Here’s what I know so far:
- Rights holders have legitimate concerns. They do lose lots of money to pirating. Here’s a good presentation by @FastGirlFilms (I think it is slanted against advertisers but if you look at their losses and their efforts to leverage DMCA, they have a point.)
- The content creator/delivery/blogger/search/payment ecosystem has lots to lose too by getting filtered without adequate due process or redress. Most notably, Google and PayPal have legitimate concerns as to the cost and overhead with fighting piracy. Content delivery networks - including Facebook also have concerns over the same issues.
- Technologists state that it is impossible to stop piracy. I agree. Sites can go up and down overnight and pirates will get paid one way or another. As soon as you know the address of an offending site and report it, it’s likely to be smoke.
- Internet filtering is censorship. Plain and simple. It’s a slippery slope that affects everyone’s rights from the content creators to content consumers.
- The DMCA was created to combat piracy. Piracy remains a problem and the sheer volume of DMCA notices indicates that DMCA is an unwieldy issue for any party.
- Our government is stretched and there are a number of issues that should take priority over addressing this issue.
So what is it going to take? Who is going to budge?
A possible solution:
That both the proponents of SOPA and PIPA, the content delivery/advertising networks above, and our representatives haven’t sat down at the table and hashed out a solution that works. Does it require a law? No. It requires a concerted effort by all parties to take reasonable efforts to combat the issue. Everyone involved in the entire supply chain is responsible; yet no one is doing their part.
Perhaps it does require the government to push this forward - but does it require a law?
No, just leadership and participation by everyone in the process.
More later….
A few things that are alarming beyond comparison striking about the SOPA bill. Of course, this is saying that it’s needed - that it’s not redundant to existing law, that existing law (DCMA) doesn’t do anything.
Here are a few things that get me - beyond the fact that both SOPA and PIPA are not needed - in fact they make things worse for common folk…
Misbranding and Adulteration leverages existing FDA Guidelines instead of existing copyright law (DMCA)
Misleading Language: The Senate Bill leverages misbranding and adulteration language from FDA regulations (Sec 21 U.S.C. 352) instead of from prior copyright language. Obviously, the FDA language has more teeth and with good reason. You don’t want to consume any drugs which are adulterated version of the real thing or mislabeled. I suppose you don’t want to watch a mislabeled movie either; however, aren’t we talking about IP here? What about previous language relating to IP - already in law? What about the DMCA (Digital Millenium Copyright Act) for example.
The Senate bill creates collusion between the Attorney General and IP Holders:
Sec 7, 2: The Attorney General provide guidance to intellectual property rights holders about how to supplement an ongoing investigation initiated pursuant to this Act.
It’s typical for law enforcement to work with victims - but it is generally not legislated to this extent.
If you’re a linker, you might be a stinker.
Both PIPA and SOPA have provisions for organizations that provide links. You can be directed to remove them - after you have been given notice to do so. Unfortunately, if you are part of a supply chain of linkers (a situation out of your control, let’s say an Ad-Serving network), your payments can be suspended until the offending parties have provided some form of redress (removing the offending links, shutting down a site, etc.) Care to take a gamble on your next commission check?
Which Plaintiffs Get Priority?
Sec 7, 3: The Attorney General shall provide establish standards for prioritization of actions brought under this Act.
Again, this is typical; however, what does this really mean? Who gets first dibs on a strained government authority? What about defendant priorities? Probably not a factor to them.
Now, when you combine SOPA (from the House) and PIPA (from the Senate), you get:
- A lack of due process for defendants and priority given to rights holders. Those priorities might be for certain types of media but we don’t know because the law doesn’t address it.
- Linkers might be stinkers - or you might be painted with the same brush if you’re in the link supply chain to an offending party (or a suspected offending party.)
- A tool to block accused pirates (DNSSEC changes).
- An absolutely no specific wording on redress or due process.
Ultimately, the accused put their fates in the hands of the Attorney General. They’ll determine who gets blocked, how long they’re blocked, what the damages are, when sites might get released, what constitutes pirating (copying, adulteration, and/or mislabeling). BTW, they will also have the power to tie up the payment systems of the accused.
Go ahead, link away! Watch television this week, buy or rent all the movies you can, giving SOPA supporters the right kind of war chest to get these bills passed.
OR:
Stop renting and watching SOPA-suporter media (sorry, that includes Disney), television, some books, etc. Change your habits for a week so that they don’t get changed for you!
#STOPSOPAWEEK - January 1 - 7.
An excellent substitute term: Get closer to your kids week.
Let’s start 2012 off right!
71 of our representatives and many content providers and distributors want to add mechanisms that can ultimately restrict your voice and your freedoms. Stop SOPA Week is about telling Washington that for this one time, doing nothing is the absolutely right thing to do.
I’ve been vocal and so have many others. Over the last week, I’ve observed the best and the worst in behaviors with respect to SOPA and it’s proponents. What happened?
People spoke with their pocket books. Many site owners spent time and money to move away from GoDaddy to demonstrate they disagreed with GoDaddy’s point of view. Hackers called for a massive strike. People are flooding petition sites with submissions and phones with calls.
The result? GoDaddy changed their stance. I’m relieved they did. They listened and I trust they’ll continue to listen and seek more feedback. Sure, they might have learned a valuable lesson but I also think they’ll get something else: They’ll get closer to their customer and remember to listen to them, if not ask actively ask them for feedback.
What happened to GoDaddy can happen to other companies that still support these unnecessary laws.
In calling attention to a problem, I don’t (do not) believe our “representatives should be crushed”, sites should be hacked, or anything destructive.
Instead, let’s call both SOPA and PIPA efforts what they are: Commercial organizations are attempting to redefine our freedom to protect interests. They suggest that the creation of enforcement mechanisms will solve their problems. That the law can change the behaviors of a small set of the population that seem to think it’s ok to break the law.
Do I think that what happened to GoDaddy is enough for SOPA/PIPA supporters to reconsider their proposal? No. Many of them are larger and have deeper pocket books.
I believe that SOPA/PIPA supporters should be boycotted. Nothing else. Simply ask people not to consume. It’s easier than migrating a domain and it doesn’t cost anything! It doesn’t bring the FBI to your door.
To me, the benefits are obvious: For not renting or watching a video for a week, for not watching reruns in front of the television for a week, you also say the following:
First Amendment Rights trump any commercial interest.
For spending more time with your family or exploring lesser known media types and content, you get something else:
Knowing that this one time on this one single issue, that doing nothing in Washington is the right thing to do.
Seems like a bargain to me!
