Did anyone in the corporate entertainment business ever consider this: If you sink the ship you're riding on, you're going down with it?
Entertainment industry mentality reminds me of a foolish steam engine operator who would tie down the pressure release valve in an effort to get more power out of the engine. Do that, and sooner or later the boiler is going to blow, and that will be the end of the steam engine and everything around it.
Why not just say "Forever"? If the term of copyright is going to be extended another 20 years every time some certain privileged copyright is about to expire, it might as well be "Forever."
Long, long ago the term of copyright was 14 years. The purpose of copyright as I recall, was to encourage the creation of new works. Many new works are built on previous works. When the term of a copyright was 14 years this was possible. Now that everything is locked up airtight for potentially well over a century and adding another 20 years every time the copyright on Mickey Mouse is about to expire, all today's works will be dead and forgotten, and the media they are recorded on rotted to dust by time the copyrights on them expire, if ever they do. And that means there will be no old works left to build on and centuries of culture will be lost forever.
Copyright today has become nothing more than a gravy train for the organized entertainment industry, with the added bonus of being able to sue and ruin anybody they want for the slightest infringement of their Most_Holy_Copyright.
Yes, I'm being sarcastic. These people deserve it.
Yeah. right! I know two people who have seizure disorders, and I know all about that. Seizure medicines have to be carefully tailored to each individual, and generic seizure medications frequently just don't work. We are having to pay close to $90 for a 90 day supply of one brand medicine and now it looks like we will have to pay $500+ for a 90 day supply of another. The insurance won't allow it any other way. It's take generic, or pay the difference for brand, or stick it. And if you have a wreck and kill a bunch of people because the generic didn't work, tough!
This is what happens when pointy haired bean counters are allowed to make medical decisions only doctors are qualified to make. There oughta be a law...
Maybe they think by shutting down all filesharing and turning Internet users into criminals, they're going to force more people to buy music through their monopoly channels. You'd think the RIAA would have learned a long time ago that just doesn't work. You piss people off enough, they stop buying your product. And the RIAA is totally clueless why CD sales are tanking while they sue people like Jammie Thomas Rasset for $$millions for sharing a handful of songs.
"In our considered opinion, the Protect IP Act and SOPA further the goal of free expression. Far from conflicting with the First Amendment, the proposed legislation will serve as an important contribution to ensuring an environment in which free speech and creative expression can thrive and flourish."
By turning all Internet users into criminals? Everything on the Internet is copyright by default, so if it is illegal to download anything copyright from the Internet, then even downloading and displaying a web page (copyright by default even without a notice) is a criminal act.
Why not just shut down the entire Internet? That would get rid of the whole problem. That's about what SOPA/PIPA is going to do anyway, if it becomes law.
Of course it wouldn't take long before a lot of people find ways to circumvent all the restrictions, and the whole 'Piracy' thing will go underground where it will be 10 times harder to detect. Is that what you want?
Looks to me like the big fad among researchers, particularly medical researchers is to try to lock up all their findings with patents.
My take: Patents and copyrights alike, they're all about greed. And the money the holders can get through litigation is just another added bonus, and some, like RIAA and patent trolls, are building their business models on this, IMO.
This bill if passed in its present form could potentially result in the destruction of the Internet as we know it today. It has enormous potential for abuse and I see no safeguards against such abuse nor any way to undo the damage done by such abuse. Anyone could file false copyright infringement complaints against any website he/she had a disagreement or issue with, to censor, to hurt competitors, or just out of plain spite. I see no means provided for undoing such wrongful blocking in any kind of timely manner, meaning such sites could be off the Web for months, years or permanently.
This bill needs to go in the shredder, and quickly.
I see this bill as nothing less than an open door for all manner of abuse.It must be stopped. There are better ways to deal with copyright infringement than opening up holes through which unscrupulous people have the potential to shut down any part of the Web they have an issue with.
"Stupid connected computers, destroying recorded media."
OK.how about this? "Stupid CDs, destroying vinyl LPs and 78RPM media."? Or, "Stupid 78 RPM records, destroying cylinder records." No, they just replaced old, obsolete recording technology with something better.
If the RIAA/MPAA would learn to adapt to the times and current technology instead of trying to lock everything down airtight so they can continue with their obsolete steam engine business model in the electric/electronic age and tell the truth instead of presenting vastly inflated claims of losses, maybe they wouldn't have all these problems with "piracy". And suing your customers/potential customers for $millions for downloading a few songs doesn't exactly make for good business relations either.
"...it's about outlandish CEO salaries that seem based not on corporate performance but on, well, who knows."
Who knows? It's greed, pure and simple.
Greed is an insatiable monster that is not, never has been and cannot ever be satisfied. The more a person infected with greed gets, the more he wants, the more he wants the more he gets, and it just goes around and around with no end.
Starving artists? That's nothing but a red herring thrown out to divert attention from the real issue. If artists are starving, it's because the RIAA/MPAA is throwing them crumbs and refuses to give them their fair share. They want it all for themselves, and giving artists their fair share means less for the fat cat executives.
The entertainment industry has fought tooth and nail against every new technology that has come out, from the cylinder phonograph onward. Then when they accepted it they found it to be quite to their benefit.
And grossly inflated loss figures are nothing new either. They use all sorts of fuzzy math and invalid assumptions to arrive at these figures, and I doubt they are fooling anybody but the politicians whose hands they grease. They ignore all the possible beneficial effects of "piracy" such as exposure, and assume that in every instance someone downloaded a song they would have sold an album if they hadn't and ignore the fact that some who have downloaded do go out and buy the album if they like what they hear.
As for downloading and file sharing, I'm sure the vast majority of people who do that would gladly pay a few dollars a month to do so legally, if only the RIAA/MPAA would provide a way for them to do so. And they could probably bring in $billions a year doing it.
But would they share that equitably with the artists? I doubt it. They'd rather cling to their outmoded steam-engine business model and scream about how much piracy is hurting them, until they get copyright so restrictive that even normal use is infringing, their steam engine business model blows up and all their would-be customers find ways to get around the restrictions and leave the labels sitting in the dust. They have nobody but themselves to blame when they refuse to adapt to the times.
The only thing I see in this bill is enormous potential for abuse. Abuse that could even go as far as destroying the Internet, or making it unusable for its intended purpose. This bill is tilted 90 degrees on the side of copyright holders and 100% against everyone else. If the entertainment industry has its way copyright will be so airtight that any use whatever of their content will constitute infringement, thus defeating its purpose for being. Nobody would know what might constitute infringement and this bill if it becomes law probably would criminalize even normal Internet activity. And if someone had a grudge against somebody or wanted to get rid of a competitor, all he'd have to do is file a complaint against that website or person claiming infringement (no proof needed) and voila! the competing website vanishes instantly from the Web, never to be seen again. No due process, no evidence, just Poof! and it's gone.
SOPA and PIPA are very extremely dangerous laws that need to be stopped at all costs, before they tear the Internet to shreds.
If the RIAA is only interested in going after the worst of the worst, why in the world do they bother going after small potatoes like Jammie Thomas-Rasset, pile-driving her with a $2 million judgment for downloading a couple of dozen songs? This is using a wrecking ball to swat a fly. Why don't they go after the big-time criminal operations that produce counterfeit CDs by the truckload? Is it because the little guys are an easy mark? Just pick people at random and sue them for $millions? Don't they realize all the ill will they're producing for themselves? And then they wonder why their sales are tanking.
Like I said earlier, the people who want DNS blocking are so paranoid of anyone getting anything without their getting a big chunk of money out of it, they're willing to burn the barn to the ground to get rid of a few rats.
On the post: Copyright Office Seeks To Make It More Difficult To Retain DMCA Safe Harbors
Re: Re: It is a money grab, pure and simple
Entertainment industry mentality reminds me of a foolish steam engine operator who would tie down the pressure release valve in an effort to get more power out of the engine. Do that, and sooner or later the boiler is going to blow, and that will be the end of the steam engine and everything around it.
On the post: Copyright Office Seeks To Make It More Difficult To Retain DMCA Safe Harbors
Re: Re:
Yes, that would get rid of the rats in that barn. But rats are very mobile critters and would simply escape the fire and infest some other barn.
On the post: Copyright Office Seeks To Make It More Difficult To Retain DMCA Safe Harbors
Re:
Long, long ago the term of copyright was 14 years. The purpose of copyright as I recall, was to encourage the creation of new works. Many new works are built on previous works. When the term of a copyright was 14 years this was possible. Now that everything is locked up airtight for potentially well over a century and adding another 20 years every time the copyright on Mickey Mouse is about to expire, all today's works will be dead and forgotten, and the media they are recorded on rotted to dust by time the copyrights on them expire, if ever they do. And that means there will be no old works left to build on and centuries of culture will be lost forever.
Copyright today has become nothing more than a gravy train for the organized entertainment industry, with the added bonus of being able to sue and ruin anybody they want for the slightest infringement of their Most_Holy_Copyright.
Yes, I'm being sarcastic. These people deserve it.
On the post: SOPA Supporters Learning (Slowly) That Pissing Off Reddit Is A Bad Idea
Re: Visa?
On the post: SOPA Supporters Learning (Slowly) That Pissing Off Reddit Is A Bad Idea
Re: Re:
This is what happens when pointy haired bean counters are allowed to make medical decisions only doctors are qualified to make. There oughta be a law...
On the post: SOPA Supporters Learning (Slowly) That Pissing Off Reddit Is A Bad Idea
Re:
Go figure.
On the post: Law Firms Removing Their Name From SOPA Supporters' List; SOPA 'Support' Crumbling
Re:
By turning all Internet users into criminals? Everything on the Internet is copyright by default, so if it is illegal to download anything copyright from the Internet, then even downloading and displaying a web page (copyright by default even without a notice) is a criminal act.
Is that what you want?
On the post: Law Firms Removing Their Name From SOPA Supporters' List; SOPA 'Support' Crumbling
Re:
Of course it wouldn't take long before a lot of people find ways to circumvent all the restrictions, and the whole 'Piracy' thing will go underground where it will be 10 times harder to detect. Is that what you want?
On the post: Do We Really Need Copyright For Academic Publishing?
What about patents?
My take: Patents and copyrights alike, they're all about greed. And the money the holders can get through litigation is just another added bonus, and some, like RIAA and patent trolls, are building their business models on this, IMO.
On the post: SOPA Markup Runs Out Of Time; Likely Delayed Until 2012 [Update: Or Not...]
Re: Re: Re:
This bill needs to go in the shredder, and quickly.
On the post: SOPA Markup Runs Out Of Time; Likely Delayed Until 2012 [Update: Or Not...]
Re: Re: SOPA/PIPA unintended consequences
Or are you?
On the post: How SOPA 2.0 Sneaks In A Really Dangerous Private Ability To Kill Any Website
On the post: Alan Greenspan: Failed To Predict Bubble Popping... And Failed In Predicting Home Taping Would Kill Music
Re: "Check Your Premises" -Ayn Rand
On the post: Alan Greenspan: Failed To Predict Bubble Popping... And Failed In Predicting Home Taping Would Kill Music
Re: Re: Re: Re:
OK.how about this? "Stupid CDs, destroying vinyl LPs and 78RPM media."? Or, "Stupid 78 RPM records, destroying cylinder records." No, they just replaced old, obsolete recording technology with something better.
If the RIAA/MPAA would learn to adapt to the times and current technology instead of trying to lock everything down airtight so they can continue with their obsolete steam engine business model in the electric/electronic age and tell the truth instead of presenting vastly inflated claims of losses, maybe they wouldn't have all these problems with "piracy". And suing your customers/potential customers for $millions for downloading a few songs doesn't exactly make for good business relations either.
Go figure.
On the post: Alan Greenspan: Failed To Predict Bubble Popping... And Failed In Predicting Home Taping Would Kill Music
Re:
Who knows? It's greed, pure and simple.
Greed is an insatiable monster that is not, never has been and cannot ever be satisfied. The more a person infected with greed gets, the more he wants, the more he wants the more he gets, and it just goes around and around with no end.
Starving artists? That's nothing but a red herring thrown out to divert attention from the real issue. If artists are starving, it's because the RIAA/MPAA is throwing them crumbs and refuses to give them their fair share. They want it all for themselves, and giving artists their fair share means less for the fat cat executives.
The entertainment industry has fought tooth and nail against every new technology that has come out, from the cylinder phonograph onward. Then when they accepted it they found it to be quite to their benefit.
And grossly inflated loss figures are nothing new either. They use all sorts of fuzzy math and invalid assumptions to arrive at these figures, and I doubt they are fooling anybody but the politicians whose hands they grease. They ignore all the possible beneficial effects of "piracy" such as exposure, and assume that in every instance someone downloaded a song they would have sold an album if they hadn't and ignore the fact that some who have downloaded do go out and buy the album if they like what they hear.
As for downloading and file sharing, I'm sure the vast majority of people who do that would gladly pay a few dollars a month to do so legally, if only the RIAA/MPAA would provide a way for them to do so. And they could probably bring in $billions a year doing it.
But would they share that equitably with the artists? I doubt it. They'd rather cling to their outmoded steam-engine business model and scream about how much piracy is hurting them, until they get copyright so restrictive that even normal use is infringing, their steam engine business model blows up and all their would-be customers find ways to get around the restrictions and leave the labels sitting in the dust. They have nobody but themselves to blame when they refuse to adapt to the times.
On the post: Apparently Congress Wants To Pretend No One Is Really That Concerned About SOPA
Re: Re: Re: Re:
On the post: Apparently Congress Wants To Pretend No One Is Really That Concerned About SOPA
SOPA and PIPA are very extremely dangerous laws that need to be stopped at all costs, before they tear the Internet to shreds.
On the post: RIAA Boss Tries To Defend SOPA & PIPA To The NY Times
Same old same old
Go figure!
On the post: Sandia National Labs: DNS Filtering In SOPA/PIPA Won't Stop Piracy, But Will Hurt Online Security
Re:
Barn-the Internet
Rats-infringers
Get it?
On the post: Sandia National Labs: DNS Filtering In SOPA/PIPA Won't Stop Piracy, But Will Hurt Online Security
Re: Re: Re:
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