The Guardian informs us that SOPA is to be shelved. However, we don’t all live happily ever after here, I’m sure that just when we feel it’s safe to go back into the water we’ll see SOPA 2 – The Return Of The Bad Bill. There’s still the little matter of the e-parasite act.
SOPA falls squarely into the be careful what you wish for category. On the face of it a bill that aims to stop online piracy should be one that business and people get behind. When I go to YouTube to listen to music or find a track I want to embed into a blog post, I’d rather it was one that ticks the right boxes, being on YouTube is no guarantee that it does of course, plenty of uploads get taken down or silenced.
However SOPA simply goes too far, which is why there was widespread criticism of it. The bizarre exchange between Rupert Murdoch and Google shows how polarised opinions can get on the issue, but Google rebuff Rupert Murdoch’s claims in an article on CNET. In that article Google point out that they removed five million infringing websites from their search results last year alone, it’s not in Google’s interests to be associated with pirated content.
It’s not in Linden Lab or Second Life’s interest either. However as we saw with the Battlestar Galactica roleplay in Second Life, sensible compromise between users and those who hold intellectual property rights can be achieved. The Internet offers wider audiences than ever before for Telly, films and music, the studios are lagging a little behind in taking advantage of the medium but I’d imagine that one day global options will be available, which will be one way of fighting online piracy, however that will come at a cost to the media companies who won’t be able to sell to each other, a little like the way land sales in Second Life have collapsed, a lot of sales were land flippers selling to each other, that market is on its knees right now.
SOPA is taking a nap, let’s hope that when it returns, those pushing the legislation take a better approach and get a better clue of how the land lies. The implications of the bill in its current form are far too overbearing, sometimes you need to take a couple of steps back before moving forward.
SOPA may be dead, but the threat lives on in the Senate as the Protect IP act. It’s not over until we’ve staked them both at a crossroads and burned the headless corpses.
I was reading an article today, I unfortunately can’t recall where, that suggested that the Senate act won’t go anywhere without a partner bill in the other house, not being American or that informed on how the processes work in America, I don’t know how accurate a claim that was.
SOPA will be back in the future in some form, I’m sure of that.
A bill must pass both the Senate and House of Representatives to become law. It is common for two similar bills make their way through each house independently and are reconciled by a small committee comprised of both Senators and Representatives, and then the result of that conference is passed. But nothing prevents either the House or Senate from bringing the other’s bill to the floor exactly as written and pass it. (The exception is appropriations bills, which must originate in the House.) So we have to kill it twice, in both the House and Senate, to make sure it’s dead.
Murdoch, who has been a shining beacon for rights of people in the UK, is not exactly a credible figure for anything these days.
As for SOPA… its a bit disturbing that mainstream media has been avoiding the news that came out of the White House over the weekend…
Murdoch’s influence in the UK is why I chuckled when he said Obama was something along the lines of Obama working for his Silicon Valley paymasters, the way UK politicians have cosied up to him in the last thirty years has been alarming.
The mainstream media of course are owned by companies in favour of SOPA, such as News International!