Normally I stay away from politics and government issues all together, but I do want to briefly express my opinion on SOPA though. It is crap, and if it passes, it truly proves that the USA is not run by an elected government but by corporations and organizations that throw around enough cash around in order to get their needs taken care of.
As a software developer myself, I understand the need to do something against piracy, but the thing that many companies don’t realize is that piracy will happen regardless. With media like movies and music, imposing restrictions and forcing people to continuously update their equipment in order to be able to access their purchased media, they are actually promoting piracy rather than prevent it. In numerous newsletters, I have mentioned my first example with Bluray, with a Bluray movie forcing me to update my player in order to actually be able to watch the movie. Now, aside from a hardware warranty of a year, my Bluray player also includes an unknown expiration date, because with new players coming out on a regular basis, I’m sure I will not be able to watch a new-release Bluray movie on it next year.
The problem with SOPA is that it tries to eliminate piracy while there is currently no decent model on how to actually protect the content. Regardless of it will pass or not, piracy will continue because of this broken system, and in the end, as always, it is the paying customer who ends up having to face the consequences. Just like the P2P lawsuits from a few years ago, unknowing people ending up being made an example of in court, their lives ruined because of ridiculous lawsuits. People being put in similar positions because they uploaded a clip to YouTube which happened to have half a song playing on a TV channel, and so on. The people who wrote the bill of course claim that these same people don’t have to worry, and that only the “big ones” are being targeted, but the bill is written vaguely on purpose. When the big ones continue to elude them, who else would be targeted? After months of trying to get it passed, I’m quite sure they will do whatever they can to “prove” they were right in an as short of time as possible.
The people behind SOPA seem to think that the internet is the blame for their loss in revenue. Maybe, just maybe, it is because they are having a hard time to actually come up with something original. With original content such as Titanic, Harry Potter, Iron Man, Avatar, Lord of the Rings etc, I believe that they have proven, even to themselves, that with original content they can actually make plenty of money, but by pumping out remake after remake, of course no-one is interested.
How can you help:
Visit the EFF website using the link, and send an email to your representatives.
https://action.eff.org/o/9042/p/dia/action/public/?action_KEY=8173
Let them know you oppose these bills and they should too.
Then, on January 23, when the Senate is back in session (and scheduled to vote on PIPA on January 24), call your Senator and tell him or her that it’s time to stand with the Internet and against the Internet blacklists!
