An Open Letter To The Internet
Dec. 22nd, 2011 11:00 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
alexandraerinDear Internet,
Hey, how are you doing? Long time no see. Okay, that was obviously a joke. This next part isn't a joke: I want to ask you to consider not going to see any movies in 2012. No, really, I'm serious! No Batman. No Avengers. No filthy hobbitses.
Right now the movie industry is doing a huge part in pushing through SOPA, a bill that's going to do a massive one-two punch to the Constitution and the internet. This bill exists because the music and movie industries are afraid of change and think they're entitled to your money. That's the only way to describe it when they consider the act of not buying something from them to be a "lost sale", let alone stealing.
There are a lot of people who believe this bill couldn't possibly be passed, because of how far-reaching, badly written, and damaging it would be, but the fact is it has broad bipartisan support in both houses. For those of you who don't speak civics, that means they have everything they need to pass it. And no, President Obama hasn't vetoed it or pledged to veto it. He hasn't said a word against it. Maybe you read a link that says otherwise, but it was talking about an unrelated bill dealing with net neutrality. We might see protecting net neutrality and stopping SOPA as the same thing, but in Washington all they hear is "protecting intellectual property"... which means protecting the entertainment industry's money, which means more campaign contributions for them.
And here's the thing: we will never be able to compete with the RIAA and the MPAA when it comes to lobbying. We don't have the money. We don't have the personnel. We don't have the experience. There are more of us and Congress and the President should care about our voices, but even if we got together and voted them all out... the next crop would find themselves in a position where they could fend off challengers a lot more easily and have more time to focus on the important work of doing the will of the people if they just accepted a *little* money from this nice industry rep...
So, obviously, the solution is to get money out of politics. And we should get right on that. But in the meantime, SOPA's going to pass, and one of the things it's going to do is hand the government (home of entrenched, money-driven interests) and the entertainment industry some really big sticks to hit at whatever they don't like on the internet. How easy is it going to be to organize against money in politics in a restricted internet?
And lest anyone thinks there's even a remote chance that SOPA's powers wouldn't be abused, last week Universal Music Group used the existing internet copyright act (the DMCA) to have YouTube take down an original video that was an advertisement for a file-sharing site. In court, UMG claimed this wasn't a copyright action but part of a private agreement with YouTube, but YouTube's made it clear that they don't actually have such an agreement and that they only initially enforced the takedown on the good faith assumption that it was a lawful DMCA order.
Do you understand? This is the law we have now to let the music and movie industries protect their intellectual property and one of the big companies used it to quash an ad for a website they don't like. SOPA will let them do the same thing to entire websites, to entire businesses.
We can't get money out of politics fast enough to stop SOPA, so I say let's make it work for us. Let's make the entertainment industry kill this bill. To do this, we have to be willing to make some sacrifices. We have to let them know we're doing it, and... this is key... we have to follow through. Make your own post to the movie industry, and/or the music industry. (In many cases, it's the same parent corporations.) Copy mine. Tweet #nomoviesin2012 or #nomusicin2012... I'm focusing on movies because I already don't buy RIAA-backed recordings, but wherever you can put pressure will help.
Let's start some trends. Tell the entertainment industry to stop SOPA or we'll stop them.
Hey, how are you doing? Long time no see. Okay, that was obviously a joke. This next part isn't a joke: I want to ask you to consider not going to see any movies in 2012. No, really, I'm serious! No Batman. No Avengers. No filthy hobbitses.
Right now the movie industry is doing a huge part in pushing through SOPA, a bill that's going to do a massive one-two punch to the Constitution and the internet. This bill exists because the music and movie industries are afraid of change and think they're entitled to your money. That's the only way to describe it when they consider the act of not buying something from them to be a "lost sale", let alone stealing.
There are a lot of people who believe this bill couldn't possibly be passed, because of how far-reaching, badly written, and damaging it would be, but the fact is it has broad bipartisan support in both houses. For those of you who don't speak civics, that means they have everything they need to pass it. And no, President Obama hasn't vetoed it or pledged to veto it. He hasn't said a word against it. Maybe you read a link that says otherwise, but it was talking about an unrelated bill dealing with net neutrality. We might see protecting net neutrality and stopping SOPA as the same thing, but in Washington all they hear is "protecting intellectual property"... which means protecting the entertainment industry's money, which means more campaign contributions for them.
And here's the thing: we will never be able to compete with the RIAA and the MPAA when it comes to lobbying. We don't have the money. We don't have the personnel. We don't have the experience. There are more of us and Congress and the President should care about our voices, but even if we got together and voted them all out... the next crop would find themselves in a position where they could fend off challengers a lot more easily and have more time to focus on the important work of doing the will of the people if they just accepted a *little* money from this nice industry rep...
So, obviously, the solution is to get money out of politics. And we should get right on that. But in the meantime, SOPA's going to pass, and one of the things it's going to do is hand the government (home of entrenched, money-driven interests) and the entertainment industry some really big sticks to hit at whatever they don't like on the internet. How easy is it going to be to organize against money in politics in a restricted internet?
And lest anyone thinks there's even a remote chance that SOPA's powers wouldn't be abused, last week Universal Music Group used the existing internet copyright act (the DMCA) to have YouTube take down an original video that was an advertisement for a file-sharing site. In court, UMG claimed this wasn't a copyright action but part of a private agreement with YouTube, but YouTube's made it clear that they don't actually have such an agreement and that they only initially enforced the takedown on the good faith assumption that it was a lawful DMCA order.
Do you understand? This is the law we have now to let the music and movie industries protect their intellectual property and one of the big companies used it to quash an ad for a website they don't like. SOPA will let them do the same thing to entire websites, to entire businesses.
We can't get money out of politics fast enough to stop SOPA, so I say let's make it work for us. Let's make the entertainment industry kill this bill. To do this, we have to be willing to make some sacrifices. We have to let them know we're doing it, and... this is key... we have to follow through. Make your own post to the movie industry, and/or the music industry. (In many cases, it's the same parent corporations.) Copy mine. Tweet #nomoviesin2012 or #nomusicin2012... I'm focusing on movies because I already don't buy RIAA-backed recordings, but wherever you can put pressure will help.
Let's start some trends. Tell the entertainment industry to stop SOPA or we'll stop them.