Most of the Hollywood entertainment guilds and unions are backing the Stop Online Piracy Act that's now wending its way through congress. (The legislation also has the backing of the entertainment conglomerates, otherwise known as Content Providers.)
But there's a problem: ...
... The bill has exposed a growing fracture between technology and entertainment companies. Digitally oriented companies see SOPA as dangerous and potentially destructive to the open Web and a step toward the kind of intrusive Internet regulation that has made China a global villain to citizens of the Web.
Entertainment companies think that technology companies are aiding and abetting thieves on a broad scale ...
As do many of the labor organizations that have contracts with them. And it's difficult to blame them:
* The motion picture and television business relies heavily on “downstream” revenue from the exploitation of our product in secondary markets, after initial distribution on television or in a movie theatre.
* The music industry has sustained itself for decades on the fundamental model of investment in and the sale of sound recordings. The Internet has become a vital sales and distribution platform for music, but online theft of sound recordings has made it increasingly difficult for recording artists to earn a living.
* Currently, downstream revenues from the reuse of feature films and television programs and lawful sales of sound recordings generate $1.4 billion annually in essential residuals and royalties for our members.
Residuals and royalties also play a significant role in funding the health and pension plans that benefit all of our members. These benefits provide a guaranteed safety net for our members, and are part of our industry’s long-established and collectively bargained agreements.
* In 2009, residuals derived from the sale of Features to Free TV and/or Features and Free TV to supplemental markets (Pay TV, DVD, viewing on airplanes, etc.) funded 71% of DGA’s Basic Pension Plan; 65% of the MPI Health Plan (for IATSE Members); and 31% of SAG's Pension and Health Plan. ...
So it's easy to see why the IATSE (of which we're a part), SAG and the DGA are trying to beat back the piracy thing with new laws that have some teeth in them. Piracy hits residuals, guts pensions, decimates health care. Even so, some of the rank and file doesn't agree with their leadership's current stances:
... Union members who work on movies and TV... have put together a petition urging the MPAA, IATSE, IBT, WGA, SAG, DGA, and AFTRA to formally oppose both SOPA and PIPA, noting that it would be a barrier to innovation that Hollywood desperately needs, wouldn't actually stop infringement, and would also be an online security nightmare ....
The tech supporters are ticked that amendments to SOPA and the House Bill were swatted down in committee, and now red flags are being waved across the internets. "Dicatorship! Unworkable! The end of the web as we know it!"
Etcetera.
Our take: This isn't a problem that will be going away in the next century or three. The internet will continue to exist and expand, and pirates will continue to maraud inside it. The proposed legislation may or may not stem some of the depradations, but everyone should understand that any solution is temporary. New bills will roll down the congressional pike, new work-arounds in the real world will be used to defeat the new "fixes."
I think the best long-term solution is to collect a small levy on distribution and have the money flow into a common trust to be distributed among content providers. It might not be an ideal solution, but in the reality-based world, there is no perfect answer. There is only better and worse. Movie workers need pension and health benefits. The internet needs to continue innovating.
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20 comments:
SOPA is the online equivalent of trying to stop car accidents by banning gasoline.
No wonder every single internet company from Google to Yahoo to Facebook to eBay hates it.
Whether or not it passes, Internet users have already found a way around SOPA:
DeSopa for Firefox
And the funny thing is everyone who is for this has at one time or another bootlegged or downloaded something illegally.
Wow sweeping generalizations are fun! Let me have a go: everyone in support of SOPA are MPAA shrills that want to limit freedoms and want a dictatorship for a government.
Idiot.
To Anonymous 6:28
I'm all for SOPA and I've never bootlegged or downloaded anything illegally, ever, for any reason. I rankle at the generalization, the assumption and the suggestion. And when it comes to piracy, why does the Content Provider or the Content Creator only get one shot at making money off his efforts but any reuse of that content, as often as possible, is the sole domain of those who had nothing to do with the creation of the content?
If you spent a lot of your time and money building a great house for you and your family, how would you feel if strangers came to live in it after it was completed?
To Anonymous 5:30
"SOPA is the online equivalent of trying to stop car accidents by banning gasoline."
Well, sure... that would work.
Actually, I think it's more a case of trying to stop car accidents by taking irresponsible drivers out of the driver's seat of the getaway car. Or to use the gasoline analogy - If you could take the gasoline out of the tank at night there'd be a far smaller chance of having your car stolen. No one wants to ban gasoline, they only want to turn off the fuel line that drains the tank.
To all-
"Digitally oriented companies see SOPA as dangerous and potentially destructive to the open Web and a step toward the kind of intrusive Internet regulation that has made China a global villain to citizens of the Web."
This is insane. The pirates are complaining that SOPA will take away their right to steal.
Damn right!
SOPA is a Trojan horse with a well intended name just like the patriot act by the tyrants in government no matter what party. Did anybody hear about the NDA National authorization act ... now, the president ( the present one and the ones to come) can kill, arrest, torture anybody anywhere in the world if he wants to no trial , no jury no nothing...
To Anonymous 1:32AM...
The "stolen house" analogy and the term "piracy" are inaccurate. Content providers don't outright lose their intellectual property or their ability to sell it to paying customers. Copyright infringement, illegal downloads, etc. are more like dilution of income stream. The percentage of dilution/loss varies per content and provider. It would be great to see reliable statistics about the percentage of income dilution for various categories of intellectual property and providers. Most likely the stats would show that small, independent players are hurt more than Big Hollywood types. It's hard to imagine the U.S. Congress sticking up for the little guys, though.
I'm against content piracy (on-line and other-wise), but SOPA is like using a chainsaw instead of a scalpel to remove a tumor.
Better laws should be written but this one reads like it was written by old men who don't have much of a clue about the internet.
...but everyone should understand that any solution is temporary. New bills will roll down the congressional pike...
Agreed Steve. I read an article ages ago that drew similarities between the printing revolution that Gothenburg ushered in centuries ago.
It stated that we know what life was like before and after the revolution (widespread illiteracy and ignorance versus widespread literacy and an educated populace).
However, we have very little information on what actually happened between the two states. The article stated that that is where we are right now, the transnational period. We have the former, analogue world, and the new, digital world.
The law is a reactive tool and using it at this stage for something like piracy is like closing the door after the horse has bolted.
As the thread on leverage on this blog below implies, would our members ever see a single dime more of income should this leak of piracy be miraculously plugged?
http://animationguildblog.blogspot.com/2011/12/another-tutorial-in-leverage.html
Why should I give a crap if I can't even recover income that doesn't show up on the books they share with me already, and would have to spend a small fortune to recover any of it?
So what we are saying here is I should trust the studios books in the context of piracy against them, but should not trust the studios books in any other context whatsoever.
It's like having the leech that is attached to my jugular complain that the leech attached to its jugular is sucking its blood and is going to kill us both if I don't help kill leeches that suck on other leeches.
Any other leeches I need to know about TAG? Any others we need to be aware of?
Sounds like a shakedown all the way down the line. Like all things involving money and politics.
The pirates are complaining that SOPA will take away their right to steal.
Damn right!
Do you really think SOPA can stop piracy?
Because the Internet already found a way around SOPA before it got passed.
I suspect the pirates will merrily continue as always, and SOPA will end up bludgeoning non-pirates who merely violate the letter of its law.
Under SOPA, you could get shut down for posting your demo reel online.
If you're posting your reel online on a commercial video host site, and someone else posts a whole tv show, the whole SITE could get shut down. So much for you showing your reel.
The definitions in the law are so loose that previously protected activities could be seen as infringing... such as posting your reel, posting commentary, posting fan-art.
It SUCKS. It's anti-business. It's a chainsaw where a scalpel is needed.
I NEVER pirate ANYTHING, and I'm against it. I HATE piracy. I believe camcorderers should be hung up by their ankles in the lobby of theaters. But I'm against this piece of garbage that could shut down Youtube or Google.
We've seen that companies have no shame making copyright complaints against people they disagree with and want to silence. Time after time YouTube videos have been taken off because some political figure disagrees with the POV of the commentator, and so makes a specious copyright claim. And then it's up to the poster to prove his innocence rather than the claimant to prove their guilt.
There's a reason Silicon Valley's against this. It's anti-business and penned by a bunch of people who have absolutely no clue how the internet works.
I'm disgusted that some of you here are in favour of SOPA.
The media conglomerates that have been targeted in here time and again(and rightfully so) are forcing the public towards piracy by using their leverage to raise the premiums for content higher than the average customer can pay.
Starz just walked away from Netflix's $300million dollar offer to host their content. An offer TEN TIMES the initial contract, but Starz has the leverage and they will do what they can to try and squeeze as much money out of their catalogue. They are looking out for themselves.
And I'm looking out for myself. I'll pirate when I want to. Because I have leverage and I'm going to use it.
Its a two way street folks.
:)
WGA hasn't been on the official list supporting SOPA for many of the reasons expressed here. It's one of those things. The idea behind the legislation isn't bad just what they came up with isn't that great. Kind of like the Health Care Bill.
The media conglomerates that have been targeted in here time and again(and rightfully so) are forcing the public towards piracy by using their leverage to raise the premiums for content higher than the average customer can pay.
High prices for entertainment is NOT a reason to commit piracy and theft.
And don't use make cassette recordings of the radio!
^Hells Yeah! Only use make CDs of the radio!
SOPA is a terrible idea, like the Digital Millennium Copyright Act before it. And the DMCA is violated every day in the industry -- when you take that DVD down to the editor and say, "Hey, I want to do a test using this actor's voice -- can you put the line into my shot?" they are violating the letter of the DMCA.
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