This post is about the bill called the Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA). It’s a bill with a very friendly name, pirates are bad, and we’re going to stop them, politicans can even show it’s a sign that both parties can work together, as it has bi-partisan support. Except, that it was drafted without the input of voters that elected them. It was drafted by the organizations that paid for the political ads.
To help illustrate my point, let’s take this very likely scenario.
We host one of the most popular sites on the internet for Christopher Nolan, the same guy behind Dark Night, and Inception. If his agent decided that the site talked about his interview in another magazine (with proper credit), he can have the attorney general of the United States, file an injunction against the site with us, the advertisers of the website, who may be selling legally authorized collectibles or memorabilia from the movie. This now, affects the owner of the website, taking the site down prevents the merchandise seller from reaching an audience who is most likely to buy from him, all in the name of piracy and lost sales from Mr. Nolan.
For, the republicans who feel this is an unfair attack on your party, here’s my attack on the democrats.. this is the most anti small guy/consumer bill you could pass. You’re preventing a fan from expressing his fandom. This helps the same rich idiots you pretend to want to tax at a higher rate.
If you look on the internet, this is the one thing Tea Party and Occupy fans agree on, this is where the 99% and the 1% are easily delineated. So, the title of this post is supposed to make you think twice, it’s supposed to be sensationalist, I’m just applying what I’ve learnt from the masters in Hollywood, except, now I’ll show why this bill is all of the following above, and a bag of chips.
un-Christian – I chose this term specifically, because the senator who sponsored this bill from Texas, says he’s a christian. This bill will let companies who have the funds to hire lawyers, be the judge of other men and their intentions. They can at their whim demand that a website be taken down, they just send a letter to the Attorney General’s office, the office uses our tax dollars to investigate this site, and then gives them 5 days to prove their innocence. Service providers like us, need to listen to them, or face penalties. This is giving Hollywood and the media companies too much power, where I as an entrepreneur no longer need to ask “Is my endeavaour in line with the wishes of Jesus”, but rather “Is my endeavaour in line with the wishes of someone who can afford lawyers?”
This puts Jesus second, Hollywood and it’s out dated business model first.
un-American – This country has accomplished so many things, and is still a sought after destination for immigrants, because it’s the land of opportunity, these opportunities are going to go away, unless you’re a lawyer without a soul. These republican politicans talk about smaller government, and how the government shouldn’t interfere with small businesses, yet this law ensures the ability of the government to interfere, it also obliges the government to take action against a small business, just because another business says they’re infringing on their copyright. If this law had been passed in the 70s, it would allow Pan-Am to sue Southwest Airlines, as they both airlines got people to the same destination, one just did it cheaper. Pan-Am would’ve been able to claim legal rights airports across the country.
Politicans love to talk about free markets, piracy is nothing but free markets at work. Honest, hard working people will pay a lot of money to go see an entertaining movie, gross sales of Harry Potter, Batman, X-Men etc prove it. Make something people want to watch, and they’ll gladly fork over their money. Make Gigli, and people will vote with their wallets. Hollywood doesn’t lose nearly as much money to piracy, as they do to shitty concepts, and sloppy stories. The public, the market, votes by not going to movie theaters, or perhaps not buying the DVD, Blu-Ray, Digital download. The constitution, nor the ten commandments say “Thou shalt buy the DVD of 1001 Dalmatians 3D”.
Taking a slogan from the NRA while I still can, “Piracy doesn’t kill sales of movies, shitty movies do”.
This bill starts the police state, which would prevent people from starting the next Google, Youtube, Facebook, or Twitter. A site dedicated to a specific movie or franchise could be taken down, just because the movie studio doesn’t want to share revenues with a fan, but would rather share revenues with a different fan, who totes the studio line. This is not pro business, this is not something that encourages people to start their own review site. It hinders them, it hinders the very tenets of a nation and constitution the elected officials swore to uphold.
As a side note, to show case how these politicians are looking out for themselves and their donors, instead of their voters.. Pizza, is now a vegetable . This is the government deciding what’s good for our kids, based on what’s good for their donors.
For a republican who wants smaller government, nothing in SOPA makes their wishes come true. SOPA expands the rights and duties of the government, therefore it should be renamed HollywoodCare.
Here’s less sensationalist overview of the bill
The republican representative from Texas is Lamar Smith, he’s the one that introduced this bill.
To do something about it, check out Protect the Net from the awesome folks at Tumblr.