Hollywood Star Ashton Kutcher Says 'SOPA Is The Problem, Not The Solution'
from the speak-out-speak-up dept
We've been pointing out that more and more people, whom the MPAA and US Chamber of Commerce pretend to be representing in their please to pass SOPA and PIPA, are actually very much against the bill. The latest is famed actor Ashton Kutcher. Kutcher, of course, isn't just an actor but has spent a fair amount of time in the entrepreneur/startup world as well, both working on startups himself and (more prominently) investing in a bunch of startups. He's also a very active user of a variety of online platforms. So he definitely has experience both with the "Hollywood" side as well as the "Silicon Valley" side -- though, he's obviously much more well known for his Hollywood success.Either way, he's come out extremely strongly against SOPA and shows that he really gets the issues here. The key point that he makes, which we've been trying to get across for many months, is that SOPA works by putting tremendous compliance costs and liability on tech companies and startups:
Forcing social media sites and ISP's responsible for users content is amazingly burdensome and costly. SOPA will create economic problems for Internet start-ups which will be an additional negative side effect. This may cause a slow down in the Internet economic sector, which is providing real jobs and innovation for the US economy.He points out that while the DMCA may not be perfect, it does mostly work for takedowns of infringing content, and that it doesn't make sense to add liability to service providers. Furthermore, he admits that SOPA supporters are correct that the DMCA process doesn't always work for foreign sites, "but SOPA as it is written causes more problems [than it] solves."
Separately, he recognizes how ridiculous it is to put technological choices in the hands of judges, rather than technologists:
Moreover, what is most shocking, is SOPA's idea of giving judges determination of Internet DNS. The bill suggests DNS administrators remove bad actor domains on judges orders; thus breaking the fundamentals of the Internet. It is a disastrous precedent to have Congress legislate Internet DNS control.He points out that his colleagues supporting SOPA may be "well-meaning people," but that they "fundamentally don't understand how the internet works," and that what comes out is a "bad and confused" attempt at regulating the internet.
Finally, he points out that SOPA's actual result will be to do the exact opposite of what it claims to want to do, since its methods of enforcement will harm the economy. He closes with a call to action:
I don't support SOPA and I believe we all need to call and write our Congress to help them know we want a No vote on SOPA.Indeed. It's fantastic to see someone like Ashton Kutcher speaking out so publicly on this issue. Yet, you can rest assured that the MPAA, US Chamber of Commerce and the politicians pushing this bill will, once again, pretend that they're supporting SOPA to help people like Ashton Kutcher. Yet, he's making it clear, this is not the kind of help that the industry wants or needs.
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Filed Under: ashton kutcher, copyright, innovation, pipa, protect ip, sopa
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If he did, he would have read the latest revisions to the bill, gotten some information from sources other than hysterical tech-lobby jokers like Mike Masnick, and wouldn't have put his foot in his mouth like this.
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Ashton is a cheater
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You people are forgetting something: millions of people could protest this bill but if they're complaining about something that isn't actually in it, just some bs spewed by Masnick and his buds to drum up fear, the net result will be Congress ignoring the complaints, because it's obvious the protesters have been had, and have no idea what they're protesting.
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While I'm not fond of Kutcher, yeah, he knows what he's talking about. It's silly to put tech related issues in the hand of non tech folk, people who support SOPA have to realize at least that right?
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The truth be known, having worked with both groups I find that but for the "product", these groups are significantly more alike than they are different, with the primary difference being the laws upon which they rely to secure their investments, for without these laws investments are much more problematic. In a very simplistic way to try and draw an analogy, labels are VCs as to music, studios are VCs as to movies, and private capital investor groups are VCs as to yet another type of business venture.
In each case they are the source of investment funds, for without such funds money-intensive ventures would have a very difficult time getting off the ground.
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This bill will do nothing. I've already written a program that bypasses the blocks that it will put into place. And I'll be honest, it wasn't difficult. CS 201 level of programming. So go ahead and do your worst. Like always the techno geeks will be here to fix it. You cannot win.
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They revised the bill so that proactively applying the above remedies without a court order will incur significant liability instead of indemnifying?
The revised the bill so that DNS filtering will no longer be attempted?
Well that is excellent news. Where can I read these revisions? I'll wait here while you look it up, you seem to have a foot caught in your mouth.
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Ashton is right and it's refreshing to see an insider against SOPA. I wonder how long MAFIAA will ignore their own 'protected' artists...
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Pro-tip: no one because copyright infringement isn't stealing.
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As usual. It's not like they are going to start representing their constituents now.
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Second opinion
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Human being doesn't learn, they repeat the same mistakes in cycles.
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About the only positive thing in recent years has been the advancements in special effects in movies. But many of them are produced on open source software platforms, which will be harmed by this legislation (by patent trolls trying to block the downloading of open source software, protected by bogus patents they rammed through the system). But, even the special effects are partiality to blame for the dumbing down of movie content. If you have no talent as a writer or director, just wow 'em with glitzy special effects.
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Who are these Un-American businesses who don't support voting rights?
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/sarc
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The internet isn't based on your childish piracy sites, and will do more than fine without them.
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It is a game changer that would change the nature of politics.
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LoL
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In related news, Paris Hilton thinks stem-cell research might be icky.
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LOL
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don't our lawmakers have better things to work on say.. fixing our horrible economy, reducing unemployment, actually working for the people?
if this passes, we just revert back to our old school ways and in turn i will pirate the shit out of everything. i'm not a pirate and a rather large digital media consumer too. grrrr!!
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I have a feeling...
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And hearing you, of all people, accuse ANYONE of lacking intellectual curiosity is hilarious!
Something must have hit home, though cause you sound a bit peeved. Are you starting to realize that Denial is not just a river in Africa?
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I'm pretty okay with FB disappearing.
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The pissing contest with he and his soon to be former wife against experts who disagreed with their pet experts on serious issues did not help.
While I am glad for him creating more exposure on the topic, given the flaws of the person reporting it could be damaging not helpful. It is nice to have more people see the issue, but part of me is waiting for the other shoe to drop and him to do something asinine to get the focus back unto himself.
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You may not like Ashton...
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