Gov’t acts hurt rather than help online users
So, thankfully, it looks as if the SOPA and PIPA are about to encounter a big roadblock on their way to becoming laws – a roadblock more commonly known as the White House.
President Obama and company have said that as much as they love the idea of giving the copyright owners a few more tools to punch piracy in the face, he would rather have as much freedom of communication and information as possible.
For those not in the know, SOPA and PIPA refer to the Stop Online Piracy Act and the Protect Internet Protocol Act being nudged through Congress’ inner sanctum of legislation.
They are a pair of bills that, in short, are vaguely written and causing a stir on the Internet. The stated intent is to help give copyright holders the ability to combat piracy online by targeting websites dedicated to such wanton theft of intellectual property, and blocking them entirely from access.
And to be fair, they deserve it.
The Internet does make it a difficult task to keep your good name from being passed around like a plate of free entertainment. And piracy has a decidedly harsh effect on the revenue generated for various content like music, movies, and video games.
By Christian Bettendorf
But there is a severe downside to this, like crippling the Internet, and in turn, hurting the entertainment industry even more than piracy does.
You see, the Internet has a habit of making things that typically wouldn’t be popular, well, popular. I couldn’t begin to count the number of games that have risen to stardom due to the Internet’s massive set of connections.
YouTube has turned filmmakers, bands and video designers into minor celebrities. And of course deviantART has provided writers and artists with the crucial audiences needed to sell their work.
I can imagine this is not a bill Congress was eager to put through. The biggest benefactors are the already established companies who want to put a choke hold on who can view their content (people who pay them for it).
But people are lobbying for it, and unfortunately, they have some deep pockets and stubborn representatives. They aren’t giving up, as shown by the latest attempt to tack pieces of these two bills on the tail ends of other legislation.
As consumers, the best we can hope to do is raise awareness of this ridiculous attempt to censor online content. It’s important to remember that the Internet is really, really big; and trying to do so is something of a lost cause. Pirates will find a way to get around the law.
The better plan is to provide a much better service than the Pirates, and draw away the incentive of getting content free.