Posted on 12/30/2011 6:02:36 AM PST by upchuck
The Internet's most popular destinations, including eBay, Google, Facebook, and Twitter seem to view Hollywood-backed copyright legislation as an existential threat.
It was Google co-founder Sergey Brin who warned that the Stop Online Piracy Act and the Protect IP Act "would put us on a par with the most oppressive nations in the world." Craigslist founder Craig Newmark, Twitter co-founders Jack Dorsey and Biz Stone, and LinkedIn co-founder Reid Hoffman argue that the bills give the Feds unacceptable "power to censor the Web."
But these companies have yet to roll out the heavy artillery.
When the home pages of Google.com, Amazon.com, Facebook.com, and their Internet allies simultaneously turn black with anti-censorship warnings that ask users to contact politicians about a vote in the U.S. Congress the next day on SOPA, you'll know they're finally serious.
True, it would be the political equivalent of a nuclear option--possibly drawing retributions from the the influential politicos backing SOPA and Protect IP--but one that could nevertheless be launched in 2012.
"There have been some serious discussions about that," says Markham Erickson, who heads the NetCoalition trade association that counts Google, Amazon.com, eBay, and Yahoo as members. "It has never happened before."
Web firms may be outspent tenfold on lobbyists, but they enjoy one tremendous advantage over the SOPA-backing Hollywood studios and record labels: direct relationships with users.
How many Americans feel a personal connection with an amalgamation named Viacom -- compared with voters who have found places to live on Craigslist and jobs (or spouses) on Facebook and Twitter? How would, say, Sony Music Entertainment, one of the Recording Industry Association of America's board members, cheaply and easily reach out to hundreds of millions of people?
Protect IP and SOPA, of course, represent the latest effort from the Motion Picture Association of America, the RIAA, and their allies to counter what they view as rampant piracy on the Internet, especially offshore sites such as ThePirateBay.org. It would allow the Justice Department to obtain an order to be served on search engines, Internet providers, and other companies forcing them to make a suspected piratical Web site effectively vanish, a kind of Internet death penalty.
There are early signs that the nuclear option is being contemplated. Wikimedia (as in Wikipedia) called SOPA an "Internet Blacklist Bill." Wikipedia co-founder Jimmy Wales has proposed an article page blackout as a way to put "maximum pressure on the U.S. government" in response to SOPA.
The Tumblr microblogging site generated 87,834 calls to Congress over SOPA. Over at GoDaddyBoycott.org, a move-your-domain-name protest is scheduled to begin today over the registrar's previous--and still not repudiated--enthusiasm for SOPA. Popular image hosting site Imgur said yesterday it would join the exodus too.
Technically speaking, it wouldn't be difficult to pull off. Web companies already target advertisements based on city or ZIP code.
And it would be effective. A note popping up on the screens of people living in the mostly rural Texas district of SOPA author Lamar Smith, Hollywood's favorite Republican, asking them to call or write and voice their displeasure, would be noticed. If Tumblr could generate nearly 90,000 calls on its own, think of what companies with hundreds of millions of users could do.
If these Web companies believe what their executives say about SOPA and Protect IP, they'll let their users know what their elected representatives are contemplating. A Senate floor debate scheduled for January 24, 2012 would be an obvious starting point.
"The reason it hasn't happened is because of the sensitivity," says Erickson, "even when it's a policy issue that benefits their users." He adds: "It may happen."
Or it may not. It would change politics if it did.
Read more: http://news.cnet.com/8301-31921_3-57349540-281/sopa-opponents-may-go-nuclear-and-other-2012-predictions/?tag=mncol;topStories
If this legislation passes, Free Republic could be shutdown forever in a heartbeat.
Another article worth reading: How SOPA would affect you: FAQ
Get going. Make a phone call, write an email, even better, write a short snail mail.
Yeah. Ok. And if Exxon, Shell, etc all got together and shut down their pumps for a day with signs saying to call your congressmen because of unfair Oil/Gas regulations, how do you think that would go?
It’s all about who has the best “goodguy/villain” ratio.
Wait! These tech companies are coming together to go against SOPA whom those very politicians who supports SOPA were supported by these tech companies? or could they fear that Obama could lose and they think a Republican could win the White House aka White Hut?
This article points out that the popular internet sites like Google and Wikipedia can reach out to millions of people in a heartbeat, who might then contact Congress.
That’s all good, but I’m not sure that such popular public outcries have much of an effect.
Look how Obamacare was crammed down our throats, despite a strong public outcry against it and countless people contacting their Congresscritters about it. Any more, it seems like too many politicians look at politics as a game, which they “win” by legislating against the will of their constitutients.
If politicians want to censor the internet, what, really, can we do about it?
Be sure to contact the Chief Sponsor and co-sponsor of this and RELATED bills and tell them what you think of their pandering to special interest groups while undermining the First Amendment.
See:
hdl.loc.gov/loc.uscongress/legislation.112hr3261
An informed Citizenry is a danger to colluding politicians and an expanding bureaucracy.
I see the problem this way: the Motion Pictures Association of America does not want to invest in research to secure their own products and therefore they want to hire the government to do the job for nothing. In that way they preserve a marketing model of overpricing and obsolescence As usual, we pay and our politicians are working against the interests of the general public.
There has to be a way to solve this problem without the intervention of government. Someone has to become the next Steve Jobs and create a new business model that renders the illegal copying obsolete. But for that we need talent. Talent is sorely absent from the ranks of American corporate management since the days the MBA’s took over. Managers and executives are too busy doing the usual CYA and cannibalizing their own companies.
May be a good thing would be to dump the shares of Viacom, Sony Pics, etc. After all this measure will most likely end up cutting their profits. In other words: management can’t do, government comes in, profits are out. Conclusion SELL IN A HURRY AND GET OUT OF THE HOLLYWOOD BUSINESS.
“they preserve a marketing model of overpricing and obsolescence As usual, we pay”
You seem to advocate a market solution for IP theft.
Why don’t you advocate a market solution for “overpricing and obsolescence?”
Why is it “as usual” that “we pay?” If the market didn’t want their overpriced obsolete crap, they wouldn’t buy it.
But the market DOES want their obsolete crap (or new lip-synch crap) and are willing to pay too much for it.
So why shouldn’t the government protect that free market?
Talent is sorely absent from the artists.
The "mean old management" has always been conniving fools. Ask Bob Wills about Pappy O'Daniel, or Elvis and Jerry Lee about Sun records.
Can a protected market be free? Just asking ...
Sure. It's illegal to share more shares of a company than have been issued. The government has a duty to "protect" free and fair trade by making everyone play by the same rules.
If you have a patent infringement, where do you go when someone produces your product without authorization? The media? The local school board? No, you sue them and ask a Federal Judge to make them stop.
Sure. It's illegal to share SELL more shares of a company than have been issued. The government has a duty to "protect" free and fair trade by making everyone play by the same rules.
If you have a patent infringement, where do you go when someone produces your product without authorization? The media? The local school board? No, you sue them and ask a Federal Judge to make them stop.
Thanks for the double PING (Wow :)
You’re talking apples and oranges. A page “blackout” doesn’t mean that you couldn’t use google, youtube, or wikipedia. It means they would all set their page backgrounds to black for the day and display a message protesting censorship and telling people about SOPA. You’d still be able to go about using the page as usual.
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