Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA)

[firstdown]

Originally Posted by Dirtbag59

Online piracy is here to stay. Sure they'll start with the websites but eventually movie studios and record companies are going to want to move on to individuals who download music and movies. I'm glad that a good amount of Republican Senators and Congressman oppose the bill seeing as how they currently have a lot of seats in both houses.

The sad thing though is that the studios and record companies charge way to much for their products. Hence the appeal of piracy. They said back in the 80's when CD's first came out that the price would eventually go down as the cost of production decreased. Some 10, 15 years later companies are still trying to get $14 or $15 for a CD.

An HBO series single season on DVD cost something like $40 or $50 and anywhere from $60 to $80 on Blu Ray. Companies are trying to get $15 or $16 for a single movie on DVD and now are trying to squeeze more out of legitimate companies like NetFlix for the rights to other movies. ITunes had a great model for legitimate music downloads. People could buy 2 songs for $2. Then the record companies got greedy and pushed for the price to be raised. Now you have people downloading 1 song for $1.29 instead of 2 for $2. And worse then that the record companies now realize that in the digital age artist need them less and less.

I'm all for capitalism but the studios and record companies brought this on themselves and are now getting this ass kicked in a true free market system. And the ironic thing to is that piracy has increased exposure. People that wouldn't watch a TV show before because they had no idea what was going on could get caught up with previous episodes and then watch the current episodes with commercials. Musicians that they never heard of that get bunched with theme based torrents suddenly get noticed by illegal downloaders. And believe it or not a lot of people that download music illegally will go back to itunes and purchase legitimate versions of the songs they download.

Bottom line though is that this is censorship and an extension of the Patriot Act that will lead to more and more basic liberties being taken away.

Ironically if this gets passed VPN sales will probably end up going through the roof.

Really so if I decided to sell my 2004 Ford Explorer for $16,000 and because I have asked too much it will be my fault if someone just steals it.

[mooby]

Originally Posted by firstdown

Really so if I decided to sell my 2004 Ford Explorer for $16,000 and because I have asked too much it will be my fault if someone just steals it.

Is the Ford Explorer something you yourself mass produce for the masses? Do you earn money related to it in thousands of other ways besides selling it in one form to consumers?

[Dirtbag59]

Originally Posted by firstdown

Really so if I decided to sell my 2004 Ford Explorer for $16,000 and because I have asked too much it will be my fault if someone just steals it.

You're talking about outright theft with your Ford Explorer example. I think Matty posted this, or something like it, a while back.


Either way it's apples to oranges. And on top of that regardless of your feelings on piracy, as stated before this law does little, if anything to reduce piracy. Forget stopping it, it barely reduces it. All while screwing up the rest of the internet and crippling the last major competitive advantage for the US economy. Everyone should be opposed to this law, not just people that use torrents.

For the most part it boils down to a lot of hollywood big wigs and technologically illiterate politicians with little or no understanding on the inner workings of the net trying to control something they can't. And the sad part is, if the CNET example I posted earlier is legit, the studios that are spearheading this law are the same ones that gave us the damn software to begin with.

Lucky for us reason is likely to win out but the fact that this proposal has gotten as far as it has is disturbing.