MPAA Boss Admits SOPA and PIPA Are Dead, Not Coming Back 186
concealment points out comments from MPAA CEO Chris Dodd, who has acknowledged that SOPA and PIPA were soundly — and perhaps permanently — defeated. Quoting Ars Technica:
"Dodd sounded chastened, with a tone that was a far cry from the rhetoric the MPAA was putting out in January. 'When SOPA-PIPA blew up, it was a transformative event,' said Dodd. 'There were eight million e-mails [to elected representatives] in two days.' That caused senators to run away from the legislation. 'People were dropping their names as co-sponsors within minutes, not hours,' he said. 'These bills are dead, they're not coming back,' said Dodd. 'And they shouldn't.' He said the MPAA isn't focused on getting similar legislation passed in the future, at the moment. 'I think we're better served by sitting down [with the tech sector and SOPA opponents] and seeing what we agree on.' Still, Dodd did say that some of the reaction to SOPA and PIPA was 'over the top' — specifically, the allegations of censorship, implied by the black bar over Google search logo or the complete shutdown of Wikipedia. 'DNS filtering goes on every day on the Internet,' said Dodd. 'Obviously it needs to be done very carefully. But five million pages were taken off Google last year [for IP violations]. To Google's great credit, it recently changed its algorithm to a point where, when there are enough complaints about a site, it moves that site down on their page — which I applaud.'"
I'm paranoid (Score:5, Interesting)
I hate to be that guy, but... (Score:3, Interesting)
I have a bad feeling that something worse is waiting for us down the line...
Re:Exactly as they want you to think (Score:5, Interesting)
Its dead until the elections are over, then don't be surprised if it comes back.
Oh so innocent; thinks he's so cynical. This is a thing that big media agrees with small (commercial) media agrees with commercial interests. The arms industry doesn't want you getting your information independently; the consumer industries want you to read their ads; the media doesn't want you to compete with them.
At this very moment the Intellectual property provisions of the Trans-Pacific Strategic Economic Partnership [wikipedia.org] are being negotiated in secret. This is yet another treaty negotiated by the type of people that brought you the WIPO. Their aim is to basically to make it so that SOPA / PIPA is forced upon all nations without any chance of a democratic debate.
This will not be reported on unless people have actually already succeeded in stopping it. The election doesn't matter since nobody will hear about it even if it is going on.
Re:They should be happy. (Score:2, Interesting)
Is it a pointless war on drugs?
While the use of cannabis is mostly harmless, when used responsibly, ignoring what the state will do to you if you are caught in possession. Most others do have pretty negative effects in the long to medium term.
Just about every weekend here. There are reports of single vehicle collisions, generally fatal, in the early hours of saturday and sunday mornings. You can probably read that as someone out of their face on something decided to drive somewhere. They tend to be teens to mid twenties, it is a sad waste of life.
There are probably a good number of people here who quit drug use, due to the realisation that it would mess up their lives if caught and maybe mess up their lives if they just over indulge. The present situation at least encourages people to be a little discrete, would open legal use of drugs result in more deaths?
Then again the current situation currently funnels money to some pretty ruthless individuals, and who wouldn't want to see them out of business.
Don't both situations come down to don't take the piss, keep your head down and you'll be able to get what you want. Draw attention to yourself and you will be in trouble. Maybe the 'industry' is coming to the realisation that some tolerance is required or it will resort in damage to the bottom line. Still think it will not be long before greed sets in again.
Re:can we agree on fair use rights? (Score:4, Interesting)
Especially in the case of vinyl and metallic tape (including video tape), the physical media degrades with time and use; if (as the industry argument goes) I am purchasing the privilege to view/hear the content, then I should only have to purchase it once. If the material breaks down, or a better format emerges, I should be entitled to a copy in that format. I'll grant a small price to cover manufacturing costs if the item is physical, but if it's 100% digital even a small fee is indefensible if I've previously purchased said media rights, and THAT implies that I would be doing nothing wrong in obtaining a copy from alternate sources once I've paid my "right to consume" fee.
Re:They should be happy. (Score:4, Interesting)
Their real goal is to revoke the idea of owning a copy of a book or movie
Their real real goal is to get rid of "The Printing Press, Second Edition," aka the Internet, at least as we know it.
Re:Exactly as they want you to think (Score:2, Interesting)
*deep, deep sigh* Look, MPAA, listen. You people were the ones who deluged our pop culture with movies written with shitty stories where the big evil shadowy overlord admits defeat, only to walk into some shadowy back room with other shady people and laugh about how "those fools" have let their guards down and now Plan B will kick in whenever the sequel gets made. You with me here? We've seen this movie a billion times. And you wrote it!
At what point did you expect this plan to work? Are you seriously just as shallow and predictable as the B-movie horse shit you made for us? Or has your entire existence been making movies of what you actually, honestly think is a legitimate reflection of how actual, real people behave?