Viacom's SOPA/PIPA Pitch Video, Annotated 177
Lauren Weinstein writes "Viacom has just released a video calling for support of global Internet censorship via SOPA (Stop Online Piracy Act) and PIPA (Protect IP Act). A truth annotated version of this approximately seven-minute video is now available."
Reader quantumplacet writes with word that the Business Software Alliance (probably for reasons other than this video) has withdrawn its support for SOPA, claiming that "Valid and important questions have been raised about the bill." Writes quantumplacet: "While the BSA has a long history of focusing on the worst offenders and mostly ignoring casual piracy, this still represents a dramatic turnaround as the organization has been a SOPA supporter since the act's inception. BSA President Robert Hollyman posted on the company blog that 'Due process, free speech, and privacy are rights that cannot be compromised. ....Some observers have raised reasonable questions about whether certain SOPA provisions might have unintended consequences in these areas.'"
I don't think it matters... (Score:5, Interesting)
This is probably going to get rammed through one way or another. After all, these guys all spend billions of dollars every year buying off our representatives, they're not going to let a pesky thing like the outrage of us plebeians get in the way of clamping down on their Intellectual Property and any other IP they can make an even unreasonable claim to.
I would hope SOPA would get challenged in court and rejected on First Amendment grounds (online censorship of web sites seems an awful lot like an attack on Freedom of Speech, to me, but IANAL or judge) but given some of the other rulings we've seen out of the SCOTUS I'm not so sure it would even get overturned, there. Our court, as it sits, seems to be a lot less concerned about the rights of people and a lot more concerned about the rights of "people", i.e., corporations.
Re:Annotations... (Score:4, Interesting)
Re:Annotations... (Score:5, Interesting)
I hope I'm not the only one who was gravely disappointed with these "nuh-uh!"-style counterpoints
The video was very disappointing. It alternated between 'truth annotation' and commentary at random, so it was difficult to tell which things were meant to be translations of what the person was saying and which were comments on what the person was saying.
Re:Annotations... (Score:5, Interesting)
Thin as it may be, did you see a single "reference" or "fact" to back up any of the Film Industries claims? No, you didn't, because there are no facts to back up their claims.
Heck, up until a few years ago they were still using CASSETTE TAPE sales declines as "proof" piracy was killing the music industry.
I agree, they should have provided the facts, which anyone can get by googling "box office records" the more piracy becomes rampant, the more money they make opening weekend.
The fact remains, they are attempting to control and restrict a GLOBAL network based on US laws. It's a load of crap, based on a load of crap, sprinkled with sugar coated pieces of crap, served on a coal fired piece of crap platter.
My favorite part is how it goes from "downloading" to stopping counterfeit goods. How exactly is restricting MY internet access going to stop companies in China from making fake dora toys? It isn't.
An illegal download is NOT a lost sale, it's a potential lost sale.
If you don't want your business to fail, LEARN TO ADAPT. you can't pull a Steve Jobs and tell the market what they want, that only works for inferior applie iProducts. You have to cater to your target market, and adapt as it changes.
Radio will kill the industry
VHS and BETAMAX will kill the industry
Cassette audio tapes will kill the industry
CDs will kill the industry
DVDs will kill the industry
The internet will kill the industry.
fool me once.........
South Park (Score:5, Interesting)
Anyone else find all that South Park stuff being on there is somewhat ironic? Maybe they just need to pitch more that all the episodes save some of the more recent ones (after the first week and then they pop back on) and two taken down for censorship are online for free?
I say Ironic was Trey and Matt stated they pushed for all the episodes being online for free because they were tired of having to pirate their own series whenever they easily wanted to rewatch an episode easily?
Who cares. (Score:5, Interesting)
I hope SOPA passes. We'll just fix our geek software even better. Encrypted everything, out of band non-deterministic port hopping.. the only hope they'll have is million dollar stat boxes that make lots of wrong guesses and snip VIP VPNs. Our skin will grow over their bandaid.
Apple/Google should just buy Disney (Score:2, Interesting)
Disney's market cap is ~ $60 billion. Either Apple or Google could buy half of that with their cash on hand.
Once they had control, they could make one major media player start acting in everyone's best interest.
More ironic (Score:4, Interesting)
They aired this on TV.
http://www.southparkstudios.com/clips/103759/not-a-big-deal [southparkstudios.com]
Re:Even if SOPA dies, they'll just reintroduce it (Score:5, Interesting)
I think it's even worse that people think voting, at this point, even matters anymore.
If you want change, you're going to have to attack the sources of the problem: political parties, lobbyists, and the media. Voting is for suckers.