Sunday Morning Soapbox: Pirates

Most of you who know me know I don't like piracy. The argument that companies charge too much for movies and/or won't starve if you steal from them presuppose that people are entitled to movies and that stealing is okay if you steal from someone who's rich enough.

That said, I oppose SOPA because it was too invasive, too poorly thought out, and not effective. Not that I want it to be effective; the widespread piracy that happens now is a cultural issue, not a legal one. Besides, apparently piracy isn't significantly affecting movie revenues here in the US.

Of course, like a lot of new laws, the introduction of measures like SOPA and PIPA assume that existing laws are not enough when they are. That makes RIAA's complaints about Google abusing their power even more...shittier and ridiculous.

SOPA & PIPA

You guys have probably heard of The House's Stop Internet Piracy Act and The Senate's Protect IP Act. The idea is that in order to protect the profits of companies whose intellectual property is infringed by internet piracy and bootlegging, The United States should be able to block sites which directly engage in piracy and selling bootlegs, as well as sites which support them.

This is a fine idea. Illegally downloading commercially available intellectual property--whether it's a movie, a book, a video game, or a comic book--is wrong. I won't elaborate why(it's baffling that I have to, but I can certainly address it another day.). Certainly, the internet is a large facilitator of these things.

However, SOPA and PIPA are not the way to address piracy and bootlegging. These bills allow websites to be held accountable for content created by users, for example, holding YouTube accountable for its comments section. They allow tech-savvy users to bypass them while locking out the rest. They put the onus for copyright cases onto the accused and not the accuser. Worse, they seek to create jobs in the movie and recording industry, but whatever money will end up back in the pockets of the MPAA and RIAA to make jobs, it can't possibly hope to measure up to those lost by putting small businesses and internet innovation at a disadvantage.

Anyway, there are a lot of sites that are blacked out today and a number who are actively working to get senators and representatives to change their votes. I've linked a number below and I suggest you look into it and take a moment to call or email your congressperson today about it.

SOPA Countdown

American Censorship.org

Comics Alliance

Google

Kaspersky

AOL