How Much Did Media Companies Spend Lobbying On SOPA And PIPA? SOPA and PIPA Technical Issues Explained Simply in Infographic Form. That may be true for you, but I may be affected and I don't download things I don't own. I own all my movies and music thank you very much. I may download them, and the content owners may find that "wrong", but I have no such reservations. They got their money from me. (I don't download music, but I do download the movies I buy for local storage) You must be a very simple-minded individual if you really think this issue reduces to "people don't want to pay for stuff". it's actually quite funny if you think about it.
It's entirely circular. Another shill for the poor billionaires in the media biz (who thought they'd be trillionaires by now). EMI VP Comes Out Against SOPA/PIPA; Says The Answer To Piracy Is Providing A Better Service. Over the years, I've definitely found that there are plenty of folks working inside the major record labels (and big studios) who really do get what's going on. The problem is often that their voices are drowned out by others (usually the older guard) who are pretty stubborn in their anti-innovation, anti-consumer ways. It's always nice, however, when someone from the inside pops up and says something sensible in public, and those folks deserve kudos.
The latest is Craig Davis, EMI's VP of Urban Promotions. He recently did a Reddit AMA (for you non-Redditors -- a Q&A session), in which someone asked him his opinion of SOPA/PIPA/ACTA, and he gave a really reasonable answer: Personally, I feel that the method they're using is incorrect. All it will do will cause headaches and issues for everyone. Davis has it exactly right here. Anti-Piracy Warnings Have No Effect on iTunes Sales. To back up their demands for tougher anti-piracy laws, the music industry often promotes statistics that show how drastically sales improve when they have their way. This week the music industry did this again by claiming that the French three-strikes law has been highly effective and has boosted iTunes sales tremendously.
But is this really the case? Or have the media and lawmakers been fooled again by the copyright lobby? The majority of the reports and press releases put out by the music industry in the past several years can be summarized in a few words: “Piracy is evil and we lose a lot of money because of it.” Even today, when more music is being sold than ever before, the RIAA, IFPI and other music groups still lobby hard for draconian measures to curb piracy. Whether it’s SOPA, PIPA or similar legislation as currently being presented in Finland and Ireland, the music industry begs governments to help them out.
This is bogus. French iTunes sales vs control group vs Google trend. SOPA And PIPA Abandoned After Day Of Internet Activism. Good job, Internet. You win. As the day of online activism opposing SOPA and PIPA continued, supporters quickly began to have second thoughts. Now, the final blows have been struck. Senator Harry Reid has decided to put the Protect IP Act on permanent hiatus, and Representative Lamar Smith pulled his support for the Stop Online Piracy Act. In doing so, the bills have been effectively killed. There was amusement to be had from watching those who formerly backed the bill scatter as the wave of anti-SOPA/PIPA press swept the Internet on January the 18th. Other sites, such as Wikipedia, Reddit and Wired, restricted access to their content as a warning about what could happen if the bills became law.
Today’s news that the bills will not be moving forward was met with celebration that – this being the Internet – manifested itself in images like the one above. But don’t be surprised if we see the ideas resurface later. Source: Ars Technica. Amy Gehrt: Protecting intellectual property doesn’t require SOPA, PIPA. Dustin Watson: SOPA and PIPA failed, but the fight is far from over. Victory! Video Game Industry Drops Support for SOPA. While the controversial Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA) and Protect IP Act (PIPA) were both put on hold on Friday, the Entertainment Software Association (ESA) became the first major industry association to drop its support for SOPA. The ESA is the main trade association for video game companies and was one of the main business associations pushing for the bills that critics say would result in internet censorship. The ESA spent $190,000 lobbying the Senate to pass PIPA in just six months in 2011. In a statement, the ESA said : "Although the need to address this pervasive threat to our industry's creative investment remains, concerns have been expressed about unintended consequences stemming from the current legislative proposals.
Accordingly, we call upon Congress, the Obama Administration, and stakeholders to refocus their energies on producing a solution that effectively balances both creative and technology interests. " With SOPA Postponed, Attention Shifts to ACTA - As Activists Try to Keep Momentum Going. As we've discussed, the ACTA took all of this country's worst copyright ideas --many of them enshrined in the controversial DMCA -- made them considerably worse, then foisted them upon much of the globe with little to no real public discussion. With SOPA temporarily derailed due to public disgust, attention is now shifting to the entertainment-industry-written awfulness that is the ACTA. Combined with the Trans Pacific Partnership Agreement (TPP) these agreements do a number of things, but most notable for our readership is the effort to ensure ISPs must be held liable for the content shared on their networks. SOPA opponents are hoping some activism can rub off on attempts to stop the ACTA and TPP, and have started a new petition trying to erode ACTA support.
Poland meanwhile is reviewing their decision to sign off on ACTA after the websites of the prime minister, parliament and other government offices were taken offline by Anonymous. SOPA, Internet regulation, and the economics of piracy. Earlier this month, I detailed at some length why claims about the purported economic harms of piracy, offered by supporters of the Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA) and PROTECT-IP Act (PIPA), ought to be treated with much more skepticism than they generally get from journalists and policymakers. My own view is that this ought to be rather secondary to the policy discussion: SOPA and PIPA would be ineffective mechanisms for addressing the problem, and a terrible idea for many other reasons, even if the numbers were exactly right. No matter how bad last season's crops were, witch burnings are a poor policy response.
Fortunately, legislators finally seem to be cottoning on to this: SOPA now appears to be on ice for the time being, and PIPA's own sponsors are having second thoughts about mucking with the Internet's Domain Name System. Decreasing creative output? One reason is that they already are recapturing much of that revenue through "complementary" purchases. SOPA/PIPA: Down But Not Out (Yet) The Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA) and the Protect IP Act (PIPA) have both taken some pretty serious body blows over the last few days, but it would be premature to write them off just yet.
Both pieces of legislation are backed by some pretty powerful groups with friends in Washington. The sponsors of the bills have made it clear that they are intent on passing some sort of legislation to deal with what they claim is the unfettered theft of U.S. IP and copyright by rogue foreign sites. The developments of the last few days are likely to slow the momentum of the bills somewhat. Both SOPA and PIPA are aimed at giving copyright and IP owners more tools for going after foreign sites that they claim are dedicated to the theft and sale of U.S. goods, music, video and other material.
At one point, both pieces of legislation seemed all but certain to sail through the House and the Senate respectively. But both bills are still alive and scheduled for hearings later this month. Internet wins: SOPA and PIPA both shelved. Just hours after Senator Harry Reid (D-NV) announced he was delaying a vote on the PROTECT IP Act, Rep. Lamar Smith (R-TX), the sponsor of the Stop Online Piracy Act, followed suit and announced he would be delaying consideration of the companion legislation. “I have heard from the critics and I take seriously their concerns regarding proposed legislation to address the problem of online piracy," Smith said.
"It is clear that we need to revisit the approach on how best to address the problem of foreign thieves that steal and sell American inventions and products. " "The Committee will continue work with both copyright owners and Internet companies to develop proposals that combat online piracy and protect America’s intellectual property," Smith continued.
"We welcome input from all organizations and individuals who have an honest difference of opinion about how best to address this widespread problem. " (He may want to check out our thoughts on the matter.) MegaUpload Takedown Proves SOPA and PIPA Are Unnecessary. It has been a huge week when it comes to protecting intellectual property and defending the freedom of the Internet. Following a massive blackout on Wednesday to oppose pending SOPA legislation, the United States government took down MegaUpload.com--demonstrating why we don’t need SOPA in the first place. Debate has been raging on Capitol Hill over two pending bills--SOPA (Stop Online Piracy Act) in the House, and PIPA (Protect Intellectual Property Act) in the Senate. Supporters insist that copyright violations and intellectual property theft are a rampant online epidemic, and that sweeping, draconian legislation is the only viable solution. The Internet disagrees.
Starting with an effort to boycott GoDaddy.com for its support of SOPA, awareness has steadily increased, and opposition has grown. The question remains, though, why do we need any new legislation at all? The DOJ case against MegaUpload relies on ProIP legislation passed in 2008. Mike Masnick sums it up in a post on TechDirt. Anonymous Retaliates For Megaupload Shutdown – DoJ, UMG, RIAA and MPAA go Down. Online Protection and Enforcement of Digital Trade Act. Comparison with SOPA and PIPA/PROTECT IP Act[edit] The OPEN Act was proposed as an alternative to the PROTECT IP Act (PIPA), which was approved by the United States Senate Judiciary Committee in May 2011, and the closely related Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA), which was introduced by House Judiciary Chairman Lamar Smith (R-TX) in November.
After an initial description on December 2 as an outline of possible approaches written by a bipartisan group of eleven lawmakers,[14][15] a draft text was made public on December 8, 2011 in advance of a House Judiciary markup of the SOPA Act the following week. The OPEN Act seeks to stop transfers of money to foreign websites whose primary purpose is piracy or counterfeiting, whereas SOPA and PIPA also seek to require Internet providers and search engines to redirect users away from viewing the sites. Reception[edit] The OPEN draft was strongly opposed by the Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA). [edit] Supporters[edit] Senate[edit] House[edit] SOPA, PIPA Stalled: Meet the OPEN Act. SOPA and PIPA may have been put on hold -- thanks to possibly the most contentious uproar seen on Capitol Hill and in the tech world ever -- but other legislation was introduced this week to combat online piracy.
Rep. Darrell Issa (R-California) introduced H.R. 3782, the Online Protection and Enforcement of Digital Trade Act in the U.S. House of Representatives on Wednesday, the same day as an Internet protest when a number of high-profile websites such as Wikipedia went dark. Issa says the new bill delivers stronger intellectual property rights for American artists and innovators while protecting the openness of the Internet. Senator Ron Wyden (D-Oregon) has introduced the OPEN Act in the U.S. OPEN would give oversight to the International Trade Commission (ITC) instead of the Justice Department, focuses on foreign-based websites, includes an appeals process, and would apply only to websites that "willfully" promote copyright violation. Keep The Web Open. SOPA Is Dead: Smith Pulls Bill. Lamar Smith, the chief sponsor of SOPA, said on Friday that he is pulling the bill "until there is wider agreement on a solution.
" "I have heard from the critics and I take seriously their concerns regarding proposed legislation to address the problem of online piracy," Smith (R-Texas) said. "It is clear that we need to revisit the approach on how best to address the problem of foreign thieves that steal and sell American inventions and products. " Smith also released the following statement on Friday: "We need to revisit the approach on how best to address the problem of foreign thieves that steal and sell American inventions and products.
The problem of online piracy is too big to ignore. American intellectual property industries provide 19 million high-paying jobs and account for more than 60% of U.S. exports. The theft of America’s intellectual property costs the U.S. economy more than $100 billion annually and results in the loss of thousands of American jobs. SOPA Is Dead and Facebook Is Relieved. Anonymous splinter group now targeting Democrats for SOPA support. SOPA and PIPA may be in zombie mode, having burned up in the fire of SOPA “Blackout Day” protests and the largest attack by Anonymous on record, but activists who opposed the legislation understand that the Internet wars have only just begun. Barrett Brown, often recognized as a public face of Anonymous, announced that his own group, Project PM, will be keeping an eye on Democratic congressmen who hope to “quietly support” the legislation. “Yesterday my ProjectPM group began preparations for a campaign to go after any Democratic congressmen who hope to quietly support SOPA without drawing any negative attention that might damage their cred among liberals,” Brown told the Daily Caller in an email.
While Republicans evacuated their support of SOPA and PIPA — the Stop Online Piracy Act in the House, and the Protect IP Act in the Senate — en masse Wednesday and Thursday after constituents flooded their offices with calls and emails, only a few Democrats did the same. At the Movies: SOPA and Product Placement. Texas Rep. Lamar Smith's now-pulled SOPA (Stop Online Piracy Act) bill ruled the week when it comes to Hollywood. Tinsel Town lobbyists pushed for a heavy-handed approach toward online copyright piracy, and the Internet heavyweights in Silicon Valley and beyond pushed back.
Hard. One detail lost in the debate was the SOPA product placement paradox: How Hollywood's revenue stream of product placements benefit from piracy. Copyright owners of movies were pushing the SOPA/PIPA legislation to clamp down on the free sharing of their products online. They claim billions of dollars in lost revenues, and they have a valid gripe. But it's arguable that the product placements that Hollywood increasingly depends on benefit greatly from illegal internet sharing. According to TorrentFreak, Fast Five was the #1 pirated movie of 2011, logging 9.26 million downloads. TorrentFreak's list also includes Source Code, I am Number Four and 127 Hours, all of which featured heavy product placement.
Pirate Bay’s brilliant statement about SOPA and PIPA. SOPA and PIPA Internet blackout aftermath, staggering numbers. The awkward moment when you break the law you proposed.