Hollywood and Hollywood unions (of which TAG is one) appear to be on the fuzzy end of the Internet Piracy popsicle stick:
In the space of a couple of days, Hollywood and its content creators lost the public relations war over Internet piracy SOPA legislation -- which now appears poised to crumble into a million bits of dust.
Wow.
The messaging industry never had control of the message.
The tech guys found a simple, shareable idea -- the Stop Online Piracy Act is Censorship -- made it viral, and made it stick.
Hollywood had Chris Dodd and a press release. Silicon Valley had Facebook.
It shouldacoulda been a fair fight. But it wasn’t. ...
But here's a cute irony: A Fox News contributor argues against SOPA even as Rupert Murdoch (supporter of SOPA; owner of Fox-News Corp.) rails for it.
... SOPA is a Pandora’s box of proposed regulations that would inadvertently make it easier for our government to censor the Internet. Current laws already allow owners of copyrighted material to get that content removed from unauthorized websites. But SOPA would mean entire sites could be shut down even for minor copyright infractions, a slippery slope that would undermine even good, legal content on the web and allow politically-motivated witch hunts against entire websites. ...
I wouldn't care to predict how this legislative struggle will come out. When large corporate interests are in a wrestling match, it's always risky to try and foretell outcomes. But we might be wise to start burial proceedings for the piracy legislations as it currently exists.
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That article from Reuters misses the point - SOPA and PIPA are pieces of legislation that show a profound ignorance of how the mechanics of the internet actually work. Their definition of foreign and domestic sites for example:
http://blog.reddit.com/2012/01/technical-examination-of-sopa-and.html
Given all the shilling Chris Dodd did for the finance industry as a senator, It's no surprise at all that he now heads such a corrupt organization as the MPAA.
This unfair fight just proves what dinosaurs control Washington and Hollywood. Where were all the support SOPA ads on all the networks owned by the conglomerates? Why has the WGA not officially endorsed SOPA.
Piracy is wrong and illegal, so is SOPA.
it's distressing to me that my union, to which i pay dues to, acts so blindly in its own self interest without considering the interests of others (who massively outnumber our own) and over larger concerns about what is RIGHT.
unions frequently peck on management for being so obliviously self interested but we totally lose moral authority when we do the exact same thing (goddammit) when the shoe is on the other foot.
dammit, we can't be idiots who just hear the word "piracy" and get blinded by programmed fear - especially since that fear is one that is passed down by our overlords.
we should not, MUST NOT, support policies just because they are the bidding of our masters whose teats we suckle on.
there are bigger, greater concerns in this world and our goals must not be to empower our country with the power to do to the internet what other totalitarian regimes do on their side.
gahhh... must this be said?
as a union we must not be swayed by the lobbying arm of hollywood.
we need to stand on our own two feet and support nothing, put our stamp on nothing, that doesn't have the input of all interested parties including those who defend the notion of a free and open internet and indeed, society.
no one is saying that piracy is right or should be defended.
but just because our kids kids smack each other around in the playground, we can't just saw their arms off!
with SOPA and PIPA, we have been shamefully myopic and self centered once....
DON'T LET IT HAPPEN AGAIN.
let's show some f@#$ing backbone.
also, begin educating yourselves on the issues at stake... lawrence lessig, stanford law professor is an excellent start:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_L3Dcs8k-Is
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