The fallout from the postponed SOPA legislation has at times got ugly, at times is has shown the bad and there has been a very little bit of good. There are also other external factors that show current legislation has teeth, uncomfortable teeth I should add. Yahoo News Reporting that Megaupload has been shutdown is a little disturbing, although really it’s for the courts to decide exactly what they’re guilty of, a Dutch citizen being arrested in New Zealand and a Hong Kong based website being shutdown suggest there’s not much need for SOPA. Those who had legitimate content on Megaupload are out of luck too, which is one of the problems when actions like these occur.
Then there’s the very disturbing case of British student Richard O’Dwyer as reported by The Daily Mail , who is fighting extradition to the USA to face charges related to running a website that posted links to downloads of copyrighted content. The website was allegedly managed from the UK and hosted in The Netherlands, so quite why he’s fighting extradition to the USA is baffling, if his activities are illegal or a case for the courts, any trial should be happening in the UK.
These issues are happening now, without the need for SOPA or PIPA. Yet Hollywood wants more, the MPAA Twitter account links to articles supporting their stance on SOPA, do they support the extradition of Richard O’Dwyer?
Meanwhile, Vice report that congressman Lamar Smith allegedly had copyright infringing materials on his website. This is some sort of gotcha attempt, SOPA wouldn’t have addressed these allegations anyway, existing laws do.
The good really comes in terms of people voicing their concerns and getting this legislation postponed, it’s extremely naive to think it’s going away and there’s a strong argument for it not going away. People get driven to despair by copyright violations, DMCA is a cumbersome process, I’ve spoken to Second Life content creators about these issues, some in tears of frustration that stolen content keeps coming back on to the market. There is a very real issue here and it is one that needs addressing, but I don’t believe SOPA or PIPA are the way to go, making the DMCA process less frustrating might help.
Content theft is wrong, people can surely see this but the answers lie in sensible legislation and governments around the world working together. What we certainly don’t need are the ugly looking statements of Chris Dodd, head of the MPAA as reported here over at Boing Boing:
“Candidly, those who count on quote ‘Hollywood’ for support need to understand that this industry is watching very carefully who’s going to stand up for them when their job is at stake,” Dodd told Fox News. “Don’t ask me to write a check for you when you think your job is at risk and then don’t pay any attention to me when my job is at stake.”
Actually I wouldn’t mind Hollywood pulling money from politicians and putting it into creating jobs. That might be better everyone all round. There really does need to be a healthy debate on copyright issues, but it can do without talk of donations, copyright infringement is a very real issue as I’ve said more than once, it’s not helped when murky issues come into the fray.
Now can everyone take a deep breath, step back and come back with sensible ideas please. The Internet has changed the way companies do business, new challenges of course do arise, now it’s time to get into a serious debate about it all, a good starting point is David Meyer’s post over at ZDNET.
I hate content theft at least as much as anyone. SOPA/PITA were like killing a mosquito with a hammer (effective, but results in broken arms). In the end it will come down to a technological solution, perhaps some embedded copyright code and hell to pay if you alter it.
Perhaps the funniest thing to come out of this was the 3 bill sponsors who were using images for backgrounds at their web sites without permission – LOL.
Well the games industry has been trying solutions, I have a game called Football Manager 2012 that I need to be logged into Steam to play, Diablo III will require an internet connection I’m told, I agree with you that it will need a technical solution.
However I believe the issues go beyond technical solutions, the entertainment industry needs to work towards making their content more readily available, this is going to be painful but eventually it has to happen.
For example, here in the UK we’re usually behind America for American television shows, why should I have to wait for the BBC (for example) to buy an American show to see it when the technology is available for me to watch it? Why can’t I pay an American company to view it?