SOPA/PIPA....A Simple Solution
Friday, January 20, 2012 at 9:47PM SOPA/PIPA, the “Stop Online Piracy Act” and “Protect Internet Properties Act” which have been a topic of heated debate since there inception has been, for the time being, abandoned so that a more amicable solution to the piracy issue can be achieved. SOPA has been delayed, and no longer has the broad based House support that it once had. PIPA has been indefinitely postponed. This is a victory for the free and open internet. Both are similar bills with SOPA being presented in the House, while PIPA is in the Senate.
Now before I get started here, I just want to let it be known, that I do not support any kind of piracy or stealing of content on the internet in any form. Stealing is stealing and that is all that it will ever be, and is wrong. That being said, SOPA and PIPA are (and still are) bills that were not properly thought out, written by authors (namely the RIAA and MPAA) and were being voted on, by our Legislature, who do not understand how the technology works, and was nearly ratified.
These were ill-conceived bills in which the people ratifying them did not understand how the internet works and what these bills would cause. In a nut shell, what these bills would have done is to allow the Justice Department to shut down off shore websites because of being accused of providing pirated content on their sites. There is so much that is just wrong about this. First of all, if these sites are truly providing pirated content, then shutting down a URL, or in an earlier version of the bill, manipulating DNS, so that these sites could not be displayed, simply will not work. We have proven in past legislation that the ‘Blacklisting’ of web domains does not stop pirating in the least. In fact, it does just the opposite, as it forces people who would not otherwise seek out pirated content to do just that.
The Concept Is Just Not Sound.
What we do NOT know is really what damages are being inflicted upon the industries in which piracy is said to be hurting? We really do not know. We don’t know how many of the copies of a certain movie, that were pirated, would actually have been purchased by the person who illegally obtained them. In my mind, probably not many. In addition, we cannot put a figure on the amount of content, that had been obtained illegally, which would never have been noticed had it not been pirated, and thus purchased by others. This number could be very surprising as I feel it is probably high. We just don’t know, and that is the big danger in passing something like SOPA/PIPA.
We have proven, in past legislation, that blacklists do not stop the real pirates. The infringing content providers can always and will always be able to bypass these legislations. Who this hurts is the common user. The one who just wants to obtain and view content, by legal means, and continue on their way. China has a similar way of doing things. If they deem a site not admissible in their law structure, they just block that web domain. Who does this stop? The common user. It does not even slow down the real crooks that are selling copyrighted material illegally. They simply bypass the blockage using methods such as routing through a proxy to get their illegally obtained material out there. Like I said, this method does not hurt the bad guy one iota, it only hurts the honest user by limiting their access to the web, and at the same time forces honest content providers to seek out new (and sometimes illegal) methods of getting their content to the intended users.
So How Do We Fix This?
I wish there was a simple answer for this, but unfortunately there is no easy fix. The fact is that times are changing, and the business models of the pre-internet era do not work in this day and age. These content providers must find new ways in order to get the content to users in a manner that is easy and cheap. To state an example. Louie C.K., a famous comic, recently put a video up on the internet to download for free. He did ask that a small donation be given ($5.00) for the video and explained that in order for him to provide more content in this manner, some financial provisions were needed. It was easy for the user to get the material and also inexpensive. So how did this work out. Sales of his material is well over a million dollars, and is still increasing.
I think the majority of content users do not want the hassle of having to illegally obtain content. It simply is inconvenient, time consuming, and in the long run costly to do so. We just want a simple, hassle-free, and inexpensive means to obtain and view the content of our choice. Piracy will never go away, short of completely turning off the internet, which is never going to happen. It is an evil that the content industries are going to have realize is not going to disappear but find a way to minimize the damage. Think of a department store. Shoplifting happens all the time. Does that fact make it OK? Of course not, but the store concedes to this and thus builds in a certain amount to each purchase to cover the losses from shoplifting. The problem with online content is that we have no way of knowing what those alleged damages are. The fact remains that it is possible that piracy may actually stimulate sales of certain content by getting it out into markets that may have never known about the material. An author by the name of Pablo Caelho, pirated his own works, and has now sold over 100 million copies of his book. Regions of the world that would never have even seen his content, were now seeing it and, as a result, were purchasing it. These were regions on the planet that would have never even seen his book, but were now purchasing it, because he purposely gave it away. The point is, if your material is of good quality, then simply getting it to the masses will suffice. The content will then sell itself.
Now I am certainly not going to tell the content industry how to run their business, but the way I see it, changes that were coming have now arrived, and the key to surviving is to ride the wave and not try to swim against it. New means, that are simple, convenient, and inexpensive, is the answer to selling content in the future. Fighting piracy, while hurting the general consumer, will solve absolutely nothing. In fact, it will probably make the situation worse by forcing people, who would have purchased content, into obtaining it illegally by other venues.
I am glad that SOPA and PIPA have been quieted for the time being, but I do not think that it is going to disappear. If not in the same form, they will return. I only hope that “We, The People”, have the wisdom and fortitude to steer the content providers and legislators in the right direction. To create something that truly benefits both sides, instead of pitting friend against friend.
Government, Internet, PIPA, SOPA in Computers, Law, Security, Social Networking 
