long as people keep downloading things illegally, congress will be forced to make bills like SOPA.
I'm not asking anyone to admit they've downloaded illegally, nor am I referring to any specific person when I say "you." It is true that Congress is dumb when it comes to the internet, but it is also true that they wouldn't be making these bills if people would just pay for the things they want like they should. We shouldn't be blaming congress for these bills (at least not fully), we should be blaming media pirates and demanding THEM to stop.
I quoted the OP because I havn't read past it yet.
SOPA is bad, it is bad bad bad bad bad.
production companies have abused their powers many many times in the past. and with SOPA will continue to do so.
SOPA allows corporations to take down websites and cut off their cashflow without proof, or opportunity for appeal.
let me outline this for you plainly.
SOPA would allow a corporation undeniable rule over the internet and it's content, production companies have already proven that SOPA is nothing more than a tool to allow them to carpet bomb all media on the internet in order to facilitate their own desires.
these corporations would want this power with or without the excuse of piracy, Piracy is just the vehicle they are using to extract this power from the government.
The act we today call Piracy has been around for longer than the internet, long before you or I were born, long before anyone or anything we now know today even was conceptualized, people were copying and using other people's works.
and we are still here. artists still make enough money to feed their children, producers make enough money to feed their children's children's children's children (honestly, have you looked up the net worth of the average production company CEO? it's like 9+ figures, they and their next generations could not work a day in their lives and not have need for anything)
if piracy stopped today, if everybody stopped pirating, the next SOPA would still try to pass, -but with some other excuse- actually you know what? scratch that... they'd still be using many of the excuses they have this time around, people singing songs on youtube are pirates (a-la Justin Bieber), any and all works of art created by their licensed artists should legally belong to their production company even if given away for free - even when there is already legal precedent for those artists to give it out freely like Will-I-am and megaupload.
actually, lets look at megaupload for a second...
Will-I-am and a slew of other artists make a song in support of the website, take a look at that for a second, the artists who we pirate want your support for megaupload, a website that allows people to engage in piracy.
then, the production company who owns rights to some of these artists make effort to have the song taken down from the internet, something that -by law- they have no right to do, this is free and legal content to be seen by all who wish to see it, and universal took measures to take it down.
megaupload take legal action, something they have legal right to do, as the production company took action with content they don't own any rights to.
and then the FBI come and arrest the megaupload staff and take down the website.
now that stinks of abuse of power.
and, just like passing SOPA, piracy is the excuse for production companies to abuse power. in this instance, it was because they didn't like other people benefiting from the work of their artists.
for further proof that production companies would try to pass a SOPA like law with or without piracy, look at region coding.
region coding does nothing but enforce pricing onto legitimate customers. and serves no purpose but to act as a vehicle to allow production companies to gouge their legitimate customers.
here's a further example.
in Australia, songs on iTunes are $1 more expensive than in America.
let me put it another way, a song purchased from a computer using an Australian ISP has a $1 surcharge, as compared to an Australian computer using an American proxy.
why does Australia have this surcharge? is it because of piracy? is it because of delivery expense?
twice the Australian government has asked Apple to explain this charge, and Apple are yet to even acknowledge this.
this is not because of piracy, this is done simply because it can be done and it makes money.
so no, piracy did not cause SOPA, a SOPA like law would try to pass with or without piracy, just as they have before, and will try to again, in order for production companies to find new avenues to enforce people to pay as high a price as possible.
